#finished canvas

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Coniston Old Man - Painting - Finished - Sold !

As I said a few weeks ago, the pace of Diana's painting has quickened considerably, in fact the first time I got to see this canvas, not only had she finished it, but one of her students had seen it in her studio and persuaded her to sell it. I actually think Diana planned to make a few more adjustments to this image, but the customer loved it as it was. Don't worry it will still be on display during our exhibition in November, but I'm afraid it won't be for sale. We'll try not to make a habit of this, as many of those following this blog may be hoping to buy some of the original art for our Lake District Calendar 2014 in the November exhibition. 

There is one other update, which I won't bother creating a separate post for, which is that we have another copy of the Lake District Calendar 2013 Poster framed and available for sale at the Broughton Information Centre just off the square in Broughton Village.

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Scafell from Mosedale Valley - Painting - Finished

All of a sudden Diana is on a roll with her painting. She's applying oil to canvas like there's no tomorrow, and now I'm feeling under pressure. She has paintings underway for everyone of my photographs, and is ready to start another very shortly. Also, from having no finished canvases a month ago, we now have three - not counting the Wasdale scree slopes which are the wrong orientation for our 2014 Lake District Calendar. I'll post the other finished canvas in a day or two, so for now I'll leave you with Scafell from Mosedale. Diana used a few innovative techniques on this painting, apart from the simple decision to level the horizon a bit. The more controversial idea was to experiment with some photoshop manipulation on my photograph before starting painting. She used a filter that decomposed my image into simplified geometric shapes and used those as the starting point for her outlines and blocks of colour. I think I've understood this correctly. I keep telling Diana we need to record our conversations about the techniques she uses, but we never do, so instead you'll have to make do with my layman's interpretation.

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Coniston Water - Painting - Finished

This is very exciting news. We have a finished painting! What's also very interesting is that this is the picture Diana liked least as a photograph, and was least interested in painting. Yet she loves the picture, and so do I. Diana's critique of the photograph was that it was very tranquil, pretty picture postcardy. It had a smooth gentle feel to it, almost tropical instead of Lake District. However in adapting the image to a different medium, even with very little change to colours and shape, it has become something quite different. We tried to discuss exactly what that was. My feeling is that because the image is grittier and much more textured, there is a rugged quality that the photograph didn't have. Almost like the difference between a pretty flower in a sunny meadow compared to an equally pretty flower hanging to an exposed cliff face, the flowers and rocks in the painting command a little more respect for the resilience. Whatever it is, the painting looks great, and its our first blog posting for the Lake District Calendar 2014 that we can tag with the word "finished-canvas".

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Wasdale Scree Slopes - Painting - Finished Canvas

Here's the finished canvas. Quite a change from the last one. I think it suits the more elongated aspect ratio that Diana went for. She kept in the features that appealed to me when I took the photograph, namely the mixture of colour and monochrome palettes, and the 3D depth of the screes. As a photograph you almost have the sense of the image having been taken by NASA or at least out of an aircraft looking down on a remote mountain range. This is a kind of horizontal equivalent.

I'll have to add to this post later, with Diana's thoughts on what appealed to her, and what she was trying to pull out of the canvas.