WHERE THERE’S LIFE – ACRYLIC AND PASTEL PAINTINGS

As well as getting outside painting, of late, I’ve been trying to regularly attend life sessions. Here are some of the results:

The first one is a pastel. I have been jumping between pastel and acrylic as usual. So the second, third and fourth ones are acrylic.

I have been using a brush to define the outlines rather than charcoal drawing, adopting a more natural style rather than the blocked approach I used over the previous months and resisting the use of outlandish colours.

And finally the same pose by the same model, Eve, but from slightly different angles using pastel and then acrylic.

And on both I didnt manage to get her feet in.

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

SOLITUDE AT FORMBY POINT -PASTEL PAINTING

I posted a version of this – as you can see below – back in March and since April the old version has been part of my show at our pop-up gallery. Last week I got an enquiry for some Formby beach scenes and I assembled a collection for viewing, bringing the old version back from the gallery. The client liked the old version but wasnt so keen on the people in it, so this weekend I set about removing the two subjects and returning some calm to the scene.

This view is probably what I saw at the time, as I added the figures for a bit of focus. It’s always a dilemma as to whether the scene stands up on its own or it needs a bit of support. If you like solitude you certainly have it here and I quite like it – though it wouldnt suit everyone – some like a crowd.

Other beach scenes are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

HIGH TIDE AT FORMBY POINT

A familiar beach scene. I needed something quickly as we are just about to launch a pop-up gallery in Southport and I realised I didnt have a local beach scene. They’ve proved popular having recently sold one and another in an exhibition at our main art gallery, which opened last Saturday. So using my Clairfontaine pastel mat, I rustled this up, just in time for the hanging.

I was reticent about participating in this pop-up exhibition as sales at the venue havent been good and we are in the middle of an economic turndown. In the end the ‘in it to win it’ mentality prevailed and, anyway, it is good to be out and about meeting people. Added to that, I always take some work to keep me occupied, so if nothing else, at least I come home with a painting on Fridays( my day at the gallery)

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

MORNING AT AINSDALE WOODS – PASTEL PAINTING

I attempted this small painting three times until I was happy with it. This version was done on Pastelmat support and it gave me the saturation I was after. For the background sky I scraped different pastels onto the board and wet the scrapings with a brush to get an even transition of colours.

The first attempt was done on pastel paper. This is the one below. Here, I used gouache to get the background sky, not pastel, as I did above.

The pastel colours do not sing out and appear flat and dull to me. I also felt there was too much foreground. So I tried again:

This time I obtained the background sky, as I did with first painting – scraping various pastels and wetting the scrapings to get an even background on pastel paper. I also reduced the foreground. It had a better saturation of colour at the end, but some of the darker colours failed to sing out. So that was when I resorted to the pastelmat.

I have used Clairefontaine pastelmat in the past and have always been happy with the results. I did not use it much as I couldnt find any larger sheets of it. The top painting was done on a 30x40cm sheet. Recently, someone told me bigger sheets were available and now I can get 50x70cm sheets which allows me to tackle slightly bigger pieces.

The downside of the pastelmat is the price and the lack of even bigger sheets. However, I wont be using it for life painting, and it is here where I go even larger, but it will allow me to do my small and medium size paintings and get some great vivacity of colour.

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

TIDAL STUDIES – PASTEL AND WATERCOLOUR

I was not satisfied with an earlier version of this painting which I’d posted a while ago. The foreground of the original had some of the scoured beach, but I felt it wasnt convincing. So out came the pastels and the tide came in a bit further.

Whilst I had my watercolours and pastels out I thought I would do a sketch of another seashore scene. I liked the way that the main wave seems to be sliding shoreward and I put in a gull just to complete the picture.

It would be nice to get down to a suitable beach to have a look at some stormy waves and get some inspiration. Our beach is sandy and slopes too gently seaward to get good crashing waves like these – leastways I’ve never seen any. I’ll just have to wait until I can get to a suitable coast – perhaps a holiday is due.

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

PORTRAIT AND LIFE – PASTEL PAINTINGS

I was going to show life paintings today, but on Sunday, when I turned up for the session, I was told that the model booked had called in at around 11pm on the previous night to say he couldnt make it. With some quick thinking, Phil, the guy organising the session, had roped in a fellow drinker at the pub he was at, to sit for a portrait. Who would have that job of organising models – it’s like herding cats? Well, you do get a few reliable ones, but the flakes make the job an unnecessarily difficult one.

So Trevor strode into the studio on Sunday morning. Two things I hate when painting people are glasses and beards, so I wasnt hopeful at the beginning, but decided to give it a go. However, the lighting was good and gave some interesting shadows and the greyness of the jersey, hair and beard seemed to set off the flesh tones well. So in the end it wasnt a wasted morning.

The previous week, at a different session, the model – Sarah, who is very reliable, did turn up. Though for her efforts it seems that I turned her into the ice maiden for reasons even unknown to me.

Though Roy, the organiser, had turned the heating full on so, rest assured, no model suffered unduly in the making of this picture.

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

LAST LIFE SESSIONS OF 2022 – PASTEL AND ACRYLIC

As the year has progressed I have upped the frequency of life sessions I attend, now about once a week. It isnt up to my prepandemic level mainly because some groups have folded. This Sunday I attended my last session of the year. It was rather a rushed affair as I realised late on that it clashed with my neighbour’s Christmas party not forgetting a world cup final. In the end I managed them all, getting two paintings in before an early departure, (the pastel above and the acrylic below), which left me time for indulging in some festive cheer and watching a bit of football.

In this Sunday sessions the model adopts one pose for the day, So here is Sarah, from two different angles. Sarah is quite proactive and has ideas for relatively interesting poses. Other models just come for a sit down and you can finish up with some very stiff poses which can come out looking strange like this one from the previous week.

This last one is also in acrylic and I have recently adopted a new approach in that I just mark the positions of the main features in charcoal before going in with colour, influenced by the position of the sitter. When the paint is dry I then restate and develop the figure in charcoal before continuing with painting. This results in some surprising colour combinations and so far I am pleased with the results and think there is plenty of scope for further development and refinement.

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

SUNLIT BIRCHES BY THE FOREST PATH 2 – PASTEL PAINTING

A few weeks ago I posted a version of this painting of Ainsdale Woods, near Southport, where I live and multiplemichael multiplemichael offered the criticism that it lacked a focus. I thought that I would repeat the painting and test this idea out. The only way I could introduce a focal point and maintain the spirit of the piece, as far as I could see, was to place two sunlit birches into the foreground to lead the eye into the scene and onto the spotlighted trees which was my initial impetus for the piece.

So here is my interpretation and I do think that the addition brings something extra to the image. Though, as is often the case when you repeat any painting, some of the subtleties of the first painting, which I liked, got lost. I may be able to regain these by further small adjustments.

A big issue I have had is getting a faithful reproduction of these images which, having a wide tonal range, can give some strange colour effects.

I have put a copy of the first version below for comparison. I certainly appreciate any critical comments, as it makes me aware of issues I may have overlooked. It can prove very useful and I value it higher than praise.

Just a pity the spineless troll doesnt possess the same skillset, then it might be worth reading its splenetic autorepeat-rants.

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

MORE LIFE PAINTING – PASTEL AND ACRYLIC

My life (though, not the painting of it) has been a bit hectic of late, getting ready for 3 exhibitions, one solo and two joint. Tomorrow I am manning one of these as someone has dropped out – and it is only the second day. Anyway, it will allow me to paint all day at least. I’m not hopeful, in this present economic climate of sales or even visitors at our exhibitions. So there may be plenty of time to fill, though maybe I am being overly pessimistic as I did sell a painting this week from my website.

So without any of my landscapes or seascapes to show, here are some of the figurative sketches I’ve done recently at workshops. I have been trying to get along at least once a week to one of the sessions held in these parts.

I find I am labouring when I use acrylics – failing to get the effects I am after. The top two paintings are pastels and I am trying a direct approach with these, though I do want to introduce more colour, but not as much as I’ve done in the past. With the acrylics – these last two paintings – I still have issues with the tonal changes.

With the Eve, above, I realised late on, that her lower right arm was about to be too long and I spent the last fifteen minutes of the session, frantically reworking the legs and right arm and hand: she doesnt appear to be too happy about it.

Perhaps with this one of Arthur, above, in acrylics, I started to get a more painterly effect, but it still needs to be worked on to get further variation of hue that I am after.

But it is all practice, challenged by a ticking clock, it does make you speed up and make quicker decisions – occasionally the right one.

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

SUNLIT BIRCHES BY THE FOREST PATH – PASTEL PAINTING

I mentioned in my previous post about a cycleride in the afternoon sun, last Saturday. Here is another in the small series of paintings from that trip. This one’s a pastel. The low afternoon sun pierces through gaps in the forest, picking out skeletal birch trees, which hang there, like automatons on a ghost train ride, scaring no one.

A fellow blogger, N, from Ink,Yarn and Beer told me to look at the pastel work of Karen Margulis. In one utube video she used a wet brush to spread and mix the pastel across her support. When I’ve done this the paper cockles, making further work difficult. But recently I have been using gouache as a base for dark areas in my pastels and havent had any issues. So, for the forest background, I dragged down purples, siennas and browns with a wet brush to create a backdrop, using Karen’s approach. I also did it in the sky. With the amount of water kept to a minimum it seemed to work. When the sky and backforest was dry, I went in with the foreground trees, grasses and the leaf covered path.

It is a dark piece and I am a little undecided about it, particularly its commercial potential, but I’ll put it up and see how I feel about it in the coming days. I have another watercolour on the go from this trip and am thinking of making the previous painting of the birch copse with shadows, into a bigger acrylic piece.

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