Inspiration from The Red Sea

Red Sea Squid – Acrylic on Canvas – 30x23cm

I finally completed this painting that I started in 2012.  You can read about it here.  I was never happy with the background and didn’t know what to do with it, so I left it alone, until today.

As you can see, the background definitely needed something.  I also completed another painting that I started in 2013, before I went traveling.  You know how you just have to be in the mood to do something?  Well, until today, I wasn’t in the mood to finish this painting, but I am happy with it now.

Red Sea Bannerfish – Acrylic on Canvas – 60x45cm

In fact, I had started a still life on this canvas that I wasn’t happy with, so I used a texture medium to cover up the old painting and start a new one.  As this was a large canvas, I didn’t want to waste it.  Both of these paintings were inspired by my diving photos of a trip I took to The Red Sea.  Looks like I might have another look at my diving photos and see what else I can paint!

When things go Pear Shaped

In the interest of getting my abstract on, I wanted to try something a little bit different when painting a still life – something a little bit abstract, a little bit folky.  So this is what I came up with.

Acrylic on Canvas – 20 x 20cm

All of this just came out of my head and I did not draw anything from life.  However, there was something bugging me about this and I realised that the composition was all wrong.  I should have either just used all apples or all pears or had the apple between the pears.  I tried painting out the apple with Titanium White and making a new pear, but I couldn’t get the colors right for the new pear.  I didn’t want to throw away the canvas, so I decided to try something different.

Still life with pears – Mixed media on Canvas – 20 x 20

I used newsprint to cover 2 pears.  The wording on the newsprint is actually about food.  I added more paint to everything and finished off outlining with a sharpie.  I think I need a thicker sharpie for this type of thing.  Although not perfect, I think it is better than before and I will be more inclined to use collage in future works.  I might try this again, but will probably lose the pear at the top (definitely the shadow) and use collage in the middle of the painting and make the jugs bigger.  I really love the colors though.  This is where it really pays to make thumbprints before starting the painting but I got really excited and started without thinking things through! 🙂

Re-using an Old Canvas

I had an old canvas lying around that I painted using different shades of purple.  I think I painted it a couple of years ago.  It really didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to (how that was supposed to be I really don’t know, but it didn’t) so I put it aside.  So, when I purchased Terry’s Top Tips for Acrylic Artists, by Terry Harrison, I thought I might resurrect this purple painting and try out Terry’s tip on rolling paint with a roller as the effect was very similar to what I already had painted.

The photo of Terry’s finished painting is on the cover of the book and is what I was working on, so I cannot claim this picture as really my own.  His is so much better anyway, but I thank Terry Harrison for the inspiration. 🙂

Acrylic on Canvas – A4

As I said, I already had a painting with loads of purple, so I had to add the blues, which I did with a pallet knife. I never used a roller.  I really didn’t take a huge amount of time with this, so I was not particular about the houses and boats.  I think this is a great idea for applying paint when doing a boat scene.  I might try something similar again, but from one of my own photographs next time.