mona roberta

Roberta is a fellow art student who agreed to sit for us in the portrait class. I thought the background of the famous Mona Lisa by Leonardo Di Vinci would be fitting as Roberta is Italian.

Todays life class

Charcoal on paper A2



Life drawing

A charcoal drawing today on A2 paper.



If you want a Cathedral we've got one to spare

After sketching both of our cathedrals last year I thought it was about time I did some oil paintings of them. Two wonderful buildings and both quite different. The aptly named Hope street has each cathedral situated at opposite ends. The anglican cathedral was painted alla prima. I have painted a night time scene with the stars swirling around in the heavens The solid sandstone turning to a dark red and the tower looking menacing but the warm glow of light emanates from inside the cathedrel and is welcoming.The view is from St James cemetry

The catholic cathedral is done in a very different style.After a careful drawing the colours are built up slowly with layers of paint. A late afternoon on a winters day with the last rays of sunshine lighting up the cathedrel and the philharmionic pub.

Liverpool anglican cathedral   Oil on board painted alla prima

 Liverpool Catholic cathedral. Oil on board. Not quite finished yet. Still a couple of tweeks here and there to do

A copy of  Eugene Delacroix's  'Orphan Girl in the cemetry'',   Drybrush.

Life class

 drybrush

 pen and water colour

 pencil and water colour

 charcoal

 oil

oil

Some portraits and a renoir

 These 2 portraits are practice copies of an artist called Morgan Weistling. Both done alla prima

 I could not sleep one night last year and painted this self portrait at 3 am, alla prima. Mostly done with a palette knife. Not a very good likeness though.

 A couple of girls having fun in the street fountain at Williamson Square

Renoirs 'The Swing' done in acrylic a few years ago.

Some sketchbook stuff from 2011

A portrait copied from a painting by the american artist Thomas Eakin

 These 2 portraits above are done in drybrush oil paint technique.

 A sketch of Julia Bradbury and friend  hiking in Iceland

 A pair of common gulls      gouache

The 2 above are watercolours done in my sketchbook at the life class.

A new year

2011 was without doubt the worst year of my life. I wont go into details but on a personal view there were some devastating events in my life. I will try to move on , I have to. The only bit of good news was that my beautiful grand daughter Pheobe was born and I write this entry on her first birthday. I have been creating a bit of art and it has helped me tremendously to get through the termoil of 2011. I will post my pictures from 2011 in blocks with a few discription here and there. I will now try to keep this blog updated throughout the year.

These oil portraits were done with live models at a portrait class I attend.

Our lovely granddaughter Phoebe born 13th January

Oil painting
   The face has 3 layers of oil paint but the blanket is just a single layer to keep this loose. A small painting about 8 x10 ins is now framed sitting in my daughters living room.

Some copies of the Russian and English masters. Fechin, Blohkin and Freud are wonderful painters. I just love the looseness but the portraits are so alive without the need for photographic details