Experiments with media ...

Having previously experimented painting with oil pastels on black canvas:  -

here is my latest painting, this time using acrylic with an oil pastel overlay on plain canvas: -

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Flamenco dancer (Oil pastel on canvas, 10" x 22")

Mad March Sales ............

One way of selling paintings has always appealed to me and may be of interest to others. That is to enter a painting into an auction or exhibition where some or all of the selling price is donated to a particular cause. In such an auction I usually opt to share the price achieved 50-50 with the cause.  As an example, a few years ago I donated paintings to a couple of auctions, held in consecutive years, to raise funds towards the renovation of Oamaru Opera House. Both paintings were well received and each achieved a good price, which was highly satisfactory for all concerned!!

More recently I have regularly donated paintings to the annual fundraising art auction held on behalf of the Port Chalmers Rowing Club, Dunedin. The club is one of the key centres for this popular outdoor sport. This year my painting "Waiting" was included and sold, but sadly did not raise much for either party at $120 ($60 each)!  But I guess that's better than not selling at all - which happened one year! The paintings are displayed at a waterside, the historic Carey's Bay Hotel, prior to the auction which has become a very popular event. Overall the auction boosted the club's funds by approx. $5,000.

Waiting (oil pastel on canvas)

Also in March one of my paintings sold in an Art Exhibition held at St Leonard's School, Dunedin. This was supported by many local artists and, asking only a modest 25% commission on sales, realised a boost to school funds of around $3,000.

Not Fade Away (mixed media on canvas)

..... but I'll let this one survive!

Finished this one today! It was from my own photographs of a friend's chickens. This particular rooster is a real character and looks after his little flock of 'girls' with great care. Last year he nearly died fighting off a ferret, - he was very badly injured but survived minus one eye. As you can see he is now a fine figure of a male!

The painting is worked in oil pastels on Colorfix paper.

Good morning, Mr Rooster! (Oil pastel)

Making things flow!

I've been trying hard to get going again with painting and decided that a triptych I did some time ago might benefit from some more work. The painting was originally in acrylic on 8" x 8" gallery wrapped canvas -

Flow (Acrylic)

I felt that it needed more colour and texture so I've been re-working it in oil pastel. I think the end result is a definite improvement! Must now wait for the oil pastel to 'set' before applying several coats of varnish to seal and protect the surface.

Flow II (Oil Pastel)

'Make 'em laugh ....' (Oil pastel on black canvas, 24" x 36")

'Sleeping partners' (Oil pastel, 12" x 12")

Oil pastel on black canvas - 'Waiting' (16" x 20")

Red Shoes - painting in oil pastels

I decided to go with oil pastels, after much thought, because I really want to try them out on canvas. I have only done one 12" x 12" canvas in this medium before. I am using Caran d'Ache Neopastels and I have about 18 colours altogether, although I did not use all of them for this painting!

I started off with a base layer then followed up with further layers of various colours appliying them very lightly. There seemed to be endless challenges to get the shades and effects that I wanted! And even applying the layers as lightly as possible I found that it was very easy to wind up with an area of sticky goo!!! The first image below shows the first attempts at the head and upper torso, while the second shows the finished painting (altho' it may get a few touches!). Now I must wait and see if it will dry off sufficiently for me to apply some varnish - probably a few weeks to wait for that.

Painting on black canvas - Stage 2

This morning I've been blocking in the base colours in acrylic ........ quite roughly! Now I must take a break and decide which avenue to take in order to complete the painting .... I have three choices:

1. Continue with acrylic washes and glazes.
2. Continue in acrylic paint but using a palette knife.
3. Complete by overpainting with oil pastels.

Choices 1 and 2 have the plus side that I have used both methods in the past, but I am far less 'au fait' with choice method 3. Either palette knife or oil pastel offer the chance of achieving a more 'impressionist' look ............. but if I commit to oil pastel there will be no turning back! I must think about it some more before I make my choice!

Oil pastel on canvas?

Last week I was browsing through some art books and found (and bought) this very interesting one:

Title: The PASTEL BOOK - Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist
Author: Bill Creevy (1991)
Publishing details: Watson-Guptill Publications, New York ISBN 0-8230-3905-6

As you might expect from the title the book covers every aspect of using pastels and not only covers soft pastels, hard pastels and pastel pencils but also oil pastels and oil sticks. The author describes a number of different makes of pastel and various pastel supports, as well as discussing techniques and giving pictorial demonstrations. Although the author's style of painting is quite different to my own, I can thoroughly recommend the book to anyone interested in learning about pastels and also to those interested in seeing how pastels might be incorporated into mixed media work.

In fact, the reasons I was drawn to the book were the exciting sections on pastels with mixed media, in particular the sections on using Soft Pastels with Acrylic Gels or Modelling Paste, Oil Pastels with Acrylic Medium, and making Pastel Monotypes.

Since buying the book I have had a brief try with Acrylic Medium over Soft Pastel but admittedly without much success ... so I feel that this may take a while to conquer! But I did manage to produce the following in Oil Pastel plus Acrylic Medium:

Night moves IV (12" x 12")

The painting is on canvas primed with terracotta color pastel primer. The oil pastels were applied in layers and each layer 'sealed' with Atelier acrylic satin gloss medium. When finished a further two coats of medium were applied. The surface seems to be non-tacky and stable, but time will tell, no doubt!

flights of fancy

Off on the big OE (2002)

I know that there are a lot of artists who love to use oil pastels, but I have only tried them a couple of times. My preference has always been soft pastels but here is my first try. The reference was a photograph of youngest daughter as she was waiting for take-off at Heathrow with her boyfriend.

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