Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Painting plein air in a sunny garden

Summer Flower Garden - 5x7in plein air painting, acrylic on board.


The weather was very kind to me when I set up my easel to paint this sunny flower border in the garden.  The sunshine was quite powerful, and I was glad to find a little shade for myself. 


Generally I prefer to use oil paint, but on this occasion I set up a strong plastic lidded chocolate box to use as a practical palette, which can be taped closed when on the move.  (Ferrero Rocher boxes make great acrylic paint palettes, with a wad of dampened kitchen towel, and sheet of tracing paper, or baking parchment).
The composition originally included one of our cats curled up in a flower pot.  Inevitably Flossie decided under the pine tree was a far superior spot, so off she trotted.  As it turned out, I think the painting is better with this less complicated view.

The painting is available for sale without a frame, but I thought it would be fun to see how it could look with a frame added.  If you're interested in more information and a price please contact me.

 You can reach me by email beeskelton@gmail.com or see more work in my Etsy Shop or website www.beeskelton.com





Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Painting inside and out!

I'm sorry I've been missing in action from this blog since almost the beginning of this year.  Truth is commissioned paintings have taken over my studio life, and I've been fighting to keep up.  So much so that I got to the point of feeling some pressure, and now feel the need to do other work for a while, just to re-charge my painterly batteries.  

Please excuse me if you were about to contact me to commission a painting.  I'm not stopping commissions for good .... I just want to explore the possibilities of making other artwork for a while.

 I truly appreciate the clients I've been working with.  Without exception they are wonderful people, who do me a great honour when they choose me to paint their loved ones, pets and favourite places.  



 
Here in rural England we are having what passes for summertime.  And I've been taking my plein air easel outdoors to work from direct observation of the beautiful world I see around me.  It's a completely different process for me compared to working from photos, which is mostly necessary when painting commissions for clients via the internet.  Few clients live in locations where I can easily visit and paint from life.


If you'd like to see my new paintings as they happen I'd love you to come back for a peak.  In the meantime, here are a few of the commissioned paintings I've completed recently.

 You can reach me by email beeskelton@gmail.com or see more work in my Etsy Shop or website www.beeskelton.com

 













Friday, January 29, 2016

Art Swap Collaboration

Last Autumn I was invited to get involved in an art swap with a small group of other artists connected to the OCA (Open College of the Arts)  It felt like a good opportunity to be in touch with old, and new student friends, even though I'm no longer officially a student. It also offered the refreshing opportunity to create small, spontaneous pieces, totally different to the commissioned paintings I mostly make.

Each of us was to put forward a group of 5 random words to inspire a postcard sized piece of artwork.  We were instructed not to look at our given words until ready to do the work, so that inspiration would be immediate, and not over-thought. I might have cheated, if I hadn't been too busy at the time.  So the words were relegated to the 'I'll get around to that later' place on my laptop. Then, when for various reasons the timing for the process was extended to the New Year, it seemed like I had all the time in the world, and promptly forgot all about about it.

 This week, when Ange finally sent the DEADLINE APPROACHING! style email, I was up to my eyes in paid work, finishing a couple of portrait commissions with a queue of others waiting.











After 30 seconds of panic, I realized a little time off for good behavior was just what I needed.  I make three categories of art; paid work, experimental/learning art and just play. 

 Playtime began with a cursory look at each set of words. I deliberately didn't over analyze and merely expressed the first reaction to how the words made me feel. It seemed most of the word-sets had notions in common with each other. I decided to work on 4 of the pieces together, using the same large piece of paper as a support to collage onto.

Media used; torn painted and drawn papers from my stash, drawn/painted into using acrylic paint, inks, graphite, soft pastel and oil pastel. After some interesting things started to happen, I made a postcard sized aperture in a piece of white A4 paper, providing a template to isolate the compositions I wanted to develop. Further mark making followed. After cutting out the small abstract compositions, the remains of the large partly developed support has been added to my stash for the next time I want to play.

One set of words resonated differently to the others; a cry from the heart. And this I worked separately.  I hope the art swap wasn't too stressful for this collaborator and that she has as much fun as I did in the end.

It’s weighing on my mind.
Collaboration: Ingrid & Bee

Fly away on gossamer wings.
Collaboration: Alison & Bee
Iron ore vein Dark Dangerous
Collaboration: Mark & Bee
Whispering halfpenny water
runs aimlessly
  Collaboration: Ange & Bee







 
Summer’s dying lines Autumn’s cloak.
Collaboration: Catherine & Bee

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

A Marriage Proposal

Commissioned oil painting on canvas 80x100cm
The brief for this painting came right out of the blue, from the young lady featured, in this most romantic of portraits.  She wanted the painting to present to her fiance on the day of their wedding.  Such a charming idea, which instantly captured my imagination.

But there was a problem;  the only photo of the marriage proposal was a rather poor photo taken at night in very dim artificial lighting, out of focus, of a very low resolution, with the bride-to-be's face almost completely obscured by her beautiful hair.  Enjoying a challenge, as I do, I decided to accept the commission.  What follows, shows the several attempts I made to do justice to this special moment in the lives of this young couple, and in particular the struggle I had to capture that lovely face on canvas.

work in progress 1
I began as usual by drawing the composition onto the canvas.  On this occasion with graphite, as I wanted to be quite precise about the positioning of the hands and the tender way they were clasped.

A likeness to the subjects wasn't my aim at this stage.  It was more important to show the posture of the figures, and how they related to each other.

work in progress 2





Work-in-progress 2 shows how I loosely blocked in the background to reflect the dark randomness of what in the photo appeared to be a rough stone wall.  It was very apparent that this was not going to work well, and would need to be re-thought later.


Leaping onward to work-in-progress 9 by this time I had softened the background, with the beginnings of light glowing centrally.  Almost from the start I had the feeling I wanted to show the young people as if caught in a bubble of emotion, where their connection to each other was almost electric.  Totally separate from all the other people perhaps there at the time, or viewing the painting in the future.




The loving expression on the young man's face clearly showed in the photo, so was able to capture this straight away.  I then began a similar process with the other beautiful face, which was less straight forward.

Having little to go on from the proposal photo, because her face was hidden by hair, the client provided many other photos of herself.  None of them seemed to have the expression I felt she would have worn at that very special moment.  I made many attempts to combine how she appeared in the various photos together with my imagination.  The client collaborated wonderfully, with images and emails flying backwards and forwards, until we eventually saw her perfect expression emerge on the canvas.







Finally she sent images of furniture and decor in the room where the painting would be displayed, so I was able to add soft pastel tints to complement the room.

This project was a great lesson to me.  Emotions and instincts are far more important than any technical issues.  Problems are there to be overcome.  With persistence, plus enthusiasm and feedback from clients, magic things can happen.

Commissioned oil painting on canvas 80x100cm
How to commission a painting.  If you have an idea for a painting you'd like to discuss with me, you're welcome to get in touch.  You can reach me by email beeskelton@gmail.com or see more work in my Etsy Shop or website www.beeskelton.com



Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Pomerian pet portrait painting

Dazzling custom dog portrait by Bee Skelton
A few weeks ago, I was initially astonished to receive a most unexpected commission for a custom pet portrait, in a style for which I'm not generally known.  I really did marvel at the the confidence the client placed in me, because she knew my usual work, and was still prepared to trust me to do something so completely different.

Little dog Jimmy is a most treasured pet, who holds a special place in the heart of the client and her man.  A spectacularly bright, semi-abstract style was requested.  But it also needed to be a portrait in the usual sense, in that there was to be a likeness to the subject.

I decided Jimmy's sweet face needed to be rendered as naturally as possible as a starting point.  As usual in my portraits, I wanted to focus on the eyes.

Once I felt the little dog's personality was beginning to show, I began to let rip with colour.  What FUN that turned out to be!

Fluffy Pomeranian dogs have long hair, so there was ample scope to play with texture, brush strokes and oodles of thick paint.  Finally my client requested I hide Jimmy's name in the painting for viewers to search for.

I loved being challenged to do something outside my comfort zone.  I look forward to more of the same .... but different LOL!

How to commission a painting.  If you have an idea for a painting you'd like to discuss with me, you're welcome to contact me
 You can reach me by email beeskelton@gmail.com or see more work in my Etsy Shop or website www.beeskelton.com





Tuesday, October 06, 2015

Game of Thrones painting

Double portrait in Game of Thrones theme landscape
Today I thought it was about time I caught up a little on the blog to show just a few of the custom paintings I've worked on over recent weeks.  The first one above was a most unexpected commission.  And what fun it it turned out to be!

The client and his girlfriend are huge fans of the Game of Thrones tv series.  So much so, they've been to Ireland for a tour of the film locations.  Resplendent in fur-trimmed cloaks they had a photo to prove it. I was honoured to receive a request to use it as inspiration for a painting as a special surprise for the client's lady.

Here I have to 'fess up, I have never actually seen Game of Thrones, so needed to do a little homework.  However, the photo was very helpful, as it featured a beautiful background, which fans will recognise I believe.  In creating the painting I set out to emphasise the fantasy nature of the theme.

Work in progress 1
The painting was to be in acrylics on a 30x48.5 stretched canvas, approximately 12x20ins.  A wide format, intentionally chosen to show as much as possible of the fabulous landscape.

I began in WIP1 by loosely sketching the composition onto the gessoed canvas with thin grey paint, using the photo as inspiration.






Work in progress 2

WIP2 involved adding some colour in medium tones.














Work in progress 3

In WIP3 I set some darker tones.















From then on I gradually added layers to describe the atmosphere of the landscape background and eventually details of the portrait subjects in the foreground.




















How to commission a painting.  If you have an idea for a painting you would like to discuss with me, you're welcome to get in touch.   You can reach me by email beeskelton@gmail.com or see more work in my Etsy Shop or website www.beeskelton.com