Seaside underpainting

It feels like a week since I last posted, I'm most surprised to find it was only Friday! So far it seems my impetuous for blogging is working - I hoped it would help focus me creatively, and so far so good.

Yesterday I began another painting - so far just the initial under painting done, and I can already see the changes to be made on the next sitting, but fell happy with it as a start. It's based around two photos of loved ones and places from home. I've been thinking of this painting for such a long time now, its good to see it coming out.

 

 

 

Over the weekend I got up to a bit of knitting. I bought this ball of mohair in Helsinki a while back, and thought it would be a nice therapeutic bit of knitting this weekend, to knit up a scarf, after the cardigan fiasco. I hadn't realised how much green was in the mix, so it's even brighter than I expected. It will certainly be hard to lose me in winter with this and my orange winter coat.

 

 

And a bit of 'un' knitting - pulled back all of the disaster cardigan and bundled it up ready for washing and winding back into balls.

 

 

 

 

As it was the weekend, and we had a birthday in the house, I also enjoyed quite a bit of this!

 

 

 

 

Snow Hare painting, memories of Scandavia

I finally sat at my easel today, for the first time in months. And set to work on a painting of a snow hare based on this sketch I drew in Stockholm at the Natural History Museum. I spent a great day sketching there, although I recall at the end of the day having to wait 12 minutes for the bus, and learning just how cold you get standing still for 12 minutes in minus 14 degrees Celsius, even though I was completely bundled up.

 

Some time back I had roughly drawn the outline on some acrylic paper, and painted the foreground in what I thought would be a nice contrast, using bold red. 

At my first major pause from painting today, walking away for a while, I took another look and all I could see was a hare bleeding everywhere! The red had to go, and the feet definitely needed more work.

 

Much happier with the cooler foreground. Overall I'm fairly pleased with how it's coming along, certainly it still needs more work, mostly around the feet, the foreground, and more definition around the snout. I'm really pleased with the colourings in the fur, and the eyes though.

 



At one point today I knocked the Reindeer pelt off my painting stool - what, doesn't everyone have Reindeer pelt at home? This is a much loved souvenir of our first visit to Helsinki, and our first sightings of real reindeer trotting around in snow. I've really fallen for them, they are awkward, gangly, and the little ones struggle to co-ordinate such enormously long legs (being a klutz who can trip over a shadow, perhaps I relate). They always remind me of one of those toys where you press the base and the animal collapses, their real legs seem as unstable as these toys. Anyway - I've digressed slightly there.

 

What I noticed today that made me smile, and is so reminiscent of Finnish advertising (or I suppose IKEA instructions), was this sticker on the bottom of the pelt. 'what is this for? it is for sitting on!'

 



Have a good weekend!