THE TOP OF CLIEVES’ HILLS – ACRYLIC PAINTING

I was talking to a fellow blogger about the perils of reworking a piece. At the time I was reworking two paintings, one of them was this, above. My fellow blogger explained the problems of reworking poems and stories. I felt there was more peril in changing paintings, as it can take a lot of work to correct bad decisions, particularly if you want to get back to where you started. With text, you could keep a copy and quietly lob the revision binward, ressurect the original and pretend nothing had happened ( well, that’s my blinkered view)

I was asked to submit a painting or two to an exhibition and was scraping around for something suitable. I did like the original of the painting above; there was an understated and almost abstract passage in the foreground, but despite a few showings it stayed in my possession. So I thought that I would shake it up ready for another outing.

I was reluctant to change as I was pleased with the original foreground, but having made the change I am equally happy with the outcome. It now looks very similar to the view I saw when I did a watercolour version one sunny summer’s morning, sitting on the hill amid the rough grassland and weeds, a few years ago.

Time will tell.

Other landscapes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

SPIRIT OF THE FOREST – ACRYLIC PAINTING

I worked up this larger sized painting from one of the sketches I presented a week or so ago. Acrylic ink was run into the divisions to add depth and interest and further texture was built up by dragging and smearing. The overall impression I wanted was one of hopeful mystery with the yellows and greens evoking lichens that grow in dark, dank environments – but then, that’s what comes at looking at an image for too long.

Other abstracts are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

FALLEN – ACRYLIC PAINTING

A week or so ago I showed some sketches for abstracts. Since then I have been working a couple up. I put this version on a 1.2 x 0.6 metre canvas. This may not be the completed piece, but it is getting close. On this version I focussed on brighter colours than I had in the sketch and have since then dulled a few down. That process may continue – I am a constant fiddler, particularly when I have the painting in front of me and paints to hand. There is another one on the go, but I also have a watercolour which I started before this and need to finish, so at least I’m keeping busy.

Other abstracts are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

PLAYTIME – ACRYLIC ABSTRACTS

I need to force myself just to play around with art materials. Most times when I face an easel or board I have a purpose – an image I want to create. So I have changed pace in the last few days and just got some paper ( in the case above, and most of these below, an old discarded painting) and started putting paint down over it. This one I’ll call – Fallen.

Coming from a scientific background I do veer towards structure and the next two show a development of an old theme based on an imagined cityscape, done with mainly square brushes.

I was looking at form on a flat plane and the painting on the left, though I like texture, just felt too busy – even messy, so out came the brushes and paints again to turn it into the painting on the right. Comparing them, I dont think I have moved forward very much – but then this is just about playing.

So, after that cul de sac, I forced myself to into a more organic approach with emphasis on light and shade – a theme I explore in my more representational pieces.

Again, working over an old painting. I think that there is potential in this one. It has a forest feel – similar to some of the representational paintings I’ve done of late. There are some lovely soft edges contrasting with the hard lines I’ve created with acrylic ink.

Bouyed by this, I struck out in a similar direction with the final piece, below.

This is done in a much looser style – mainly using just my fingers. I added moulding medium that allowed some texture which I highlighted with the mix of yellows I still had on my fingers. This use of texture is certainly one I’d like to further incorporate into my painting.

So I might be putting some of these ideas on canvas in the near future – just a warning.

Other abstracts are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

ABSTRACT SKETCHES – ACRYLICS

When I get the time I am still playing around with abstract acrylics. Here is another experiment which I am calling Pandora’s Box. It was painted over an old acrylic life painting which can still be seen in places if you know where to look. Building up over a previously painted surface allows for shapes and textures to appear quickly and opens up some happenstance. Though it may be a bugger to scale up on a canvas.

The second one is a painting I posted a few weeks ago but have now made further small adjustments and added text. I am calling it Between the Cracks. The original orientation of the dark lines do not really fit with my new direction. All I was doing was seeing what it might look like. So just a warning: there may be yet more of this to come. This is one of the reasons I do these sketches as it takes me a while to fully formulate the final piece.

In this sketch I strode for simplicity, overworking the first marks with a roller of tinted titanium white in order to reduce the visual image. I have an unease with any simple pieces I make. I feel a drive to add complexity (as with the additions to the second painting above). I dont know why, as I like many such spartan pieces produced by other artists. Probably shows a lack of confidence on my part.

Other abstracts are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

MORE ABSTRACT SKETCHES – ACRYLIC ON PAPER

I showed some acrylic sketches recently and had hoped to spend more time developing them further. But then Christmas appeared and you know how it is… So I havent progressed too far on my journey. Here are a couple I did manage to squeeze in, based on applying mixtures of acrylic from a palette knife onto damp paper. It produced some interesting textures on which I added further layers of more solid paint. When looking at the images of the two I prefer the one above.

Looking at this bottom painting in the flesh I feel that the image doesnt do it justice. In reality it has a lovely airy feeling and I cant get the colour balance to match the actual image (to be honest I cant get it right for the first one either, but the match there is a bit closer) – for a start there is far too much yellow and this image fails to show the far greater contrast between the lights and darks that there actually is. Again I used a palette knife to apply paint onto paper sprayed with water in an uneven way. Here you can see more clearly the varied textures that are achieved before I went in with acrylic ink.

When the guests eventually depart and the dust settles I’ll be setting off again. Happy New Year.

Other abstracts are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

ABSTRACT SKETCHES – ACRYLIC ON PAPER

Now that my exhibitions are well underway, though failing commercially, I have some time to play around. I thought I would get the acrylics out and these two appeared.

Many people just go straight in with abstracts, throw intuitive marks onto the support and out comes a coherent painting. It rarely happens for me. I need to plan a little, otherwise things go muddily awry. This painting, above, is a case in point. It started out as something completely different and has morphed into this, which has, for me, the feel of the city. It isnt very big 10×14 inches approx but the process might allow me to put it on a canvas, now that I have some vision where the end point could be. Not that I wont still experiment, but I have a visual structure to base things on and hopefully contain any mud.

With this second one there is still work to be done to get to a conclusion I will be satisfied with. However, I feel that I can see a way forward. The process has also allowed me to ponder on other potential themes which I can use in the future which is a good by product of the process. With many of the elements of the first painting, such as the inclusion of line and the predominance of the blue greys it perhaps doesnt feel very different, though I have plans which may develop it into a more organic piece, as opposed to the structural assembly of my top painting.

So back to the easel and have a bit more play and perhaps get myself a completed painting.

Other abstracts are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

ARCHITECTURAL ABSTRACTS – ACRYLIC PAINTING

These images may seem familiar, but that is because I have already posted sketches to these commissioned works. A friend of mine did me a favour and passed my name on to an Interior Design company that wanted some abstracts for their new showrooms and headquarters. After producing sketches they changed their minds and decided that they wanted the paintings to reflect their favourite architectural work. We settled on Frank Lloyd Wright.

These are the paintings I delivered to site the other day. They are both 30x40inches and are quite textured – as the client requested. I mixed paints with hard moulding paste and applied it with a palette knife. Though I do use palette knives, impasto work is not a process I have used before. In that way the commission opened up new possibilities for future works.

Below are the paintings in their new home.

As you can see on the photo on the left, they sit on either side of the door to a showroom.

I have done many commissions over the years but this was the first non-figurative one. I found the process quite challenging, trying to get into the heads of the clients. Personally I would have taken both paintings further. When I delivered them, so they could see them in situ, I suggested further developments, but they liked them as they were. I hadn’t wanted to go too far away from the sketches that they had chosen, so in that way I saved myself extra work and hardship.

Expecting to do more work, I hadnt even signed them. Yesterday I took along my red paint and stuck my moniker on them. Job done.

Other abstracts and semi abstract work is available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT – ACRYLIC SKETCHES

Well, after the communication breakdown with my commission clients, contact was restored when I learnt that they had come back from holiday and were ready to proceed. The painting above was the second one they liked ( I posted their other preferred painting earlier). I feel that this one could be developed further, but I am not sure how far they want to venture into the descriptive. I have asked for a second meet to look at their preferred options and ways I can further develop them.

This second one was another sketch I submitted. I feel that there are aspects in all the sketches which could be brought into the final pieces, hopefully making them stronger. Anyway, they have promised a deposit today and I will move ahead and purchase the canvases, as they are bigger than my usual ones and they didnt want me to make them, which was a pity, as I have plenty of unstretched canvas and wood to make the stretchers.

Other abstracts are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

FALLING WATER – ACRYLIC SKETCH

Another sketch for the proposed commission based on Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. Though I have a foreboding as I havent heard from them for over a week. This was one they said they liked. Silence can be a sign that something is wrong. Though I did have a commission a few years ago, where there were great spells of silence. It was only when they came to pick up the finished painting, about a year after we started the commission, that they told me the painting was a present for a family member in Canada. The other siblings were clubbing together to buy it and agreement was needed at each stage. If only they had told me at the outset, It would have spared me some anxiety. Then, I find many people assume you know what is going on in their head.

Above is another sketch I produced based on Robie House in Chicago. This one was less enthusiastically received.

This issue, when it comes on the back of an exhibition where I didnt sell anything, just chips away at your confidence. Hard times are now with us with the economic situation and paintings are first to go. I suppose I should hunker down and just enjoy my painting, painting for myself and the fun of it. Having said that I did complete a commission for a friend, but I cant show that as it is from a picture he took off a newspaper.

Still, if you are looking for a painting, check out my website: grahammcquadefineart.com