Painting still life is an accessible way to start learning how to paint, I tend towards packaging as it is something that comes and goes through the house, on swatches of different coloured fabrics to just add some interest to what the object is sat on.
There is a lot to consider on a packet from colours, to type and logos and so on. I’m not looking at painting with realism though, I just want it to be fast and fluid and describe a level of energy to my painting.
Nothing like a sweet treat
they are delicious
The box is bright and colourful
I want to get back to painting in acrylic too
If you are interested in purchasing please contact me
My wife grew up in Scotland and moved down south for University when we were dating and we ended up living in Lancashire by the seaside. We have a family of our own here, but when we go back to visit my in-laws we often take a day trip out to Largs.
Yes it is by the sea but it is very different place to Fleetwood. I like it there, it is calm and quiet. That is when the Viking festival isn’t running, we did go one year to see the re-enactment of Vikings battling it out on the Promenade.
Another family favourite especially for my nephew and my children is riding the ferry to Cumbrae. It is a short journey but they love it.
It’s a cold wet Friday Bank Holiday in June, it is also the middle of half term for my children. A few years ago and it would have been my half term too. I would have had four weeks left till summer which was mainly spent cleaning the classrooms and workshops in the school I worked at so if there were visitors over the summer then the spaces would be tidy and safe.
I did that job for many years, there was a time and a season for everything. First term in the September was spent preparing all the projects and materials for the first three years of the high school, whilst they settled into the theory. The second term was a hectic one of ordering materials for GCSE and A-levels, helping them with their projects, it was all hands on deck and I ended up working a lot of Saturday mornings too to help them get through all the practical elements of their course. The Third term was exam prep for the A-levels and GCSEs so I had some support in the first three years of the high schools ages but with all the course work being finished my hectic schedule died down to getting everything neat and tidy.
But what does this have to do with art you may ask. Well I find working easier when I have the house alone, especially as it means I’m not always having to monitor my youngest who is type 1 diabetic but it means I can crank up the music, immerse myself in the noise and paint.
But once the painting is finished , there is a flow of things, photography, editing in Photoshop, writing copy, copy and more copy and then sharing everything on social media and uploading it here to the website. I dreamt for years that I could get someone to do it for me, to get my work out into the world, as I am a quiet sort and don’t really enjoy drawing attention to myself.
What I mean to say is that I think I need to create a time and a season for marketing, for actually getting my work out into the world. To get more people seeing my work, as if they don’t see it they can’t know it exists, they can’t buy it.
On this rainy day all I the thoughts I can think is that my old way of trying to just use social media isn’t working out for me, I need to switch it up, I’m not doing this for fame or fortune, I am doing it as I enjoy it and each painting that I sell allows me to keep making, as painting can be expensive from frames, to paints and canvas, it all adds up. And the more I sell the more I can get my head down and just keep painting and drawing.
So yes, if you are reading this please consider buying something from the shop, even if it is just a print.
I can’t personally recommend the fish and chips here as I have never eaten from this shop myself. The combination of buildings along the Blackpool Seafront are fascinating, so I wanted to just draw the buildings and not worry about painting so I grabbed a sheet of kraft card and just drew it all.
The drawing is A3 on kraft card done initially with pencil for the basic forms and then working up the drawings in Posca Marker, for something a little bit different.
Today is a lazy Sunday, I’m sitting with my family we have Netflix on in the background, and I am thinking about the last eighteen months since I started working on being a painter as well as a potter. It has been a journey of exploration, of finding myself. Though I have been drawing every day for the last six years, it wasn’t until I started this as a business that I really considered what it was I actually liked to draw, I just drew.
somedays I drew what was on my desk, from life fruit, jars, tins, packets just everything and anything. one day I realised I wanted to draw landscapes and buildings, so I started to work from my own collection of photographs.
A view I had never seen before in Fleetwood.
As part of Tram Sunday (Fleetwood festival of transport 2022), I went out with my camera in hand and started taking pictures of the festival but also bits of buildings and found an alleyway that I have never noticed before bear the market, and as plenty of people were walking around the town with cameras I didn’t feel weird as I had done before and I really love the alleyway as an image. There is so much going on from rendered walls some with iron oxide drips, the weeds growing, the cobblestone wall which morphs into a brick wall, and the random little lamppost ties it all together in a nice neat vertical element.
When I wanted to explore further afield I didn’t have the time to really travel, so I started using google street view to travel. I still use it at times but I don’t use it completely in my drawings, I use it as a jumping point, imagining the buildings from a different angle, a different perspective.
I want to keep exploring, keep developing my skills, keep painting and move further afield than I currently can. I also would really like to experiment with woodblock printing, recently as part of my super secret project I did some printing off of some driftwood I have collected over the years and I really want to play about with that some more.
More Blackpool architecture that overlooks the seafront.
I enjoy working quickly especially as this paper absorbs ink, especially if you hold the pen still even for a fraction of a second. It can be a fun challenge working fast enough whilst still retaining the readability of the sketch.
This drawing is of The Stone Grill, which overlooks the sea at the north end of Blackpool, away from the bright lights of Blackpool itself and much closer to the Norbreck Castle, which is unique in being nothing like a castle.
