Society of Woman artist 156th Exhibition . . . Mall Galleries

I am delighted to have two paintings selected for the Society of Women artists at the Mall Galleries.

Exhibition Dates

Open to Public 4 July  4pm        6.30 – 8.30 SWA Fundraising Reception (free admittance with ticket)

5 – 9 July daily 10am – 5pm (closing 3pm last day)

Private View 10 am – 5pm Wednesday 5 July 2017

HRH Princess Michael of Kent, Royal Patron, arrives 11am to open the exhibition and present the awards.

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About the SWA and it's Exhibition

SWA 156^th Annual Summer Exhibition at Mall Galleries, London SW1

Our Award-Winning professional artists will be showcasing over 400 2D and 3D works.  Together with the excellent facilities offered by the Federation and the experienced SWA Team we are able to stage an exhibition that shows contemporary and traditional art in unique galleries in the heart of London enabling us to ‘show off’ this diversity at its best.  Vivid colours vie with animated sculptural figures; dark and light provide passion and calm and exquisite drawings which need no description also play a part in this year’s show.

There will be a workshop and demonstrations during the Exhibition when one of our top sculptors, Hazel Reeves MRBS SWA will be sculpting a clay portrait in the gallery with a live sitter.  Hazel’s maquette of Emmeline Pankhurst will be on display and we are pleased to announce that she has won the commission to sculpt Emmeline for St. Peter’s Square in Manchester.  Hazel was responsible for the monumental bronze of Sir Nigel Gresley at King’s Cross Station.

The Society of Women Artists has evolved into a modern tradition, popular as ever and we are here to stay.  Many of our artists tackle some of the more sinister aspects of the world whilst others are quite adept at showing the beauty that is still around us with humour and a remarkable grasp of the environment.

This year the launch of our Young People’s Initiative hopefully will be the beginning of our plans to further raise funds to enable us to carry on our policy of encouraging and nurturing our artists of the future.  We need to attract more young people to a Society that would like always to be able to offer help and advice as well as the opportunity to exhibit in London and further afield.

We continue our collaboration with the Breast Cancer Now Charity who will be holding their own Special Preview Evening with SWA members. We have worked with BCN for many years and we are proud to have been able to donate to this worthy cause.

Please join us at a special Champagne Reception Tuesday 4 July 6.30 – 8.30 to help us launch the SWA Young People’s Initiative.  Rosemary Shrager is Guest of Honour and there will be live jazz.

Little Africa...

                This is one I started towards the end of 2012 only just getting the first wash down, then not picking it up again until 2013. The object of painting then was not only of course portrait practice, but more so to get the brushes wet again after the Christmas holidays. 

I'm not sure if it always works, leaving it so long. Sometimes the moment has gone from the painting, the inspiring thoughts you first had when wanting to get it onto the paper. I find I'm usually better to start it again with renewed freshness.

Pure Watercolour
140lb Arches NOT Paper
Mostly W/N paints
Ref photo courtesy of WetCanvas

Princess Zahrah ....

I can't believe it is so long since I last updated my blog, and just when I promised myself I would post more often. I have a number of things on my easels, and they tend to stay there until I am happy that I want to do no more to them. This portrait of my granddaughter is one of them, and as I started this some time ago you may have already seen this on my facebook pages. I'll still post it here as I know not everyone goes to Fb and i'm often asked to share how I paint portraits. The trouble is I get so engrossed in painting them I forget to stop and take photos of the different stages, so there are not too many photos of this one.

This is Princess Zahrah and came about as I was sorting and filing photos. I have so many of  my little princess, but just had to stop and have a go at this one... Not quite so orange looking in real life, or maybe it's just my monitor. 

This was the stage after the initial washes were done.

For some reason I find it a bit more difficult to get a likeness with the grandchildren. I wonder when we are painting someone so close to us we know them too well. It's not so much a problem with drawing them out, but when it comes to painting and choosing colours that's where I tend to lose it a little.  

I have decided as much as I can, to start using more of my own references. I'm so grateful to generous photographers for sharing photos, but I recently found I couldn't enter into a competition as the ref used wasn't my own.

Before I start I usually block out the background in photoshop so i'm not distracted by it, then I print it. I'm finding as I'm getting more experienced with drawing portraits I don't worry about the need of the ref to be the same size and can draw it in a different size if needed. I can never emphasize enough how important drawing practice is, I know how valuable I have found it to be and when I actually started to listen to others telling me so and doing it, I'm amazed how much i've improved.
 

Here is where it still sits. Some opinions are, that it is done, i'm not to sure on that yet. I know I still have to darken a few touches here and there, like the inner mouth area. Although it doesn't show to well in this photo, some of the areas in the hair are a touch darker and probably not quite so orangy. I do need to add some more wispy bits to the hair as well. It also need warming and more variation in the skin tones. I often see skin painted with the same colour but in different tints, you need to use colour as tone as well and that is what this is lacking at the moment.  It's also on hold at the moment as with Christmas almost here I have lots of other things on the list to finish. 

Africa in my Soul....

New painting.....

 I've been working on a few new ideas that i'll share as soon as i'm finished, if they work of course. Meantime have been fitting in new paintings as well. Just can't tear myself away from painting portraits and more so from those of African children. They just have something that really grabs your heart. This is one that was finished late this week and has just come off of Exhibition and will be on sale on my website shortly.

With thanks to Steve Evans for the use of his photograph as ref.

One thing I've been working on are new greetings cards as they seem to be getting quite popular and am almost sold out. I will be putting those on my new website too soon, so they will be available direct, in either singles or as part of a collection, I'll update here as soon as they are ready.

SOLD...SOLD...SOLD...

......and just when I though it couldn't get any better...

..Having just spent a lovely long weekend staying with my dear friend Jaytee in the gorgeous market town of Kington in Herefordshire, where we went 3 days on a life workshop which had a wonderful teacher who was extremely inspiring...I come back to the news that I'd sold the remaining paintings that were selected into the Essex in Mayfair Exhibition. Well what a phone call that was, I'm still taken aback by it. I've never sold all work in an exhibition before so needless to say, am thrilled to bits. 

For the first this year, if we had work selected , we were also able to sell our cards as well. Apparently I sold quite a few, so another added bonus.

It's very hard to describe the feeling you get when you sell a painting, and the inspiration that brings with it, to want to grab your brushes and paint more, there really is nothing like it.  Now I need to get working on the next collection amongst other things. We have the Ilford Art Society "Art on the Railings" on September 15th, so lots to do.

I really would like to say a very big thank you to all the people who have purchased any of my work, and to my partner for the support in allowing me the time to live my dream.

Ilford Art Society Summer Exhibition in the Dovecote

Make A Wish...

  It's not often I redo a painting or even use the same ref photo. I find I almost never get that same inspiration as the first desire to paint it, but this one was different. There was something about this little boy, original photograph taken by and kindly shared by Steve Evans. I had also lost concentration for a moment while painting the original for my video on YouTube, so I needed to repaint it...

Hence ...

"Make a Wish" repainted and on show at the

Summer Exhibition at the 

Dovecote Gallery

Valentines Mansion & Gardens
Emerson Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 4XA,UK.

1st-29th July
Open from 11am-4pm
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays

Free entry and suitable for all ages.

Available for sale through the Dovecote Gallery Exhibition...Contact me for further information.

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  I have 4 painting included in this Exhibition as part of the Ilford Art Society. The Exhibition goes on for 3 months in all, showing work from 4 different Art Societies, a photography club and a marquetry group. There will be 2 groups showing each month from July through September, sharing a wide range of style and media. 

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The gallery is in the grounds of the Valentines park, mansion & gardens. A lovely day out for all the family.

The house was built in around 1696 for Elizabeth Tillotson and her family, after the death of her husband, the Archbishop of Canterbury and has since changed hands many times. The Council acquired the house in 1912. Since then it has been home to wartime refugees, a hospital, a public health centre, and a council housing department. After sitting empty for around 15 years the house and gardens have been restored with Redbridge council and Heritage Lottery funds . 

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 A wonderful day out for all the family.

Visit the Gallery, Mansion & Gardens and the new Gardener’s Cottage Café.

Please visit the website for more information:

Valentines Mansion & Gardens

Emerson Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 4XA
E-mail: valentines@redbridge.gov.uk
Bookings and general enquiries: 020 8708 8100

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The Portrait Journey

The eyes shown in this post are from new collection of watercolour portraits I've been working on.

The eyes are almost always the first part I paint in any portrait. They are the soul of each person and the life of a painting, if I don't capture the feelings behind them, then I don't carry on with the painting, I start a fresh.

Whilst working on this new collection I knew I needed to push myself to achieve that extra something i'm always looking for each time I pick up my brush. This is part of the inspiration that keeps me painting.

As artists we need to grow continuously and we can only do this by experimenting and practice. It doesn't always result in a beautifully executed paintings, but that's the way we learn, and it all becomes part of the journey. No painting is ever a waste of time, quite the opposite, as we often learn more from our so called mistakes.  

For a long while I painted a variety of subjects, very often avoiding portraits, with an impression they were much to difficult for me, although I tried the occasional sketch from time to time.  It was mainly after the birth of my first  grandchild that I had the real desire to paint them. As artists we often change direction on our journey, enjoying various subjects along the way. Somewhere along that road most of us get drawn to a particular subject, one we really enjoy painting more than any other, one we feel more passionate about and become more inspired by, for me that subject is portraits.

As I have never had any formal training and am entirely self taught when it comes to portraits, it really has been down to lots of practice and experimenting, and most importantly the desire to paint them. I have however watched the endless free videos on Youtube that are so generously given by artists of all levels and will always be grateful for those who share them.

I would say the biggest help to me has been the studying of features done mostly by pencil artists.I can't stress enough how drawing skills comes in to play.  Becoming more comfortable with the understanding of a feature such as the eyes, along with being able to draw them reasonably well each time, leaves your mind free to paint and bring them to life. 

Practice painting just the features on scrap paper until you become more familiar with them, you'll be surprised the benefit of this when it comes to painting a complete portrait. Draw daily, even 5 min sketches and doodles, it all helps. I know I have a long way to go still and probably always will, but whenever possible I practice daily, even if only a quick sketch, and I can't tell you how much this has helped me. ....

I've written this partly as i've been asked many times how I got started in portraits, along with hearing so many other artists say, as I once did, how scared they were to attempt them and how difficult they are. They are no different to any other subject. All you need is the desire to paint them along with the discipline to practice. I don't think there is any subject more rewarding than this to paint.

"Face of Africa"...SOLD.....

Face of Africa

 

    "Face of Africa"

 

Selected & Exhibited at the Mall Galleries by the  

Society of Women Artists

Shortlisted for the

Ken Bromley 

Cover Competition 2011

 

I was very fortunate last year to have had two of my paintings selected by the Society of Women Artists for their 150th celebratory exhibition at the prestigious Mall Galleries. One of the paintings "Wistful" sold at the exhibition. The other "Face of Africa" Sold last week as a result of the exhibition. I would like to say a special thanks to the Society for giving me the chance to be a part of the exhibition.

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Loved and Lost......

I started a painting some time ago of my finance's sisters, first posted HERE.....

The youngest sister in the painting was sadly lost to the family at a very young age.As a mother myself I couldn't begin to know how that must feel for the family and especially to a mother. This is most certainly one of the reasons reasons I needed to paint this photo so much and wanted to finish this as a present for the older sister in the painting, it was a special birthday for her, her 65th.

 The nose shadow on the elder sister on the previous painting was still giving me trouble. I had washed this back, which is something I almost never do, and hate doing, it just wasn't happening. 

I decided to get out a fresh clean piece of paper and start again......

  

There are parts I still like on the first painting, but overall I was so much happier with this one...  The nose still gave me problems though. It was an old black & white photo with little detail. On this version I deliberately played down the shadow on that area, this way it would be less noticeable, and works better for it I think. 

Here Comes Trouble in oils....cont.

I hadn't realised it was so long since I updated my blog. I've been really busy for the last few months with various projects, but I have been putting work on my FB Art page  completely forgetting to update here as well.

This is one I am continually working on while learning at the same time. We are very fortunate at our Art Club Ilford Art Society, where we have an amazing teacher Mark Charalambou, who has been with the societys for over 25 years. Mark trained at St. Martin's School of Art and is a successful professional painter in his own right. Mark gained his Post Graduate Art teacher's Certificate from the Institute of Education at the University of London. He tailors tuition to each individual Member due to our wide range in abilities.He has taught me so much over the past year, especially painting portraits in oils, which is why this painting continues to change.

    

   I've added more and different colours to her chin and lower face. This was to build on her character. Zahrah is so full of energy and trouble in a cute lovable way, and who doesn't stay clean for longer than 5 mins, far from a sweet little miss perfect  which she would have looked like had I painted lovely smooth skin. I just need to be careful not to over do this though. It was hard getting a decent photo of this so it is showing a little grainy.

     I still need to close the gap between the mouth and nose, i've aged her a bit too much here. The beauty of oils is of course that we can keep changing our work, having said that, it doesn't hold the same joy and unpredictability of painting with watercolours does, not for me anyway.

 

The likeness gets closer with each painting session, along with my own progress on mixing colours. I have found this so different to working in watercolour and a real learning curve, and one wich i’m really enjoying. 

The previous stages, started with a basic outline, then placing in some tones with various skin colours.

My Dream.....

I often have many different paintings on the go at one time, and nowadays in different media as well, as i'm trying out others.....
 

This is a watercolour I started whilst in Holland staying with my friend Joanna. It got put aside as I was concentrating on her teaching me oils and Acrylics.

This is another of babasteve's wonderful reference photos, and I can't thank him enough for his generosity in sharing. I usually start with a drawing and once i'm happy with that erase almost all the lines so I can barely see it.

 Staring of with delicate washes....

A close up of the eyes on the first wash.

 Eventually picking this up again some while after I returned, I almost left it at this stage. The ref photo is of an African boy, and I am loving painting anything Africa at the moment. The problem was, although I liked it as it stood, it didn't say Africa to me, so on I went after letting it sit for a week or so....

This is where it is now and i'm calling it finished. I'm happy with it, but wondering if I was happier at the last stage.....Should I have left it?...I suppose it all comes down to personal taste in the end.

 My Dream

Charcoal study

A quick 15 min charcoal study for a painting i'm working on. After many many years, not since school really, I picked up willow charcoal again. I've found it especially useful in art class doing life work. 

I normally steer clear of this stuff as I get into such mess, but i'm finding how invaluable it can be. A bit like working with ink, with anything other than a pen, you loose a little control, you can't fiddle. I've found this way I experiment more. Working on this gave me other ideas for the bg as well. You really have a freedom with this stuff.

 Special thanks to Babasteve for the use of his photo

 

Make a Wish....Video...

Make a Wish

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It is a long time coming and took quite a long time to edit as well. I didn't realise how hard it would be to video myself. Quite nerve racking at times, but at the same time so enjoyable. 

(Special Thanks to babasteve for generously sharing his photos)

I have made this in response to lots of requests from friends wishing to see how I work, especially painting portraits. Special friends that have supported me in my journey, this is for you with my thanks.

Make a Wish Video 

I've tried to share some of how I work in this video. Unfortunately because of the way I work there isn't any time to stop and change the angle of the video camera, or zoom in at various times. I also found once played back that I need to work on better lighting. it was quite a dark day, raining most of the time, which didn't help. It has left the painting a bit washed out, but i've shown photos of it at the end of the video which is nearer to the original. the other thing I found difficult was to talk as well, hence the music. Something else to work on for the next one.

*****

I work in various ways depending on mood and subject, this is one of the ways. Although you obviously need to learn techniques, I do believe a lot of it comes from how you feel. You need to feel what you are painting, which is what adds that something extra to it. 

I know this not a professional masterpiece, but I do hope you enjoy watching this and that it helps even a little on your journey in watercolours.

*****

I welcome you to join me on my Art Page on Facebook.

Ken Bromleys Cover Competition ....

I was so thrilled this morning to find I have been short listed for this years

Ken Bromley Cover Competition.

with my painting 

"Face of Africa" 

     This was one of two paintings, one of which sold, that had been selected for the recent SWA Exhibition at the Mall Galleries. I'm still thrilled to have been part of the Exhibition and to have been short listed now for this is fantastic....

***Face of Africa***

Vote Now! 
for your 3 favourite paintings

Ken Bromley Art Supplies Cover Competition

It's amazing how inspiring it is, not only to be in amongst such wonderful art, but just to look through the many different styles and levels of other artists who have entered. It always leaves me want to pick up my brushes or maybe something new and having a go....

"Time to reflect"

  I entered this competition a few years back with "Time to Reflect" and came 3rd. In fact it was the very first time I had entered anything. I have watched how the standard of entries has got higher each year and this year I think they are even higher. Looking at the entries I'm still amazed I even made it this far, I'm certainly finding it very difficult to choose my 3 favourites.

I would urge anyone, no matter what level or where you are on your journey to enter anything and everything.. As I've found out this year, you never know until you try... and you'll be amazed at how inspirational it is to have even entered....

SOLD "Sunday Morning"

I was thrilled to get a phone call to say that this painting had sold at the Dovecote gallery Summer Exhibition.  I hope the new owners get as much pleasure out of it as I did painting it. Thank you....

Since I last shared this painting on my blog it has had a little change to it, just a bit more detail to the newspaper and some touches to the face...Unfortunately I didn't take another photo of it. I also made a change to the title, previously it was "Morning News".....

Sisters......

 

I've had some problems on the progress of the older sister. It is an old black and white photo with little detail in places. The side of her face is in heavy shadow especially the nose, and her eyes are almost shut with squinting through the harsh sunlight. I need to be careful how much detail I do put in this one. I'm going to let her sit for a while, while I think on it....

 I've brought in more colours here, including green. I'm treading very gently though with these colours..... I still need to do some more work on the hair and ribbon, but don't want a completed look on both sides of each girls face. Although I will probably put in some darks immediately next to the face and where the hair meets on both girls..... I need to let this all sit for a while now to see how much more it needs and if it's working for me.....

Close view of Jeanette .

Defining the features.......

I've been asked by friends to share more of how I work so here are some progress photos for you......

I may have lost the likeness on this a little, but am still going to finish it as it's all good practice as they say...and it's surprising how much you learn when you relax with no pressure, and often find it all comes together at the end.....

Have started painting around the eyes. For me this is the most important part of any portrait, they are the soul of the painting as well as the person. If they are wrong then I don't go on with it.

For the eyes i've also used  Burnt Umber & Venetian Red. ( Be very careful with Venetian red, it will kill your painting if you use to much of it.) 

If you look at the right eye I have placed some BU with a rigger brush.
You need to make this juicy enough so it doesn't dry instantly.

Keeping with the rigger and painting only with clean water I paint the rest of the detail in. As i'm doing this I touch the pigment already on the paper and let it flow in where ever it wants too. Do not try and control it too much. 

I carried on with a larger brush doing similar around the nose and mouth...

The area right of the mouth and nose has 3 colours in it. Ven.Red, B.Um, Per.Rose...

I pick these up as I go, no mixing on the palette or on the paper, they are placed almost next to each other and mix where and when they want too, you just have to nudge them occasionally....

.In other words, I change colour as I see or feel it. I often do this by just wiping my brush quickly across the colour in my pallet, which I have already sprayed with water before hand. Picking up different colours as I go.

 I've also added a touch more Perm Rose to her cheeks....I've scanned these steps so it shows a bit harsher than it is, it's much softer IRL.

next I went on to put some of the hair in so I can see where i'm going value wise...I don't tend to work in a technical way, more one of feelings and emotion, moving around the painting and adding colour to the next area that grabs my attention

The first wash......

After a few initial sketches I drew it onto Watercolour paper, trying to have as least pencil work as possible. There was still things I wasn't to sure on but had drawn it so went on with it, if it didn't work it would still help on colour knowledge for the next one.

I often change the way I paint portraits, depending on my subject, how I want the finished piece to work, and even sometimes just the way I feel at the time. I knew I didn't want this one to be quite so loose as I normally work, I also wanted to try and keep that old fashioned look to it, so chose my colours differently....I went with Raw Sienna instead of my preferred choice of Aureolin, Permanent Rose, Colbalt Blue, and Cerulaean Blue

This is just the 1st wash, unfortunately the light had gone and the colours are a little washed out here....

That Special Painting......

Each piece of work has something that inspires you to paint it in the first place, a meaning, a message, colour, light, something that draws you in. ...but occasional there is one that has that something with more meaning, one that holds something special, one that you just know you just have to paint. As soon as I saw this photo I knew this was one of those..... 

Jeanette was the younger sister of someone very close to me, a sister he never really knew, as she was sadly taken from the family so suddenly, and at such a young age. This is an old family photo that his older sister had, a sister that did get to be with Jeanette, but only for a short time, and is the older girl in the photo, on the right.

Capturing the soul of a person is probably the biggest aim when painting a portrait, and doubling this up is quite a challenge, but a pleasurable and meaningful one. And although there is a slight tension to get this right, it's still one of a real passion of capturing this special moment as a gift for special people....

I started as I normally do with various pencil sketches to become familiar with the girls faces. I always have some sort of sketching paper on my board, and will doodle and sketch features or parts of the portraits in every spare 5 mins I have. This really brings me closer to my subjects and while doing this I'm also thinking about the composition. most of the time this does seem to come together on it's own, as if each subject knows how to sit on the paper.

The first sketch is always a quick one, no fussing, and not to much correcting. Step back and look and you will see exactly where you need to change it if any...There are a few things I need to get right before I go on to the painting which is why these initial sketches are invaluable.

Along with obvious things such as proportions that need altering, Jeanette was the youngest and I've drawn her face too large to sit next to her older sister... I also drew this one with her mouth closed, this doesn't work for me. When you see the person often, you see them with different  expression in many different poses, but as this is one of very few photographs, especially at his age, the image here is one that is remembered more distinctly than would otherwise be, so needs to be as is, or very close. . . 

I decided straight away that I wanted to go with just the head shots. Moving the heads close together so they connect better. I was aiming for the hair to flow together, maybe the ribbons too, this is something I find comes together when painting, where letting the watercolour work along with you, often leading the way.....

Here Comes Trouble.....

Some you win , Some you lose....

Not a total disaster as there is a lot I like about this one. I really should have paid more attention to the drawing as I've aged her a touch, but I was so eager to paint it.   When i took the photo I placed her in the top corner when editing, the composition of it worked so I went with it in the painting as well. I thought to have her hair trailing longer on the viewers left as well and was really pleased with how the colours worked, becoming softer as her curls tumbled down. .



So what was I not happy with?..well,  I wasn't too happy with the hair overall.  I lost concentration and hey presto mud happened :(. Having said that, I did learn so much from this, and no painting is ever a waste of time, it's just part of the Journey.

I have started another one, totally different colours this time as well. Will take it a step at a time on the hair as well.