Stained Glass Photography

Tiffany Baptism of Jesus 

Helen Maitland Saint Andrew

William Morris Pre-Rapaelite pelicans sacrifice

The photography at this site is incredible. Neil Ralley is on a mission to make historic stained glass designs available for public viewing. To that end, he currently has over 300 images uploaded, including works of William Morris and Tiffany Studios. Please check out his cards, too - they're ideal for Christmas, and proceeds help support Neil's stained glass preservation work.

http://www.stainedglassphotography.com/

'Carpe Diem' commission sold

Helloo,

Just a quick post on my recent commission that was sold yesterday. I'm so happy that my clients have followed my work since day one and love their painting.

The name 'Carpe Diem' was given to this painting with full privilege for the client to choose. The painting depicts the clients photograph of a day that she cherished the most. The original name "My Day" that was chosen by her, gives that sense of presence that was there when the photograph was taken. This just makes me love what I do even more, and painting people's moments; including my own to be an idyllic way to show what I can do.

Many more works to come by the end of this month and March so keep posted :)

Tree perspectives - new works

Hellooo everyone! 

Finally getting into my old habits of loud music and a palette knife! 

This is just an update of one of my recent commissions which all focuses upon perspective, space and scale. 

Life Drawing Sketches

Hellooo everyone!

Sorry, I've not posted in months work, commissions and university is the bulk. This is just a quick post to update you on the things I've been doing these past few weeks and that I'm still in touch with my art (sort-of) :/ 

Ill be posting a couple shots that I've been collecting for my upcoming commissions and how I'm going to start introducing drips into my landscape work! Going all out in abstraction and expressionism!

Monet-Lilly Pond Series

Hellooo!

Just a quick post on Monet's Water Lillie's, the meanings behind his paintings and his techniques. I was very fortunate to be able to see this painting (above) on my trip to London last weekend, this is one of my favourite pieces of all time.

Claude Monet "The Water-Lily Pond" 1899, oil on canvas, 88x93cm, National Gallery London.

Claude Monet, 1840-1926, was a key figure in the impressionist movement that transformed French painting in the second half of the 19th century.

Throughout his long career, Monet consistently depicted the landscape and leisure activities of Paris and it's environs. He led the way to 20th century modernism by developing a unique style that strove to capture on canvas the very act of perceiving nature. 

Monet adopted and extended a close observation and naturalistic representation developed by the Barbizon Painters. His quest to capture nature more accurately also promoted him to reject European conventions governing composition, colour and perspective. 

Influences by Japanese woodblock prints, Monet's asymmetrical arrangements of forms emphasised their 2-dimensional surfaces by eliminating linear perspective and abandoning 3-dimensional modelling.

He brought a vibrant brightness to his works by using unmediated colours, adding a range of times to his shadows, and preparing canvasses with light coloured primes instead of the dark backgrounds used in the traditional landscape paintings.

In the 1910's and 20's Monet focused almost exclusively on the picturesque Water-Lily Pond that he created on his property in Giverny.

In 1899 Monet painted 12 canvasses, mostly square format, of the pond in different light conditions it form the same vantage point.

Monet compresses the space and uses the Japanese bridge to anchor his composition but the bridge is truncated so that it no longer links the banks, appearing instead to levitate above the pond. It's arch bisects the canvas, the upper half rendered in an array of greens, grey-blue and pale yellows, while in the lower half he uses a tapestry of pale blues, greens and pinks to convey the water lillies. 

The surface of the pond seems almost thick enough to walk over; this adds to the illusion.

Notre Dame and The Eiffel Tower

Photographs taken 05/11/2014

Pere Lachaise Cemetry

Photography taken 06/11/14

Walking in the Woods Preview

Walking in the Woods- Acrylic and oil on canvas

Hellooooo everyone :)

Not been able to post in a while, been really busy with uni work and started off a new commission. Thankfully I haven't been postponing my paintings and various gallery visits (addicted).

Here I will show you the series of progress from the commission I've been working on these past couple of weeks:

This is how it began to look the first week when I began to build up the layers of acrylic. Thankfully it dried a lot quicker for the oil. I applied these layers with palette knives and used an acrylic paint spray to set mellows within the sky, which gave a nice effect. Given that the commission has been sold and moved on now, I feel that the painting would of took a turn for the best if I had kept it like this. But then again, I can always try these techniques again on another piece of work :)

The second stage, I started to add in the silhouettes of the trees and more foreground detail. I had chosen blue because I wanted the detail to stand out as a whole not just focusing on Autumn colours, which gave it a nice twisted effect. But from those who have been following me know that my work always strays from the natural order of things for example my previous commission "Autumn trees along Calderstones Park".

Autumn Trees along Calderstones Park- acrylic and oil on canvas

The third stage was just keeping up detailing and etchings in the foreground, whilst adding a shower of leaves in the canopies of the trees. This gave a lovely contrast to the warmth of the trees to the cold shades of blue on the lower trunks and the foreground. To make this commission personal to the client I added in silhouettes of a couple walking their two dogs, this made the painting as a whole more characteristic in ways that relate to the clients and for myself as a growing artist.

And lastly the final stage of it being placed upon the owners wall :) (flash is a bit strong so you can hardly see the detail on the trees) So lucky that they would like another painting from me, but I will keep you all updated. 

Autumn Light

Hello everyone!


In autumn you can feel time passing. You can feel the days draw in and the year fold upon itself. As each shorter, chillier day comes to a close you're reminded that this is a season of change, of transition from a time of warmth and sunshine to one of cold and darkness. This realization adds a poignancy to the season that some feel as a tinge of melancholy, and others as a surge of energy and invigoration after the indolent days of summer. And if you're an artist you try to capture this changing mood, the last glorious blaze of the foliage, the lengthening shadows, the particular warm glow of the fading light.

Tom Chesar painted the rosy glow of an autumn sunset on the water.  He says of his work, "The sunsets in Maine over the water can be spectacular and I just had to try to capture this at Ash Point. The words that come to mind about autumn are its crispness, golden light and pleasant temperatures; a totally unique season.  The use of light is an integral part of my paintings.  Light and shadow create compositional direction, mood, texture and volume…The slanting light of morning or late day, the illumination at night of towns and the natural lights in the sky all fascinate me."

In Kathy Kimball's stain painting “Whirlygig” she captures the cyclical nature of the season as well as the frenzy of activity before we finally settle in to the sleepy days of winter. “Each painting needs a balance of light and dark. Light is my favorite half of the two. In Whirlygig my thoughts were with summer passing, local fairs and slowing down as the leaves and light changes. Soon long days of light will be gone and covered with clouds and needed rain. Celebrating the light and activity as we know it now is part of the painting. Sometimes I use a sheet of red film to view the art as it is getting close to being done so I can see the values without the colors. This tells me if the balance is good or if it needs a bit more light, especially in this time of year as the light changes to fall and winter.”

Kristina Thalin’s mixed media work “Marrow” suggests a glimmer of golden light in a world becoming increasingly pale and grey, filled with subdued hues. "The artwork is inspired by images of bone cells, using the same weaving technique applied when creating a dreamcatcher net. I'm fascinated by the fact that repeating a simple shape can create unique and complex-looking forms, similar to cells multiplying and forming an organism. The materials in the work were actually "harvested" or recycled from old works of mine. Autumn is a time of harvest and transformation, and I believe this work transforms the man made, recycled materials into a work that reflects nature. I was also born in the fall so I've always felt a close connection to the season.
 As for painting light, in order to illuminate a work there needs to be a certain depth to the painting, whether it is through different values of layers, or height through a buildup of texture, or through color juxtaposition...a color can be darkened or illuminated, brought to the forefront or hidden in the background depending on the color you paint next to it."

“Dreams Come Late,” by Natalie George seems to glow with a light from within the autumn leaves. “When I did this painting, I was in the middle of exploring the idea of dreams and how color reflects a dreamlike mood. The image is actually a reflection of trees in water with light gleaming through the leaves. The autumnal colors make me think of sunlit, warm-colored leaves and a particular experience I had visiting some old friends. I was driving home afterwards and the sun was just lighting up these yellow leaves like crazy, and they were falling so slowly.  It was mesmerizing.  I had to force myself to concentrate on driving! To me, autumn light is connected to memory, reflection, and to dreams, as seasons revisit and remind us of the past.”