New Exhibition for 2013

This year The exhibition will be held at
 The Rhodes Centre, 1-3 S Rd Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire CM23 3JG
01279 651746
This will run from 14th May until 25th May 2013

There are to be a few of us exhibiting to raise money for the British lung Foundation, so there
 will lots of different media in use as well as styles to tickle the fancy.

My latest painting has taken a more macabre style, although this is more like my old style, 
still in watercolour with a bit of pen work

"Corvus Corax"

 Ravens in watercolour, there is a video to this but it wont upload to this blog so might have to trim it down

detail of ravens

 

 Before I did these i was working on some realistic painting of playing cards copying every detail to match the originals, these  are life size


Dead Mans Hand

These are in watercolour although the deck doesn't actually exist they are the same size as a normal deck, I haven't as yet designed the rest of the deck - maybe in the future. The next one I did, i did for a class demo then got the class to do the same Guess who was really popular that day!

King of spades - in acrylics

 

The king was a torn up card that I painted the top half to the real half is beneath it, the acrylics didn't work out too bad, was quite pleased with outcome.
My next set in this  range was the Ace of hearts-

spot the fake!! again in acrylics might try again in watercolour then oils.

Finally done!

I decided to enter the Society of wildlife artist open exhibition this year, to held at the Mall galleries. Consequently this meant I had to finish or start something to enter. After much deliberation i chose to do 6, 4 new ones and finish 2 I had already started, due to the fact it was a wildlife exhibition i figured that my hummingbird might be in with a fair chance of looked at. So as i had already put an acrylic base for the painting, thought it might be appropriate to continue with another layer in oils. Took a couple of weeks to  finish even though its only 14" x 10" but the details were so small.

I took the original photo of this bird in Antigua I quite liked the blurred background and lights, if I had stuck to my usual formats I would have had a much plainer background to push the bird out more

 needless to say it wasn't accepted.

My next one was to finish my lemurs, again in oils as you can see a little plainer in the background giving a bit impact to the tails and eyes. This painting also took weeks to complete, which meant that I didn't get to start any more painting for the exhibition. Again i was hoping for this one to be pre-selected at least, again this one also failed pre selection. So no luck this time.

Another exhibition another set judges may well yield better results so I'm gonna keep trying until someone does!

Where has the year gone!!

I cannot believe it's July already, this year seems to have whizzed by without me noticing. I'd like to think it was because I was so busy painting that I didn't notice! alas no - as of today I don't think I have completed a whole painting this year, many started projects but none finished. Although i haven't been idle i did get some jewellery making done, check these out....

Ear cuffs No piercing required just wrap around your ear.

They are all on Etsy if anyone would like to buy one

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SocietyInk

I have also been working on a very large fishy pic, goldfish to be precise. in watercolour if you work in watercolour you will know the difficulties of covering large areas with colour that doesn't look stripey or blotchy.  This painting is no exception in as much that some of the areas are still quite large pieces that have very dark colour on them. The only way I have found to cope with this is to mix up paint from tubes in a tray to a milk consistency and then with large brushes wet the area to be painted with an under coat, so for me it was indigo undercoat. Two reasons for using this staining colour 1. it covers very well and intensifies the black that go over the top 2. If I'm going to lift any of the lighter parts out I can do so but still have a blueish tint to the paper which works well with any thing black.

OK that done let dry

repeat the process with your next colour in my case blue-black on wet paper again, I usually advocate mixing any darks with deep colours such as purple, blues or deep greens to give the dark more body. In this painting it wont be needed as it is a reflection through glasses which will be slightly grey in places as the light hits the glass.

As for the fish you can see from the above photo that I started with a base coats of Winsor yellow and Vermilion diluted for the fins. These are then let dry before re-wetting the paper with water and applying intense colour do this gently as you do not want to churn up the under layer. keeping this intact will leave room to lift highlights and edges of scales when it's dry, as you can see the yellow shows through really well.

If you haven't guessed already the picture in the background is Aubrey Beardsley' Peacock skirt. It does actually hang behind the fish bowl on my desk!
Try some distortion paintings there good fun but a little time consuming.

New website

Started the new year with a new website!
It's not  totally complete but the essentials are there- the rest I will add over the next few months.
http://www.societyink.co.uk/
I also started the new year with a new newsletter if anyone is interested mail me on kathrinemacleod@gmail.co.uk and I'll send you a copy.
I hope to be able to get one sent quarterly for the moment but will see how it goes.
If your not already a member of the Society for all Artists then you wont get the January edition of the Paint magazine which has a special feature on yours truly check out page 35 if you do have a copy.

The feature is on Paint parties which I do, so for those special occasions think of spending a day with me painting!!

botanicals anyone?

Happy new year to you all!!
Have you written out your list for the new year??? No nor have I..

Not going to either I'm just going to add to last years list of I must do's, starting with the new website.It's only half completed but the basic skeleton is ready for upload. I've been having problems with the uploading, just cant seem to find the problem.

OK found the problem I didn't put the folder name in for the server. durgh!!!
check out my new website http://www.societyink.co.uk/ let me know what you think

I think I have spent more time on the website than actually painting but I have managed to do a little bit of Botanical painting Globe Artichokes to be more precise I started these some time ago during the teaching some of my classes. I took the photo some years ago at the Eden Project in the pouring rain, it was always going to be one that i painted I just kept putting it off you see why below.

Here is how I got the finished artichoke head...
1. draw meticulous drawing - adjust drawing a little so it looks nice as composition!
2. put the kettle on
3. make tea sit down and sigh


first coat of greens on leaf

4. breathe deeply and begin.......

5. mix pale cadmium yellow to act as base for all green areas.

mixes of green gold, sap green,permanent rose and dioxzine purple

you can see from this shot I have got yellow base
layers and the green layers with a base of permanent rose
for the flower tips

6. I started with the largest leaf so I could test the colours. you can still see the yellow base as I have left all the veins and worked in a  negative manner.

This is time consuming work and while I love painting I don't love the slow progress you get with these paintings. Another cup of tea I think!

Moving on to the interesting part the flower head.
First pick a place to start and know that you should finish it completely before moving on. layers of sap green were laid in first then green gold over that went permanent rose and then dioxizine purple. All layers were left to dry first before the next.

The very darks have indigo mixed into purple and green. OK while that's drying lets do the stem - working pale washes of sap green and cerulean blue let each stroke dry to get the stripes down the stem. Then repeat a  few times more to get the density but don't darken the washes it doesn't help.
You want nice clean even layers.
in the lighter areas apply some thin green gold and in the shadows apply sap green, cerulean blue and purple. leave to dry.

Back to flower head - continue to paint each petal separately

next the fluffy fronds I used potters pink a colour i don't normally use but when mixed with opera rose makes a good likeness. darken with purples and or indigo in a few places. Leave some of the paper showing through to add lightness.
Water droplets for most part these have no colour of their own so I start with shadows then if necessary add a light was of local colour from the plant.

And now to continue with the rest of the plant. As you see a little way to go yet. this could take a few weeks yet.

what next???

Hi All

Now that Remembrance is coming to a close I have stop making the Poppies and now started some more projects. the passed two days I have been making some "Steampunk" items - I bought this old travelling inkwell off ebay and as it was in such a bad way I did this to it............

lots bits add a different feel to this my new inkwell

I love the fact it has this little perspective drawing in it which hasnt deteriorated

Not only did I make this but I have started some christmas items check these out!

My little Christmas Angel pins available on ebay they are only 6cm high and very fiddlely to do.
I'm going to add another few items for christmas made from felt and beads. I'll keep you posted as I do them!!

new look website

Hi All
In the next few months I hope to have my new website up and running - October saw the closure of the old Orchid Arts site, which has left me with no website at all for the present time. So I have been working like stink to get one made to replace it.
Most of my work is on Flickr  so that I have a record of while there is no site and theres some on the SAA (society for all artists) http://www.saa.co.uk/ , by the way it's worth joining up with a membership which will cost you about £29.00 for the first year and is reduced for subsequent years if you auto renew by card. Novel!!
Also you can get postage free on all materials which are discounted some as much as 50%. and you can see some of our Professional Assoiciates demonstrating on Sky and the internet. Lots more go check it out no matter where you are in the world they ship everywhere.

As it's nearly Remembrance Day I have also been frantically making beaded Poppies to sell. I have never sold anything on Ebay before - no matter what I've done, but i thought I'd try again with these and low and behold they are selling!!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200671035555?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649 if your interested

This one was made last year for a friend of mine Debi - I may well make some more of these bigger ones.