Abstracts for The Picture of Health Club cafe area...

This summer I was fortunate enough to be asked to create
a set of three pieces of art on stretched canvas for the
Picture of Health Club's cafe area. The brief was to design
a matching set with a running theme and to use a subtle
colour scheme that complimented the floor tiles and dark
window/door frames. This was in part so that they would n't
compete with or detract from the more colourful, sports
themed paintings on the opposite wall, and also to help
create a calm, relaxing environment.

After taking the latter into consideration and choosing a
basic colour palette of olive, red, black and white, I decided
to design three abstract pieces and concentrate on contrasting
textures, colours and shapes. The mediums I used and their
application (spray-painting underneath, pouring and splashing
satin on top) helped add to this as the finished work consisted
of areas of raised paint which advances creating an interesting
surface texture, with a feeling of movement throughout each
piece which I feel fitted well with the cafe being at a gym/
health spa.

Overall I was pleased with the outcomes and they certainly
impacted on the paintings I started to develop immediately
after, helping to inspire several new ideas.

I feel very grateful for getting the chance to do this project
and would like to say a massive thank you to
The Picture of Health Club for the opportunity.

Here are the pics...

 

 

 

 



Latest abstract paintings...

Conte charcoal torso....

Here's a piece of life drawing from about 8 years ago. Drawn in conte charcoal over a set time of 5 - 10 minutes the objective was to explore mark-making in a medium new to us (at the time I mainly drew with a 2b graphite pencil). Funny to think, our life-drawing tutor would take any pencil that was harder than a 2b and snap it in front of the perpetrator!

 

Preliminary sketch for painting of a snowboarder...

This is a working sketch for the second part of a duo of paintings I'm developing based on snowboarding and skiing. Besides a clear likeness of the activity being portrayed the main aim is to capture the essence of the action taking place by creating an exciting and dynamic painting that (as mentioned in a previous post) places the viewer intimately close to the action.

 

Once these sketches are given the thumbs up, I will layout the composition on to canvas and prepare to start painting, taking into consideration the use of textures and how the paint will be applied. I'll post the final paintings once they're complete.

 



Piece of Cake...

Here's one of three pieces I submitted to be shown as part of a summer group exhibition at the Traveller's Rest Gallery, Barry train station back in 2009. A figurative pencil drawing titled 'Piece of cake', at the time I had finished working in the animation industry and was intrigued by the idea of showing movement within a still image. The said movement is shown here by the boy retracting his hand from the plate. His right hand depicted as a trail of motion created by several overlapping images charting the movement from one position to another, in animation this is known as a path of action.

 

The title was loosely based on the saying ''to have your cake and eat it'' and the theme of 'indecision', explaining why the boy reaches for a cake then changes his mind. Visually I was very interested in the work of Caravaggio, in particular his painting from 1601 'The Supper at Emmaus'. The sharp contours, foreshortening and perspective and dramatic use of chiaroscuro. As far as motion was concerned I could n't get over Marcel Duchamp's 'Nude descending a staircase'. These great works along with many other artists still inspire and motivate me today.

 

Looking back at this piece critically I'd have to say... ''that's one hell of a forehead!'' lol! I think the head was slightly exaggerated and the boy's left eye is too big which makes the facial expression slightly unsettling. I'm still pleased with the result although I am tempted to ink over and turn this into a black and white line drawing.



 

 

Preliminary sketch for painting of a skier...

Currently putting together a duo of paintings, one based on snowboarding the other on skiing...here's a working sketch for the latter. Still in development, this is going to be a figurative piece with an expressive, semi-abstract style finish.

 

Really interested in placing the viewer intimately close to the action, dynamic posture, sharp contour lines and aggressive angles depicting speed and an explosion of energy. Will be contrasting dark shadows against light areas, smooth textures against rough and the application of thick impasto layers of acrylic/enamel next to more evenly bodied mixtures of acrylic/spraypaint. Very much interested in mixed media at the moment. Has to have maximum movement and good rhythm within the composition.

 

Will post the working sketch for the snowboarder next. 



 

Golf themed caricature...

Still at the pencil draft stage, here's the latest caricature project in the early stages. Asked to create a father/son golf themed caricature intended as a 40th birthday gift from father to son, this has proved a good challenge so far.

 

Going for a comical composition but still trying to retain a likeness of both people which is closer to what I'd describe as a 'cartoon portrait' rather than overtly exaggerated caricature, I could still tighten up the facial proportions of each slightly but I'm happy with the progress so far.

 

The intended finish for this is a full-coloured acrylic painting on canvas slightly larger than A3, will post a photo of the final piece when finished.