NZ Art Guild Art Awards piece

Well I dropped this one off this morning and stayed to help collect the other artwork for 3 hours so I figure that it's now time to post a photo of my piece on my blog. There is some stunning artwork arriving for this award and the competition will be fierce. I was in awe of some of the pieces and there was also incredible diversity as well. It was so interesting to see how everyone interpreted the themes: cool blue, equality, stamp and circular.

Well here is my entry. The title is "If I could, I would give you the World" and it is oil on canvas, 600mm x 400mm.

If you are in Auckland, I would really recommend going to see the finalists and those chosen for the exhibition as the calibre was outstanding and all pieces are for sale as well.

Think Outside the Box!

NZAG ART AWARDS
Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna, Auckland

Awards ceremony: Friday 1st February 2008, 6.30pm start. All welcome, free entry

Exhibition: Friday 1st - Thursday 28th February 2008
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri: 9am-6pmSat: 10am-4pm

A challenge based exhibition using four terms: Cool Blue, Circular, Equality and Stamp
Entry is FREE

Check out the NZ Art Guild website for more info:
http://www.nzartguild.co.nz/awards.htm

A 3 minute drawing

I have been painting lots - still working on my NZ art guild art awards piece but I just have one last thing to add tomorrow when it is dry enough to paint over and then I just hope it will dry in time to be delivered on Tuesday. I have been using Liquin, so it should be fine but the humidity we are having in Auckland at present seems to be affecting the drying time of the oil paint. However I did put it outside today and it seemed to help (don't know if I am imaging things or not) but hopefully it will all be over soon.

I have reached the point with this painting where I just want it to be finished and I want to start something new. I am definitely a deadline freak and I always work best to deadlines and specific timeframes. However a 16 month old and a 4 month old don't always seen to understand that Mummy has deadlines so it is definitely a juggling act finding the time to paint sometimes - I generally try and pick up a paintbrush at least once a day, even if it is for just 10 minutes. I am also very very lucky to have the loveliest husband in the world who is very supportive of my art and when I am trying to get things finished, he is very good at holding the fort down with the babies and playing around with photoshop to help with with ideas for colours or composition.

Anyway, on a completely different track, I have started studying a Diploma in Art and Creativity through The Learning Connexion which is an art school based in Wellington. I am doing this extramurally and at the moment am working through a whole pile of drawing exercises. This is one that I did last night in 3 minutes that I thought I would just post here. Obviously it could be developed much much further, but it is of my 14-year old step-son Alex when he was sitting on the couch. He wanted me to draw a cartoon of him but I thought that I would do the real thing first.

I have been busy really....

I have been painting away really, even if I haven't posted for a while. I am currently working on my entry for the NZ Art Guild awards which I have to have ready for delivery on 29 January at the very latest. In order for it to be completely dry I really need to complete it this weekend so I am spending a lot of time on it. It is a very time-consuming painting because it is a still life and to get all the shadows etc right, it takes a long patient time.

I'm not going to post a big picture as I don't want to jinx this before it is finished given it is for the awards but I thought that I would post a photo of just a small part of it. The art awards require you to incorporate 4 themes into your work (interpreted as you will). They are: cool blue, equality, circular and stamp. Obviously this is the cool blue component and I won't share anything more yet about the whole picture or how I am incorporating the rest. Only the ribbon is completed at the moment, ignore the background and everything around it as that will all change, it was just given a base coat initially.

This has been a good value study. The photo isn't that clear but I have used about 7 different blues for this ribbon in order to capture the light and shadows.

Taylor's Mistake

I started this painting last night at about 10pm and I think that it is pretty much finished. It is oil, 600x400mm and done wet on wet so I may go back when it is dry and do some more details on the water on the rocks.

It is my first original seascape based on 2 different photo's that my Dad took out at Taylor's Mistake in Christchurch last week. I've been learning heaps from the DVD's I've been watching and I guess in this one I've used techniques from both Byron Pickering and E. John Robinson as well as some of my own preferences. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out. Thanks to my babies who both slept at the same time this afternoon so that I could get it finished so quickly (that doesn't happen that often).

I am also working on something quite different for me for the NZ Art Guild Art Awards. I need to have it completed and ready by 29 January as that is the last day for delivering them (and I have volunteered to be the "collector" for the NZAG that day so I better have mine ready to take along with me. I won't post any photos of it until then as I'm not too sure how it is going to work out and just in case I need to do something completely different.

Completed Seascape

Well I finished the seascape that I was working on based on the DVD tutorial by Byron Pickering called 'The Wild Sea'. I keep on seeing things that I am not entirely happy with but I have decided to stop at this point and say that it is finished as I could keep playing and playing with it when I could spend that time painting an original seascape and applying what I have learnt to that. So here it is......

So, not perfect, but okay for a first seascape. I am also working through the DVD's on seascape painting by an American artist called E. John Robinson. He uses different colours in his seascapes so I picked up some blues today at the art store. His technique is quite different from Byron Pickering but I am learning lots from both and one of my goals for this year (among many others) is to paint a beautiful seascape that I am proud off.