Carbon Based

'Carbon Based'
1m x 40cm
Pastel, Ink, collage, gold leaf, real leaves and charcoal on colourfix paper

The two sides of my painting personality have been fighting for attention lately, but they seem to have come together and are now shaking hands. Hopefully this is the start of a beautiful friendship :) This one is for my upcoming pastel exhibition, I know technically its mixed media, but it is mostly pastel! Its a rare thing for me that I finish a piece and I am completely happy with it - not wanting to tweak it here and there and not seeing any little spots that bother me - but I really like...no...love this piece! This is how I pictured it before I started (that NEVER happens!) I was inspired by the poetry, and it made me think about how we need to live while the livin' is good, cos there is one thing certain in life..........I don't want people to see this as a dark piece, its quite the opposite for me. Its about the joy of being alive, and a bit of a nod to my left brain (on the left of the piece is an scientific article about the life cycle of plants and some real leaf skeletons) and my right brain (on the right of the piece is an excerpt from a vintage poetry book by Longfellow). Obviously the model was Erik :) All of the colours I used are ones that make me feel good, and I put the dragonfly in cos I like bugs :)

Erik

Why didn't anyone tell me that drawing on rough wc paper with an HB pencil was so nice? I have always used a soft pencil on cartridge paper - I could really get into this :) Anyway, this is Erik, he lives on my studio wall (I am a secret bone collector as well as feathers, nests, bark etc)

Rusty and Dusty

Nicky Road Farm again
70cm x 25 cm

Boy, I felt really rusty today when I got my pastels out :( Its been a few weeks since I used them and I am doing a demo tomorrow so I thought I had better practice. This one didn't turn out quite how I hoped, struggled with colour harmony, values, everything really but at least I know where I went wrong (everywhere it feels like!) I hope I am a bit more on my game tomorrow, demos make me sooooo nervous. I also need to do a couple of new pastels for our upcoming exhibition - you should see my studio...what a mess :(

In the Ether

'In the Ether'
Mixed Media 1m x 40cm

So this one is quite small for me, mixed media wise :) I am entering it into a competition of paintings around the theme of communication. It really just a light hearted look at how we have 'progressed' from overly wordy, classic literature to this new way of speaking in abbreviations, conveyed in a mysterious way that people like me don't understand. All these thing are floating by in the ether, above my head in more ways than one! :) There is some spray paint, pitt pens, vintage book pages and lots of thick acrylic paint and ink on this one...lots of fun...now back to the pastels...I have a demo to do on Friday and an exhibition with 7 other pastellist lookming so its time to get dusty!