Open Air Painting: Methodist Chapel

Today’s painting was created on location. (This is often known as ‘plein air’ painting. If you invent Impressionism, you get to set the language of the lexicon.) I set up at the top of Victoria Avenue. (People not in Cambridge:

Still Life, Roses and Reflections: Day 9a

Day 10 was a half day, so filed under 9a, not 10. I did other things in the studio as well, after three or four hours of work on this. I am now on the top layer, which means I’m

Still Life, Roses and Reflections: Day 9

Today’s painting was the hardest so far, for two reasons. I had to paint ellipses with complex parts, and my shoulder really hurts. Precision in painting comes at a cost of sometimes maintaining stress positions, and lately I’ve been getting

Allegro, Day 4

Today’s work on the Allegro was mostly making good on my promises from last time. I had solved most of the problems by the end of day 3, in that I knew where the boat was, what colour the sea

Dragons: Day 4 – the rocks

Day 4 was a faintly annoying day. I had to mix a blue that was darker than the colour out by the entrance, as if the yellow had been removed as the sunlight faded. However, there was not any yellow

Still Life, Roses and Reflections: Day 8

Today was a really, really difficult day. The copper jug was always going to be hard to do. It’s a mixture of an imperfect mirror, a cylinder, an overall colour, and a lot of drapery and complicated reflection. Ignore the

Dragons: Day 3 – the lighting

The dragon cave is going to be made up of receding layers of rock, going back towards the outside, where a dragon is silhouetted. The further back a layer, the earlier I should be painting it, which in this case