Monday 2 November 2015

Sugar baby love

Sugar Love duo, 29 x 29 ea
Acrylic on Canvas
Just to be clear: these are candy paintings, and not Christmas paintings.. I don't subscribe to Christmas in November (mostly because November is my birthday month and I demand attention :P )

I knew these canes had to be painted when I spotted them behind some spooky halloween sweets. 
And I really love the idea of doing a set these days, especially in this case; a sedate still life and a more punchy colour and angle version. Of course the second one was much more fun to work on, but after the initial joy of seeing how many colours I could squeeze in, I inevitably start thinking 'this is the one that won't sell'. How sad that that thought is always so close. 
But what the hay. That is the kind of painting that sweeps me away, and reminds me how much I love painting. There are so many distractions, admin and social media and admin and emails upon emails.. but then you have that moment when you're in the zone and you realise you have no idea what time it is, how long you've been painting, when last you ate. And that makes it worth it.



 Also I finally got some business cards! Yay me! 



 Kaggelvuur 

60 x 90 cm  |  Acrylic on Canvas
Detail
Well I finished this kid a month ago, I just neglected to blog about him! Super proud of how this painting came out, I was genuinely suuuper nervous about it. When you've painted a particular object a couple of times, you learn what to do to make it pop; a highlight somewhere, an improvised glint of light, there are little details that make magic. And I didn't know how to make magic with a fire. There's no prior knowledge of shapes or lighting you can fall back on, you just have to look and look some more. An excellent exercise for a painter!

But what really made this experience was the client. Elzeth is the most uplifting person I've ever worked with! She sent me bi-weekly emails just to tell me how excited she was, and how amazing this painting is going to be, and how much I rock. It's fantastic to get emails telling you sincerely how awesome you are! 
It's not something you can fake or force, but having a good relationship with your client really makes the process so much more enjoyable.

Complementary Candy | 60 x 50 cm | Acrylic on Canvas
And I finally finished this painting as well! 
(after about 12 background colour changes, elaborate shadows, simplified shadows, no shadows.. ) 

It was an exercise in layout, and I think that was successful, the style is less detailed than normal, mostly because my photo was a little over-exposed, but also it didn't seem to want more detail, I kept adding and then painting it out again, eventually just deciding to allow it to be different! It has such a presence though, I think it'll really shine when it finds a home.