swan in acrylics/work in progress

Hope I am not tempting fate by blogging this one, but if so it won't be the first one consigned to the bin., and it's all good experience. As my attempts with painting 'kess' In acrylics did not go as well as I had hoped (she is now on her second coat of oils and in the process of drying) I have started another acrylic painting. Thinking that feathers might possibly be easier (?) than fur in paint, I decided on another swan, mainly because I have endless references and also as I have just done a couple in pastels, thought it may prove a little easier!

Anyway this is 3 days in  spending a couple of hours a day on it, I am finding that is long enough at one sitting (read standing!) as I am losing concentration after this.

Tess

As promised another finished commission, this is Tess, once again in Pastel on Fisher paper

I have spent some time on the 'Kess' painting today (oils) and whilst that has now been left to dry, am attempting another acrylic, hoping that if I persevere I will eventually be able to paint!

Commission finished

This is one of two of my current commissions that I have finished, a very pretty little spaniel with odd eyes (as in one blue and one brown).
approx A3 sanded pastel paper

I will be uploading the other one tomorrow once it has been delivered to it's new home.

Art in the Park

A couple of  pics of my stand, I kept it small as I was sharing with other artists, but have to admit I did find it quite restrictive. Over all I enjoyed the shows, meeting other artists and the people that came to see our work. I was surprised at quite how much work is involved in preparation and organization. I have learnt quite a bit and this will be very useful for my professional practice studies when I go back to college in September.

Exhibitions

The last two weekends I have spent exhibiting some of my work with HABA, the Highbridge and Burnham artists. Both went well and I had quite a lot of interest in my pet portraits and also my pastel swans. I sold a few cards, got two definite commissions and My textile tree has found a new home with a lovely lady who has had her eye on it for quite some time.  The tree is covered in all its glory on my website, I am posting a couple of pics here for now, until I sort out pics of the exhibition and combined sculpture trail to upload.

update

I am slipping on the blog again, I just don't seem to find the time !
Well last weekend's little exhibition was a good introduction for me, sharing a gazebo with other artists, as a part of the local 'Picnic in the Park' was not too formal and I had quite a bit of interest in my Pet Portrait Paintings, particularly the one of Maisie that illustrates this blog.  I didn't sell anything but all my promotional material went and  I had several enquiries, and I am hopeful I may get a couple of commissions. I currently have a bit of a backlog, due to getting ready for the shows, there is another bigger one this weekend, 'Art in the Park' which is totally art orientated so I am looking forward to this one. I have spent the last couple of days printing greeting cards of my work and mounting my acrylic/collage paintings as I am going to add them to my other work to see if they get any interest.  am hoping to finish my pencil drawing of the gull and goose, before saturday but am running out of time, so may just put on my website shop.
Here are the four paintings I am in the process of mounting, for the show

Black Swan

This is the second swan, I was going to call this "Evening Glow" to go with the "Morning Light" but it  has turned out differently than I originally planned and I feel has a different character to the first, so here is "Shake a tail feather"

swan /pastel on pastelmat

Two blogs in one day (thats gotta be a first for me). I was going to leave this one till completion, but as its nearly there, I thought I would post now, in case there are any useful crits etc ;-)

I am hoping to put this one in two small local exhibitions next two weekends, appropriately enough as the ref pic was taken at the local leisure park, where the second of these will be held.
16 x 12 (approx) when mounted

Arni

Experimentation on the back burner (again) and down to some 'proper' work, one of my latest pieces
 a graphite memorial commission, apologies once again for poor picture quality, for some reason, graphite is a pain to photograph accurately

Arni




and with mount