The Tablecloth and the Giant Peg

Bob is home and is doing well. We are hoping this is the end of it. He's sick of going to hospital and he wants his life back. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and well wishes.

I'm working on a new piece. The canvas is on the large side as usual. I can't get my paintings to work on a smaller scale. The canvas is 101.6x76.2cm (40"x30") and I started with the theme of washing on the line. I always start with a photo. I can see what composition works and change the subject matter etc. Anyway after quite a few photos and strange looks from my son as I was standing on a stool in order to get the right angle of the washing line, I settled on a photo of a red and white checked tablecloth being held down by a peg (see image below). Now you think this would be an easy thing to draw but as I found out today the red and white checks take on all sorts of odd shapes depending on the fall of the fabric.


What I decided to do is to depict the checks in various altered and stained newspaper so after taking photos I went to work on some papers to make sure I had enough to choose from. It will probably look more like a patchwork quilt than a tablecloth but that's ok. At this stage the background will consist of text being stamped on with medium. This forms a bit of a resist when you paint over it and the result should be some subtle text showing through in the 'sky'. I won't have any of the buildings or other things in the painting. Just the tablecloth and the peg. As the canvas is on the large side the peg will be huge. It will be about 35cm in length which is roughly 14". My love of inanimate objects continues and this time I'm showcasing the humble peg hehehe. A giant humble peg, wooden of course, all grey and weathered. I wouldn't use any other. Anyway the papers are prepared, the image is drawn onto the canvas so I'm ready to get stuck into it but not till tomorrow, I'm done for today.

My Way of Working

This is for Deborah because she asked.

Obviously I start with an idea that's been swimming around my head. Its usually something from around my home; something in my everyday life. I then set up a still life and start taking lots of photos. I like to use lighting to see what interesting shadows I can achieve. I keep moving the objects around and keep taking photos. Once I've loosened up I start getting interesting compositions. I play with those compositions by changing where the light comes from, how much shadow is revealed or by adding new objects etc. I choose the pic that stands out to me as being the most interesting and I print it out. I then crop it so its in scale with the canvas I will be working on. I like to work from photos because it means I don't have to keep the still life set up and I don't need to worry about any changing conditions such as light etc.
Next I start working on the canvas to create a background. I do have a fear of the blank canvas so I need to cover it to ensure I don't freeze hehehe. I start with old book pages or other interesting paper. I use gel medium as the glue and once its set off a bit but not completely dry I tear back some of the paper. It leaves a lovely texture and creates interesting results once paint is added. In some instances it leaves the text from the other side of the paper revealed which means the text is reversed. Once the whole canvas is covered I check for ugly gaps and fill these in with either patterned paper or some hand writing or more book pages. I allow the canvas to dry or use the heat gun to hurry things along. Next I put washes of acrylic paint on and some rubber stamp patterns. That's basically the background done. I then draw the image on and "colour it in" using acrylic paint that I've watered down slightly. This allows the background to show through. I don't worry about detail at this stage. Its just to get blocks of colour down.
Final stage is drawing on top with conte crayons. I use conte to do the shading and add the finer details. A quick spray with some fixative (to set the conte) and then some matt varnish is applied as a protective layer.
I hope that answers your questions Deborah. :) I have pics of the stages in some of my past blog entries.

Tuscany Looks Nice This Time of Year

Two posts in one day. What's the world coming to??? Just finished the Italian piece and thought I'd post pics of the layers like I promised.

First layer is just some random blotches of acrylic paint. I don't always paint first. It all depends on what paper I use to collage with. If I'm going to stick on old book pages I don't paint first.

Layer number two is just a wash of one colour to harmonise all the colours of the first layer.

Layer number three is very ugly. Paper glued on and torn off. This is to add texture. I usually like to use old book pages or newspaper or old phone book pages for this technique. Seeing this piece was about Italy I thought English text would be wrong so that's why I went for the plain paper instead.

Next layer is just a wash of acrylic paint and the texture is starting to appear.

Layer 5 is another wash of acrylic paint to make the surface richer.I like to use washes as they allow each layer to show through which adds depth to the finished piece.

I love text in my work so layer 6 was adding some Italian text and some pretty bits of paper here and there to add interest. Some of the text is image transfer using printable rub ons and other text I've written on myself. Got some Italian love poems off the net. It was hard writing in Italian. I had to be careful not to make mistakes. At this stage I'm still only working randomly and not thinking too much about placement.

Layer 7 is some stamping with my favourite letter stamps. The words say "Its a beautiful day, no?" Still just working randomly.

Layer 8 is yet another acrylic wash to blend everything together.

Now here I should have layer 9 where I painted in blocks of colour for the door and shutters etc and then layer 10 is the detail drawn on with conte and layer 11 was another wash to put in the shadows. I didn't realise till it was too late that they were actually different layers and should have been recorded. Will try again with the next piece. This just needs some layers of varnish to protect it and its all finished.

Tuscany Looks Nice This Time of Year

collage, image transfer and acrylic paint on canvas

76.2cm x 50.8cm (30"x20")