Blog

I made the decision 3 years ago that I wanted to become a full time artist. I drew up a 5 year plan with the help of the Design Trust and set to work on growing my business whilst holding down a pretty full on and demanding job. Despite the pandemic my business has grown to an extent that I've achieved what I needed to within 3 years to make that jump and give up the day job.

Scary? Not really. It's a big decision but it is a good decision.

I have some pretty spectacular changes lined up for this year with the most exciting one being a move out of my cellar studio into a brand new, purpose built studio in Bingley. Still some way to go before I get in there but I have the plans and I have cut out small squares of sticky coloured paper to help me decide where things are going to go.

In this blog I will take you through step by step how I created the painting New Lands II. I explore the use of pigment sticks and solvents to create a base layer and then build up the painting using a brayer. See how I apply white paint with a brayer to create some lovely muted colours and how I use the brayer for blending along with palette knives and fan brushes.

My time for painting is very limited so when I do get a couple of days completely free I like to scale up and let loose on a large pieces of Arches paper.

I'm not really sure where the inspiration for this painting came from other than the dark autumnal colours; it isn't a scene that I recognise. Sometimes a painting just comes about because of the colours that I want to use and I was really wanting to create a large scale imposing clouds scene. 

Driving from Newcastle on Christmas Eve the sun had been glorious all the way home but as we hit Yorkshire the sun started to go down and with it the temperatures. The rapidly dropping temperature created steaming trails of mist along the valleys, in tree tops and on roof tops. As we descended down a hill towards home the image stuck in my mind of muted greens and blues. 

 

I originally approached this painting with a God's own type image in mind - think more brilliant summery greens.... Well... that didn't quite go to plan but I am really pleased with the results and the colours are a change for me and I love them.