Sunday 26 April 2015

Sketchbook Sunday (catching up)





It's been over a week since my last post, and it was one of 'those' weeks! This is the last sketch I had chance to do... an enormous fig tree in the botanical gardens.
I was with the urban sketchers and the day coincided with a spring fair, so I spent lots of time looking at the stalls and not sketching. The slow food Sicilian style was excellent, lots of things to taste :-)

I've bought a new camera to hopefully take better shots of my work for my etsy shop.  It's a big improvement, but I need to practice and get used to it.



Here's some geraniums in my garden, so colourful.




Friday 3 April 2015

Black Coffee



oil on mdf board 20x20cms

Following my look at black at the beginning of the year I decided to try painting with black, that is to say mixed blacks and darks.  I searched for a good 'black' subject and found these little coffee cups.  I think they are Italian looking at the size although I bought them at a car boot sale in the UK quite a few years ago.

I used a limited palette of ultramarine blue, van dyke brown,  yellow ochre and white and I've included a few of the steps as I went along (when I remembered to take a photo).

I enjoyed painting this and I didn't think I would....just goes to show!