Day 2, 30 paintings in 30 days January 2014 challenge

Day 2 of January 30 paintings challenge
Provence Expressions

Palette knife painting

Oil on canvas board

18x24 cm (approx 7"x10")

Available for purchase $100, international shipping included

Thank you to all for your good wishes, I am feeling much better today but still not got into the painting frame of mind - although I am feeling not quite so sorry for myself LOL.

This is another painting 'I made earlier'. It is more expressionist than impressionist and, of course, full of colour. I am still finding realism tugging at me when I paint, so I deliberately tried to push the colours. The scene is from a combination of photos, with the typical trees and shed that define the landscape.

Some close-ups of the knife work

Sunset Storm Brewing - Day 11, 30 days hath September challenge

Sunset Storm Brewing

24x30cm (approx 10"x12")

oil on canvas sheet

Day 11, 30 days hath September challenge
Started with a brush and completed with a palette knife

Contact me here about this or any other painting

A sunset is the topic for painting number 11 in the challenge.
Thank you wetcanvas.com
The photo for this has been sitting in my 'to do' folder for quite a long time, and is a reference from wetcanvas.com. I am always weary of tackling sunsets but - as part of the challenge is to try different things - here it is.
A new painting surface
The surface is also new for me, it is painted on canvas from a canvas pad that arrived in my supplies order the other day. I thought I had ordered a paper canvas pad for practice, but this is actual canvas with a universal primer. It is medium grain and a delight to work on. I painted directly onto the surface without additional preparation and initially I used a brush and then reverted to the palette knife. It seems to have accepted the oil very well.

I will leave it for a couple of days to see if the paint 'sinks in' or remains vibrant.

See yesterday's painting HERE

Cork sentinels, Day 10, 30 days hath September challenge

Cork Sentinels, Provence treescape landscape painting

18x24cm oil on canvas panel

Palette knife painting

Day 10, 30 days hath September challenge

 Cork Trees,
Painted from a photo I took in the same forest as the chestnut trees painted on day 8 (see post here). The forest is in the Var just to the north of St. Tropez. As you cross from the Alpes Maritime into the var, the flora changes and the oak trees change from the Provence green oaks to these cork oaks. They are very distinctive and have a very dark bark. Where they have been harvested the red wounds really stand out and they eventually achieve a gnarled look where the new bark grows over the wound. I have lots of photos so expect more paintings of the cork trees

Difficult Greens
The greens are difficult because although it is coming into autumn there is a lot of fresh green growth that sprout after the first rain at the end of summer, as well as the older green leaves. I've also used a few blue greens to add to the sense of distance.

Sky colours
Although the sky is not a huge part of the painting I took trouble with this using more colours than I normally do (pinks, blues and greens) trying to represent the transitional feel of the sky which was overcast one minute and sunny the next.

Camargue Sunset oil palette knife painting

Camargue Sunset

18x24cm (approx 7"x10")

Oil on Canvas panel

See Here to purchase

A sister painting to Camargue Sunrise see HERE

Summer Magic, Lavender Fields Provence knife painting

Summer Magic, Lavender Fields Provence

18x24 cm (approx 7"x10") palette knife painting

Oil on canvas panel

This painting is now SOLD

We have had so much rain here over the last two months and painting these little scenes keeps me happy LOL.

You may be interested in seeing "Pretty in Purple" lavender landscape HERE

Lavender Landscape Provence palette knife painting

Lavender Landscape Provence 

Oil on canvas panel

18 x 24 cm (7"x10"approx, painted with a palette knife.

I used a slightly different technique for this mini landscape. I washed some very thin oil over the panel to use as my ground. I let the wash run and mingle to see what effect I would get. This was the result:

I quite liked the drips on the dried under wash and wanted to see how I could use them in a finished painting. Using a palette knife I started to lay in the paint for the top two thirds of the painting. Apart from adding touches of the colours I used in the rest of the painting, I left the background of the bottom third untouched to take advantage of those drips. I quite like the effect on the finished piece and it doesn't feel quite as 'heavy' as some of my paintings. Let me know what you think?
I can see the painting needs some touch ups, so I will post a new photo of the final piece in a few days.

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Touch of Provence Sunshine palette knife painting

Touch of Provence Sunshine

Palette knife painting

15x20cm (approx 6"x8") Oil on boxed canvas
Sold

We've had a long period of rain, so to give myself a lift, I painted another painting of the sunflower fields. This has a slightly different feel to the first Sunshine in Provence paintings. (see HERE). It is not quite as textured as the previous two.

Again painted with a palette knife to keep it loose and lively.
Here is a close up of the knife work.

Fracture Abstraction No.4 and No.5, watercolour abstracts

Another two of this set

"Fracture Abstraction No 4." Varnished watercolour abstract.
Painting size = 9.5 x 17.5cm (approx. 4"x7")
Overall size = approx 13.5 x 21cm (approx 5"x8")
Initialed on the front, signed on the back

FOR SALE IN MY ETSY SHOP 

"Fracture Abstraction No 5." Varnished watercolour abstract.
Painting size = 9.5 x 17.5cm (approx. 4"x7")
Overall size = approx 13.5 x 21cm (approx 5"x8")
Varnished
Initialed on the front, signed on the back

FOR SALE IN MY ETSY SHOP 

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that no. 3 is missing. The photo did not turn out very well on that one and I need to take another when the weather brightens up.

Fracture Abstraction No.2, watercolour abstract

"Fracture Abstraction No 2." Varnished watercolour abstract.
Painting size = 9.5 x 17.5cm (approx. 4"x7")
Overall size = approx 13.5 x 21cm (approx 5"x8")
Varnished
Initialed on the front, signed on the back

FOR SALE IN MY ETSY SHOP 

The second in my abstract watercolors.

In the spirit of play and creativity, I let watercolour washes merge together and then using pen, I enhance the shapes and used a bit of my artist's licence to extend and colour some areas. A white border has been left around the edge to enhance the colours. I have stressed the edges to give a bit of a handmade paper look, but this can be trimmed straight. I am enjoying myself with the freedom this brings. Hopefully, I can carry this forward in my more structured paintings.

This shows the 'stressed' edges.

Fracture Abstraction - watercolour abstract painting

"Fracture Abstraction No 1." by Marion Hedger

Varnished watercolour abstract.
Painting size = 9.5 x 17.5cm (approx. 4"x7")
Overall size = approx 13.5 x 21cm (approx 5"x8")
Varnished, can be framed without glass
Initialed on the front, signed on the back

FOR SALE IN MY ETSY SHOP

I have taken a break from oil painting for a couple of days and decided to do something different and try to stimulate my imagination.

In the spirit of play and creativity, I let watercolour washes merge together and then using pen, I enhance the shapes and used a bit of my artist's licence to extend and colour some areas. A white border has been left around the edge to enhance the colours. I have stressed the edges to give a bit of a handmade paper look, but this can be trimmed straight. I am enjoying myself with the freedom this brings. Hopefully, I can carry this forward in my more structured paintings.

This shows the 'stressed' edges.

Beautiful Daffodil - Garden Series 101 Oil paintings

Beautiful Daffodil

by Marion Hedger

Garden 101 daily paintings series No.9

22 x 27cm, oil on canvas board.

I've jumped ahead as the photos of numbers7 and 8 did not come out and I will have to retakes them. I had some beautiful daffs this year but sadly they are mostly all gone now. There is nothing that quite matches that lovely yellow colour throughout the garden after the winter. A real heralding of better things to come.

I quite like the way the brushstrokes are visible on this one. I managed to avoid overblending and I love the result. 

"I have challenged myself to paint 101 small daily life paintings inspired by my garden. My main aim is to improve my my eye to brush skills with a loose lively style. At the moment I plan to use oils, so that as a bonus I will improve my oil handling skills. I don't doubt that some will be done in different media depending on how the mood takes me. I aim to do at least 5 a week."

Scarlet Honey Eater Gouache Painting

  Scarlet Honey Eater by Marion Hedger

Gouache on canvas board

Varnished with acrylic varnish

13 x 18 cm (5"x7")

This was painted as part of the December Gouache Challenge on wetcanvas.com.

It is my first bird painting and I am not sure that gouache is the right medium for birds for me. I have a tendency to keep wanting to do lots of detail, although planning to paint loosely. I need to practice more to understand how the gouache handles for this type of work.

Landscape - gouache study

This is an experiment in using gouache, the first time I have used this medium.

 Gouache landscape study

16x21cm (6.5"x8.5") on blue/gey paper.

This is painted very quickly with a very limited palette very bright blue, pink and yellow plus a black and white. I was looking around to see what I could paint with while sitting on the sofa as I have a sore throat at the moment and didn't want to venture into my cold studio.

I used the paint straight out of the tube with very little mixing on the palette and hardly any water. I was very surprised at how fast they dried, but they were easy to go over with a second layer. A good medium to use to stop you fiddling with the brushstroke. The bright pink in the sky is because I ran out of white paint to mix it with.

Once I got used to how they reacted on the paper, I found I really liked using them and the effect they gave. I used my granddaughter's paints that I purchased for her - cheap and cheerful - as she likes to feel she is using 'real' paints - she's becoming an art supply critic at the age of 7! So I would imagine that artist quality paint would be even better to work with.

Limited brushstrokes exercise

This painting was in response to a weekly challenge on dailypaintworks.com. The challenge was to assemble 2 to 3 items into a still life arrangement and calculate the minimum number of brushstrokes required for the painting.

Blue vase, bowl and pear still life limited brushstroke challenge

A4 size, oil on canvas board

I set up the still life on a glass sheet over a dark red cloth to see if I could capture some reflections and then illuminated it with a flood light on the right. I drew in the design with a watercolour pencil, indicating the large masses. I calculated I needed a minimum of 32 brushstokes to create the painting.

I had two practice runs on scrap cardboad coated in gesso before committing to the canvas baord. This practice helped me to find out how to manipulate the brush to get the long gestural strokes in one pass and what thickness of paint to use. With my first effort, I stopped counting my strokes after about 50 LOL. My second effort was more successful as I realised I had to thin the paint a little so that it would flow more easily. When I moved onto the canvas board the surface was much easier to handle and I had ALMOST finished at 32 strokes but couldn't resist some fiddling. So I used about 40 strokes to get this far. I mainly used a large No.10 brush which certainly helps with the no fiddling rule!

This was a very good exercise, and I learnt quite a bit while doing this. I am still a bit hesitant when using oils as I am fairly new to them and have not explored it enough yet to feel truly confident with all the techniques. Using cardboard certainly helps to loosen up the painting style as there is nothing to loose apart from paint!

This painting no longer exists - I have scraped off the paint and will reuse the board for another trial.