This a a ten-day burst of blogs! I am writing these posts to 'flesh out' my Instagram 10-day challenge. I have decided on a theme called: The Colour of Landscape Day 6 There are so many ways to start a painting, but I find the most successful ways that work for me is to either use a tonal underpainting - usually Ochre and umber, or to use a colour beginning. In The Black Pine, I have shown the 'first pass' which is a colour beginning. This enables me to use glazing and impasto, turbid areas … [Read more...]

I am currently taking part in a ten day challenge to publish posts on a theme for 10 consecutive days. I am giving more detail about my posts on the blog. My theme is The Colour of Landscape. In After an introduction of my background (Days 1-3) I have started showing the process of my journey back to my oil painting roots. (Even though I had never painted landscapes!) Day 5: One has to revisit basics in order to move forward, so I needed to go back to more naturalistic compositions and … [Read more...]

I am currently taking part in a ten day challenge to publish posts on a theme for 10 consecutive days. I am giving more detail about my posts on the blog. My theme is The Colour of Landscape. In Days 1 - 3 I introduced my thoughts about landscape and showed my background as a Word Artist. Day 4 The Colour of Landscape In my first year back at painting in oils I did a multitude of small 'Daily Painting Still Lifes'. My fine arts degree in oil painting went back so many years that when I … [Read more...]

This is Day 3 of the Instagram #tendaychallenge and I was nominated by su@bonfanti, who was a part of my ‘Artists’ books journey’ ten years ago. I would like to nominate @ronniecruwys. I am posting on my blog to add information to my Instagram posts. Day 3 If I don't mention my years as a lettering artist / book artist, there will be a massive gap in my story, even though the theme is The Colour of Landscape. I guess my for much of my artistic career, my landscape was words, fine lettering and … [Read more...]

I am honoured to have been nominated to do the #tendaychallenge by su@bonfanti. As a sequel to the Instagram posts I am giving more detail on my blog. Day 2:  As a young artist in South Africa in the 70’s we took inspiration from the UK and USA (refer to Modernists and Mavericks by Gayford, to get the mood!). Our work was abstract, hard-edge and explored shapes and space. Forty-five years later, in 2016, I came back to oils as an art teacher, graphic designer and word artist, never … [Read more...]