Halloween

Anita bought a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. It was quite difficult to do and resulted in Matthew's assistance. Here is the finished result which is a very friendly pumpkin!

Joe has a hair cut

We decided that Joe looked far too much like Albert Einstein and needed a hair cut. This is Joe before he had his hair cut up a tree in Cornwall Park.

Kotaro

Here is a new painting I've started of Kotaro Suzuki, who is staying with us for some months. He spent a lot of time learning one of Bach's preludes and I thought it would be good to see as a painting.

College Rifles Badminton Hall.
I've got to prepare a speech for the AGM coming up in November and I find the best time to write it is 4 am.

Another sunny day on the roof. The wind didn't get up until about midday when it took me by surprise and knocked the canvas off the easel onto my palette. A few splodges of paint and some swearing later, I secured it again only to have the same thing happen again.
Here is the result of the mornings painting.
I am getting 6 paintings ready for an exhibition which I'm getting a bit anxious about and I want to include this one. I is not quite finished though and the deadline is this weekend!

Another windy and hot day on the roof.

Today wasn't as windy as yesterday, but my canvas still got blown off the easel as soon as my back was turned. How do these 'plein air' painters manage without having to wait for weeks for the perfect day with a clouldless sky and not a breath of wind? Today for example if I saw that the sun had come out, I made my way upstairs but by the time I got set up, a large dark cloud had come over and a shower started! Off I trot with canvas, easel, paints etc inside.

Anyway here are the results of today's painting.

The partition wall is complete and I've gibstopped (filled the holes in the plasterboard) and painted it so it is ready for visitors or another homestay. Here it is from the outside of the room.


and here is Joe helping me build it.

A great windy day for painting on the roof

Today was a hot and windy day for painting on the roof. I have no pictures from today either of the hot windy weather directly or of the painting I have started, so here instead is an old one of a lovely hot day in Coromandel when we were on holiday:

And here's one of the others on the beach when it was not quite so sunny.

I will update you on the progress of the new bedroom tomorrow with some photos. (that is if anyone is watching!!)

Busy week after the flu.

At the beginning of the week I thought I'd had it. I had a bad case of flu' and several days in bed looking at the sky through the bedroom window. When I thought I was getting better I got up and started building another bedroom downstairs in the area where we used to watch tv.
That area we have since vacated as we moved the tv upstairs and we found it just to be a vacant space.


So, here it is semi built. After I got this far I was in bed for 2 days. Anyway, with the use of a nail gun borrowed from Barry Bright, it was up pretty quickly.

Stadt Weimar at Auckland Port

Here is the painting of the ship so far.
I'm trying to create a bright sunny day which is from imagination as when I saw the boat, it was raining so those drawings and photos I took had a completely different look.

New painting of the port

I have started something a bit different. It's come out of the cityscapes and I'm not sure where it is going but here is the drawing. You can just make out the cranes over the container ship.

It is bigger than anything so far and on a large easel which I can pull up and down using a small pulley.

You can see another idea I had underneath. A double portrait of Anita and Myself. I wasn't happy with it so am trying something new.

I've finished the painting of Tom at last. Anita suggested I get rid of the mysterious sheet behind him because it was distracting. so I've done that and kept it simple. I also brightened up the carpet area in front of him to create a pool of light there. I think it is better so I'm going to leave it as it is. You can see it at the Paintings site: www.gallerynewzealand.blogspot.com

I have got into an exhibition called the Original Art Sale at the TelstraClear Pacific Centre http://www.theoriginalartsale.co.nz/
which is happening at the end of August/early September, so I'm getting 6 paintings ready for that.

I've been painting a few oil sketches too. Cityscapes and views from the roof. Yesterday I was up there sheltering from showers which came every half an hour and trying to paint at the same time! One of the sketches is of Devenport and Rangitoto Island which I intend to make up into a big painting. Could be one for the exhibition if it turns out OK.

I thought I'd have a go at a still life because I havn't got anybody new to sit for a portrait. So to keep myself busy I'm doing a big cityscape during the day and this still life during the night.
The cityscapes are on a new blog which you will see at sidebar.

This one is oil on board, size: 24"x24" and shows the first coat on most of it plus a 2nd coat on the brown bottle.
I didn't do an underpaint on this, just a charcoal drawing which I scuffed out and then another charcoal drawing which I was happy with.

update on Tom WIP

It's a bad photo I know but it shows what I need to change in this new painting. That is the right lower leg length which is too long. I should have taken more time at the underpaiting stage.!!

WIP anita standing

Sorry this is blurry. (I need to use a tripod but have left it at Figgins.)
Now I've replaced it with a new photo.

New painting of Anita started

I started this one last weekend and this was how it was after the first paint of the head.
I will post more soon of updates.

Paintings and drawings on new site

I'm posting new paintings and drawings on the other sites, accessible from the links on the right. There is a new oil of Anita and Rainny and lots more drawings from our trip to the Coromandel at Easter.
We'll go back to posting other stuff here like photos of that holiday.

Update on Standing SP

Here is a detail of the head which is about 2 inches in length.
And below is the half length detail. I've used a limited palette for this painting so far.

New websites

Don't forget to check out the new sites from the links to the right.

Charcoal drawing

Here's a big charcoal drawing. It's on A1 size paper which is 23" x 33"
I wanted to do a big drawing and have found it difficult to get the scales right in different areas as I am looking in one direction only without being able to see the rest.