A TO Z CHALLENGE D-G

Continuing from 'D' for Dyson, here are some more challenges, that I set myself, to paint subjects that I saw on tv as they cropped up but as they cropped up in alphabetical order.  I was watching a Crime and Punishment programme, hence the theme of the last two paintings but the first two are during the adverts

Glamorous woman on perfume advert was wearing 'E' Earrings

There's this advert for Mercedez cars that uses chickens and makes them dance,  great, I thought  'F' for Feather now back to the Crime programme ......................

Aha now they find the murderer's gun 'G'.  But that one was a pistol,  this one reminded me of my childhood and thought it was a bit of fun.

Ok you guessed, the villian was arrested so we have 'H' Handcuffs.

Boy is this challlenging me. No choosing, literally whatever was said or seen in order.  So now we are waiting for 'I'.  Wonder if you can guess

By the way.  It's lovely of you to comment on here but if you already see these paintings on facebook, please don't feel you have to comment again.  

Have a lovely cosy weekend, wrap up warm if you are northern hemisphere and eat plenty of ice cream if you are southern hemisphere.

A - Z CHALLENGE !!!!!!

Don't ask me how my brain works, I've no idea.  How I came up with my next project is quite beyond me. It's like this ............  I decided to paint subjects from A to Z that I saw or heard on tv, but that I spotted in alphabetical order.  So, sometimes there was a wait between letters.  You will see what I mean in a minute. Then I drew all 26 of them, so good sketching practice, some smaller than others.  Now I am in the process of painting them, and yes you guessed, in alphabetical order.

To start with we were watching a Crime and Punishment Programme (American).  Trouble is because I was watching and listening carefully, I lost the plot, literally.

'A' - The programme started in a bar hence the Ale.

'B' The suspected killer was - yes clever you - was wearing a belt

'C' - Crime was committed in New York, so obviously there was a street scene with the yellow cabs.

Ok, so up come the adverts, mind alert, ah ha ............

'D' For Dyson cleaner

Whatever will crop up next I wonder.

BLOG AWARD & VAN GOGH SKETCHES

First of all thank you Rita Vaselli for passing on the Versatile Blog Award, I am very flattered that you chose me. Rita, as many of you know, is a warm person, brilliant artist, and has a way with words that each post is like poetry.  I will pass on my award at the end of this post.

Recently I went to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, where you could photograph the paintings!! I would like to share some of his work that isn't commonly seen in books.

In his 10 years of painting he produced about 800 paintings and 1000 drawings. Here are some of his sketches.  I particularly love these intimate sketches, hope you like them too ......

If you look at the tiny sketch on the right hand side you may recognise it as the potato pickers or similar

Apparently he worried a lot about people, perspective and this combines both, and was a total surprise to me.

Now back to the Award.  The rule is to pass it on to 10 more, but I would love to give everyone an award but have decided to pick just two who are still blogging and making me smile despite adversity in their lives, they are being positive and still blogging through it all.  Best wishes and hugs to them both and hope this gives them a little lift ..................

http://traceyfletcherking.blogspot.co.uk
http://nuggletonbythesea.blogspot.co.uk

Also to pass on 7 things about myself.  Hm now let me think ...........
1. I hate peas
2. I love to exercise my chuckle muscles
3. I conducted an orchestra once (well I was only 5 years old)
4. I hate to upset anyone
5. My favourite painting in the whole world is The Fighting Temeraire by Turner
6. Love to use bright colours when I paint (must try and soften them)
7. I loathe housework.

Happy Versatile Blogging everyone

CHRISTMAS COMMISSIONS EEEK!!

Was asked to do a couple of paintings for 'special' people this Christmas, for them to give as presents.  Well I can tell you I found it extremely stressful.  I don't know how you artists who do it on a regular basis cope. It took me ages to even start, I was so nervous about it.  I so wanted to do a reasonable painting and didn't want to disappoint them.

First of all my niece wanted a painting for her hubby who is mad keen on cycling.  Well actually he wanted me to paint them in his strip but she had it framed for him, so he didn't see it until Christmas.  He is in the lead and my nephew is second. I've put it on my desktop this morning, eeek can see where I could have used more care. But pleased on my blog cos paintings always looks better on tinternet small.

Next up a friend asked me to paint their bungalow for her hubby, as he loves it so much.  Well I thought to myself - boring, it's a building, don't like doing buildings - but didn't want to let her down.  So again took great care.  As with the above I used tracedown first, didn't trust my drawing skills when it's for someone close. This is what I came up with.  I put a shadow of them in their kitchen window.

This I fear is bare in the sky, feel I should either have put at least some birds in the sky just to give it life, and a bit more colour (it is a bit washed out on the screen).

Well commissions over, massive PHEW!!  Festivities over and back to normal. Painting for myself.

In my next post I would like to show you some Van Gogh paintings from the Museum in Amsterdam, that you might not have seen, including a sketch or two of his.  I love those personal items.

Have a wonderful weekend, and keep WARM!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Here I am back on terra firma.  Two weeks on the high seas for Christmas and New Year.  I am not a good sailor so it was a big risk at this time of year.  The Bay of Biscay was NOT kind to us.  Average of Gale Force 9!  Spectacular to watch the waves though.  For once I wasn't seasick.  Had some new pills recommended, but took further precautions and wore wrist bands and ate crystalised ginger too.

Great fun really seeing people upright and the ships floor at an angle, everybody left and then everybody right.  Like doing a drunken sailor dance.  Tottering on heels when 'poshed up', when I don't usually wear heels.  Hanging on to the shower room door handle while sat on the loo.  Bracing yourself in bed by firmly planting your feet apart, so that you don't fall out of bed! A drawer opening and shutting with the motion of the ship. So nice to sleep back in my own still, calm, unmoving bed.  Yahey.

We had a wonderful time though.  So many little children on board, and the excitement when Santa appeared down the funnel!  Christmas at sea and he even came to me, he kindly brought me the gift of a cold!

Highlight of the Ports of Call was Amsterdam and a visit to the Van Gogh Museum, and I want to share some of the paintings we saw when I down load them.  One's that you don't normally see in the main books.

In the meantime I wish you a Wonderful Healthy and Happy New Year full of special things.  Everything you wish for yourself and loved ones.  If you paint I hope you find lots of inspiration and not a lot of frustration.  And I thank you for your visits to my blog. 

I send you a card (last year's I admit, not time this year to paint one).

And here is me having a great time on New Year's Eve.

Luv' from Polly xx 

ESPECIALLY FOR YOU

This is possibly my last blog until next year, so I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and whatever you do have a wonderful time.  If you are on your own I send you a special hug.


This is my Christmas Card especially for you (oh and family and friends too!). 

Actually it is Sharon Whitley's December Challenge (because of these challenges I have painted things I would never have tried, so a special thank you) and the photograph is by Wildlife Photographer Gary Jones (sorry Gary another beautiful photograph I have changed, but thank you for all the lovely photographs I have used this year).

Caption:  Who's that guy in the red suit?

May Santa bring you whatever you wish for.  


Luv from Polly xx

OIL - YUK and YUK

You see I don't particularly like using oils, but boss teacher wanted us to do a still life in oils. Yuk and yuk! Not struck on painting in oils nor ordinary still life.  But like a good little girl I did as I was told (this time) Outcome not as bad as I thought. These are water soluble oils.

This was done over two weeks classes.  Patience I didn't know I had, as I like to go whoosh and have a painting done in one session, if possible.  Oh and the round pot didn't have a square opening,  this huge error has only come to light looking at it on screen.  Won't be altering it though, as this will go in my 'not like' box.

Will I use oils at our last class this year,  or will I rebel?


Have a wondrous weekend!

LAST BRUSHO THIS YEAR

Yes, I am putting brusho away!  There's so much going on. I usually do my brusho at the art club because it is, or sorry, I am soooo messy, and it's our Christmas do today and then that's it til after New Year.  These two paintings I have concentrated on using bleach.  I sprinkled and sprayed the background colours on, covering the whole sheet of paper with colour and then picked out the white with bleach and added some darks.

Dark Stripes were just the background showing through.

This one is actually Sharon Whitley's December challenge, and is from a photograph by Gary Jones of the Ugly House in North Wales.  Just a note to Health and Safety, The snowman didn't suffer any harm from being covered in bleach!!!!!

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

I'd had this painting in mind for a long time.  I wanted to know what Southport (a Victorian seaside resort on the north west coat of England) looked like in Edwardian days. (early 1900's).  So I did some research, which I promptly didn't really follow!! Typical of me.  Here is the progress

Already I didn't think it was going well, wobbly window syndrome! But persisted in a 'gung ho' fashion! And the attitude, it's only a piece of paper

Hubby didn't like the woman in the foreground and I agreed.  I put the pic out on my facebook page for instant advice.  Wasn't as bad as I thought. But the woman certainly was not right, facing in the wrong direction, too prominent and the wheelie bin in front of her not a good idea (was in fact a pram in case you were wondering)

Well here is the revised version.  Lady now leading you into the picture. I  tried to wash her out but wouldn't work completely, so went over her with an opaque colour, cobalt. Used some white guache to try and straighten some of the windows, and added some more cobalt in the sky to balance the picture, also to the lady linking arms. Can't do anything about the wobbly red writing, but hey it's only a piece of paper.

Hope you get a flavour of what this lovely main street looked like years ago.  To finish here is a pic of what it looks like now.

It's a wide tree lined street, with these distinctive verandahs, it's about a mile long with outside cafes, very contintental and looks lovely on a warm sunny day.  On the right is the Town Hall and Art Centre, a bandstand, small green areas an outdoor cafe and fountains.  Very pleasant place to sit awhile or stroll along.

Have a wonderful weekend. Keep snug and warm

BRUSHO, WATERCOLOUR & BLEACH

Thought it would be interesting to see how the two react with bleach.  I had only ever used bleach on Brusho and it was suggested that you could use bleach on Watercolour too.  So Polly had to experiment and here are the results, which you might find interesting.

This is the Brusho chart. Using all the colours that I have.  With the exception of Prussian Blue on all the above I used just one sweep of a brush loaded with bleach (or you can use Milton (a sterilising agent)   And the whiteness of the paper just appeared through as if by magic.   Obviously some reacted better than others.  The paper didn't turn yellow and wasn't damaged.  In fact, I have tried and you can paint over the top when it is dry.  Could be very handy to know. 

Watercolours and exactly the same procedure BUT I had to scrub the bleach into the paint, no single strokes here, so was worried about the paper and the brush (an old brush that I washed constantly) And while I can see that some of the colours allowed the white paper to show through, many of them, even after the vigourous brushing, did not turn white.  The scrubbing affected the wash giving run backs sometimes.  I wouldn't use bleach on a watercolour painting from choice, as I feel it could damage the washes around the bleached area, not to mention quickly ruin any brush.

I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has tried a similar experiment.

Have a wonderful weekend my lovely blogging friends!!