Owner: Paintings Prints and Stuff URL:http://vivienb.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:49:42 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: paintings, sketches, printmaking, works in progress, exhibitions and thoughts on art. Site statistics:Click here
my daughters macro flowers 2007-06-13 04:51:00 NB all pictures copyright C BlackburnMy daughter is, I think, a very talented photographer - she's got a good 'eye' and good technical photographic skills.These are just some of the gorgeous macros of flowers she's done - I got her to download them onto my computer for me, as I've discovered that though I hate working from photographs, I can work from images onscreen sometimes - I think it's to do with the light, it's more like 'real' light than a flat print is. Somehow the 3D-ness comes through better as well. So I'm hoping to work from some of these eventually.it's such a gorgeous time of year for flowers, taking some more macro photos myself is on the to-do list. Apart from the fact that she can focus to 1cm anyway with her camera, she has a set of those macro lenses that screw on like filters. I used to have them for my old SLR - they are very very much on my must-have list now! I love the narrowness of the depth of field and the way the background is abstracted, e Read more:daughters
playing with watercolours and coloured pencils 2007-06-16 07:49:00 This is a page of watercolour studies of pansies, not intended to be 'a painting', I did a while ago that I came across. It's a grey rainy day and the light isn't good to get on with the canvasses so I decided to try to pull it together as a composition. I used a bit more watercolour and coloured pencils and cropped it and added the soft blue green background to cool it down a little - the colours felt too hot. The deep dark pansies were really velvety and intense and maybe not the colour scheme I would have set out to use with the orange and pale yellows - but the background helps to knit them together. Bringing the soft mauves into the darker flowers also helped.I also took another look at a mixed media woodland that was unfinished and worked a little more on that.It has a little oil pastel in the early stages, watercolour and then coloured pencils.
finished ...... I think 2007-06-15 14:57:00 40 inches square, mixed media on canvas, copyright Vivien BlackburnI worked a bit more on this today, resolving the sky and the gaps between the branches, reenforcing the brightest snow in places - and I think
it's done. I am in two minds as to whether to lighten the main tree slightly in places - first I think I will and then decide not to ...... so the decision it's finished is subject to change without notice :)There is a lot more variety of colour than shows here - the image is too big for the camera to pick them up accurately. There's a much wider range of blues and blue-greys and very small touches of other colour in the grasses and foreground tree. I gave close ups of a lot of this in earlier posts so I won't duplicate them but if you missed them you can see them here http://vivienb.blogspot.com/2007/05/trees-and-rocks-progress-may.html or if you look at the 'rocks' tags.It seems to have taken forever as I kept working on other things at the same time such as the w
watercolour and coloured pencils 2007-06-20 09:15:00 This week one of my gifted students, Jenny, brought in a superb book by Shirley Trevena (you can see some of the work in it on her website) - an artist I really admire. One of the techniques she uses is rubbing watercolour
pencils with sandpaper, over damp watercolour washes, giving a speckled effect - and it looks wonderful. http://www.shirleytrevena.com/ take a look at her gorgeous work :)Jenny lent me her pencils to have a go - so this is a very quick demo for the class - a play on cartridge paper with watercolour, watercolour pencils and sandpaper :) and ordinary coloured pencils (my own). We went on to discuss drawing with the 'wrong' end of the brush through damp paint to get those veins in the leaves and putting soft patches of normal coloured pencils in areas to enhance and push colours. They've all been used in this demo piece.I'm sold! I have to get some water soluble coloured pencils :) I think graphitints would be good for this as they are supposed to dry waterproof - w
macro and close up flowers 2007-06-18 09:39:00 images copyright: Vivien Blackburn 2007 My macro lenses haven't arrived yet but I took some close ups today anyway :) I was hoping to get some good pictures of the wild roses on the way home from work but it was just too windy to get a clear photo - I got a good selection of blurred ones which have been dumped :>( .So I went out to the garden and took some pictures of some gorgeous fuchsias, a poppy and some roses against the light. The roses are a bit out of focus but I quite like the old fashioned look to their colouring.I'll be able to work from some of these and others I took. I do like flowers with interesting centres.I've got some timber to make some more stretchers for the long thin canvasses I need and I'm hoping my husband will make a start on them tomorrow so that I can finish the series of seascapes.It's cold and rainy so I didn't even think about sketching by the canal on the way home :>(Youngest cat is in disgrace. Twice recently he's made it in from outside with a
Time and Tide continued ..... 2007-06-23 15:59:00 all images copyright Vivien Blackburn These were the original paintings in the Time and Tide series - all gone now but this shows how I hang them - higgledy piggledy with different widths and heights. There have been others as well.The idea came from my sketchbooks. I paint regularly at the coast plein air, working on cryla paper - when the paintings are framed there are strips of paper that are cut off the edges. These show the colours of the day and so I'd stick them in my sketchbook. You can see them here http://sitekreator.com/viviensketches/beaches.html I loved these pages and other people always commented on them - it added the dimension of time - the tide ebbing and flowing, the weather changing from blue sunny days to misty, to cold winter days with muted colours to stormy and wild as your eye travelled across the strips. It needs, I feel, to be done on this scale - the paintings are all quite big 42inches to 54 ins tall. It doesn't work as well on a smaller scale, I've trie
seascapes: Time and Tide 2007-06-22 13:02:00 I've been able to get on with the paintings :>) On the left is the first one I did this afternoon - it's 8 inches wide and about 3ft 6in tall. It's on one of the new canvasses my husband has been busy making up for me :>). I got him to make the canvasses a different way. It's one that I have used in the past but not for a while. He attached hardboard (masonite in the US, mdf would do as well but is a carcinogen to work with) - we'd had B&Q cut it to size on their nice big machine. Then the stretcher bars are attached, lining them up perfectly, and then the whole is covered in canvas, stapling it at the back. It gives me a firmer surface to work on. It's a bit heavier with the hardboard but of course also stronger. The sides are quite deep as I don't frame them, so they need to look good as they are. I really enjoyed working on the firmer surface and I'm going to get him to do some more :>)They were very difficult to photograph - I just used flash as the light is going now and I
picasso 2007-06-26 18:19:00 Leicester museum and art gallery were planning an exhibition of Picasso's pottery in 2005, that was going to be loaned to them by Richard Attenborough, actor/director,who lived in Leicester when he was young. His brothers were born here.Then his daughter and grandaughter were killed in the Asian tsunami and everything was put on hold - he has now, incredibly generously, donated the collection in their name.I let the intial rush die down and hope to get in to see it this week. Here is a link to an article about the show http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/leicester/news/ART47953.html?ixsid=jIvZvh3dgyo with imagesTomorrow I'm planning to spend the day painting :) and in the evening I am going to talk to a local art group about my work and mixed media etc
Time and Tide ... progress 2007-06-24 12:06:00 I've had an intensive 3 days finishing off canvasses that were in progress
and starting new ones.This one is now finished. It's based on a cold afternoon sitting sketching on the beach, watching the tide coming in along with the gulls. Colours were pearly and muted and silvery.details: These two are also finished and I got out 2 canvasses with paintings on that I didn't like (24x30 inches) and painted over them. It's often nice to do that because you can use the colour underneath, letting it show slightly through the overpainting or scratch back to it.I like this ratio of 4:5, it's squarer than the European 'A' sizes and I much prefer it.These will have a very little bit more done to them when I have chance to decide what! but they are very nearly finished.The shine is from the wet paint.Blue DayHazy DayI've got some more stretchers made up (by husband) but need to stretch the canvas and my heavyweight stapler has died. Of course I haven't got any staples for the light
Picasso 2007-06-30 16:11:00 image on poster is a large sculpture by Peter Carter I finally got to see the Picasso
ceramics exhibition today with a friend and the Picasso Explored exhibition by the LSA, a collection of paintings inspired by Picasso. http://www.leicestermuseums.ac.uk/news/ link to the museum website I enjoyed the ceramics but his work just doesn't reach me in the way that more painterly works do. They were playful, fun, crudely painted, the combining of form and image was interesting - I've seen cave paintings using the same technique of simplification and using the form of the support (rocks in their case) to enhance the swell of muscle and form of the subjecgt - but better and painted in a much more interesting (to me) way by the cave painters! Standing in front of the cave paintings and seeing the subtle and clever use of colour and form and sheer life of the animals is an emotional experience - the Picasso pots simply didn't have that effect - simply an 'oh yeah, interesting' move on res
Time and Tide ... and there's more 2007-06-29 11:38:00 I've been painting intensively, teaching and being a 'visiting artist', talking to a lovely friendly sketchclub - which is why there has been no update for a while.I've been living surrounded by the seascapes - they are hanging or stacked all around the living room ( my husband has grown tolerant of it - finally!) that way I can mull over where they are going next and what needs doing.I decided this one needed a far headland to carry the eye round. It's now finished :)all images copyright Vivien BlackburnI love the coast on grey and subtle days as well as the blue skied sunny ones and so the next canvas is about all the subtle brown/grey colours and reflected light of winter. I enjoy working with these subtle colours just as much as the vivid ones.The one below isn't quite finished. This is based on a section of the coast where pine woods come down to the beach and stabilise the dunes - a wealthy local family who owned most of the area, planted long stretches of them, I think in
Bird in collage and mixed media 2007-07-04 07:57:00 Sorting out some stuff in my studio I came across this little collage I did ages ago and decided to use a little coloured pencil on it just to bring it together. I'm quite pleased with it and I'm going to mount it on canvas and varnish it to protect it. I think I'll probably paint the surrounding canvas black though - I'll leave a border showing like here. It's about 8 x 5 ins guesstimating.Here it is on a black background - what do you think? Read more:media
, mixed media
Fuchsia sketch and back to work on the seascapes 2007-07-04 02:11:00 a quick sketch
of a fuchsia in sepia ... and now it's back to the seascapes as himself has made me up 4 more long thin canvasses :)I just want to do a few more in the series and then it'll be back to another format. I have some square and nearly square canvasses waiting :)
Time and Tide - together :) 2007-07-01 13:13:00 all images copyright Vivien Blackburn This is the series that I have at the moment - they are all to scale and it gives an idea of how they work when hung. The tallest is 50 inches and the shortes 35 inches - widths vary from 8 ins to 12 ins. Windy Day 12x42 inches In this one I tried to catch a fine windy day, where the surf is pounding in and the reflections are broken by the incoming ripples - it's exhilarating to be on the beach on a day like this :) I've still got some more to do and then it's on to slightly more usual canvas proportions. At the moment they are propped on top of the TV, in front of bookcases and along a sofa in the living room so that I can see if anything wants adjusting - and all those edges need painting in a soft neutral creamy colour :>( - a mammoth task! ...... I wonder if my husband would ............................. no, I think that's hoping for too much! :>) Read more:together
approaching storm 2007-07-05 13:30:00 a different scale for this one :) it's only 15 inches tall in watercolour and coloured pencil - another in the Time and Tide series.details:I need to do some work in pastel on the theme of Reflections . The Pastel Society have a show on the theme in August I believe and I need 2 paintings in pastel. We're allowed to use mixed media as long as the major part is done in pastel so I'll probably underpaint in watercolour or acrylic.Reflections could be viewed in a lot of different ways - meditative reflection rather than simple mirror like actual reflection for instance - but it will suit me if what I do fits in with a body of work that I have ongoing, rather than an isolated image that won't be shown anywhere else, so it's likely to be either a waterways or seascape image.
Memories and Influences 2007-07-09 09:32:00 Oh dear blogger is really playing up - it won't let me title this post and I noticed someone else complaining about that a couple of days ago. (oh now it has). Yesterday it wouldn't let me publish - yet sent the post out to subscribers!I wanted to call it memories and influences.It's in response to an article by Lindsay http://straightlinesout.blogspot.com/ about the earliest influences on her art and the fact that she moved around causing her to have deep feelings about her area and put down roots in response.I too moved around as a child. My father was in the RAF, in Coastal Command, and we lived in Gibraltar when I was small - my earliest memories are of sitting in my grandmothers garden in England when I was one. I can date it because it was before moving to Gibraltar. There are no words but I was sitting on the lawn on a rug in the dappled light from the tree and I loved it.I remember the vivid blues of the sea and the flowers in Gibraltar and our street - one of those
interesting blogs and work 2007-07-08 13:00:00 I've taken a few days off painting to catch up on a million and one other tasks so I thought I'd share some of the artists who blog and that I read regularly. I'm mentioning them in alphabetical order as they come up on bloglines. There are others but I can't list them all! As it is you can see that I spend too much time on the computer! .... well it's better than Wimbledon, football, racing, you-name-it that himself is watching.First off Anita http://am-art.blogspot.com/ who does the most beautiful work in pencil and pastel. I was first amazed by the cutlery she drew in pencil and her current series of pastels, used in rather un-traditional way have an incredible presence and mood to them. Patrice http://aquamarelle.blogspot.com/ who not only handles watercolours brilliantly but catches the excitement and drama and movement of sailing equally brilliantly.Derek http://derekjonesart.blogspot.com/ who paints the figure and also recently has done a beautiful series on Venice, a beau Read more:interesting
playing with watercolours 2007-07-15 11:37:00 all images copyright Vivien BlackburnToday I felt like a break from the big canvasses and a 'play' with watercolour and flowers. The weather isn't good so I looked at my sketchbooks and worked in watercolour from sketches I'd done some time ago. I was in the mood for the lovely way that watercolour bleeds and flows, which is very much the way I started on the big seascapes.I hadn't done much watercolour painting lately and I really enjoyed it :)The first image is based loosely on a mixed media/collage painting which you can see here http://www.vivienblackburn.com/flowers.html - interpreting it in a different medium exploits another range of marks and possibilities. All of these images incorporate a little coloured pencil.The third is from a sketch of an oriental poppy I did in a friends garden - I did a large mixed media version of it some time ago so the image may seem familiar.I used a Chinese brush, bamboo pen (to pull out lines of wet paint and to scratch through wet paint, ma
Scottish Painters 2007-07-13 11:03:00 I've liked the work of contemporary Scottish
painters for a long time and a conversation with Katherine about talking about those we like triggered this post. I'm sure she'll come up with a very different and equally interesting selection - and I know hers will inlclude Blackadder, so I'll leave Katherine to talk about this her work :)The 16 seascapes I'm in the middle of are ongoing, you've seen the finished ones and the others are wet and still in progress (but very nearly done except for that horrible endless task of painting the edges :( )S0 .... it seems a good time to look up those Scottish artists I like and provide some links.The Manor House Gallery in Stow on the Wold specialises in Scottish painters and shows many of those I like.http://www.manorhousegallery.co.uk/ - skim to the bottom after you've looked at the paintings shown and click on links to their other artists - they've got some lovely work - with this gallery I love the work of Ethel Walker, Nael Hanna, Geor
what is a still life - part 2 looking at artists work - and a new seascape 2007-07-17 07:12:00 Wild Day copyright Vivien Blackburn mixed media on paperAn unfinished painting I came across and finished off today, after painting the sides of some of those @&2+**@ canvasses - I HATE that job with a passion and usually keep up to date with them - but this time they were all 'in progress' and so all need doing :(This was watercolour, oil pastel and coloured pencil, I added a touch of acrylic and it was finished.Following on the last post I thought I'd look at contemporary still life that I find interesting and see what sort of objects they are using, what media and how they treat the subject.First of all is Shirley Trevena - exciting, dynamic and vibrant watercolours with touches of mixed media. I love the excitement and buzz of her work, her glorious colours, her distortion of perspective, overlapping elements, tipping up tables or plates if it works to make a better painting - a delicious explosion of colour. You can see her work on http://www.shirleytrevena.com/ - I can highly
what is still life? and some old work 2007-07-16 17:48:00 What constitutes a still life? I've been discussing this with Katherine and others and there are several opinions from a very narrow view to more inclusive ones :)Still life is a relatively new genre - it was a humble subject, reserved for items in backgrounds for most of art history, designed to show the possessions of the sitter for a portrait for instance. I won't go into the development of it because I think Katherine at http://makingamark.blogspot.com/ will discuss that and provide some very good definitions from various authorities - each a little different :) and links.It tends to be one of the first subjects new painters tackle and is frequently used in beginners classes and there it tends to be done in a very traditional way, with formal set ups, worked on over several lessons. It can be imagined that this is all there is to still life - it isn't - Still life is incredibly difficult to define - it covers such a wide variety of styles, media, subjects and concepts from photo
my first glossy magazine article! 2007-07-20 07:13:00 :D they'd promised to send me a copy of the magazine and it came todayLeicestershire and Rutland Life, a glossy magazine had asked me if they could do an article on my work and do this double page spread .... so here it is :D and the text by Becky Jones below, you can double click on the images below and it is then readable if you are interested :) I have to admit I was a bit nervous about what the article would be like! had I made sense in the interview? I do wish now I hadn't given them that red clouds seascape as I think I want to change it a bit! it looks rather garish there? I gave them some quieter, moodier ones too but I suppose they were looking for lots of colour. Today the weather is dark and rainy and the light is awful so finishing off the edges of the canvasses is on hold - there's severe weather warnings and more floods in lots of places - and all this after they said it would be a record breaking hot summer!
an alternative approach to still life 2007-07-18 05:19:00 Done on a full size watercolour sheet, so largeThis is a VERY old still life from at least 15 years ago, before I did my degree, so I'm not holding it up as a great painting!It was done in an adult ed class and the tutor had provided a pile of interesting objects on a table. We had to select one, take it away and paint it on a large sheet of paper - then return, select another and add it somewhere. It is NOT meant to read as if it was a set up arranged this way but as a collection of interesting objects which could be linked - for instance all art equipment - but needn't be.It was in response to the work of Elizabeth Blackadder who tends to work this way.The objects didn't have to be to scale with each other we needed to consider the final composition as we added each one - how to integrate them? how to move the eye around the composition? how to balance the composition colourwise, sizewise etc I used the pattern of the cutwork cloth, one of the items, and the beads to link objects
Time and Tide update 2007-07-22 13:47:00 Lavender Marsh, Dusk all images copyright Vivien BlackburnI'm afraid these photos didn't come out brilliantly and they don't show all the colours. The first one is of the marshes when the sea lavender is in bloom and they have a lovely purple haze. There are sludgy greeny and mud colours in there that aren't showing well and nor are the subtler changes in the rain on the horizon. This was based on a time when I was there at dusk on a day with a wonderful towering threatening sky and an extremely high tide.Jade, Misty MorningThis one is based on a day when we'd travelled over through thick mist, which started to lift as we settled to paint - it was a beautiful day once it cleared, this shows the last of it when everything is in soft focus.This is the group I'm taking for the exhibition, final selection. The seasons change - cold winter mornings, moonrise, sunset, windy blue days, cool afternoons, sunny days and throught it all reflecting pools and the sea. Tomorrow I deliv
imagekind 2007-07-20 16:32:00 Well Katherine your blog posts on Imagekind inspired me! it was such a gloomy horrible day with heavy rain and thunder and thick black clouds - and the light was lousy for painting - so I decided to make a start at Imagekind NOW rather than later! I decided that in for a penny in for a pound - the choice seemed to be between free or platinum - if I was going to pay then that was the best deal. So I've signed up for a platinum :)I don't know how it will go - will I sell? time will tell. It does mean that images are affordable, I can include sketches and paintings that have been given as presents to family members and work whereI don't want to sell originals.anway here is the link http://vivien.imagekind.com/ and there is now a shiny new button on the right hand column :)
Empty Easel 2007-07-24 13:52:00 a page from a sketchbook - nothing to do with the following post but I thought I'd put a picture in so it isn't all text :D Dan, who writes the interesting and thought provoking blog, EmptyEasel
, has featured me this week - it seems to be my week for featuring! Leicestershire and Rutland Life, Making a Mark and now Empty Easel! Thank you Dan and for the real insight you showed into the Time and Tide series :Dhttp://emptyeasel.com/ anyone who hasn't discovered Empty Easel - do take a look, it's a not-to-be-missed blog full of interesting articles.The Time and Tides have been delivered and the show starts on 4th August. I don't think I'll make the Private View due to other committments but I'll try to get over to see how they've been shown and take some photos.
Shirley Trevena 2007-07-29 13:26:00 Having mentioned Shirley
Trevena previously and not having done any work at all for a couple of days, I thought I'd talk a bit more about her and show you some of her work.She uses watercolours in a very contemporary and innovative way. Her work is vibrant and colourful, it glows. She isn't interested in a botanical illustration of her subjects but in catching the spirit of them, the drama and the colour. Her compositions are offbeat with a geometric element superimposed on loose flowing subjects and the results are distinctively her own.I love the way that, like me, she uses sticks and unconventional mark making tools to achieve the results she wants. One thing I learnt, reading her books was the technique of sandpapering watercolour pencils into a wet wash to make beautiful speckled marks - that's something I'll definitely find useful.She's written 2 books on watercolours, illustrated with lots of her work, she takes you through a painting stage by stage - and it isn't t
Digital Images 2007-07-28 10:06:00 We've been busy with my husband's family over from Ireland which means no painting, so I thought I'd show some digital images done using photographs and scans.I like to use the computer to work through ideas for paintings and to create images that exist in their own right.These images are part of a series I did on my daughter. all images copyright Vivien BlackburnThe first one is about a time in her life when she had to decide whether to give up a hated psychology degree half way through and change direction in her life - a younger, more carefree Her looks on. She did leave and went on to complete a law degree.In the next image she was working, doing a law degree and was constantly having to watch the time, timetable activities, meet deadlines in time .....In the following one I combined a picture of her with part of a painting by Dante Gabriel Rosetti - integrating them and providing modern equivalents for the accessories shown. I'd taken a photo of her running her fingers Read more:Digital
, Images
small seascape sketches 2007-08-01 08:50:00 Stormy Evening copyright Vivien BlackburnLooking through a sketch book I found these 2 unfinished works and finished them off - they are both mixed media (containing everything but the kitchen sink!).This one is earlier in the day, the clouds starting to build up.Those unfinished long seascapes on canvas are still sitting waiting to be finished off but I've been busy with other non-painting stuff :( .
Contemporary painters of seascapes, beaches and the coast 2007-07-31 05:11:00 Having looked at a couple of painters of flowers I like recently, I thought I'd look at some of the contemporary artists who paint the coast that I admire.David Tress: http://www.davidtress.co.uk/copyright David TressI love the abstraction of his work, forms dissolve into pure marks and drama. The wildness of the sea is beautifully evoked by the dramatic slashing use of the paint. This is how Cornwall was in the winter, where I lived as a child, the wildness, the weather and the danger are all there.Neil Pinkett: http://www.neilpinkett.co.uk/copyright Neil Pinkett I love his use of colour and the way that he simplifies elements to the essentials. Kurt Jackson: http://kurtjackson.com/ copyright Kurt JacksonI've mentioned his work before - just a couple of times! - but I love the drama and movement and terrific sense of place and the exciting use of paint and marks in his work. Ross Loveday: http://www.rossloveday.co.uk/image copyright Ross Loveday I love the loose airiness of hi Read more:Contemporary
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