BLOWING UP A STORM – ACRYLIC PAINTING

Regulars with a good memory might recall other, earlier versions of this. One of those versions has been propped on the wall of the studio, taunting me to do better. Hopefully with this I may have, but is it good enough? Another studio residency will no doubt tell me.

I tackled this with a palette knife to try and impart some of the energy I felt was lacking in earlier versions. I also rearranged the players, particularly the pianist and bassist and tried to keep the colour range tighter. Other than that, the theme remains the same: a theme I like. I might even try a companion piece, but first I have a couple of commissions to do which may take a while.

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

BLOWING UP A STORM, REVISITED – ACRYLIC PAINTING

This is another version of a painting I posted earlier in the year. I felt that painting was too well defined for the subject and the range of colours too distracting and gaudy. I liked the concept and the array of figures, I just needed to present it differently.

So I painted this rougher version, restraining the colours and giving it the air of an exuberant jam session which is what I am trying to portray. I may have gone too far, but I’ll give it a road test at our pop-up exhibition today and see what the punters think – if anything.

Next week I am putting some local scenes, as a theme, into the window of my framer, so I need to pull back my local scenes from the pop-up and gather them for the framer’s show. This means that I will be trying out a range of styles and subjects at the pop-up. After a promising start there, things have gone a bit flat so perhaps a shake up is needed.

Get a painting for christmas – visit my website for a great choice of subjects at keen prices: click on: grahammcquadefineart.com. Go on, treat yourself!

BLOWING UP A STORM – ACRYLIC PAINTING

Last month I posted some sketches for this painting. Since then I have developed it further and it is now on this 50x76cm canvas. Running liquid acrylics about on the canvas opened up other possibilities but I have generally built on the sketches rather than altering them. I’ll leave this alone for a while before making any assessment of it. One thing I am conscious about is that changing the scale of a piece can make a difference to how I feel about it and, for me, many times I have found out that bigger isnt necessarily better.

Other music inspired paintings are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

BLOWING UP A STORM – WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

Having spent the last couple of weeks completing four commissions, I needed to let off some steam. I had some images of jazz players and thought about combining them into a painting. I intend to do the final version in acrylics, using liquid acrylics to get the effect of the watercolours – but watercolours allowed some easy explorations. The theme is still developing and I’m considering putting in further additions, so these are first steps. My initial one is below, then I decided to add a bassist.

Knowing me I will end up with a full orchestra for the final piece.

Other figurative work is available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

A LIVERPOOL CONFECTION – ACRYLIC PAINTING

It’s unfinished, but with friends about to arrive for the weekend and my computer, which is constantly giving me problems getting collected today for repair, I thought I would put this out, whilst I had the chance.

When the dust settles, I’ll work on it a bit more, still it looks like it’s going to be a good weekend – hope you have the same.

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

TWO PASSING MUSICIANS – ACRYLIC PAINTING

A bit of fun with a photo I took whilst having lunch in Venice and two guys sidled in to play some jazz. My idea of heaven, food, wine, sunshine and jazz. Perhaps this was how I saw them at the end of the session.

Other paintings available or sale on my website grahammcquadefineart.com

DANCING ‘TIL DAWN – ACRYLIC PAINTING

This is the third of three full sized paintings (76x50cm) I have just completed using liquid acrylics. I wanted a few colourful paintings playing around in a watercolour style. I showed sketches of the others in previous blogs. Below are the final paintings.

I wanted to get a series and, although I have my favourite, I am pleased with the outcome of them all.

This is called Dancing the Blues Away

This is called The Rhythm of the Flow

I will upload these to my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

MUSIC IN THE MAKING – ACRYLIC SKETCH

I wanted to create a series of paintings following the earlier image I posted on March 3rd – Dancing Away the Blues. This is the second in the series. I think this one is getting to a stage I am comfortable with. There are a couple of earlier tries below. The first one had a rather cumbersome grouping. I felt the players could be grouped better. On the second I got a better grouping but found the painting too pedantic and a little heavy. I also felt I had lost the pleasing ambiguity of Dancing Away the Blues. I had started to put more and more detail in and felt I had overdone it. Even on the painting above there is some more detail, but I have been able to stem my nit picking. There will be a few more changes when I do the final edition, but I think I’m getting there.

Other paintings are available on my website grahammcquadefineart.com