Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Red Paper


I haven't posted for quite a while - suffering with daily headaches has dammed my artistic flow somewhat.

I fell in love with some pastels that Michael Newberry did on red paper and as I had some in store its been kind of lurking out there that I might play with this a little. This is my first attempt. It was really hard to think of red as being my darkest colour when the objects I was using had no red in them at all. Definitely a new way of thinking. I really liked the way this came together and the abstract forms in the composition.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Rear View Mirror


Core of a Rose, graphite on paper, 4" x 4"

Its funny how when you look back at work you did years ago a lot of it makes you cringe but other pieces still feel right. This piece leaped out at me recently because I have been thinking about abstracts and expressionism increasingly. I have to admit I am now really enjoying colour but monochrome still has a real magic for me - especially in photography.

Determined to get back to some serious work over the next couple of days after suffering a block in my creative urge.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Pansies










Had a great time early one morning when I arrived at work taking photos of these pansies. I think pansies are the most endearing flowers, they seem to have little faces. Pansies are typically only about 4 - 8 inches tall which meant grovelling at ground level on very heavily dew-laden grass (I had muddy knees all day!). Fortunately not many people arrive at work as early as I do or I would have been very embarrassed! The last picture was an accident but I love the way it came out - extremely overexposed. It's almost like a watercolour. The second last is the same flower at the correct exposure. Now I would like to try and get this sort of effect on purpose.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Jeanette in Watercolour


My second try at Jeanette in watercolour (the first while I was happy with the my application of paint was not quite right proportionally) - I am a total novice with this medium and find its unpredictablity both delightful and confounding at the same time. This is only my third portrait in watercolour (the first is here) if you include my first attempt on this particular one and I'm quite pleased with how I am getting on with the medium.

I'd love to have a go at pours as mentioned by Billie Crain and demonstrated by Nick Simmons. One thing that really appeals to me about this kind of use of the medium is the freedom and dynamic quality to painting. I find myself leaning more and more to a more expressionistic way of painting.

Happy to say that I sold "Strawberry Cheesecake" this week. Interesting that I had just had some notecards printed and was showing them to a colleague and she bought the painting from seeing it on a notecard. A marketing technique?

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Springtime







As promised some spring photos - didn't spend much time taking these, would have liked to have much longer but was lucky enough to catch the bumble bee making his rounds. The blossom is just about to come out on the citrus trees so there will be more pictures of that when it opens. I need to take a telephoto lens in too because there is one tree that I can't get close enough to take photos of the flowers but with the telephoto lens I might be able to get some closer shots.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Jeanette


March's offering to the portrait group to which I belong is a portrait of Jeanette, wonderful and talented artist, printmaker and maker of delicious jewellery. Not sure how much more I will do to this, maybe a little tweaking. Seeing it here I wonder if I have her nose at the right angle. Trying to decide if I might experiment a little and try a watercolour version.

Spring is well underway here in Pakistan - I'm taking my camera with me tomorrow to take pictures of the lovely flowers and blossom that is bursting out all over. I even have sweet peas flowering in my garden which seems very odd to me as in England they are a summer flower. The bottle brush trees are starting to bloom and I expect that next week they will be totally covered in flowers.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Finding a Path



7ft x 4ft, ink on paper

February was a bad month for me - shoulder injury stopped me in my creative tracks and I have been finding it hard to get back in the groove now that I have some mobility back. I am determined though that March will see me back in full production and experimenting with new ideas, direction and projects.

One thing that came to me in the quiet moments this month was that I was in danger of forgetting why I was doing art - and that is because I love it and its fun. I really don't want to lose the fun of it and I think I need to get the play and experimentation back to get the joy back.

Robin Neudorfer has been feeding me sites that have lots on how to get the creative mojo flowing (thank you Robin) and many have amused me as they are me to a T.

Here are a couple of them - worth a read if you are in not leaping out of bed in the morning ready to be creative.

Get off your butt - 16 ways to get motivated when you are in a slump


7 tried and true ways to stifle your creativity

I have one lovely thing to keep me going for the next few months and that is being part of a sketchbook exchange. I am really excited to be a part of this with 8 other artists from around the world. More of that in days to come, I am sure.


The Road not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost
all artwork is copyright of Anita Murphy 2006/2007/2008/2009