I've Been A Little Absent

I can’t believe it is so long since I wrote a blog post. I fully intend to write one every week (at least) but instead life keeps getting in the way of art. First it was work. Endless work. Late nights crunching numbers and designing reports or as my husband prefers to call it, “pissing about with spreadsheets”. Then came my son’s birthday. That was pleasure except I yet again persuaded myself to make a complicated cake, and organise a party for 6 boys including a meal. Then I got a horrible cold. then my son had a grading and then it was back to work again. It’s not even an interesting life.

Anyway I am now back in the land of the living and I have been busy while I have been away. My art course at the Bristol Folkhouse restarted and I have broken with my usual tradition of churning out the paintings and instead focused on some more detailed work.

First up was this exercise in capturing the light:

I had asked a fellow artist on twitter for advice on how he painted a picture like this. His response was to ask me to pay $99 for a course to find out. I have no issues with artists making a living but it was the first dialogue I had with him so I just got annoyed. When I saw this it reminded me of his style so I gave it a go and this was the result.

Second up is the Pero bridge in fog. Bristol Harbourside are running an art competition and it has to be of something iconic from around the harbour. This bridge is fantastic. Very simple design but really stands out.

Then I decided to do some detailed work on figure drawing. I chose this photo because I liked the relationships between the characters and the subdued colours. My only really big mistake was not to paint the background before I started!

And then finally tonight I stopped all of this detailed work and instead started an abstract piece of a wave. The paint was so thick and wet I had to stop after 2 hours but I am already liking the movement.

So what do you think I should paint once the wave is complete? More light, more people, more abstract or something completely different?