I think I've finished Ally.

Time to put her aside for a while.I have a frame picked that will look great. I am going to do another demo painting at the weekend and yesterday I took some photos of a farmer sitting on his quadbike with his cattledog. I'm downloading them now. I hope some are inspiring as its a subject I've wanted to do for a while!

I think this is one of my favourite portraits that I have done in the portrait group.

 

This was done in 2009 . Back then we didn't have a spotlight set up on the model so the light was coming in from all directions.
It's my usual 30 x 40cms Oil.

This was when I used to paint it all in Oil. As it is only a 2.30hr session and the Oil doesn't dry in that time if you changed your mind about a colour and painted over the top of wet Oil it was easy to end up with dirty grey 'mud" colour. With the short time and trying to get a likeness + everything else you don't have much time to think and plan ahead. I changed to an acrylic underpainting that dries straight away to get a likeness and then over that with Oil to finish. I'm still experimenting with that now.

Here's today's unfinished 2.30hr portrait from our portrait group session

Graeme
30 x 40cms acrylic
My white Oil paint is still in transit returning from Lord Howe Island so I used Acrylic paint for the first time today.As acrylic dries quickly I enjoyed being able to make changes without having to worry about making a mess going over wet Oil paint.

El Paso - some photos of him being created as a demonstration painting

I started by just roughly positioning the horse and rider on the canvas.

 

I decided the rider was too tall and the horses neck wasn't in the right position so I corrected those and generally lay down colours to cover the canvas.

 

 

The finished painting. I gradually refined areas until I felt everything was in proportion and I had captured the spirit of the ride.

 

Framed

For Sale
 $425

El Paso

Oil

41 x 48cms framed size

Lord Howe Island

I've just been over to Lord Howe Island for a week.It's a World Heritage Listed island of the Coast of NSW Australia.It has the southern most coral reefs in Australia and teeming birdlife , rainforest and is a terrific place if you want to go somewhere that is friendly , laid back , beautiful and peaceful.
There are many walks on the island only about 10 or so cars and they have a speed limit of 25kms an hour.Most people ride bikes.The overall impression is of  palm trees etc as all the houses are set back in the 'bush'.The only time you really notice most of them is when you climb a hill and look down.
 I went over there for windsurfing walking and I intended to paint.I posted my easel and paints over the week before but they neglected to tell me if it wasn't sent express post it would go by ship which only goes once  fortnight.My gear got there when I was leaving..I still haven't seen it.
 The weather was interesting as there was a low pressure system over us so there were thunderstorms coming over with sunny breaks. I had a few sunny days.
The sailboarding hire is run out of a boatshed but the first day the wind direction wasn't suitable to sail from there so they put all the boards and sail etc in a ute and went down to the other end of the island.The boards were set up ready in the middle of the golf course that bordered the water.
 A massive thunderstorm came through before we got into the water so we were all in standing/ lying underneath our sails to keep dry. Just when we thought it was safe to come out we had to take cover again as we were right in the line of fire of a golfer !
 I ended up having a nice sail when the inbetween storms.At the end of the week four 14' beaked whales came into the lagoon at high tide.  On low tide  they tried to get out over the reef and ripped themselves to bits on the coral.Then small reef sharks came and started to eat them. The locals went out with a boat and towed the bodies in and took them away to bury them. Everyone was very upset. My fellow sailboarders were out zipping about in the fresh wind and came upon a glassy patch. Usually this means there is no wind so they prepared to fall in but it was the whale oil from the injured whales smoothing the waters! They could smell it.
 Here are some pics of the week.

The Lagoon from the plane

 

Below - The lagoon in it's many moods..

The Lagoon from where the boards were kept.

Sunset from Kim's Lookout - the large peaks are Mt Gower and Mt Lidgcomb

Looking down at my feet feeding the fish at Ned's Beach - they were getting washed up against me with the surge..Silly me decided to try and pick up one of the mullet ( long silver ones).Of course they got away but one of the other larger fish decided my finger looked good..Ow!! Lucky it wasn't a kingfish or my finger would have been shredded..That will teach me! LOL"s

Much of the waters of the island are a Marine reserve so the fish are protected.They are fed daily at this beach and hang around in ankle deep water waiting to be fed.

A storm like the one we got caught in at the Golfcourse.It is up at the base below the first mountain.

The other end of the Lagoon from where we sailboarded.

View from a lookout

View to the other end of the Lagoon from the golf club area. I climbed the pointy peak - Mt Eliza.Easier than it looks.

Fish feeding through the glass bottom boat on a coral viewing trip.

Some of us sailing

Me sailing

The main road

Typical vegetation on a walk.

Hope you enjoyed the photos.If you like nature and peace and quiet I'd definitely recommend it!

A Sketch from my portrait group yesterday

30 x 40cms 

 Pastel

 15 min sketch from a model

 The group is informal and we all take turns to sit still out the front as a model while the others sketch for 15mins. !5mins doesn't give you much time to get a likeness and a decent drawing but I felt this one had a good likeness and effect. I'd like more time to use more colours but with a largish ( lifesize) portrait like this it's not possible.

 Every 2nd week we pay a person to sit for a total of 2.30hrs in 20mins sessions.They get a few minutes to get up and move around inbetween sessions- sitting very still isn't easy! 2.30hrs allows us to use paint and get more done but it still isn't long enough to get a really accurate and finished portrait.The Oil portraits I do then are the coloured unfinished ones I post occasionally.

Kody - one from the archives.

Kody 

30x 40cms 

framed Pastel 

Kody had the most beautiful eyes!

I delivered Kody to the lady at work and she put her on a chair. She told me later that all her workmates said Kody's eyes were following them around the room..LOL"s

Cactus - our pet Kangaroo

Cactus - we called her that because she used to like staying dry..LOL's

 The first time my partner saw Cactus he thought she was deaf and blind..all other roos would flee if you came near but she just stood there..We eventually found out she must have been a rescue joey that was released back into the area as the neighbours said she was at their place before ours and used to go in and lie on the bed!
She stayed with us for about 4 years.She was free to go with the wild roos but preferred to lie around on the back doorstep or come inside on the rare occasions we'd let her. My partner tripped over her in the dark one day and she just grunted!
She used to love a biscuit , would come  when we whistled and used to follow us when we went for a walk. Often for an hour with joey in tow. She raised several generations of Joey's and was the subject of quite a few paintings!
I have more photos of her but not scanned into the computer.
Cactus has gone now. We cried for weeks after she went.We had to put her down in 2003 because she was chased by feral dogs and injured going through a barb wire fence.Her offspring still comes near and comes up for a biscuit occasionally.

Can I come in?

Note the little presents in my shoe..

Ooh I like your studio.. can I help?

Here's Lucy with her new background

Lucy 
 30 x 40cms ( image)
 framed Oil

I love the picture of my girl so much I can't stop looking at her you have done a fantastic job.

Thanks again.

 Robyn