Latest paintings

I've not been very active recently - I keep saying that don't I - but this is mainly due to a virus that has affected me during the last five weeks, leaving my with a debilitating cough plus, to cap it all, I strained my back when clearing autumn leaves at the weekend. I was starting to paint more regularly but this has come to a halt. Apart from that I've run out of inspiration for blog posts although I'll probably do a feature on Turner watercolours, another brand to appear on the scene recently.

Another Amerindian - 16" x 12" Centenaire. 300gsm (140lb) not

This is from my extensive collection of black and white/sepia photographs, mainly by Edward Curtis. I should qualify that by saying most have been downloaded from the web, although I also have a book of Curtis's photographs.

Most of these photos are very dark and strongly contrasted and I'm trying to break away from this, using slightly more imaginative colours. This particular individual appears to have a damaged eye, the one on the left of the painting. The colours were mainly combinations of Ultrarine Blue and Burnt Umber for the darks  with added Turquoise (Lukas PB16). Cadmium Red Light.in various combinations and afterwards I used Vallejo Acrylic white for highlights. I'm not claiming it's good but I've done worse.

Fox in Autumn 16" x 12" Waterford High White 300gsm (140lb) not

This was painted at an AVA session two weeks ago. The fox is the main feature with the rest just window dressing. The bright colours are to indicate it is autumn with various reds, yellows and golds predominant. Just an exercise.

Experimental - 16" x 12" Waterford High White 300gsm (140lb) not

I wasn't sure about showing this one as viewers may think I've lost it! It came about as the subject at last week's AVA session `Experimental'. 

We had to pick a few scraps of paper torn from magazines, stick them to the paper using glue (provided) and us your imagination to compose a painting. Not having too much imagination this proved difficult.I stuck three random bits of paper on and then splashed various complimentary colours on letting them run and intermix. What to do next? One of the pieces of paper had a small photo of a young woman so I focussed on her eyes and added my own version of eyes, experimenting with various colours and ways of painting them. Did this work? Pretty weird but it was fun (in the end).