Storm and Light

Just jumping in with this new painting, I was at the art group last night looking for inspiration and came across a painting of a storm which I liked and gave me an idea; I also found a picture of a lighthouse. I tried this one which incorporates a little of each of these images with my usual style of using the pastels to create texture.

I am not very happy with the result especially the way I have drawn/painted the waves. these were out of my head and I really needed to have found some sort of reference before attempting to paint them. But as usual, I am not afraid to post my failures as well as my successes. THere are some aspects of this I do like but mostly, I think I can forget it. Not one to put on Zazzle or Redbubble for instance.

Well here it is, any thoughts you care to share?

Looking at it now, I can't think what made me put the hint of yellow on the horizon, maybe some idea of the approaching end of the storm? I really should stick to a reference to paint things I am not too familiar with. I guess I do like the colours and several of my recent works have included sillouettes so I must be working up to something.

Last night I was so disappointed that I decided to start working with the small canvasses again next week. Coping and changing helps keep my interest up but doesn't help with development, since I find that I need to relearn certain basics. One step forward and two steps back so to speak. C'est la vie!

Beach Scene: miniature acrylic canvas

I am still going strong with these miniatre canvases, only one this week but the group had an influx of fourn new members and I had a little "admin" to take care of. A small group, even smaller than us, had decided to wind up as it was difficult for them to pay their Hall rental. Still wanting to paint every week they had decided to ask if they could join us. We of course were delighted to welcome them into our fold, as it eases the financial issues for us of course.

Anyway back to the point of this posting, an empty beach with a stand of trees in the near distance. there should have been a couple of bathers but I am still wondering how to best depict them on such a small scale. I may pluck up courage next time and will update the image if I do.

The one thing that I have to say about this image id the overall lack of contrasts of tone. Colour contrasts are fine but we all know that tonal contrasts are what makes the image zing. I toned down the beach and the clouds and am unhappy. Here again, I will be trying to make up for this. Something that can be done in acrylic I am happy to say. Maybe I had other things on my mind.

What do you think?

So there it is: more tonal contrast on the beach and in the clouds and a couple of bathers in the mid-distance. Shouldn't be too much to ask?

I think I now have enough of these to write a Squidoo lens on the subject. My experience with a new medium and how I approached painting miniatures. Why not? Oh and yes they will be going up for sale sometime soon, just trying to settle on a selling price - or in the case of Ebay an opening bid. I will be posting results when (and if) I sell my first miniature canvas.