SEATED FIGURE – PASTEL PAINTING

It’s been almost two months since I did any life drawing – that is if you discount drawing animals on the Etosha Saltpan. It is also about the same time since I did any pastel work. So I went down to the Liver Sketching Club and eased myself in between the easels, without standing on too many toes, and had a go yesterday. Here is the result. I did go in with a game plan of working off a mix of background colours, but could have thought the scheme through a bit better in relation to the selection of colours. Though I do always take a couple of different coloured papers, normally a cool and warm and dark and light and select one depending on the mood and pose at the time, so there are always many options which would need to be considered beforehand.

Anyway, it’s just a piece of paper and it got me up and running again.

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

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A FEW MORE FIGURES IN PASTEL

A little more extensive use of charcoal with the pastel though still not getting the grittiness or directness I am after.

In the one above I used even more charcoal, though probably too much and not to its greatest effect.

And finally a portrait of the child of a child of the sixties, but with the lighting so poor in the studio the features are flattened by the glaring light. Another of life’s little challenges, I expect some of you have shared.

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

JOHN, RECLINING – PASTEL PAINTING

This is a painting of a guy I was at art college with and who occasionally models. He stepped in last week when the original model pulled out. I was pleased with the face as it captured him really well, the trouble is with the hands, which I could have tidied up later, but as I gave him the painting at the end of the session, it’s too late.

Other life painting with better hands is available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

FARM TRACK – PASTEL PAINTING

The old tracks and roads which crisscross the Moss behind Southport where I live start to heave and bend as the land around dries out. The poles which adorn the roadside then tip like dancing men. Here is a typical path which disappears  out of sight done in pastel.

Other paintings of the Halsall Moss are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

EASTER BLESSINGS – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

If you’re thinking that you may have seen this before, you’re correct I have posted it once already. The reason why I am doing it again is that I entered this painting, along with a couple of others, into a national painting magazine competition and this has been shortlisted. Artists and Illustrators (the magazine) even published the image in their January edition along with a few of the other shortlisted paintings.

It’s the first competition I’ve entered as I have qualms with the validity of such exercises, but if it helps in  sales and exposure then I can be persuaded.

It will be part of an exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London at the back end of January, along with the other shortlisted entries and where a winner? will be announced.

There is also an online, readers’ choice award where you can vote for my entry, or one of the others if you choose, by going to: www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/shortlist2017  

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

 

THREE FIGURE SKETCHES – ACRYLIC AND PASTEL

I haven’t put many figurative paintings on the blog of late, but I’m still churning them out. Here are three of the latest. The first and the last are acrylic whilst the middle one is pastel.

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

TREES AT BANKS – PASTEL PAINTING

When I was out painting the other day, as I put the bike back on the rack of the car, I looked over and noticed the trees in the field to my right. I’m not sure what I liked about it, the view behind into the far fields or the counter changes of light and shade, across the field. Anyway, here it is: an English meadow on a summer’s day.

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