All that glitters must surely be from Essex

All that glitters must surely be from Essex
Oil and glitter on canvas

Tuesday 15 January 2013

And the fun continues!

As this is my first post of 2013 let me start off by saying Happy New Year!!  A bit tardy 15 days into it, but it has certainly been a busy few weeks.

This post is going to be mainly pictures on account of the early hour that I will need to rise tomorrow.  I wish I could say that it's to get to the studio....but it's not!  Mountain of paperwork to do at work, blah blah blah.

Onto happier things - I went straight to the the studio tonight from work as I am trying really hard to get this piece finished so that it has time to dry for the Art Fair in London that I am exhibiting several pieces of my work in.  More details of that to come soon.
The general theme of this piece so far has been masking tape, straight lines, masking tape, straight lines etc etc.  As a ratio (time sticking to time painting) it's about  20:1...and that's possibly being conservative.


This was how it was looking after about an hour and twenty of re-taping the areas to be painted on all 3 beach huts, and althoughIi'm a patient person it was really only the Chunky Kit-Kat that was helping to keep me sane at this point!


I couldn't wait to actually get painting, especially as, even with my heater working at full tilt, my studio space was freezing.  The outside temperature was -2 and it wasn't much warmer inside. 


A bit blurry this one, but I think at this point my hands had gone numb!  The absolute best part of working with all this masking tape is that sublime moment when you get to slowly peel it off and see whether the last 2 hours work have been completely ruined by a piece of masking tape (or 2) not quite stuck down properly.  Some people like to wait until the paint is dry, but I have found it's easier to do when wet.  You also don't run the risk of tearing layers of dry paint (far more complicated to correct).


As I stood back, cold cup of coffee in trembling hand, this is what the work looked like and so how I left it.  By this point my legs were numb to the knee!  I wonder if Emin has this problem in her £2 million studio space....I'm thinking not.


The residue of all of the tape!  Below I leave you with a picture of the colours I will be using on the grey beach hut once all of the oil painting is complete.  Really looking forward to that - and so to bed.  Night night!  I just hope I don't start dreaming about sodding masking tape!