Lovely Lily

Today I can finally unveil a portrait that I finished a while ago of a cute little Jack Russell Terrier with magnificent "uppy" ears, the portrait is a 12"x 16" oil painting on canvas and has remained under wraps for a while as it was commissioned as a surprise birthday gift.

I have just had news that the recipient absolutely loves it (in spite of shedding a few tears) so I am a happy bunny :-)

"Curiosity"

Finished!

Curiosity progress

After a whole day working on this (on and off) I think I have made good progress and after a small hiccup (repositioning the left eye) I am happy to set this one aside till tomorrow.

Curiosity

I am currently suffering from "Surprise pressie" portraits, which means that although am busy painting the results have to stay under wraps until the surprise is no longer, hence a very frustrating and boring blog!

I've also had a touch of artist's block for a couple of weeks now which is something I hate to admit but it does sometimes get to me, a lovely dog walk this morning seems to have given me a jolt, and provided the inspiration to break the spell :-)

I came home eager to get to work on a painting of a curious cow that was staring at me and the dogs in the early morning sun, the colours in the scene were so wonderful that I was eager to get stuck in with my pastels.

I selected a sheet of Claire Fontaine pastelmat (which I have never used before) and got the shock of my life from the surface adhesion! I want to have a very diffuse/muted background on this painting and was keen to get down and dirty with my smudging BUT it seems that once on this paper the pastel just stays put and smudging is highly unlikely!

Not to be defeated I have changed my tack and am slowly working around the problem by trial and error with some success I need to take a break to rest my eyes but here he is so far .............

Back to the grindstone!

Well now that I'm back on form I am starting to recieve Christmas commissions so there will be a lack of work to show as I am terrified of spoiling the surprise for my clients (I'm sure no -one ever finds their way here............ but it would be sods law if I chanced it).
I will try to post other artwork for those of you that just like to look at the pictures (like myself)
One of my first new commissions is to be a large watercolour of two cute kittens, so I am excited about that one.......... it will be a challenge to attempt a feline subject for a change, as it's been a while since I used watercolour I will need to get some practice in before I start on that one.
I have joined the Flickr photographic website and have enjoyed sharing some of my unseen photographs I love photography and try to get out with my camera every at opportunity with varying degrees of luck so if anyone wants to have a peek my page is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/kay_prior/

OH this week has been an uphill struggle for me....I have been battling against a monster migraine and the drugs don't help as they turn me into a space cadet :-) all I can do is sleep so artwork has been neglected!

However since I am determined to fight back I have worked on a simple sample today, this fella was seen out and about and I got permission to photograph him from his owner

Somehow (don't ask how I'm really NOT with it today) I managed to delete the photograph halfway through the process so have had to finish from memory (not good)

Anyway my immediate thoughts are that it's worked out ok............. not my best but ok, I suspect that when I finally shift this migraine I will look at it again and be mortified!

Oh well I feel less guilty for at least having made an effort today so now its back to the darkened room for a few hours.