Stormy Skies

It's been brutally hot recently but, yesterday, grey clouds rolled in with a sweet, cool wind. I'd love to say my mood remained sunny (the cool and rain were welcome after all) but, I found myself feeling like the sky was looking. Normally, no matter how I am feeling, my paintings tend to be bright and cheerful but, yesterday, my mood broke through. I started by trying to make a couple of bright rainbow butterflies but, they did not turn out so I decided to go with along with the weather and produced a couple dramatically moody pieces.

Rooted- July 17th 2014

This first piece is quite large (12x16 inches) and a lot darker than my usual paintings. I had a lot of fun playing with texture here and pulled out almost every trick in my bag including masking, washes, splatter, removing paint and even salt. It's always so exiting to see what the outcome of all these techniques will be as, so much of it is completely out of the artists control!

Moody Poppies - July 17th 2014

This painting is a bit smaller at 12x12 inches but, still huge for me. As much as I am enjoying working on larger papers, one unforeseen problem I've encountered is not being able to fit them on my scanner. So, until I track down a wide format scanner (or the battery for my good camera!), please excuse my wobbly, discoloured iPhone photos!

For this piece, I was inspired by a photo I came across of a bright golden field against wildly dark and moody skies; all it was missing was poppies. I love the drama and energy of poppies, I am determined to one day capture one accurately but, for now, I will have to be satisfied by conveying their essence. 

I hope you enjoyed. Have a lovely weekend!


P.S. I added a Gallery Page tab which can be found just bellow my header. Let me know if you like what you see, I always enjoy comments. ;)