Oil Painting

Hi everyone!
It's quite some time since I updated my blog on this site as I've been busy designing jewellery items on my blue cottage jewellery blog  http://jill-bluecottage.blogspot.co.uk  but it really is about time I updated the activity on the painting front with my recent oil paintings.

Approaching Xmas I thought I'd do a couple of seasonal pictures with snowy scenes and one with a bunch of poppies in a vase. They seem to have been well received with offers from several people to purchase them and an invitation to join the Northern Artists.

I'm really pleased with the comments on Facebook about my first ever oil paintings; especially from Eunice Knott "stunning", Julie Nash "very nice work" , Janine Crook " I'd be interested in buying something like this Jill! It's really good! x" & Seddon Mary "This is a really good painting, well done!" and the 14 other comments. It is lovely to receive some positive comments and to be asked to paint some more for people to enjoy.

1.   This one is my favourite because of the colours and the scene. I love  
      walking the dogs through the woods especially when it's snowy.   
      This painting reminds me of the time we went to Finland in December with
      the thick snow, the clear starry sky and the serenity all around.

                         1.

 

 

2.    I thought I would do a daytime snow scene too to experiment with the different colours needed to do this. One of my favourite times of the day when doing photography is the golden hour - that hour when the sun goes down but before everything goes totally dark. I tried to capture this hour in the painting and I'm pleased with my first attempt. It seems to have been very well received by the Northern Artists & my Facebook fans with one person offering to buy it.

 

2.

 

 3. This is my first ever try at painting any flowers in oils. I'm pleased with the 

  overall result and the use of turquoise in the leaves - which I did wonder

  about  - but the idea seems to have received great comments.

 

3

 

 

If you like my work and would like to discuss a commision or a copy of one of the images you like, then contact me please on my blog e-mail:

jill@sunflowerdesigns.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you selling your work?

I was pleased to be asked this week whether I would be happy to sell some of my artwork - the large Urban Decay mixed media canvas and the Sunflower screen print piece. Up to now I have been simply painting for pleasure & personal relaxation but it was very flattering to be asked this. The answer is I am happy to sell my work if anyone asks, so drop me an e-mail if you are interested.
Thanks!   

VAN DYKE PRINTING

I spent a great weekend in March with John Brewer printing with Van Dyke Brown chemicals which have since been sitting in my fridge. I did some blue cyanotype prints too but personally I think the Van Dyke Brown prints are more effective as they have character.
I want to do some more of these as I think that using some old photos of the family would work really well or even using modern ones of the girls and making them look like they were taken in 1920s! The ideas are endless! However, I'm lacking a UV light at home. Does anyone have a spare one to donate to me? Artist in need!

St Peter's Church - Belmont (double exposure print)

Castlefield, Manchester with the web from a children's playground ride
(double exposure print)

Moor Lane railway bridge with Bolton gasometer
(double exposure print)



On exhibition - June 2012

SCREEN PRINTING

On exhibition - June 2012

I have had a fair few disasters wrestling with the screen print bed! Finally - when renting out a proper screen bed at the Hot Bed Press in Salford, I managed to make some lovely prints of my favourite flower - the sunflower - from a photograph I took in Portugal. It worked this time & I've framed it and put it on display in the studio.


               

sunflower screen print        

EXPERIMENTING AGAIN: Messing about with enamel paint for the Diamond Jubiliee! I accidently turned a lot of the grass red, white and blue with the drips! I was trying out a technique that artist, Amy Shackleton does but it didn't end up looking like her work (1) so I gave up and did my own thing(2).

1.                                                                            2.

I  have never used enamel paints before to do any kind of painting but they leave a kind of cool effect. They look like they are wet and the paint hasn't dried out. The one on the right looks quite good in reality. The one on the left was hard work. I couldn't get gravity to direct the drips in the correct lines even though Amy Shackleton doesn't seem to have any problems with this style of art work! My opinion: she can keep this style! It's not for me!

 

Under construction - Mixed Media Art

I have recently been experimenting with mixed media art and enjoying researching the work of Sandra Duran Wilson. I have been practising with various gels, paints and textures for a huge canvas (56 inch by 48 inch) for a project called Urban Decay. I found it great fun even though it took ages waiting for layers to dry.

Working on the canvas:

throwing on the undercoat

adding many paint layers

Adding words using a gel transfer

 

adding different textures

Exhibition display - June 2012

Display work - exhibition June 2012

And then finally it was ready and it is now also on exhibtion for a couple of weeks. It was interesting transporting it in the back of my mini into town.

URBAN DECAY - the final finished design

Exhibition work

This year I have had work exhibited at Bolton Adult College for the past year. I was pleased to have it chosen as the paintings were the very first ones I have done since I last did art as a school pupil in 1973! I remember being ok at art at school and enjoying doodling, however, back then there was not the scope for developing art that there is now. It's much more fun now than it was then and I also have more time at present than I ever have had before to experiment with colours and textures.

Work presently on exhibit: