Changes

I've changed the look of my blog to match my new website - www.tracybutler.co.uk.

What do you think?

Moonlight Reflection

I've just finished painting Moonlight Reflection. Originally, it was another painting, most of which you can see in image one, but it seemed too flat, and it left me feeling uninspired; so I took it out of it's frame, and set to work thinking I would add more colour and texture, but that's not what happened...

Image 1

Image 1: The painting is oil on canvas, and as it was already browns and pale purples, I continued with those colours for a bit, then decided I hated them and spread flat newspaper all over the canvas (it stuck because of the wet paint), smoothing it with my hands and then lifting it off, taking a good bit of the paint with it.

Image 2

Image 2: I always feel I tie myself too much to an image I have in front of me whether it is a photograph or a sketch, so this time, I just went with the colours, and the types of brushes I was using (lovely big flat square ones), still using the image that had been on the canvas before.

Image3

 
Image 3:  I added more light and felt the painting would benefit from the introduction of yellows and oranges, colours I tend to shy away from when using blues and purples.

Image 4

Image 4:  I use a blending brush quite a lot (it looks like a fan), and enjoyed blending the colours on the canvas - this way, I never know what is going to happen, and end up with colours and shapes I never expected.

Image5

Image 5:  The painting still seemed a bit flat, and as it is oil, and the paint can be scraped away if I've made a mistake, I used a lime green that I had bought in Korea, and blended like daft. I used the flat of the brush, and for the first time the edge of it too, which added a wonderful texture to the thick paint. Most excitingly, though, just doing that has given me ideas for a series of paintings that I'm really looking forward to starting on.

Next week, I think.

Sunset At Morar, 4 and 5 - Finished

I did a bit more work on the painting before the weekend, and on Friday, this is how it looked.

I have since continued working on it today, and have finished it.

Sunset At Morar 3

I am beginning to build in texture now, layering the paint on thickly, but am a bit hindered by my own idiocy.  I went away for the weekend, and completely forgot to clean my brushes, leaving them out unprotected. As a result, the ones I want to use are soaking away to soften them up for use tomorrow. I find the size of the brushes I use make a big difference to me.

Talking of softening, I now need to do that to the clouds too and the base of the island where it meets the sea, while the same clouds need more light reflecting off them.

Could all be totally different by my next post.

Sunset At Morar 2

Next Stage - Sunset At Morar

The painting is coming along, I think.

I want to darken the land on the right, bring more definition into the sea. The clouds need more work, softening parts of them and introducing more whispy bits (technical term). The sunset behind the island needs more thought.

Tomorrow, I'll sit for a while and have a good look before I do anything, because not seeing the painting over night often helps me to work out my next steps.

Sunset At Morar 1

First stage - Sunset at Morar

Well, I'm a much happier girl now. As I said in my last post, New Start, Old Painting, I started again, and it seems to be working. To me it does anyway.

I've used large oil paint brushes (to stop me going into too much detail), shifted the land down to the bottom third of the canvas and am going to allow the orange from the original painting to show through behind the island in the background.

More tomorrow.

New Start, Old Painting

Cartwheels Until Sunset

You may remember the post I made about a new painting, A New Painting - Loch Garry 1. Well, it has been just sitting in my studio, unloved and unworked on because I simply can't get enthusiastic about it - at all.

So, I've put it away, cleaned up all my pastel pencils, gauche and mixed media bits and pieces, and I've got all my oils out again.

I'm going to rework the painting on the right as feel I have improved since I painted it - and I already have a frame for it.

I want to liven up the islands in the distance, stop the land in the foreground from looking as though it is just floating about, add more interest to the sea, soften the sky and change a lot of the colour.

Well, that's what I think for the moment.  I'll keep you up to date... 

Time for a Catch Up

My page on ArtGallery.co.uk

There is no denying it, it's been a while. I have been painting, but all my efforts are now on the surface of eggs which have been duly rolled down the nearest hill.

One thing I have done that isn't small and egg shaped, is add my details to a website called artgallery.co.uk. I have my own page on it, and can sell my artwork in all it's forms through it. I decided to add just my mounted prints and one or two paintings, and rather handily, when I sell something, I get a text letting me know. I've had it set up for a week, and I've already sold.

Rather good. Can you tell I'm pleased?

Let me know what you think.

Stained Glass Effect

Bluebell Sunburst, oil on canvas, 40 x 40cm (16 x 16")

Just a quickie.  I wanted to let you see one of the paintings I am exhibiting at Smithy Gallery from the 17th April. Arran Sunset, the painting depicted in my last post, Defeated (good grief how much more negative a title could I have written), has been sold.  Wayhay.

Bluebell Sunburst is a wee bit different for me as I haven't blended the colours in the canopy of trees, but I like the effect of the layers of paint one on top of the other and the way the branches of the trees look a bit like stained glass.

I painted this before my new mixed media paintings, and I can see how it's influenced certain aspects of them.

However, now that Spring has sprung, it's time for me to turn to subjects other than bluebells and snowdrops.  I'm off to the North East of Scotland tomorrow for inspiration and wide open skies.

Defeated

Arran Sunset, oil on canvas, 60 x 80cm (24 x 31")

I have another private view coming up on the 17th April at Smithy Gallery (you are more than welcome to attend, 1pm to 5pm), and I promised the gallery owner that I would have a new painting, in mixed media ready for them for that event.

But I'm just not going to manage it, and I'm really annoyed with myself.

The new painting was the one I wrote a post about last week - A New Painting, Loch Garry 1 - but it just hasn't worked.  And I'm not going to be able to solve it's problems in time to get it framed.  I will still post about it, though, I just think it's too awful to show you at the moment.  Colours are garish, the sky is blotchy, clouds are nondescript, the loch is flat and uninteresting and the shades I used when preparing the background just aren't shining through - I think that's enough for now.  There is nothing more frustrating than working on a painting especially for someone, and not liking it.

I am feeling both defeated and deflated, but it won't last long.  I'll start working on the Loch Garry painting again (in a couple of weeks), and suddenly, out of nowhere, it'll start to work, and everything will be rosy, birds will be singing and I'll accept that I can still paint after all.

However, I do have some other paintings that I have not shown before, which in itself is quite exciting, so they will be hanging them for the first time on the 17th.  Wish me luck!