Portrait Commission: the planning stage

After the whirlwind of the London show subsided, I started my work in earnest on my new portrait commission of a lovely lady called Katie, of Miss Katie Cupcake in Edinburgh.
My brief was to portray her as a demure and vintage style damsel, featuring her favourite things, such as a fabulous black jet necklace, a fur stole and of course, one of my granny's teacups that she fell in love with.

Study of Katie with teacup, charcoal on paper

The first stage in a portrait commission is to meet the sitter and take photographs for the poses, but also at least one drawing from life. This sketch only takes about 20 minutes, but gives me a chance to study the sitter's face a little closer and understand how that person looks in 3 dimensions. This experience really helps when being left with the flat reference photos in the studio. We had a lot of fun with the photos, but I never post these up, as I am a terrible photographer!

Study of Katie in sepia, done from a live sitting.

The next stage is to select the best poses and make some drawn studies from these, with a view to making a rough plan of the overall composition of the final painting, and to help the client choose how they want to look.

Study of Katie with necklace, pencil on paper

Study of Katie with necklace, pencil on paper

Study of Katie with teacup, charcoal on paper

Study of Katie with teacup, charcoal on paper

I also collect together reference material for background textures and colour reference, which in Katie's case, is faded pink roses, old love letters and vintage style photographs. Not all of this will appear in the final painting, but I like to gather a feel for the direction the work will take.

A photo of the lovely things in Katie's shop, Miss Katie cupcake

 Once the sitter has chosen their favourite pose, I make a small oil study to see how colours will roughly work, and if the pose will be the most suitable.

Study of Katie, Oil on canvas, 18 x 24cm

Once this has been OK'd by the sitter, I start the fun of drawing up the composition on the full sized canvas, ready to paint. Watch this space, where I will post up the painting stage by stage.

A Brush With Burlesque

 

I have been neglecting this blog, but only because I have been stupidly busy with creating new work for A Brush With Burlesque show in London, organsied by Mark and Sarah Bell of Kinky & Quirky productions.

Originally the exhbition was to be 6 artists, but as there are so few outlets for showing burlesque inspired art, the number of people involved grew to 12 in total. Mark himself was also showing 8 stunning portraits of his favourite performers, dancing in the setting of his own club nights.

I deliberated over what to send, but practicality won out and I sent a selection of smaller works alongside 3 key larger pieces. One of these was my brand new portrait of Daiquiri Dusk, which I have named Popcorn & Corsets, after the theme of her act.

Popcorn & Corsets, Oil on canvas, 60 x 80cm

 I had been feeling for some time that my work had taken a dark turn and I had lost all my love of colour that I once had. Perhaps it was the greyness of the Glasgow weather, or the current fashion in Scottish figure painting for realistic, limited palette work that had influenced me. But moving into a new light filled studio in the city centre, I was inspired to try something more vibrant, and less safe. I am very pleased with the final painting, but it is very much a starting point for a new line of work I am embarking on.

Me posing with my paintings, wearing my Vivienne of Holloway dress

Cherry Shakewell and Vicky Butterfly have a chat in front of my work

Here is a shot of the press opening night in full swing. There were many folks from the burlesque royalty, including one of my favourite models, Beatrix Von Bourbon of BGT fame and Vivienne of Holloway, who makes such fabulous dresses!

The show is open for just over another week, until 13th May 2012 as part of the London Burlesque Festival, so pop along if you can.

A Brush with Burlesque
The East Gallery
Brick Lane, London

iPad portrait

As a bit of experiment, I have been taking my new iPad to my life drawing sessions. In the past I have made colour studies of the models in oil paint, but the finished boards are never easy to transport, without getting oil paint everywhere! For this study I used the Brushes app. The result is a little soft, but I love the amount of colour that is available for use.

This portrait was done using the Sketchbook Pro app. I prefer this one as the brushes are more controllable and the blending better. I also like being able to add photos into the layers, meaning that I could incorporate the fabric that the model was standing on as a backdrop to the painting.

28 Drawings Later challenge 2012

I missed this last year, so I was very excited to have the chance to join in. The challenge is to draw something every day during the month of February and post it onto the facebook page for everyone to see. It happens that I am touring around northern Argentina for the month, so I have decided to post pictures from my travel sketchbook. I will add each day in order until the end of the month when I will do one big picture for the final exhibition in Glasgow at the Old Hairdresser's on the 4th March.

1 FEB 2012 : KLM flight Amsterdam to Sau Paulo

2 FEB: La Esquina de Gorriti y Uriarte, Buenos Aires

3 FEB: La Boca, Buenos Aires

4 FEB: La Fabrica Del Taco, Buenos Aires

5 FEB: La Esquina de Gorriti y Thames, Buenos Aires

6 FEB: Palza 9 de Julio, Salta City

More to follow...

BP portrait competition entry 2012

It's that time of year again when the competitions across the country start calling for entries. My choices for February are the BP Portrait Award, the Lynn-Painter Stainers Prize, and the Royal Portrait Society Annual Exhibition. They are all due in at pretty much the same time and are all London based, so the considerations are mainly the cost of sending the work down there from Glasgow rather than having enough work to go round.

I have been working on a series of portraits of the incredibly beautiful Missy Malone. I love every painting I make of her, and I was very honoured when she agreed to come and model for some paintings. She has given me a painting challenge in return, to portray her sitting on an elephant, so watch this space during March for progress. The pose I chose for the portrait is a demure one, where she is at rest sipping a nice cup of tea. I have been moving towards portraing the burlesque performers, not only in the throws of a performance, but also at rest. The final one is an oil painting, 100 x 80cm large, and is simply called 'Missy' and I hope she likes it as much as I do.


So back to the competitions; the Royal Portrait Society has started an interedting idea of judging works online, so you still pay your £12 per work, but you only send it down if you get picked. This is a great bonus for artists living outside London. The Stainer-Painter prize always has interesting mix of work, but as I want to try and  promote myself more as a portrait painter, so the other two win my money this year. Wish me luck!

New Year, New Studio

For over 6 years I have been working out of a bedroom studio in my home. My house was getting more and more full of paintings and art paraphenalia and I was also concerned that the house smelt of turps constantly. So, with trepidation, I put my name down on the waiting list for a WASPS studio at the beginning of the year, not expecting anything to happen for at least 3 years.
 
With all the new refurbishments going on with the WASPS studios around Glasgow, there were a lot of artists moving from one studio to another and I got the fabulous opportunity of a proper artist's studio in the refurbished Briggait building in the Merchant City, a very bohemian end of Glasgow. I was offered the studio in December and started the long task of moving in my equipment and furniture on the 4th January.

Here is the studio before I moved in. It didn't look so big when it was empty.

I have now moved in a small amount of my stuff and the place is looking quite homely and nicely minimalist (for me). I am not sure how long that will last, but I will enjoy it while I still have plenty of floorspace. I love it there as the light is amazing; I have a wall that is completely glass plus some of the ceiling too. I cannot wait until the summer when I will get so many more hours of daylight. My husband is worried that he will never see me!

So now, if you want to see my work, I will also have a continuous little show of paintings, framed, and in progress, in studio 203. Come and say hi (but call first to get let in)!

Shoredich Street Art Inspiration!

not quite a tropical holiday

In November, my husband and I toyed with the idea of going on a wee holiday to somewhere warm, but for some reason we were drawn to London, as we hadn't been down for a while. We decided to go for a long weekend and booked into the swanky Hoxton Hotel in Shoredich, and area we had never been to before.

ROA rat artwork

On getting off at Old Street, I spied this brillaint piece of street art, and knew we were staying in the right area for an artist and a photographer to visit. The area of Hoxton and Shoredich has changed from a down at heel place to one of the hippest areas I have been to. They even have their own fashion style, and they are called the Hoxton Hipsters.

poster street art seen from the hotel window

Art behind a steel fence, near the Hoxton Hotel.

Near the hotel were two great cafe bars. The Breakfast club with a distinctly 80s vibe and The Book Club on Leopold Street, that had wonderful illustrations painted onto he walls as well as a fab exhbition of drawings (sorry, I didn;t write down the name of the artist). The food was great too.

the Book Club, Leopold Street, London

Scarey Bridge Art

painting under the bridge on the other side.

On Sunday, we headed down towards Brick Lane for the market, and took in some of the great street art on the way, as well as on the street.

 This one was created by chipping the plaster away from the wall to make the tones in the face. From a distance it just looked painted!
All along Brick Lane, gems of urban art could be spotted behind the busy stalls selling vintage clothing, antiques and knocked off bike parts.

Picasso lives!

Muerte Boy

A real banksy? Who can say

The Big Chill Bar

 Every street corner was an inspiration for this artist who is tired of seeing the same old commercial and classical art out there. This art was raw, exciting and urban. It often had something to say and was free for all to enjoy. Some may hate it and see it as simply vandalism, but art like this, for me, is nothing short of absolute inspiration!