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Showing posts from October, 2007

Portrait of a woman

I truly prefer a more photorealistic style of painting where the artist expresses herself through composition, colour, expression, and the interplay of light and shadow. This latest painting is an example of what currently seems to be my "style".

Hex River Valley - A Learning Curve

This post has been a long time in getting ready. I have recently become totally involved in a few new sites. After searching for ages for art blogs and finding nothing I have hit the jack pot! There is just so much really good stuff out there. Try Sixty Minute Artist , or Art and Perception , or A Painting Journey / the Painters Keys or Art News !!! I have been totally hooked in and am learning just so much! I painted this Hex River Valley scene and absolutely hate it. One of these days I will paint over it, but in the meantime I painted two little miniatures of the original using just three colours. The first one was Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine and white. The other was Cadmium red, Phthalo blue and white. I am really sick of this view now but have learned so much by doing this exercise. It's amazing how going back to the first painting it now looks all wrong. I just didn't see it as I should have. I suppose that this is part of learning process. A lot of patience

The Swimmer

Another digitally manipulated photograph. Is it Art? Do you like it?

Kalk Bay

Kalk Bay is a suburb of Cape Town, which started out as a fishing village on the False Bay coast. It has a protected harbour from which local fishermen launch their wooden boats. From around midday the boats start returning and offloading their catch – you can buy your supper straight from the boat. The narrow main street is full of quaint shops and galleries selling antiques artworks and bric-a brac. There are several good restaurants in and near to the harbour. Up on the mountainside above are walks and the well known Kalk Bay caves. A photograph taken in the harbour inspired this painting.

Hermanus on Fire

I had a huge amount of fun with this painting. I mixed a thick paste of cold glue (wood glue), Polyfilla and a tiny bit of water. I then plastered this across the top of my board sweeping down where I would be painting clouds. I created a relief for the land mass and slightly raised the waves coming onto the beach. I then went wild with colour and this was the result.

What a difference a frame makes!

I have just had two pictures framed. Compare these with the unframed versions. Art Class and My smallest painting yet I am delighted with the results.

A Tail of a Whale or Two

Last weekend we took a trip to Hermanus to do some whale spotting and hopefully get a few photographs. On our previous trip we used a very basic Fuji digital camera with a 3 times optical zoom. This time we hoped to get more interesting pictures using the Canon S3IS with 12 times optical zoom. The weather was sunny but with a cold blustery southeast wind and the sea was quite rough. The whales were out in force in the bay but were not all that cooperative as models. We took a few pictures from the cliffs near the old fishing harbour before dropping in to one of our favourite seafood restaurants, Bientang's Cave, for lunch. While enjoying a delicious meal with a well-chilled bottle of Boschendal Sauvignon Blanc we were able to continue watching these magnificent creatures frolicking in the waves below. The photographs were a little disappointing as the whales seemed determined to display little but dancing tails but, what better way is there to spend a Sunday aftern