ANOTHER FOR MY COLLECTION

PAINTINGS BY MITA HIGTON

Professional artist, Mita Higton from Suffolk, very kindly painted two portraits of my beloved dogs Ruby and Lucy. Mita is incredibly talented and you can't imagine how pleased I am not only to own some of her work, but for the work to be based on a subject so close to my heart. Take a look in her gallery by clicking HERE or HERE.

 

 

You may also be interested in her husband's work, Stephen Higton.

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West Pennine Moors

I went for a walk a few days ago, over the West Pennine Moors, close to the Winter Hill TV mast. It's on my doorstep and is a beautiful area, especially on a lovely sunny early evening. Whilst up there, I did this small 8"x6" sketch. It has no detail and especially lacks the wind-turbines in the distance, which are a feature of this landscape. When I improve my painting skills, I'd like to attempt a bigger study of this area.

Update - tried putting in the wind turbines but they look a bit daft :-)

OPEN BOX M - DESKTOP POD

If you use the "OpenBox M" Pochade system for your oil painting as I do, you will know that it's not designed to sit on a flat surface such as a desk, so it is invariably used on a tripod which is fine when you're outside, but much less convenient when indoors.

Tonight, I designed a simple "Desktop Pod" which allows the Open Box M to be used on a desk with the minimum of fuss. I know a few people have come up with other solutions, but the ones I've seen are quite cumbersome and unwieldy (plus you have to find somewhere to store them when not in use).

My design is incredibly simple and to be honest, I don't know why OpenBox don't include something similar as standard - especially as they'll probably be able to come up with something even simpler!
Anyway, here it is. It's using a few bits and bats I found in the garage along with a 1/4" tripod screw from an old knackered tripod.

I went to the local art-club tonight and instead of being the only person there setting up a tripod to hold my painting-panel, I simply sat the panel on the desk using the new pod and painted a picture. It works superbly.  I posted photos of this little mod to the guys at OpenBoxM and they said they might consider designing something similar :-)

One thing's for sure though, some sort of anti-scratch covers are needed for the bottom of those four screws because without some protection, they  will scratch your table. Up to now, I'm just putting a mat down to protect any delicate surface that I use the palette on.

JULLIAN FRENCH EASEL

A local artist here in Bolton, Brian Hartley, died some years ago and his old Jullian French Easel was passed to his friend and then he passed it on to his son before finally arriving at my door. It was in a right state, so I decided to refurbish it to bring it back to its former glory and give it another 30 years of life hopefully.

 

This sort of project is right up my street. I love to sit in the garage tinkering away, avoiding all those nasty soap-operas that my wife insists on watching for 3 hours a night :-)

First job was to strip the easel down and I was surprised at how many bits and bobs there were in total. If I hadn't taken lots of photos prior to disassembly, it would have been a right puzzle putting it back together, lol. Most of the work involved in the refurb was getting the layers of paint off that had built up over the decades. The area around the lower canvas-carrier was the worst and I couldn't get rid of every last bit of it, for fear of damaging the woodwork, so I had to accept that some faint traces would remain.

After copious amounts of sanding, I treated all the wood to a couple of applications of teak-oil with a lint-free cloth and then put the unit back together again, making sure that all the screws were nice and tight. I added a set of rubber feet at the bottom so the unit wasn't getting damaged when stood on the floor. I also added a couple of brass hooks to hold cleaning pot, rags, etc.  When I'd finished, it felt stiff and strong and like new again! Very pleased with the overall result.

Now to get it dirty again!

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PURPLE HAZE

This is a 20" x 16" oil painting I tried recently. As usual, it didn't turn out as I'd hoped but it was popular enough with my sister to make her splash out on an expensive mount and frame, so it's now on illuminated display in her home. I was also asked to produce a few prints for friends, so at least it ended up being worth painting after all.

If nothing else, this piece has got me back in the swing of things and I've just finished preparing a number of 8"x6" boards. I was just reading Jeff Mahorney's blog and under the section called "WHAT HAVE I LEARNED", he wrote this...

This is the short version of what I've learned:
Consistent repetitive practice and tolerance/acceptance of negative emotions/thoughts are critical. Everything else will be learned on the way.

So that's it, I'm just going to paint, paint, paint and not dwell so much on the failures. I've seen Jeff's work (and other like Carol Marine), go from strength to strength through repetitive practise, to the point where they are now fabulous painters.