New pastel painting just completed – Unison pastels on Canson Mi-Teintes paper. This fluffy hunk is heading off to my page at Saatchi Art online to see if he can find a new owner. Wish him luck! 🤓
All Change…
Following a change of mind with one of my paintings, I recently took the plunge to swap a safe sky blue colour for a bold purple (my favourite!) colour. I think it makes the subject – a hunk of English Bull Terrier – ‘pop’ forward now. I love subtle, gentle background colours, but just now and again I like to go a bit bananas! See what you think. 🤓
Result!
Further to my previous blog “Something New”, I’m happy to report that the German Shepherd pastel presented in a pre-cut mount has sold at my unit at Garrion Bridges, so time to get busy and get a few more pastels underway.
Open Art Exhibitions
One of the aspects of art and painting that I enjoy, is applying to take part in one or two open art exhibitions which pop up now and again on social media and various websites. My applications aren’t always successful but the hope that they might be, pushes me to “have a go”.
It’s also a useful way of looking at other artists’ paintings and to see the standard of work that’s out there. This can result in feelings of “Why do I even bother?!” or alternatively, “Oh, my stuff isn’t too bad then”.
I’ve given myself a goal of entering three exhibitions a year and if I make it through to any of them, well, you never know where it may lead!
This painting is being entered into the RGI (Royal Glasgow Institute) open art exhibition being held this Autumn. Wish me luck!
The ‘C’ Word…
No, not that one…! It’s now 21 weeks to – dare I mention it – Christmas, so if you would like a portrait of your furry (or feathered) friend painted from your photos, why not contact me to get yours ordered? The sooner the better.
Animal portraits make a wonderful gift, either for yourself or for someone special. Prices from £50 for a small pastel on paper.
Here’s an example, this is Rocco, acrylic on canvas:-
‘Rocco’ commission
Something New…
I found these pre-packed mounts in Cass Art and thought I would try doing some smaller pastels to fit them. I’ve made a start with a little Westie and a German Shepherd just to see how they do on my wall at the Garrion Bridges Antiques and Art centre.
As well as improving the presentation of the paintings, it allows the buyer to use or select their own frame which they can buy ‘off the peg’ as the mounts are standard sizes. The clear sleeves protect the pastels and allows a price to be attached to the painting without any damage to the paper or the mount.
Let’s see how they do.
Deerhound
This is the latest addition to my stock of artwork for sale at the Garrion Bridges Art & Antiques Centre. “Olive”, the deerhound has featured on this blog before and her pastel painting is now waiting for a new owner. I decided to pop this pastel onto a pre-cut mount, rather than having it framed, to give the buyer the opportunity to select their own frame, so we’ll see if this proves a good idea or not. If so, I’ll try a few more – back to the drawing board….literally! 🤓
Family Portrait
Following a recent Twitter invitation from Artist & Illustrators magazine for people to send them images of portraits, I was amazed to hear that they would be including my pastel of my nephew Fraser, in their August issue letters page. It’s quite a small reproduction of the image in the magazine, but I’m SO chuffed that it was chosen! This is the painting on a slightly larger scale…
Untitled…
This is similar to a previous painting of mine, but I love the composition (and the model!) so decided to paint her again from a slightly different angle and a reverse/mirror image. I haven’t come up with a title yet…suggestions would be very welcome.
Greetings!….
I recently got the go ahead to start selling greetings cards of my animal portraits at the Garrion Bridges Art & Antiques Centre in the Clyde Valley. I was really pleased with the print quality of these cards and hope my customers will be too.
Rosie Mark Artwork 