I shifted straight into sheep mode this weekend after another
busy, but art-less week. I am very pleased with the square frames I pre-ordered online, as recommended by my friend Louise Worthy and I have at last found the
thin black wooden moulding I had been searching for. Yesterday I sat down to
ponder what shape sheep to put in them! So many photos, so many live subjects
just outside the door - but what to
paint? I decided to work on a set of four lambs. This little sweety sat on the doorstep
of our neighbour's bothy, soaking up the sun and asking for a portrait – so I
obliged.
It’s a bit of a challenge and somewhat back-to-front to
compose your art to suit your frame, but it limited my choices and helped make
some decisions. My source photo was very colourful, so to ensure I achieved a
balanced design I selected my pastels from a tetrad of red, violet, yellow and
green and then closed the lid of my pastel box so that I was not tempted to
reach for any more. At the very end I lifted the lid and added some off-white
to the very lightest lamby bits and a very dark violet-brown for the darkest
shadowy bits – this seemed to lift the composition as well as make a connection
with the frame and cream mount. Henry named this painting “Easter Sunday” and
now I shall make a start on “Good Friday” (back-to-front and a bit behind as
usual).
A tetrad of tasty pastels (Titus thought so when he knocked them on the floor) |
"Easter Sunday" 20 x 20cm |
Framed picture against newly painted door, obscured by Pumpkin |
2 comments:
Adorable Angela... perfectly captured and fascinating 'explanation' as always. x
This is gorgeous. How lovely to have the wee lambie against a background of something other than just grass to add interest. Looks great framed too.
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