Now it’s safely in the Netherlands, in the hands of someone celebrating a special birthday, I can show you the painting commissioned as a surprise present. I had fun painting it and was very happy with the result. Best of all, I have been told the recipient loved it.
The requests were that it was the same size of a sheep painting bought some years ago, was dominated by pinks, and had four little sheep to represent grandchildren.
Here are a few painting-in-progress photos, starting with the first layer of colour:
The initial blocking in, giving me the composition and eliminating the white of the canvas.Having established the background, I put in the texture paste for the four sheep (and a bit around them so they don’t feel stuck on).This is at the “getting there, don’t mess it up now” stage. I know what I plan to do, but need to be patient enough for every layer to dry so they sit on top of each other and don’t mix together.It’s hard to photograph, but there’s iridescent silver in the sky and on the sea.
I got to the “just add wool” stage of a commissioned painting but it’s sat there for a while staring at me because I know I’m out of practice with splattering the white wool layer. It’s a question of direction, so it reads as a woolly coat rather than wild sea spray.
I got my special magic flicky brush, my paint to creamy consistency, and … then decided to procrastinate some more by taking a photo.
The sheep are upside down because it’s easier to flick a line upwards than downwards. The piece of card is to stop the paint going too far, and the blue paper towel to protect that part of the painting from unwanted snow drops. Being acrylic it is easy to wipe off unwanted splatters but you have to work quickly before it dries.
Having procrastinated and given myself the motivational speech, I then had a go at painting the wool. My first attempt was a mess, but second time lucky.
Now to email them a photo of the painting. Fingers crossed they like it.
Three of my large paintings — a landscape, a seascape, and a sheepscape — are now available at Skyeworks Gallery in Portree. Pop upstairs and you’ll see them.
Which of these four photos shows ‘the truth’ of this painting?
Top left: Taken in my studio out of direct light (most of my photos are taken like this). Top right: Photo edited with ‘auto-adjust’ (subtle differences). Bottom left: Taken in my studio in direct sunlight. Bottom right: Taken in my studio with part of it in direct sunlight through the window
I think they’re all ‘true’ because what you see in a painting depends on the light. The more light there is, the more you’ll see down through the layers of colour; the less light there is, the less you see. That’s one of the joys of an original painting, what you see does change as the light changes through the day. One photo simply can’t convey it all.
I’ve had a few comments from February’s project participants about not being able to paint horns like I do. Let me let you into a little secret: in my studio I have a pencil drawing of a horn the in-house art critic did for me several years ago as a ‘cheatsheet’ for the shading because I kept getting myself muddled and stressed.
It’s a bit cryptic, reduced to four elements — outline line, white highlight, shaded shadow, and twisted-form zigzag . It reminds me of the essentials, without the distraction of colour, pattern, or ridges, or position of ears. It’s been in the corner, within view though not consciously seen every day. Encouragement and reassurance, a reminder and incentive. It’s taken me ages to feel I can do horns to a level that consistently pleases me, but I feel I’ve got there now, probably.
If you scroll through my sheep paintings you’ll see how horns pop up now and again, but not often. That’s changed over the last few months, even going to this extreme:
“The Seven Ram-ewe-rai”. Diptych, 100x50m (two panels of 50x50cm). In my studio. £645 . (Title is derived from the film The Seven Samurai)Prize Ram. Acrylic on watercolour paper A2 size (approx 42x59cm). In my studio.“Down off the Hills”. 100x100cm. £795. In my studio“Two Ply”. 70x60cm. £595, Contact Skyeworks Gallery on skyeworksgallery@gmail.com
Whilst sitting in my studio sharing his thoughts on my new sheep painting and other works-in-progress, the in-house art critic came up with the title: TLC (Tractor, Lamb and Collie).
TLC (Tractor, Lamb, Collie). 100x100cm
When I started, there wasn’t a tractor in the composition (though it has appeared in a couple of other recent paintings). But at a certain point it drove into this painting-in-progress.
And then, because the crofter of the red tractor needed somewhere to go for lunch, a crofthouse appeared.
And because she’s a multi-tasker, there’s laundry on the line too.
I tried painting my way through a Category Four headache today, but looking at the results I definitely lost the plot. That moon is not sitting on top of its reflection. Oops.
Here’s a photo showing today’s starting and ending points:
So do I move the reflection (by repainting sea blues) or move the Moon (which will entail repainting the sky as it’s layered colour not solid)? Or, as the in-house critic’s suggested, enlarge the Moon to the left (which means just repainting the Moon).
Strictly speaking, just off my easel rather than still on, lying on a shelf to dry out of “I’ll just tweak it” reach, is this new sheep painting that still needs a title. Any suggestions? (It’s 70x60cm in case you’re wondering.)
Here it is as it was when I downed brushes yesterday, along with another work-in-progress that’s texture-paste sheep added to a seascape that had gone awry and needed a drastic change (I put them together like this so I would see both on re-entering my studio):
And here it is when the first round was finished, with fluid paint running down still-wet texture paste.
Apologies, there are no other in-between photos as I forgot to take any! Needless to say, there were several layers of paint between the start and finish.
A flock of my small sheep paintings and I are headed south for the weekend, to the SECC in Glasgow for the Country Living Christmas Fair (Thursday to Saturday). The painting that would have filled the row top right the in-house art critic liked so much it’s staying in my studio for now, and two festive red backgrounds have gone to Skyeworks. Which is your favourite?
Three other little ones, on A5 sized boards rather than canvas, are on their way to Patchings Art Centre near Nottingham for another festive exhibition. (My camera has blown out the colours somewhat, unfortunately) These were mostly done with acrylic inks, which on the absorbent boards gave watercolour-like results. I had great trouble stopping, not doing yet another little tweak on a cloud. Ultimately the need to get them in the post was what stopped me.
FREE TICKETS: I have 30 free tickets to give away for the Country Living Christmas Fair in Glasgow at the weekend. I haven’t checked how many are still left, but head to the online ticket office and try the promo code CLGLA012.
