Spring has sprung. Daffodils.

15x 11"

Arches rough 140LB paper.

M.Grahams paints.

I had a bit of fun with salt in the background of this.

I was undecided about whether I wanted a dark background, so that the daffodils would stand out, or a pale blue background to give the feeling of a warm spring sky.

 I painted the blue in to test it, and I did quite like the airy feeling that this gave the scene, but it still needed some "ooomph", so I decided to use purple around the edges, because this is yellows complimentary colour.

While it was still wet, I sprinkled in some salt to give it some texture and interest.

If I still didn`t like it I was going to paint the background very dark, but I`ve decided to leave it as it is.

It is nice and bright and eye catching.



Autumn rope swinging.

15x11" on Arches rough watercolour paper.

M. Grahams watercolours.

I made this scene up, partly from a photo and partly from a sketch I had.

The sketch was of one of my daughters from years ago, when we went to Rivington Pike, where we found a rope swing.

 I used the photo as my basic inspiration, mainly to plan out my colours, but I changed the composition, because I wanted to add in the people and the rope swing to give the scene some life.

I was quite pleased with the outcome of this painting. The colours are more vibrant in real life.

Rough sea.

15x 7"

Mixed media.

I enjoyed playing with this painting. It has got irridescent medium on it, (amongst other things) and when the light catches it, it glistens just like water would. It is virtually impossible to get a representational photo of the painting. It looks better in real life............as I say alot these days.

Oil painting group

I haven`t done very much oil painting, well not as much as I`d like anyway, so when I was invited to join an oil painting group, I jumped at the chance.
Yesterday was the first time I went, and I have to say I throughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Sunsetting over South Sheilds.

14x 18 " on stretched canvas,

watermixable oils.

I was quite pleased with how this turned out, especially seen as it`s only about the 4th or 5th ever time I have used watermixable oils.

Other paintings that I`ve done this week are below.

Cross eyed Robbie.

I love how his eyes were crossed in the reference photo, he was so cute. I`ve been meaning to do this painting for over a year and finally got round to it this week. It took less than 2hours to do.

8x8" square

Using a selection of pastels.

On M. Tientes pastel paper.

I also painted the following portrait in pastels.

It`s nothing like my usual style, but the tutor in life class gave us our instructions, and I "just went for IT", lol.  I picked up any colours that took my fancy whether they matched or not. I don`t think it`s very good, but I enjoyed the process of doing it.....which is what art is all about.

Iris painting

I haven`t been doing many finished paintings of late, but I have still been doing quite alot of sketching.

Here are my latest two paintings.

This is an iris that I painted at my various painting groups that I attend, all in all this was worked on at 3 art groups for a total of 7 hours, then I did some work on it at home.................but the truth be told........We do so much chatting at art group lately, that we hardly do any painting......lol., so there was no where near 7 hours work done on it really.........and it shows!

Dad, 15x11"

Watercolours on arches rough paper.

The above painting is of my dad. I had so many laughs painting this, thinking about all the funny things that he used to say and do.

I joined I life drawing class this week, with my friend Jean. It`s something that I`ve always wanted to do, but I`ve never found a group before. I have to say, I loved it. We worked on three poses, one lasted an hour, and the other two were for about 15-20 minutes each. I`m hoping that my drawings and portraits will improve as a result of going to these classes.

I haven`t got any photo`s of  my sketches, or my life studies, but I`m hoping to get a new lighting rig up, this week, so that I can get some decent photo`s of my paintings, because my photographs don`t do the paintings justice, at all.Perhaps I should has gone to a photography class instead!

I gave Ann the dogs

.......and she burst out crying. I thought I`d done it all wrong, but she was actually happy with the painting............pheww!!!!

I went to my local art shop the other day, and I  saw an advert asking people to donate paintings to raise money at a charity art auction, in aid of the Roy Castle Lung Foundation.............so I`m donating a painting, I`m not sure if anybody would actually want to pay their hard earned cash for one of my paintings, but they might if it`s for charity.....lol.
If any one is interested in donating a painting, look on the facebook page buy it now, Charity art auction.
The paintings only have to be in by 2nd April, so there`s still plenty of time for you to do a painting.

I`ve been working on a portrait of my dad this week. I`ve had such a laugh working on it. One lady looked at the photo that I was working on and she thought  he was wearing a hair piece..........if you knew my dad, you`d know how funny a comment like that would have been. He`d have been effing and blinding, all over the place.....lol.
I`ll post the painting once I`ve finished it. I`m hoping to get it finished tomorrow, after that I don`t know when I`ll get a chance, because it`s Danielle`s birthday on Sunday, and she`s having friends to stay at  the weekend.