Development – Newby Head

I went round the back of our house to paint the new barn conversion, but it looked so soulless compared with the original old farmhouse that I couldn’t face painting it. I comfort myself with the thought that all building was development once. I had to give a wry smile when I saw this week’s topic (perspective) – just draw a line down the lean to roof towards the vanishing point beyond the lane – some mistake I think. Obviously the O level classes on the subject have been long forgotten!

Underground by Jane

Coal Mine

Gothic by Sue Middlesex

This is from a church grave yard but I had to imagine the night time bit.  I got quite scared whilst painting this, mainly over my inability to draw!

Underground by Sue middlesex

underground by Sue middlesex

Gothic (fashion)

Gothic (fashion) by Jane

Gothic – on remembering the day at Leighton Moss

I’ll leave you to guess the Gothic element. Suffice to say that I did not do this from life (I should be so lucky), and my finished effort is a million miles from what I had in my imagination. Hey ho.

Gothic by David

Gothic - St Mary the Virgin, Hampton, Middlesex

After a late arrival home from work i did a quick circuit of possible local gothic piles. Walpole’s, St Mary’s College and The Teddington Landmark Art Centre proved difficult to get a good view. I headed on to the vaguely Gothic St Mary’s Church in Hampton and was delighted to get a seat in the graveyard, beneath the bell tower, in the dying light, with a blasted Chestnut tree zagging across the foreground of the church. I took a digital snap in case the light went altogether.

The subject

The more I worked on this the darker it got both in my picture and outside. At stages i was quite pleased then messed it up by trying to adjust tones. I completed most of the picture and decided i ought to leave as a hunched figure in the graveyard after dark might look too suspicious. In the end I felt i did the Gothic theme justice (spot the bat) but it was another of my overworked efforts. My centre lines on the building and perspective were also suspect.

Celebrity by David

Celebrity or poser?

Oh the cringing embarrassment of it all. A week late and I still haven’t come up with a worthy subject. I had the bright idea of painting a pineapple as a ‘celebrity fruit’ sitting among other fruit. Unfortunately M&S pienapples are dark green to the point of black, so my celebrity ended up looking more like Darth Vader. The painting was so horrible I am only reproducing a thumbnail here.

I then took to hunting round the house to find a celbrity prop – sunglasses! Having painted them I decided to tackle the subject head on and add a celebrity. The gold tooth resembles a bad tooth and the celebrity is definately b list. Any resemblance to me is purely coincidental!

Oh the pineapple:

Darth vader of pineapples

Underground by Sue (Cumbria)

Piece of rock with a worm cast fossil

Here’s my latest offering. It’s a piece of rock with a worm cast fossil. It’s actually the imprint of a sandy shore, with wave cut ripples, and presumably the worm was some kind of lug worm, so I’m stretching the Underground theme a bit.

I wanted to add a live worm beside or on top of it, but I could only find really tiny, lively worms in the garden, that kept escaping from their pot. Where were all those huge sluggish worms I usually can’t help finding?
I used my watercolour pencils – there are only a few in the tin, so the colours are rather lurid.

Once again, I feel I’ve failed to get the tonal differences right. It’s not immediately clear that what I’ve painted is essentially a cube with differently shaded sides and top.

Craft by (Cumbria)

Boat Floating in a Bowl

Here is the Craft painting. I was trying to make a triple pun: craft = boat, craft = painted plate and craft = cunning, showing boat sailing on blue sea.

I wanted to contrast the acid and crude colours of the plastic boat with the softer more natural colours of the plate, but my attempts to show shadows and tone on the boat muddied the colours too much.