Charcoal Jug

Charcoal on Rives.

Charcoal Pot

Working with charcoal to revitalise a flagging artistic spirit.

The Eyes have It

Charcoal on Rives

It's been a while since I posted on this blog but 7 months of living in a hotel room was a little stifling of artistic inspiration. We are settled for the next three years in Frankfurt, Germany. Great sigh of relief to be back in Europe and out of harm's way. Still limited in art materials as all my "stuff" is still on route from Pakitan via Bangladesh! Long story! Still I do have charcoal and paper.

I have a couple of ideas brewing for major projects and as I let those take form I am doodling and these eyes are a product of those doodles.

One of the joys of being back in civilisation is finding a wonderful art store and have been told of another that is supposed to be even better. On a short drive out from the city, the landscape already looked promising in terms of subject matter. The brilliant acid yellows of the rape seed flowers were

Vertical Limits - Charcoal

I've been rather tied up with a lot of stuff lately but have been working away slowly at this charcoal - a version of Vertical Limits that I did in pastels when we were in Saudi Arabia. Its been nice getting back to the subtlety of tonal values.

Gold Thread

oil on canvas 6" x 6"
Another colour experiment. I started with a purple and cerulean ground and then worked into that with colour. More paint on the canvas this time.

Also have had this idea in my head for a charcoal for a while and after reading Stacy Rowan's post about seeing things that you want to do and filing them in your mental pending file I decided that the time had come to do put this one on paper. I've long been fascinated by drapery and classical images of fabric folds and white fabric in particular. So here is the start - still toying with the idea of the bowl and chair. The bowl is one of the copper ones I bought last week at a bazaar. I would like the spotlight to be on the fabric with everything else in the neutral block.

"The Second Bite" and Portrait Swap

I ate the first bite before I even noticed it had found its way into my mouth! Had to hold back so I could get the second bite painted! Had to move into bigger format as I have run out of 8" x 5" canvases - can't remember what size this is but its a little larger. I have a lot of unstretched canvas and I have been thinking about getting some boards cut and then stretching the canvas over the boards as a way to be able to go on painting until my ordered canvases arrive. I remember someone sent me instructions on how to do that but I can't remember where I put them. Then again someone gave me the name of a store that might, just might, have canvases for sale - hoping to get there this week to take a look.

I've been taking part in the portrait swap on WetCanvas and decided to try out a different medium. This is charcoal on Rives. Was pleased that it came out looking like my victim but is not quite how I had imagined the final result. Need some practice with charcoal portraits.