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

JAZZ NIGHT – PASTEL PAINTING

We went out to a bar in Liverpool the other night with some friends and enjoyed a few drinks and a little music. I thought that I would paint the scene and here is the first go. I may yet make some of the background colour more definite as it looks like a yellow mist is descending as it did after the fourth bottle of wine.

Other Liverpool scenes and figurative works are available for sale 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