Lady in coat

balcony pictures, originally uploaded by deepwarren.

She's coming along, although I think I prefer the dark gloomy vibe rather than the bright blue that's sneaking in from the top. At the moment I'm gettting into her feet. It's the yellow light behind them. I'm working on top of a cheap canvas I brought at Recycled Garabge (a re-use co-op) for $3. It seems a little rude to paint over another painting, but really that's the risk you take. Nobody ever has quite the respect you think they would.

I started working on this and realised that I own no big paintbrushes. It's handy to vary the size of yr stroke. Stops everything becoming a bit same-same.

So wandered off to the artstore and discovered that even the cheap arse big brush was 60 bucks. Well. Brought a much cheap, slightly smaller weird looking one to try out for $16. Seemed more sensible. Am considering new and exciting ways to justify buying expensive paintbrushes. The normal way would be to sell a bloody painting :)

Hats on heads, no hats on beds.

hats on tables, originally uploaded by deepwarren.

I've started painting a bit more in the last few weeks. More because I brought a couple of canvas pads off ebay and discovered I really them. Painting on paper, is quick, minimal mess (well, for me) and it dries fast.

Using a lot of darmar varnish/turps and medium (about 1/3 each mix), to get a nice smooth drawing line. Trying too. it's a bit hit and miss, and I'm still overworking everything like there's no tomorrow.

About 7 years ago (pretty much the last time i did any painting, aside from some half-hearted attempts) I did a series of people wearing hats, and it's weird that I've ended up at the same place. Maybe it's just not quite finished yet.

And I'm trying to get large strokes. I just want to paint a big fuckoff painting for the lounge. It's harder to paint something like this than smaller for me. I think it's almost you have to embrace the loud brushstroke. And maybe that means a bigger paintbrush. More mess, I think. But needed, somehow. I've started on a little bundle of an old lady in her coat and hat. It's only 50x70cm, but if i can actually resolve that space, then I can go larger. Somewhere she's gone from dark to gradually lightening up, but trying to go too high-key. But she is wearing the very practical world of a hat and coat, while somehow has the air of being rather old fashioned. Will post pix of the work in progress at the end of today.