Buzzing with blue fingers

I've come home with blue fingers, and that's always a good sign of an enjoyable day. Well actually, they're blue, red, yellow, purple and white fingers, and I'm hoping that it'll wash off with some success......

I've been to an art workshop today, painting contemporary landscapes in acrylics with a palette knife, so very messy and such fun!!! The tutor first got us to team up with another person there, and create a piece of art one mark at a time, each taking turns to mark the paper in ONE movement only, turn by turn, each only using any two colours we chose - criss-crossing or smearing the other marks on the paper if we chose, or spraying it, or any other way we wanted to make a painting between us. Afterwards we talked about it, and the reactions to it fascinated me - some people HATED doing it as they couldn't THINK in an abstract way, some hated the fact that the other person "SPOILT" their marks, some HATED it because it was abstract and loose and they couldn't think in that way. How very interesting, and surprising, I felt. But then I'm used to doing abstracts and hadn't realised that some people can't think in that way. I liked the way that the fact that I had to wait for my colleague to make her mark, made me think more about my mark, it made it more controlled, and yet part of the control of the painting was out of my hands (and every body elses) by the manner of the creation of the art - most interesting in a psychological way!!!

When we got to start painting a proper landscape, we followed the way the tutor showed how he painted in a very loose style and encouraged everyone else to do so, to the point that we didn't even draw anything before hand, but put paint straight onto the dampened paper and left it to see what it did. The only control we had was to apply torn masking tape as a rugged horizon, that was immediately removed after the first colour was applied, and then sprayed with water to soften the edges. We worked on our pictures, and I got quite into it, but sort of made it up as I went along, as I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted it to look until I started working with the loose effects on my paper, but I put on lots of colour and slowly worked through where the focal point was with my three trees in the landscape, contrasts, lost and found edges, colour scheme and  the over all design of it.

At the end of the session, the tutor got us all to stand our half finished work against the wall and view them all together, to see how we'd all progressed, and he went along them one by one to comment on each one. When he got to mine, which happened to be the last one, he RAVED over it, the "exquisite" effect of it, and took it around to the rest of the class to show it to them. It took me aback abit, as I hadn't expected that reation, but was obviously delighted too by the way he loved it so much! Aw, thankyou!!!!

Afterwards as we packed our stuff up I went to him to thank him for the inspirational day and had a good chat about being a professional artist and standard of workmanship. He didn't know anything about me or my art so we exchanged business cards and he said he'd look at my website when I mentioned I was an erotic artist (I didn't mention that I already do abstract acrylics or the subject matter, but when he finds my "Fantasy Fannies" he'll realise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  LOL)

And if that wasn't enough, on the way out of the hall, literally in the doorway, I bumped into a woman who was coming in to set up for a party that evening, who I'd not seen since last April when she commissioned me to paint her daughters horse, Elliot,  for a surprise birthday present for her - she was absolutely delighted to see me, hugged me in greeting and told me how delighted the daughter was with the painting, and had burst into tears when she saw it. And then introduced me to her daughter, whe was with her, who also told me how delighted she was with the painting, and how well I had captured him and his personality, so that made it doubly good!

So all in all,  I was on a total "high" on the way home!!!!! A verrryyyy Happy Bunny!!!! YAY!!!!

Teaching teacher

The people who commissioned the portrait of the horse"Elliot" came to pick the painting up this week. I had met them before when I went to take the photos of Elliot, but that was at their house. And they wanted to come to my house to collect the painting, as it is a surprise and they didn't want the game to be given away by my going to their house with the surprise gift. So the meeting was arranged and they came to me with no prior knowledge other than a brief meeting and a knowledge that I am a local artist.................. who does horse portraits........

They arrived and I welcomed them in, and we stood chatting about animals, and art. I showed them a few paintings that I've done, as they passed them on the way to my studio, and we stopped and chatted about the art and the various techniques that I'd used to create the paintings. They liked them, and were interested, which is always gratifying :)

Eventually, I led them into my studio and showed them the portrait of Ellliot, which they loved, and said I'd just captured his look, which was great to hear. It's always a slight concern when revealing a portrait, that the painting looks like the subject matter. Infact I was reminded of that when chatting to my photographer friend over the seas, when he said that a photographer cuts out the excess of what he can see to make the image, whereas an artist puts in ALL they can see to make their image. Interesting contrasts. But I'd obviously caught all that makes Elliot, for his painting, which is always great to hear that I'd not missed anything!

We carried on chatting about other pieces of art I'd done, various paintings were scattered around the studio, including Fitzy's working painting of him done in the living flame style, and his "fantasy willie" half completed, that I was working on when they arrived. I ignored it as it was "just" an abstract as far as they were concerned, and didn't need to know the specifics of it. The chatting flowed, and as we talked I was aware of the guy looking at what was behind me, and when he was able he enquired about it - my certificate of membership to the Guild of Erotic Artists, he was intrigued (especially as he had NO idea at all that I did Erotic art!! LOL). So I explained that I was an erotic artist, and waxed lyrical over it, as I am apt to do! They both listened, and asked various questions, and I told them about the "fantasy fannies" project, and how that has lead to the "fantasy willies" project, and that I've had a huge response to it all already! I carried on with my chatting, and the woman fell quiet as I spoke, and then asked me why don't I teach? She said "You're passionate about your art, and are "fresh" in your approach". It turned out that she teaches teachers, and she thinks I'd make a good teacher. That made me think. Do I want to teach? Is it the way forward? She says she'll help me if I want any advice from her, and I've taken her up with her offer. I like her and her husband and will be happy to see them again.....

I'm thinking about it.

Oh, and it turns out that she lives in the same village that I did my WI talk for, 18 months ago. She's a busy woman and isn't a WI member but is aware of the talks, and was sorry that she had missed mine. Apparently she also missed the chance to hear a talk about the joys of hearing aids as well............................................. I'm not sure which one might have been the high light!! :)


Still, she's already learnt something from me.

If you want your horse painting, come and see an erotic artist! :)

Horsing around

Fitzy knew when we agreed the two paintings that I'm currently doing for him that if I had other deadline commissions, that they would take precedence over the timing for his artwork, and was happy with that possibility. The only reason I said it was because I knew the artwork that I'm doing for Fitzy is going to take a while to paint, as I'm having to do two working paintings before I start the two canvas's proper. And, sure enough, soon after I started work, I was asked to paint a picture for a birthday in May, so I've got a deadline, just as I predicted! LOL

The painting in question is totally different to the ones I'm doing for Fitzy, as it's Elliot. And Elliot is a bit different to Fitzy. He has lovely long black hair, he has brown eyes, a bit of a beard, long nose, big ears, and four feet. Well, hooves really. Because Elliot is............ a horse. I met him a couple of weeks ago when I was asked to go and see him and take photos for the portrait I'm doing of him. I duly went along at the arranged time, feeding time infact, as that was deemed the part of the day when he was more likely to be amenable to a stranger taking photos of his best side. Of course, he was curious to start with, but soon got bored of the tiresome task of having to lift his head AND look intelligent AND look the right way AND have his ears forward AND not be eating whilst he was doing it. So he kept wandering off. The back end of a horse is not that photogenic, so I had to get to the right end, rather than the wrong end, and try to photograph him in the the right light, with all the aforementioned posing involved too!

I've NEVER taken so many photos of one thing before. Photo. Photo. Photo. Photo...........Photo. Photo...............

After taking endless shots I thought at least a few of them would be right, but on getting home I found that only one fit the criteria of him looking around, with ears forward, looking curious and friendly, not eating, not side on, and not full on. Phew. Do all super models have this problem, I wonder? LOL

Well, no matter, one photo was all I needed. And that is what I've been working from, and this is the painting I've done, in acrylic on line and wash board. Acrylics are the best thing to use for animal portraits, as you can build up the light hairs on dark background, dark hairs on light background that is the animal. And that is how you get the character of the animal too. I think I've got a good likeness to Elliot, I just hope the person who is receiving this as a birthday present thinks so too.................... She's not seen it yet. The bit I like best, is the bit of flicked paint around his mane, that makes him look like he's moving a bit, and the white blow of air below his mouth, that makes him look alive. Well, the intelligent eyes, the right shape for a horses head, the colours, the nuances of tone of his hair all help too of course!!!!! LOL