Reflections...oil on canvas, Janet Driver (after Monet’s river Seine near Giverny paintings)
Everyday life through the eyes of an artist.
Showing posts with label oil painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oil painting. Show all posts
Wednesday, 7 April 2021
Friday, 17 July 2020
Jurassic Cliffs, Dorset
Jurassic Cliffs : oil on canvas, c.Janet Driver
All my oil paintings are painted layer upon layer, gradually, over time, sometimes taking several weeks from the initial underpainting to the final strokes of colour...
but painting these cliffs seemed to make me even more at one with the vast centuries during which these cliffs have been slowly changed and eroded by rain, wind, waves, baking hot sun, ice & snow...
I decided to paint the rocky texture of these ancient cliffs using palette knives, so that I could drag one colour over another ...but what about the sea and sky ?
I had to experiment on practice oil-painting paper to try various techniques... then worked outwards from the cave into the waves, then up towards the horizon ... then I working on the clouds and down towards the sea...
it was very different from painting with a brush
and quite exhilarating...
Don’t forget... I am now changing from ‘a picture a day’ during lockdown
into a few paintings on a theme
once a week or fortnight
...I will be back again next Tuesday or Wednesday...
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whenever I post something new...
Sunday, 21 June 2020
Thursday, 18 June 2020
Wednesday, 3 June 2020
Thursday
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| hot, dry weeks of evening sunlight : c.janet driver |
...painted some years ago when I noticed the fragile beauty of this dandelion lit up by the evening sun shining low across our sunburnt back garden where nothing much survived except these beautiful seed heads... hot & dry like this year...
and then when I put this painting in my solo exhibition at Denbies Vineyard someone made my day by buying it as a special celebration of her birthday... :)
Monday, 1 June 2020
Sunday, 17 May 2020
Monday : daily picture
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| oil on canvas, Janet Driver |
Some years ago I sat down for a moment in a tropical butterfly greenhouse.
My entrance had clearly disturbed the butterflies who were flitting all around me...
...so I sat very still, allowing us all to calm down...
then
... I saw this small flower,
hanging
way above me,
turning slowly in the humid air...
beckoning me
...as I began to sketch these beautiful, simple shapes...
towards
“...the still point of the turning world... “
... a memory of T.S.Eliot’s Four Quartets
Thursday, 14 May 2020
Friday : daily picture
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| spiral galaxy : oil on canvas, janet driver |
Some years ago I became fascinated by spiral galaxies ... looking at the sheer beauty of many of them... as I joined in with thousands of other volunteers in the ‘citizen science’ project classifying photos of galaxies at www.zooniverse.org/projects ...and now there are all kinds of different projects hosted on this website...why not click on this link and see if one of them is for you ?
Monday, 11 May 2020
Thursday, 7 May 2020
Friday : daily picture
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| Dreamlike shapes in morning mist : c Janet Driver |
On a walk along the old Brightlingsea railway route a few years ago we saw these odd shapes in the distance...gradually realising they were trees... but looking more like ... well... what do you see ?
This painting was great fun to create !
Monday, 4 May 2020
Daily Picture : Tuesday
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| Come and See : c. Janet Driver |
What do you see ?
If you just stop & spend a little time with this painting you will probably see more and more hidden away in the weeping willow, the deep waters, or the corners... children love discovering all sorts of things...
but what about the painting as a whole ? what do you see ?
Thursday, 30 April 2020
Friday : daily picture
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| hollow oaks : c janet driver |
From a distance these 2 gnarled old hollow oaks seemed more dead than alive...
but as we walked closer we could see the small new leaves just opening up...
At first I was fascinated by the contrast between the distorted knobbly ancient bark and fragile unfurling leaves...
but as we looked from a slightly different angle, these other hidden shapes seemed to jump out...
first I saw the ‘nymph’
then the ‘hag’...
...and much later on...
when looking at the finished painting...
I saw so many different ‘faces’...
what do you see ?
Thursday daily picture: misty morning
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| early morning reflections : janet driver (oil on canvas ) |
Inspired by Monet’s paintings of morning mist on the river Seine, where he painted a whole series noticing the different atmosphere and misty reflections each day...
Sunday, 26 April 2020
Monday, 20 April 2020
Swans
Have you seen the poster ... want a new challenge ?... why not retrain as a swan ? :)
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| Swan Dance : c. Janet Driver (oil on canvas) |
Its the only time I’ve ever seen such synchronised swimming & they immediately caught my eye sailing back and forth across the river as they drew towards me.
Now every time I hear a cello playing ‘Swan Song’ I see these two swans glancing coyly towards one another as they danced in perfect harmony...until the moment I caught in this painting...when one swan slowly glided towards me while their partner, undeterred, began to ‘tread water’ waiting for their dance to resume...
....actively trusting...& waiting...
Saturday, 18 April 2020
Saturday
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| Magnolias : Janet Driver (oil on canvas) |
symbolic, it seems, of what is happening now...light shining in darkness...
I will continue to post daily paintings / photos...at least one a day... while we are still “behind locked doors”
Saturday, 11 April 2020
Holy Week : Saturday
In the online Guardian this morning I read an article by Mark Rice Oxley giving several links to items of hope amid this pandemic...
you might enjoy this link below which offers beautiful images of blossom:
Interested in reading about the hope of celebrating both Passover & Easter through video links / streaming etc ? ...then look at Johnathan Freedlands article in the Guardian ...
Wednesday, 1 April 2020
Wednesday
One evening, turning a corner towards the river, I suddenly saw this glowing sunset over on the other side.
Sunlight overflowing onto the trees and bouncing off the front wall of that distant building as though it were pure gold... and only for a few minutes before the light changed completely... but that moment in and out of time ... I just knew I had to paint it... so many days and weeks trying to convey this memory, to bring it to birth... to convey something of that joyful moment...
Thursday, 26 March 2020
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