Thursday, 15 August 2013

Avon Valley Artists and Beaver Tail.

I imagine many will wonder what this title means. In a nutshell it was the latest AVA session and I painted an Amerindian called Beaver Tail.


Fourteen present today, which is almost as many as we get with the official programme. We have two more weeks of `do it yourself' painting then the official programme starts.


Just to prove I was there!


Yvonne Harry


Jan Weeks unfinished.

Yvonne and Jan have just returned from their highly successful ten day exhibition  at Wells Cathedral, where combined sales of framed and unframed paintings exceeded 60.


Some of today's paintings.


And some more.

The last portrait I painted was at Stow with Charles Reid. That was in May. Problems and distractions since then reduced my painting time considerably but I did attempt one last week - unfortunately a disaster on hot press paper. My normal policy is, rather than brood about failures, to go straight back in and it usually works - at least I think so. This week I attempted to paint an Amerindian called Beaver Tail, an Assiniboine Indian as photographed by Edward Curtis in 1908.





Beaver Tail 16" x 12" Fabriano Artistico Extra White 300gsm Not

I began with a careful but not over detailed drawing, taking measurements to ensure things were in the right place. For this I used a mechanical 07 pencil with 2B lead. You can see the sequence of events so I won't elaborate. The actual painting is a little darker than it appears on here, especially the shadow areas where I added a second wash. I'm sure Hap will say I haven't got the skin colour right but on this occasion I just wanted to get the show on the road again.   I'll do better next time Hap.

Colours used were limited. Cadmium Red Light, Raw Umber and Cobalt Blue for the skin colours. The hair Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna and Raw Umber. His clothing Raw Umber. The cap is Raw Umber and Raw Sienna. I used three brushes. Escoda 1212 retractables sizes 10 and 12 plus the Isabey retractable size 6.




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6 comments:

  1. Bridget15 August 2013 at 07:57

    beautiful paintings....thanks for sharing...

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  2. Peter Ward15 August 2013 at 08:49

    Thanks for comments Bridget.

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  3. Ray Maclachlan Art15 August 2013 at 15:37

    Talented group you paint with Peter, lucky man. I do like the half-way shot, great colours and expression, which gets a little lost in the finished product.

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  4. Peter Ward16 August 2013 at 01:39

    Thanks for comments Ray. I think I know what you mean but the actual painting (rather then the photo on here) looks okay. The thing is the halfway shot has nothing to compete with. Also I was wary of overdoing things after a period of negativity.

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  5. Yvonne Harry17 August 2013 at 04:27

    I have to agree with Ray, Peter. I thought it was lovely in the penultimate photo. Maybe the colours you chose to finish the work were not to my taste.
    Know what you mean about starting again slowly.....I felt as if I had forgotten how to paint when I picked up my brushes again this week!

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  6. Peter Ward18 August 2013 at 04:21

    Thanks for commenting Yvonne. I think part of the problem is my use of the windows built in photo programme. I'm a point and shoot photographer and get frustrated when the images don't fully reflect the actual painting. In this instance I may play around with it and see if I can reproduce the colour effect of the interim image. It'll only finish up in the bin eventually so why not?

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