Old Dog, New Tricks

~ Ruth ~ 5 Comments
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I’ve not been blogging so much lately – well probably over the last six months actually – as I’m doing a second online art course in a row at the moment and one way or another that’s necessarily been taking up a lot of my free time.

I’ve always loved learning new things so do tend to throw myself wholeheartedly into whatever it is I’m doing but over time it does take its toll to keep pushing myself so hard – I’m not as young as I used to be.

I must admit I’m really feeling quite tired mentally just now, caught up in the maelstrom of weekly classes and Zoom calls and painting assignments and research (and working part time), but I’m absolutely loving the course!

I’m really enjoying everything I’m learning and am keen to make the most of the opportunity offered to me while it lasts, but sadly that means my blogging activities are having to take a bit of a back seat for now.

I’m aware that the little I do post tends to be about my art, but hopefully it’s better than nothing – my intention is that eventually normal blogging service will be restored!

In the meantime, feel free to skip the art posts if they’re not your thing, and thanks for sticking with me! 🙂

Fandango’s One Word Challenge: Maelstrom

Ragtag Daily Prompt: Restore

Another Rose Study

~ Ruth ~ 5 Comments
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This week I’ve mainly been painting roses, exploring and experimenting and having great fun even when stuff didn’t really work out the way I wanted it to.

With this latest one I set myself the challenge of painting a large-scale, close-up flower (inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s work), using a stylised rose (inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh), painted in the flat style of an old-fashioned poster illustration (inspired by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec), using the bright colourful palette of Clarice Cliff, who designed pottery.

This painting is 16×16″, and I’m quite happy with how it’s turning out – I need to let it dry fully then go over some of the colours again (mainly the white and the yellow) but overall I really like it!

I had such fun deciding what to do, then working out how to do it, and even more fun making it all work together in one piece without looking like a dog’s dinner! 🙂

Semi-Abstract Rose

~ Ruth ~ 2 Comments
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I’ve got an idea in my head that I want to try to paint a giant semi-abstract rose on a really large canvas, but I’m really not good at painting proper flowers so I’ve decided to do a few preparatory studies to practice different ideas, starting with this A4-size blue and yellow abstract rose, done in acrylic paint.

I’ve actually painted over an old mixed media collage background for this one, so some of what’s underneath is still visible but what the hell, it’s only a study, and probably the first of many experiments before I embark on my large canvas, which is 32×40 inches, much bigger than I’ve ever painted on before.

I did actually start with a photograph of a real rose for this first little A4 study, but from now on I think I’ll just work from my previous painting each time as I size up, to keep abstracting each additional painting a bit further away from the original than the last. Well, that’s the plan, anyway…

My next one is going to be A3 mixed media using a similar colour scheme, so we’ll see how that goes! 🙂

Intuitive Painting

~ Ruth ~ 4 Comments
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Rather than having a fixed plan each time, I’m really enjoying intuitive abstract painting, starting with one mark then reacting to it intuitively, then reacting to the next mark, and so on, until you feel it’s done 🙂

Textured gesso and acrylic ink tonal study on A4 watercolour paper

Word of the Day: Intuitive

International Women’s Day

~ Ruth ~ 3 Comments
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Yesterday’s mixed media play session – intuitively following my creativity on a sheet of brown paper that was folded and wrapped around a bunch of flowers from the supermarket (practicing non-attachment to results through using a non-precious substrate) – and this morning I find out it’s actually International Women’s Day! What perfect timing! 🙂

Tick Tock Clock

~ Ruth ~ 2 Comments

Although modern digital clocks keep time so much better than old-fashioned mechanical clocks, we still have an old analogue mantel clock sitting above our fireplace that needs wound up weekly with a big brass key and runs on an inner pendulum mechanism.

Our clock can be quite temperamental in that sometimes it keeps perfect time, sometimes it runs a bit slow, and sometimes it runs a bit fast – I find it often depends on the weather – but we love our old tick tock clock regardless and wouldn’t part with it 🙂

Ragtag Daily Prompt: Digital

Fandango’s One Word Challenge: Inner

Naive Flower Study

~ Ruth ~ 5 Comments
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As part of my ongoing art course we’ve been tasked with making at least one small study a day, every day for two weeks.

The point is to make something simple in one day, in one painting session only, then stop whether it’s finished or not, no going back later and refining or tweaking.

Here I was experimenting with painting watercolour paints over acrylic gesso while using an oil pastel resist, and created this naive little flower painting.

I discovered that watercolour takes ages to dry on the gesso, as it has to evaporate rather than be absorbed, but that it dries differently than when on a more absorbent ground.

And I found it’s really difficult drawing even rough outlines with white oil pastel on a white background, because you can’t see any of your lines until you add the paint afterwards!

Still, I had great fun with it, and that’s all that matters… 🙂

Weekly Prompt: One Day