Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Memories Series


Geranium - Finished Painring

oil on canvas, 16 x12 ins





Saturday, February 07, 2009

Memories Series - New Painting

Geranium - Work in Progress

oil on canvas, 16 x 12 inches

At last I've started a new painting. This one was planned several months ago but I've been unable to paint it until now. Geranium is the sixth painting in my Memories series and like the others is based around old family photos.

I used Windsor & Newton Artisan water mixable oils and started with an underpainting using a very dilute mixture of burnt umber and ultramarine (almost like watercolour in consistency and application). I considered leaving the old photo as black and white rather than my usual sepia colour but then changed my mind and painted over the "black and white" (again a mixture of ultramarine and burnt umber with the addition of varying degrees of white). The "sepia" was still the same mixture of burnt umber and ultamarine but with a much greater proportion of burnt umber. I'm not sure if opting for a sepia photo was the best choice as I quite like the very restricted black and white appearance of the underpainting.

I'm still working on this and will add the finished painting soon.