My Birthday

 

Had a wonderful day with family and friends and even tried Sake for the first time.

Home Grown

Home grown in my 'new' garden!

20 Minute Still Life

06-03-12d, a photo by Anita Davies on Flickr.

Noodlers bullet proof black ink and watercolour in daily journal

Still Life

28-02-11a
Originally uploaded by Anita Davies

One of my students started to work on a still life this week in class and after she left I made a quick sketch of her set up.

A Strange Pair

After a short trip on Tuesday I stopped in the drove to sketch the derelict house, a character I've been meaning to sketch for some time. Then later in the evening I spotted a lonesome pear in the fruit bowl and took pity on it.
Two rather solitude subjects, resulting in a very strange pair on my journal page!

Dailies - (w/e 9 Feb 07)

Here are this weeks dailies, each one is painted from life!

03 Feb 07 - oil - 5x7" panel

This was my first plein air oil painting.
An unusually sunny Saturday morning for February called for some unusual behaviour, so I popped my big boots on, flung open the French doors on the studio and took my table outside.
It was a fascinating experience and certainly one I hope to repeat often during the summer.












04 Feb 07 - oil - 5x7"












05 Feb 07 - oil - 5x7"

This weeks floral purchase was daffodils.
I managed 2 dailies today both included the daffodils







05 Feb 07 - watercolour

It's been a while since I painted with my watercolours, other than in my sketchbook. I enjoyed this time spent with my old friends!








06 Feb 07 - oil - 5x7"

I painted this one mostly with my finger.





Dailies - (w/e 2 Feb 07)

Dailies - (w/e 2 Feb 07)

As usual, time was a struggle this week but I managed a few more of my daily paintings from life I have nicknamed my Dailies









27 January 07 - Acrylic - 7x9"







31 January 07- Oil - 8x15"









01 February 07 - Oil - 6x11"







01 February 07 - Acrylic - 7x11"













02 February 07 - Oil - 5x7"





As you can see, I purchased a bunch of Iris this week and I actually managed to fit 2 paintings in on Thursday. The caramelised cashews were something I treated myself to over Christmas...They were delicious!

Introducing DAILIES

To improve one must experiment, explore and practice, practice, practice!

I try to present myself with regular challenges to enable my growth as an artist. I have the urge to paint, draw or sketch daily but often life can prevent such urges from taking form. Not enough time, not sure what to paint, which subject to choose...All are aspects that can bring one to stand still.

My aim with my dailies is to produce something...anything...on a daily basis aside from my larger works and commission pieces. Unlike my sketchbooks, my dailies will be 'finished' pieces of work, constructed in a small space of time. I hope they will enable me to create art with none of the above limitations, work from life on a regular basis using subjects found in my everyday life, experiment with colour, composition, technique and work in the assortment of mediums I now own. They will also provide a portfolio of my work available at affordable prices.

When time is limited?...I hope to still produce something to meet with this time gap, which I am sure will provide challenges in itself and benefit me in ways I have yet to experience.

When time is impossible?...well, some days are just like that! I've no intention of making promises I cannot keep, neither am I interested in creating pressures for myself that will take the creativity away from what I do.

Here are the Dailies I managed to make time for this week:

22 January 2007 - Oil -13x8"

23 January 2007 - Acrylic - 8x9"

24 January 2007 - Charcoal

25 January 2007 - Oil -5x7"

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"Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigour's of the mind." - Leonardo da Vinci

Ahhh, The Smell Of Turps!

Christmas brought with it many wonderful things, one of them was a beautiful three drawer chest of oil paints!

Oils are something I always yearned to know more about at school and never seemed to find out. Cheap cloggy paints in tall plastic containers lined the shelves of the school art room and had a magical and most frustrating way of always turning to mud no matter which colours you mixed together. My first (and last) experience with these menacing pigments left me with scars that would keep me away from paints all through my childhood, in fact, it wasn't until 2003 that I picked a paintbrush up again unless I was applying emulsion to the walls of my home. Since then I have spent time with many different paints so I guess it was only a matter of time until oils were to be tackled.
Where to start...I knew nothing!

After much reading on the wet canvas oil forum I resolved the meaning of 'fat over lean' and concluded that the only real way I would learn anything was to simply paint. So that's what I did!
I set up a small still life and grabbed a 5x7" oil primed board and began. I decided to go straight in with the paints, no preliminary sketch just to add to the HUGE challenge before me. The purpose was not to restrict myself, to explore the paints and not become too picky.

I had so much fun, I love how the paints seem to 'live and breath' staying workable and maintaining a luxurious glisten that produces a character and beauty all of it's own.

I think I am going to really enjoy the challenge oils behold.