Friday, June 25, 2010

Working to a theme

"Lullaby"
Watercolour on Fabriano 5
From the song by The Cure
Embraced
Hi all. I've been having a lot of fun recently working on all sorts of things but I've still managed to find time to submit work to a fantastic site called The Artists Challenge run by Vikki North. The theme is given and artists from around the world submit work based on that theme to the site. This months theme is "Embrace" The original picture I did for it was a watercolour but then decided I could do a lot more with the theme and the painting using oils. For the oil painting I used a piece of Fabriano Pittura, a paper designed for oil or acrylic but best effects are achieved if a few coats of gesso are applied to it prior to painting. I used an olive green, acrylic ground as the painting's base. I've put both paintings in below. Hope you like them. While painting the oil I was inspired to write a few lines to go with it. Just a little poem. So many ways to embrace, here is my interpretation.

Lost Embrace

The meaning of love as elusive as clouds
Forming thoughts and emotions that know no bounds
So much invested in that soft embrace
All hope is delivered, the end of the chase

A dream is possibly all that it is
Fulfillment of longing a prayer or a wish
The meaning of love we may never know
Till like hard rain it falls to the green earth below


Love’s more important when it’s not there

Until it has gone we haven’t a care

So what are you left with what’s there to hold?
A cloud of a dream and a feeling so cold

The Paintings
"Embrace"
Watercolour on 'Fabriano 5' Not surface


"Lost Embrace"
Oil on 'Fabriano Pittura' paper with gesso coating

The previous Artists Challenge was "Midsummer Night's Dream", well worth a drop by.
Here is one of the paintings I submitted.

"Puck"
Watercolour on Fabriano 5 Not surface


As a possible point of interest I use Fabriano Papers, usually Fabriano 5 for the watercolours and always Winsor & Newton Artist's quality oils and watercolours.
For more pictures and information on my art classes and painting holidays visit www.aartvark.eu & www.paintinfrance.eu.

To get involved with the art challenges, either to view the galleries or enter your own work, visit www.theartistchallenge.com

4 comments:

  1. Hi Ray, The Lost Embrace is oil? Wow! Me thinks I've spent too long looking at the masters and florals. There is such a lightness to it. They both suit your poem very well.

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  2. Hi Cheryl, how are you. Thanks for the complement, I use oils sometimes as if they were watercolor, lots of glazes and washes. It surprises a lot of people when they discover that oils can be used in this way. Loved your poem for the "Embrace" challenge, Cheryl. So evocative of my childhood summers, when I still believed in magic.

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  3. Wow, beautiful artwork and poetry writings, my eyes have now see the true light, I used to paint in the past during my high school years and I kind of miss it, I switch to Photoshop Mode right now and doing image manipulation and design :3, but painting and drawings are always better in my opinion!^^~ I am coming back for more for sure:D~

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  4. Hi Riika, thanks. I quite like using Photoshop myself. I have been known to paint a picture, scan it and do more work over the top with Photoshop and Illustrator facilities.
    I very much like your words on the Challenge site. I shall visit your blog very soon.

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