A Change of Mood

White Ladies 12" x 12" Waterford Not

Recently I have been agonising, possibly too strong a word, about what to paint. Certainly portraits in the general style of Charles Reid are high on the list but what other subjects? Like many would-be artists I began with landscapes but the attraction of these has dimmed, although not entirely. I do like painting out of doors because there is nothing quite like it and old buildings, particularly those with thatched roofs, hold a strong appeal. 

Still lifes also interest me, again in the manner of Charles Reid, incorporating flowers, fruit, cups, and other objects, sometimes in association with a  portrait. The other day I decided to suspend the portraits, at least for a day or two, and have a shot at flowers with associated fruit. Gathering what flowers remained in the garden I set up a still life and off I went.  The result was so so but my wife didn't care for it and, after reflection, neither did I.  Feeling somewhat depressed I decided to have another try with a different approach. A company called  `Whistlefish'  have opened a gallery in Bath, adding to the already large number. How they will fare remains to be seen but they are an interesting company originating in Cornwall with several newly opened outlets. http://www.whistlefish.com/ . What is the connection? On browsing the Bath shop, and also the one at Looe in Cornwall, I noticed they were selling very attractive self-assembly frames complete with everything including mounts. These come in three frame sizes, small, medium and large, with white my preferred choice. I rather liked the medium size, cost £20, the large, interior 51cm x 34cm, being £25. The interior of the medium is 12" x 12" and it struck me as a good size for flower painting, concentrating on the flowers and omitting the rest. Above is the result. I used pan colours and mine are a mixture of W & N, Schminke, Maimeri and Rembrandt with W & N predominating. I also, almost a first for me, made the drawing and painting standing up at my `Alvaro', as opposed to the  table easel. Brushes were Sizes 9  and 6 Rosemary series 33 Kolinsky, plus a size 4 long handled W & N Cirrus and a small rigger. I rather like the result. What do you think? I invite comments as I do on all my posts.

Latest Indian Paintings

Acoma Woman 1900 16" x 12" Not

American Horse Oglala Sioux 1880

18" x 14" Waterford Not

Sitting Bull Huncpapa Sioux Holy Man

15" x 11" Fabriano Artistico Not.

I've done several of Sitting Bull because he has such a strong face. Some of the others aren't bad, one posted previously,  but I think this better. I recently found a new photograph on www.firstpeople.us/ . American Horse was also a famous warrior and I wanted to try a portrait with a different angle. This is the second try with a different indian subject.

As for the Acoma woman I know little about her, again culled from first people, but I was intrigued by the sense of mystery in the photograph. I have changed things quite a bit because on the photo she was surrounded by very dark shadows. I tried a main colour scheme of Maimeri Avignon Orange (PR206) and
complementary colours Rowney's Viridian (PG18) and Hookers Green (PG7/PO48) Maimeri version. There is some doubt about the inclusion of PO48 as it is now supposedly unavailable. The Windsor and Newton and Rowney equivalents to Avignon Orange are Brown Madder and  Transparent Red Brown respectively. Even though the pigment is the same the colours may vary slightly with different manufacturing processes. In all three cases the faces were painted using a mixture of Cadmium Red Light (PR108), Cadmium Yellow Light (PY35) darkened where appropriate with either Cerulean (PB35), Cobalt Blue Deep (PB72) or Ultramarine Blue (PB29). I emphasize pigments rather than `colours' as suggested by Bruce McEvoy of Handprint.

I'm fairly happy with the paintings of Sitting Bull and American Horse but concerned about the Acoma woman. I experimented with the Shirley Trevena method of creating texture by using some emery paper on the coloured core of watercolour pencils and getting flecks of colour but I think it either didn't work well or I need to improve my method of doing it. It has tended to dirty the colour. Paint in haste repent at leisure! I shall another try at this one. Footnote added later: This portrait didn't work unfortunately and it just wasn't the attempt to add texture. I shall try again.

One change I have made is that, following Charles Reid suggesting in one of his books that pan colours might be better with which to paint the face, I did so then switched to tube colours.