If you drive just 20 minutes south of where I live, you get to the highest point in the Glasgow area. From there you can look out west and see the islands of Arran and Ailsa Craig.
If you are lucky enough, the sun will be doing spectacular things at the same time.
To the Islands is for sale online at all the usual place – Etsy, Artfinder, Art Gallery and nuMonday.
For sale on Etsy, Artfinder and ArtGallery.
Sometimes a scene just has to be painted.
Available for sale on Etsy, Artfinder and ArtGallery.
I’m happily working away on lots of wee paintings just now. It’s not a size I’m used to, but I’m loving the spontaneity of using gouache and just going with the flow, as it were.
Sunset I is for sale on Etsy, Artfinder and artgallery.
Finished.
This actually worked well for me – having a brightly coloured under painting to work on top of. I’ll be doing it again, I think.
My brushes are thankfully OK…
Nearly there I think.
I am beginning to build in texture now, layering the paint on thickly, but am a bit hindered by my own idiocy. I went away for a few days, and completely forgot to clean my brushes, leaving them out unprotected. As a result, the ones I want to use are soaking away to soften them up for use tomorrow. I find the size of the brushes I use make a big difference to me.
Talking of softening, I now need to do that to the clouds too and the base of the island where it meets the sea, while the same clouds need more light reflecting off them.
Could all be totally different by my next post.
It really has been ages since I have added anything to my blog, but what with glorious sunshine and then the school summer holidays, I have been somewhat distracted. Part of that distraction was the need to be outside painting simply because I could. There has been lots going on too, so I hope to fill you in over the next wee while.
In the meantime, though, I thought I should finish the posts about the painting below. It is a continuation of the painting I was working on a while back – here are the links stage 1 and stage 2.
The painting is coming along, I think.
I want to darken the land on the right, bring more definition into the sea. The clouds need more work, softening parts of them and introducing more whispy bits (technical term). The sunset behind the island needs more thought.
Tomorrow, I’ll sit for a while and have a good look before I do anything, because not seeing the painting over night often helps me to work out my next steps.
One of my paintings, hanging in an exhibition, has been vandalised. Somewhat upsetting as it is gratingly obvious.
Someone just decided to pick off some of the light coloured thick paint right in the middle of the canvas revealing a hole showing dark underpaint. It was just such a pointless thing to do, and I find it distressing. What does it say about the painting, or my work, or me as an artist? Or the vandal?
Meanwhile, I have been told that my paintings are morbid and have been asked if I could do something cheerier, like flower paintings. I was somewhat taken aback and rather upset (stoically tried not to show it) as I’ve never heard my landscapes and skyscapes described like that, certainly not to my face.
I find the criticism all the more confusing as the people doing the opining have my paintings in a corridor against dark wallpaper. The lighting is angled at the dark blue carpeted floor and not my paintings. I’m trying not to let it bother me, but I still find it unsettling even though the conditions aren’t exactly of a gallery quality.
Above, is one of the apparently morbid ones; let me know what you think.
Tracy Butler Art 