My new online gallery

I'm feeling very accomplished this morning - I have spent a few hours working on my website design, getting to grips with google-sites and can finally reveal my new art gallery!

You can click on the link on my navigation bar across the top of my blog, or follow this link to have a peek

Click on this link to view my new art gallery

I'm still having a few problems getting some of the pictures to click through to  my shop so I have also included links underneath the images too.

The next step is to add my own shopping cart using Paypal. It looks simple enough, but all these things take time and are always far more complex than expected - the tiniest typo can cause massive headaches, so that will have to wait for another day. Hats off to all the web-developers out there! 

Please let me know what you think - all suggestions for improvements will be gratefully received.

Stephie

Edit: shortly after posting this link I lost all owner-access to my new gallery. Horrified, I spent another hour trying to get it back - the solution was simple: log out and log back in again. If only I had heeded those wise words from IT help-desks all over "Have you rebooted your machine?"





Thanks so much for dropping by, I do hope you enjoy reading my blog. Why not leave a comment to say hello so that I know you called? Feel free to link back to your own blog too.

Stephie

I'm featured in this lovely article!

I'm absolutely thrilled to have been interviewed by Maxine of Paper, Chains and Beads - a wonderful artist who creates some fabulous ink art.

You can read the interview by following this link: paperchainsandbeads.blogspot.co.uk

Please also take time to look at Max's wonderful ink art, you can follow the link below to browse more of her work.

Paper, Chains and Beads Folksy Shop - Art section

Thanks so much for dropping by, I do hope you enjoy reading my blog. Why not leave a comment to say hello so that I know you called? Feel free to link back to your own blog too.

Stephie

What does YOUR snowman get up to at night?

Are you ready for winter? My snowmen certainly are...

Jolly snowman

What does YOUR snowman get up to at night?

Thanks so much for dropping by, I do hope you enjoy reading my blog. Why not leave a comment to say hello so that I know you called? Feel free to link back to your own blog too.

Stephie

I've added a 'follow by email' box to my blog

Following some helpful feedback, I've added a 'follow by email' box to my blog.

Setting up this blog has been, and continues to be, a real challenge for me. Having spent 16 years programming computers, I thought I was fairly computer literate - but NO, it turns out there is a lot more to this than I thought!

And I still need to learn so much. Next I think I'll tackle how to set up a slideshow on my blog, but it will have to wait until another day...I can't take any more right now!




Thanks so much for dropping by, I do hope you enjoy reading my blog. Why not leave a comment to say hello so that I know you called? Feel free to link back to your own blog too.

Stephie

I taught my first watercolour class today!

Teaching art to committed adults is very much one of my long term goals. Today it became one step closer.

I am a member of my local art group, we meet for two hours every Friday morning. The group has been meeting up for over 12 years, and most of the members have been with them for the whole time. They're a very friendly bunch, and when I joined in January I offered to share my skills with them. Mostly it's a free and easy format, come along and paint and chat. Really that should be chat and paint, as an awful lot of chatting and not so much painting gets done!

Once a term the club organises a demonstration, and this morning I took centre stage and taught the group how to use clingfilm and salt to create dramatic watercolours.

I began by demonstrating how to paint a tree trunk using clingfilm, and secondly how to create a canopy of leaves using the same technique. The group then went away to try it out, and I wandered around to make sure they were all coping. Some needed more help than I expected - everyone clearly doesn't find it as easy as I do! But after half an hour everyone had something resembling bark and leaves.

Next I demonstrated how to create these leaves using clingfilm, salt and negative painting. Everyone was most keen to try this, and again they all created something that they were either happy with, or were happy to work on further at home.

Autumn Leaves created using salt, clingfilm and negative painting techniques

The fourth demo was the sea effect that I used in this lighthouse. Although using the same technique, this is definitely trickier to achieve than the previous exercises as this requires careful placement of paint, water and salt.

Sea effect using salt, clingfilm and water. Sky using salt and water.

Finally I did a quick demonstration of how to use the clingfilm in straight lines to paint a door, using salt and water to achieve a peeling paint result. Sadly we had run out of time for them to try the door, but hopefully they will now be able to apply this technique to other objects.

The group all seemed to be happy with their morning's work - and I haven't been banned so it must have been OK! Not everyone will use the technique, but I could see the light of inspiration shining in some eyes as we left...I can't wait to see what they bring back to show next week!




Thanks so much for dropping by, I do hope you enjoy reading my blog. Why not leave a comment to say hello so that I know you called? Feel free to link back to your own blog too.

Stephie

Granulation Medium

I bought some granulation medium earlier in the week, and this morning I've finally found time to have a play with it and to share my findings with you.

To make the comparison, I have used a standard 300gsm "not surfaced" paper and the following paints:

• W&N Cotman UltraMarine - normally very flat and uniform,
• W&N Artists French UltraMarine - naturally granulates providing an artistically uneven wash

I'm very impressed with the results. Once the granulation medium is added, it's very difficult to tell the difference between the Cotman and the Artists UltraMarines. I think the granulation medium adds depth and variety to the Cotman paint, and will be very useful when a flat wash is not required.

This photo shows the paints whilst still wet:

And this one shows the paints now dry:

 

 

The next photo shows the effect on the following colours:

• W&N Cotman Turquoise - normally flat and uniform,
• W&N Cotman Cerulean - normally flat and uniform,
• W&N Cotman Alirizan Crimson - normally flat and uniform,
• Derwent Aquafine Sap Green - naturally granulates providing an artistically uneven wash
• W&N Cotman Burnt Umber - normally flat and uniform,
• W&N Artists Burnt Umber - naturally granulates providing an artistically uneven wash

 

 

I hope you found this blog post useful - feel free to ask any questions in the comments box below.

Stephie

The value of photographs

There are many tutorials on the use of photographs in creating art - composition, how much detail to include, colour distortion, capturing the feel and mood of the occassion etc. But one thing I have never read is that taking a photograph of your artwork-in-progress and looking at it on the computer screen can be really helpful.

I find it absoloutely fascinating that a photograph of what I think is a finished piece of artwork can show me that it is not at all finished! 

This is a watercolour of my daughter out horseriding in Cornwall

Straight away I can see what needs to be done next - I most definitely need to work on the depth. At the moment the difference between foreground and background is too great. The middle distance needs some development with mid toned greens whilst still keeping the far distance lighter to keep it further away.

When I've done the middle distance I'll take another photo and review it again. I have a feeling that perhaps the sunset will need strengthening.

If I haven't got a camera handy then I will often review my work using a mirror - I stand a little way from the mirror and look at the reflection of my painting. It gives me distance from the painting, and sometimes reversing the image can help with perspective.

Well, off I go to add in those mid-toned greens, and maybe a little more purple too.

Have a great day!





Thanks so much for dropping by, I do hope you enjoy reading my blog. Why not leave a comment to say hello so that I know you called? Feel free to link back to your own blog too.

Stephie