A Branch of Blooms

We were in Spain in October last year (2008) and I realised I just never learn! I hadn't packed any paints or canvases ... and yet again had to go and spend precious holiday money on painting equipment, so that I could sleep at night and not fret that I couldn't paint.

We were staying in a really great cottage in the hills outside the village of Torres, not far from Mancha Real, and about 40 minutes drive equi-distant from Granada and Seville. The weather was fantastic and the scenery breathtaking. Inspiring indeed.

This painting, 'A Branch of Blooms' was begun in Torres and completed in Galway. Sadly, it only lived in my gallery for two months before leaving me for the Cill Rialaig Pre-famine Village Residency Gallery in Ballinskelligs, Co. Kerry, in the West of Ireland - where I spent two wonderful weeks at the end of January 2009. I miss it and wish I had taken better photos of it. Artists always battle to say goodbye to paintings!

The background was poured on. I mixed the paint with a puddle of good artist's turpentine in a wide, shallow, recycled mussel tin (from the supermarket in Mancha Real - I'm addicted to mussels!) Holding the canvas at a 45 degree angle over a pile of newspaper and old towels I used a 2 inch wide brush to apply a generous amount of the diluted paint on the ridge at the top of the canvas, allowing it to run down just more than half-way across the canvas. There's a bit of additional paint added further down to join a few of the rivers of paint but otherwise not too much fiddling was necessary to get the paint to go where I wanted it to go. I seem to remember that this background had a wash of pale blue, a wash of green and a third wash of the darker blue.

The vase and flowers were painted on, impasto, using only various sizes of palette knives.

It really excites me to use pure colours put together, side by side, or one on top of the other, on the palette knife ... and then to see how they make their patterns, lines and relationships for themselves on the canvas.

Take care 'til the next painting take me on impulse! :-)

My latest sale from my home gallery

My latest sale from my home gallery. It's one of the M&M Milkshake abstracts, part of the abstract collection I developed while designing the logo for the 'Art in the West' exhibition in Galway in June 2005. It's mirror-image sister is still in the gallery.
Sale Price : Euro120
Size : A5 (half A4 or foolscap)

Purple Bowl of Sunshine

Purple Bowl of Sunshine
Price : Euro210 SOLD

A recent sale from my exhibition at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Galway.

Playa Chico (Beach Boy)

Playa Chico (Beach Boy)
Big painting (will have to measure it when it comes back from exhibition)
At present being exhibited at Radisson SAS Hotel in Galway, Ireland

Prints for Sale - donations to Cancer Research

These seven paintings have been made into prints, each one set on an A3 size satin finish paper.

Euro5.00 from the sale of each print is donated to Cancer Research ... a copy of the receipt from Cancer Research will be emailed to each purchaser.

They are priced at Euro25 each which includes postage and packing to Ireland and the UK. Elsewhere in the world and I'll have to give you a postage quote - as the prints are posted in tubes the cost is never too high.

Maternidad Amore (Maternal Love)

Bolus Head Spirit Party

Encarnado (Translated from Spanish = Red)

Cill Rialaig

Caballo de Vida (Horse to Life inspired by 'L'Chaim'

a Jewish toast to Life!)

Amarillo (Translated from Spanish = Yellow)

Daisy Violin

Amarillo

One of the paintings on show at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Galway from this Tuesday.

Summer Field

'Summer Field'
Digital image available for sale in various formats on
www.artocracy.org

This image sold as a PDF file to a Canadian company who used the whole image and parts of the image throughout their recent quarterly broadcast - published as hard copy.

To check out my other digital images for sale on the site please click on the link below and then click to view the aritsts list where you will find my name under the 'L' for Lynda :

www.artocracy.org

Moon Walk

Moon Walk
482 x 603 mm
19" x 24"
each strip 76 mm (3") wide
Rolled acrylic on six strips of canvas set 1.5 cms (1/2") apart
Unframed (so therefore much more affordable!)
Price : Euro350 plus postage and packaging (nominal, as the painting will roll comfortably into a tube)

This is one from the Rolled Abstracts collection. 'Moon Walk' was created on strips of canvas secured a few centimetres apart with layers of paint rolled over a stencil design. By moving the stencils each time a new layer of paint is applied, a sense of movement and depth is given to the design. I'm building the collection up over a number of years with the intention of exhibiting once I have accumulated about 24 pieces .... selling them in the meantime doesn't help but then that's what it's all about!!! :-)

Neck and Neck

Neck and Neck
Oil on Paper
675 mm x 545 mm
26.5" x 21.5"

Painted as a demonstration of technique whilst running an art course at Castlerea Prison in February 2008. Taken from an image of two race horses during a race.

Caballo de Vida

Caballo de Vida
Oil on board

610 x 450 mm

24" x 18" Price : Euro 2200

A Step Up

'A Step Up'
Watercolour pencil drawing, washed with water
11.2 x 16.5 cm
Framed in lime washed wood

This Little Piggy

'This Little Pipggy'
255 x 255 mm or 10" x 10"
Oil and charcoal monoprint
Price Euro250

The colours on this piece are far more vibrant than this image depicts .... the usual problem with photographing original art.

Ah, more art less comment .... it seems to be becoming a habit!!! Still, that's what this blog is about isn't it?

Happy 2008!!!
Lynda

Chosen Silence

Acrylic on Stretched Hessian and Handmade Paper
635 x 890mm or 25" x 35"
Price : Euro850.00

Painting uploaded to enable me to display it elsewhere as well.