two more paintings

Here are two more paintings - the first is a small still life of nail polish bottles, for my daughter. The second is from the Daily Paintworks Weekly Challenge, the 10 minute Challenge, where you have to paint an object (in this case, my apple) in 8 different "poses"for a maximum of 10 minutes each. Each apple is about 3 by 4 inches. Not for sale - I don't think anyone would want to buy it! LOL

I loved painting the pinks - luscious reflections and shadows. I hope to do more like this one (top).

creative crisis and a solution

When I got back to Sydney, I had a small crisis. I thought the broken colour/impressionist style worked well for portraits of men and boys, but for girls and women, who have softer complexions, I was convinced it wasn't suitable. I didn't want to make my girls look ugly!

THEN, I saw a program on Studio channel about Lucian Freud. Just what I needed to see!!! I could never in a million years make my sitters look as ugly as he does his! He has painted his daughters, for example, and although they are in real life quite attractive, he manages to make them look like monsters.

Lucian Freud painted the Duchess of Devonshire (another Deborah, above!) when she was in her 30s, and she said now, in her 80s, she's starting to resemble the person in the portrait. Anyway, talented painter, interesting paintings, but pretty? No!

So with renewed confidence I set to work on another picture of my daughter, this time in acrylic, just to get away from the linseed fumes for a few days (the whole house smelt like cricket bats). Very happy with this one. And to my delight, it dried in an hour or two!

portraits

in addition to painting and drawing each day (usually small sketches/paintings), I've been pursuing my interest in portrait painting.

I started exploring broken colour a few years ago, then my old dog got sick, then I spent 3 years nursing him, then we got a new dog, then my husband left his job, etc., etc., etc., you know, life kind of interrupts my art.

So I booked in for a week long workshop at Mitchell School of Arts, Bathurst, this January. My tutor was Lesley O'Shea, another of my favourite painters. I love the way she uses colour. Anyway, my first painting was fairly traditional :
Then, after a few reminders from Lesley, I "went to town" on a picture of my mother, getting all carried away with brushstrokes, colours, everything, which matched the joyful expression on my mother's face (I worked from a photo).With all that going on in the portrait, I didn't need a background at all, so left it white.
The next day I got stuck into a picture of my husband, and then one of my nephew who had recently visited us in Sydney.
So that was one painting each day - Monday to Thursday - at Bathurst. On the final day I decided to paint a friend's horse - I'd promised to do it a while ago, as a gift for her 21st birthday. Here is the initial painting, just needs final tweaks now (like some EYES for the poor creature!)

The beauty of this week-long workshop was that after my initial half hour with Lesley, I was again on the right track and worked on my own for the remainder of the week. You can probably see a similarity in my style once I stuck to the technique.

I am very happy with the results, working in the broken colour technique. Horses are really really complex, even more so than human figures. I've drawn and painted hundreds of humans, and horses are much more difficult. Anyway, I can only improve! LOL

new direction for me and my blog!

As you may have guessed, and as so often happens in blog land, I haven't posted in a long time. I'm doing more painting these days, and hope to do a lot more, because it's only with practice that I will learn more. I am trying to paint every day. Or at least draw, because I don't like to spill oil paints in the car. So I take my pastels when I travel.

So from now on I'll try to post my regular works - maybe not a "daily" painting or drawing, but hopefully "almost daily".

I've been taking part in the Daily Paintworks' Weekly Challenge, and I'll post those entries here, also anything else I come up with. At the top is my first entry, a Zippo lighter in oil pastel, and above is an oil painting of a blue teacup. Both are available in my etsy shop.

roeffel's new coat!

My friend in Belgium, Annemie, has a beautiful west highland terrier called Roeffel. It's been a cold winter over there, so I made a crocheted coat for Roeffie, so he could keep warm on his walks. Here is Roeffel, wearing his new coat! It fits nice and snug around the neck and front legs, and is really warm, as it's crocheted in softest merino wool.

It's red, with two pockets, one with the letter "R" and on the other side, one with a little West Highland White Terrier. These are knitted into the design.

You'd never guess how old Roeffel is - he's 14!!! Isn't he just beautiful! So handsome and so SWEET.

PS let me know if you'd like to know more about my dog coats - they're made of superfine, machine washable, pure Australian merino wool, naturally water-resistant and soil-resistant. I make to order and mail anywhere on the planet. I made one for my old dog Frankie, and I'll make another for Hamish if he ever stands still enough to measure!


Here is Frankie in his coat, about 2007. I made it because he had a back injury and he needed to stay warm as he got older, with his arthritis etc.

My Etsy shop for valentines...

The Dear Child is back at school, the Dear Husband is back at work - after a day home alone with the animals, I'm looking for things to do.

Valentines Day is a day to bring love to everyone - kids, animals, friends, family, and of course partners and sweethearts. Thankfully it's not all about champagne, chocolates and satin lingerie. Well, not for me anyway!

So I cleaned up my Etsy shop and made some new listings. Just for Valentines, my shop has a theme of perfect pinks, flowers and hearts, including some very cute little baby hats. Have a browse at debproductions.etsy.com. I hope you enjoy it.

As you know I'm also an oil painter. So it's time for me to go back to school too, part time. I'm planning to paint 4/5 days a week this year, in my studio, when I'm not at classes. I'm not exactly sure WHAT I want to paint just yet, but no doubt that will happen. I've opened up a second etsy shop for my paintings, so far there's only one item in it, but I'll be adding more,

http://www.paintingsbydeb.etsy.com

First ever clearance sale

It's January, and time to clear the decks, so I can make more room for my new creations.

I'm having my first ever, half price clearance sale in my etsy shop:

debproductions.etsy.com

pop in and have a look, you might pick up a bargain!
Airmail anywhere on the planet 3 - 10 days (in reality, usually 5 days to UK/US)

enjoy!!!