Friday, May 04, 2007

Painting Updates

Mainly painting work over the past week or so. The underpainting to my ArtSupport entry is now done, it's my largest picture yet but only took a couple of days because of its relative simplicity (and the length of the working days). I've also added a glazing layer to Sisyphus but there are some aspects I wish I'd have done differently. Lavender oil seems to be slightly more powerful as a solvent than aspic oil, as well as being more pleasant in aroma and less fuming so I conclude that lavender is superior. Today I've added the final layer (excluding signature) to "half a broken heart", my smallest picture and entry to a competition held by the Samaritans. At the moment, my Memory of my 34th Birthday is on exhibition at the Minshull Vernon garden show so take a look if you're anywhere near South Cheshire this weekend. The Flute Player has been rejected by the Chester Open people, which is a little disappointing but not very serious. Perhaps the Hitler portrait was thought controversial, still, I'll paint superior pictures in future. It's a pity that I'm running short of good pictures to exhibit, but some of the simpler ones, like Portrait of Kate Bush as a Winter Tree and Waiting for B.T. are pleasant to look at and didn't take many days to make. My work pipeline is long but lined with gold. I suspect that the ones in progress (The Execution of King Charles, Portrait of Marlene Dietrich as a Waterfall, half a broken heart) will surpass any before. Sisyphus I'm less sure of due to silly niggles with the colouring and detail issues. The landscape is wide and littered with a few small surreal objects that would have been best done on a separate layer but now look a little fudged, smudged and ill defined. That knowledge though was something I didn't have before painting it. My lessons are getting less painful but still I learn.