Coloured Glass Challenge

6x6" oil on canvas board. $40. Available here

For this week's challenge. I love coloured glass, the way the light shines through it and you get a combination of reflections and highlights. I realised as I was painting that you can see the lightbulb's shadow through the lightbulb itself!

This is still drying; I'm uploading it now (11 April) so I can submit it to the challenge but please bear in mind it will need additional drying time before it can be shipped.

Red: The Sequel

6x6" oil on canvas board. $40 Available here

I had so much fun with my first 'Red' painting I did another! This one might be even more vivid- the pops of green help. I was excited to paint all of these elements; the blood orange, which I'd never tried before, was great fun. The deep, mottled colour is so striking! The kiwi is a rematch - I'd tried painting one before and it came out terribly, but I think I've conquered it this time! Chilli peppers are always fun to paint, though I tend to handle them very gingerly. I am not a fan of spicy things personally! I just love the shape and colour. And cherry tomatoes, my old friends, I'll never desert you...

As with the previous works, this artwork is still a little wet at time of posting (11th April) and may need additional time to dry before being shipped.

Limited Colour: Red

6x6" oil on canvas board. $40. Available here

How about this for a splash of colour! Red is one of my favourites, but I don't actually use it lots in painting - mostly in little accents here and there. So I was a bit uncertain about how a big swathe of it would work out... But I love it! It's so powerful and bold; the small size of the canvas board stops it from being too completely overwhelming, I think. I was planning to add small touch of a contrasting colour, but once I'd settled on the arrangement, I actually felt it would look better without.Please note that at the time of posting (6th April) this painting is still wet; I would not be comfortable shipping it for a week or two, until I'm happy it's completely dry. However I'm putting it up early so I can submit it to the Weekly Challenge page.

Late Autumn Leaves 3

6x6" oil on canvas board. $40. Available here

Finally back and uploading again! Here's the third of the 'Autumn' series I started last year. This tree caught my attention- it has such a great shape, and the colours were really bold and vibrant, I loved them!

Hornsey Road, North London

5x7" acrylic on canvas board. $40. Available here

Another London scene- I'm really enjoying painting the city at the moment! This one's of Hornsey Road in North London, just around the corner from the Emirates Stadium. I really enjoyed this colourful little scene- those shutters took ages to get right, but they were worth the struggle!

Gourd Gang

5x7" acrylic on canvas board. On sale, $22! Available here

I'm having a much better time painting gourds than I did last year! The variety of colours, shapes and textures had me quite overwhelmed last time, but this year I'm feeling more confident. Here's a painting of a few of my favourites, posing nicely.

October Orange

5x7" acrylic on canvas board. On sale- $22! Available here

If there's one colour I associate with autumn, it's that rich orange of pumpkins and leaves... I'm having great fun painting with it! Here's a little arrangement I put together as an exercise in low-key painting; I love the way the dark background really accentuates the vibrant colours.

The Phone Box

6x8" acrylic on canvas board. On sale, $25! Available here

A little study of Highgate, based on a photo I took there recently. I really liked the lighting! And I quite enjoy painting phone boxes; it must be the bright colour and the interesting patterns of light and dark seen through the windows. The parked cars were the biggest challenge here; figuring out how to simplify the reflections of trees in their windscreens took me ages.

Wonky Marrow II

5x7" acrylic on canvas board. On sale, $22! Available here

Wonky marrow study for the Different Light challenge. I did Daylight, then moved to a different part of the house to play with stronger lighting.

I had to improvise a bit here, as I only have one light and it's very specific about the bulbs it'll take. I stuck two rulers to the side of my desk, suspended a sheet of orange coloured paper between them, and shone my spotlight through it so that the paper acted as a filter. It was like working in a darkroom under red light as I was painting, which I found strangely calming, I quite enjoyed it. I'm happy with the result too! I've added a comparison to III so you can see the different lights in action.

Pepper and Leaves

4x4" acrylic on watercolour paper. ON SALE, $15! Available here

Here's a pepper study, with a patterned fabric in the background. I do love this fabric, and really ought to use it more! It's tough, but very rewarding to capture. Peppers are always a good challenge too; they're quite bumpy and strangely shaped, which can throw up some funny shading and really do my head in. But they taste great, so that makes them worth painting, doesn't it!

Golden Autumn

6x8" acrylic on canvas board. $45 Available here

It's almost October and the trees are starting to turn golden! I can't wait to get out and paint them. It's my favourite time of year for plein air...

Surrounded Glass

8x10" acrylic on canvas. $80 Available here

I did this piece for an exhibition back in spring, and promptly forgot to upload it to my DPW gallery once the show finished. Well, here you are! Featuring orange slices and glass, two of my favourite still-life subjects. I really enjoyed pushing the contrast of vibrant colours and dark background here.

Loose Apple

8x8" acrylic on paper. NFS at this time

View it on Daily Paintworks here! 

Second of yesterday's attempts at this challenge! I used an apple this time, and a slightly larger paper. 1 is a little too tight for my tastes, though I do quite like the yellowing "eaten" bit. 2 is pretty nice, I really like the shadow in this one and the brushwork is quite satisfying. There's a big jump between 2 and 3, you might notice! That's because I hated my original third attempt and scrubbed it out, repainting it later on. Maybe I should have numbered them 1-2-4-5! I'm quite happy with how bold the bottom two are, though I think the style I'd like to have would be somewhere between 2 and 3.

Summer Colours Still Life

Forgot to post this one!

7x10" acrylic on paper, $50. Available here

Summer is well and truly here and I'm enjoying all the bright colours- so here's a vibrant still life! I had a lot of fun with this one, painting in each element and watching it all come together.

The Lunch Date

15x21cm (A5) Acrylic on watercolour paper. $45. Available here

Another for the "People Eating" challenge- my trips to London provide plenty of reference! Here's a couple sitting outside of a cafe, enjoying lunch in the sun. I fought with this piece a lot- it felt like there were a lot of elements to pull together, and I was quite surprised to finish it, let alone be satisfied with it. I'm really enjoying this foray into figurative work, a largely unexplored genre for me- I feel quite excited to get stuck into it and see where it leads me...

Lunch Break

21x15cm (A5) Acrylic on Watercolour Paper. $45. Available here

For the Weekly Challenge- "People Eating" and wow, was this a challenge! I'm still getting the hang of painting figures. I used a photo I took in London back in March- funny enough the hardest part of this was figuring out what to do with the background, which was a mess of intricate architectural detail and overlapping signs.

Seeing Red

15x21cm (A5) Acrylic on Watercolour Paper. $45. Available here

More cherries! I really like how their shadows became an important part of the composition here.

One Happy Apple

5x7" acrylic on canvas board. $40. Available here

It's really enjoying all the bright colours I surrounded it with! It was a lot of fun to work on something so vibrant. I really love the way the glass casts a greenish shadow on the yellow card!

The Arcade From The Wynd

6x8" oil on canvas board. $45. Available here

Painting all those windows was a real challenge- trying to get the values right. But I couldn't resist this subject- the side entrance to the Arcade. I really loved the presence of the purple fence around a building site- it helps the greens and oranges pop.

Sliced Strawberries

5x7" acrylic on canvas board. $40. Available here

A study of some strawberries for the weekly DPW challenge! I really enjoyed the vibrant colours here.