Nine little jewels

Nine portraits together

What fun it is to see all the portraits produced in the exhibition so far together like this in a photo montage. It's nice to be able to appreciate the differences between them, and they look like little colourful sweets!

Yesterday my model was Jenni, another lovely blog subscriber whom it was a great pleasure to chat with throughout the day. Jenni wore a bright pink scarf which I couldn't ignore, particularly as the pinks were reflected up into her face and neck. 

I knew that such a strong colour would have to be added to the painting at quite an early stage. I really enjoyed mixing the colours for Jenni's hair, and painting her 'hardly there' spectacles. Spectacles are a great lesson in painting what you are seeing and not what you think you are seeing. Don't be frightened of tackling them in a portrait, they usually make really helpful markers to help you see distances between eyes, nose, ears, hair etc. On Jenni's the glass parts were rimless, which was so much fun because I only had to show them by painting the shadow underneath them on her cheeks, and one little slender corner which was catching the light.

Exhibition portrait day 9 Jenni

Stage 1 - raw umber

Stage 2 - getting straight on with the pinks

Jenni

Exhibition portraits day eight

Desmond

Desmond was in my portrait hot seat today. Only two more days left of my exhibition and two more ladies will be modelling for the last two portraits. I think I will really miss the portrait sessions next week. 

My exhibition has been a great success and so far twenty-nine paintings are going off to new homes or have already gone. This fills me with much joy, what a great start to a new year! :-)

If you might like one for yourself there are plenty more still seeking ownership, and you can see which ones by following this link to my website.

Desmond in the hot seat

This painting of Staithes is still available, and it's one of my personal 'hot favourites' from the year!

I'm not sure if I told you yet or not but I'm teaching a plein air painting weekend in Staithes this year at the end of June, for the Staithes Art School. We will have an absolutely brilliant time there and there are still a few spaces left to grab - maybe you can join us?

Click here to go to the Staithes Art School website and have a look...

Shadows in the beck, Staithes

Exhibition portraits day seven

Roger

I hope this isn't feeling too much like groundhog day for you! It was another fun day in the gallery in Nottingham with lots of fab visitors and again a very patient model who was often left waiting while I wandered around chatting or handling sales. It surprises me every day that the portrait gets done at all, it's as though it paints itself as I spend more time away from the easel than with it.

Here I am with brush poised chatting to my friend artist Mo Teeuw while Roger waits patiently. Thanks for the photo Gail Tointon, lovely to meet you at last today. 

It was also great to meet Facebook friend artist Jocelyn Roberts from Wales with her husband. My Mum came again too! As did Pipa and Katherine on their day off! And so many lovely others. Every day I have had exciting visitors and I can't wait to read the visitors book next week when I'm no doubt procrastinating instead of working on my accounts and tax as I should be. 

Chatting and painting!
Thanks for the photo Gail

Loose sketching in

Roger with his portrait

I'm sure Roger won't mind me telling you that he's recently had surgery on the eyelid under his left eye. I found the tiny nick and bright spot of red a fascinating addition to paint, but I didn't realise until Roger pointed out to me that I'd also painted some bruising that remains around the eye area.

Exhibition portraits day six

Paul

Wow, day six already? Now the time is racing by and I only have four more days to exhibit in Nottingham! I'm really enjoying it, talking to so many lovely people and painting the portraits. I'm also getting tired because the two hours driving a day on top of all the gallery and portrait action and late nights working at the computer... yawn!

I'm getting off to bed now, the right side of midnight :-)

Exhibition portraits day five

Me painting Ant painting me painting...

Well today was a little different because my portrait model of the day wasn't just being painted, he was painting me too! It was a little bit more of a challenge but lots of fun and turned out well. We had about two hours of painting time but with distractions of course. Luckily it was quieter in the gallery today for visitors :-)

I have five more days of my exhibition here in Nottingham left to run, and five more portraits to paint.

The whole exhibition is now on my website and will only be there until the end of the month, click here to view.

First stage - sketching out in raw umber

Second stage - adding colour

Ant

I was really quite pleased with the result, and the best fun was painting the moustache! Here is Ant's acrylic portrait of me, I love it! To see more of Ant's work have a look at his blog by clicking here.

Ant's portrait of me

Exhibition portraits day four

Judy

I love painting grey or silver hair - so much variety of beautiful colour in it. This was day four of my series of portraits in the gallery, I think the visitors are really enjoying the chance to watch a bit of painting going on rather than just seeing the paintings on the walls. It's tricky for me to concentrate on the painting as I'm also handling all my own sales, watching who comes in and out, chatting to everyone, answering questions and making coffee when occasion calls for it! Fun though, and you know I like a challenge. 

It was another busy day with lots of visitors, and I wanted to show you some of the lovely comments people have been leaving in my visitors book. 

Painting sales are going well too with 18 going to new homes so far... and you can browse the exhibition from the comfort of your own armchair, no matter where you are in the world (the wonders of modern technology eh?) by clicking here.

Working out in raw umber

Adding colour

Lovely comments...