This Week in the Studio

   This was my painting at the beginning of the week. It is a painting of Blue Range Hut in the Tararuas. It's one of my pieces for the Art of a Hut exhibition at the end of this year. All I have to go by is my drawing and a rather bad photo from an entirely different angle which has only been helpful to see how the moss grows on trees so far. It is quite a challenge painting almost entirely from my head. It is still far from finished and this is how it looks today, Friday.

   I haven't been working full time on it so there is still a lot more to do on it. I will finish it this week. I have also been doing a lot of drawing. This is the longest drawing from this week, a portrait of Marion on which I spent about six hours.

  And while I have not been at the easel or the drawing board I have been shooting arrows from my bow (also losing them!) and working my way through the huge amount of content on the Art Renewal Center website. I'm enjoying learning a lot about Art History and discovering amazing artists I never knew existed before. The site has many high res images of some great paintings so it's a great place to view art if you are like me living in the uncivilized north of New Zealand. I dream of going to see the great master paintings in Europe and America. We do have some pretty good work here too, but I don't often have the opportunity to see it. Besides NZ is still mostly in the Dark Ages of Modern Art!

  And to end with here is a drawing which I finished months ago but never photographed until today. I never see it but I think of Thoreau's Walden which I was listening to while I drew this.

'The Artist's Journey'

Old Holland and Windsor & Newton Oil on 16"x20" canvass.

   I recently painted this still life which I have titled 'The Artist's Journey'. Everything in the picture is something meaningful to me and my journey as an artist. The framed pictures in the background hold some of my old work, they represent where I've come from. The wooden box is my pochade box which I use for painting outside, en plein air. That and the paint brushes in the jar represent me now painting and doing plein air work. The violin represents what I've had to give up in order to give more of my life to art. And the book represents my learning and my future ambitions. It is Richard Shmid's Alla Prima II, my favorite art book from which I have already learned so much, and continue to do so every time I open it. As I was painting this I tried to keep all I recalled from the book in my mind. And it was amazing when a few times I applied principles I had learned and it worked! I still have a long way to go, but it's encouraging to know that I'm learning.

   So, in all, this painting is of my journey as an artists. Shows where I've come from, where I am, where I'm headed and what I've had to let go on the way. 

   This painting is for sale. I would like to keep it. But I've got to keep space on my walls for paintings to come, not to mention earning enough to keep myself supplied with materials. If you are interested in purchasing 'The Artist's Journey' please contact me at felicityfdeverell@gmail.com

Recent portraits

   A few weeks ago I spend an afternoon photographing my friend, Tabitha who is also a part time model. I often draw people but rarely have any good photos of my own to work from so I have been practicing my drawing from random photos of the internet and, of course, I can not share my work from them publicly. Ideally I should like to work from live models, and I do as much as I can, but that is not possible a lot of the time and so I have had to get some of my own reference photos. Here are a couple of my best works from the photos I took.

Tabitha: oil on board aprox. A3. The painting was a present for another friend, her boyfriend.

 
   Recently I have been inspired by the amazing artist Susan Lyon. Particularly her pastel drawings of people. I bought her video on drawing and was very pleased with it and learned so much. Especially about the importance of accuracy, measuring and remeasuring, and taking my time. I often have a tenancy to rush things! After three unsuccessful drawings of Tabitha I managed to draw the above and am happy with it. I took my time to measure and not rush all over the place putting down useless stuff.

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