‘The Result’ Week 2. 26 November 2015

‘Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.’ Quote by Picasso.

This is such a pertinent quote for me. I have looked at so many artists’ work and have been fired up by something particular in their work. The darks and lights in Fabian Perez’ work (also Caravaggio of course), the narrative compositions of Jack Vettriano, the slight aloneness of any of Michel Carson’s paintings of women, the cropping in Paul Lemmon’s works, the sheer vigour of Lucien Freud; I could go on and on – see more on my Pinterest page (Art Stuff I like).

From these I have stolen ideas, but never copied them. They have inspired me to paint my own particular style of work and I am eternally grateful to them all for that inspiration.

This week, yet again, no website, but I am confident we will be there next week. If you would like to see this work, please go to my Twitter account @MicheWatkins and you can see the updated painting.

I am impatient to get on with glazing this work, but have had to give in and let the oil paint dry. I want the darks to compliment the lights more and this is where glazing is so effect; the wall needs to be darker, as does the flesh on the girl to the right hand side of the painting. I am happy with the way the whole thing is coming together now and can’t wait for the detail!

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‘The Result’ Week 1, 19 November 2015

There has been a last minute glitch with the website, so I have to be patient and wait another week. I hope you can be equally patient and I do apologise again for no image. To see this new work, please go to my Twitter account @MicheWatkins and you will see it there.

To my mind, this painting is about a life-changing moment. The young woman sits in her chair having just opened a letter giving her the result she was waiting for. Does she need to sit down from shock? Is the letter the result of a job interview? A pregnancy result? A letter from a lover? Saying what? You, the viewer can make up your own mind – which is why I LOVE painting narrative figurative works.

I may yet put a glass of wine on the floor beside her, can’t decide, or a mug of tea. She will also be much blonder, but you have to always paint the darks in first with an oil painting before you can go ahead with the glitzy blonde streaks. I also want to glaze over darker shades on the walls to really bring out the light from the lamp. Glazes are brilliant for doing this, so you end up with a more Caravaggio type of painting, lights and darks etc. I will do the same with the skin too as time goes on, as at the moment it is too similar to the floor…….lol.

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Twitter: @MicheWatkins
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‘Liberation’ completed and available. 11 November 2015

I am promised faithfully the new website will be up and running this week and then I can upload images again.  So please bear with me as it will be worth it in the end;  the website is going to look so great. I hope you will then join my mailing list to receive a quarterly newsletter from me.

So …..to two quotes from great artists who I admire hugely:

‘There is no blue without yellow and without orange’.   Vincent Van Gogh.

‘Colour is my daylong obsession, joy and torment’.  Claude Monet.

I work a lot with colour as will be seen from my the paintings on my website (www.michewatkins.com) and particularly with complimentary colours as in the colour wheel (do Google if you have a spare moment).  So as with Van Gogh’s quote, blue with orange next to it just makes a painting ‘zing’ with life.   Blue and yellow will always be found in Mediterranean images, be it paintings, pottery or ceramics.

Colour is indeed my obsession as Monet so aptly puts it.  It causes me great torment during the working up of a painting, and complete joy when I feel I have got it right and it is finished.

So it is with ‘Liberation’.  I was happy with how the legs were working, but could not get the bra right, so in the end had to paint it out completely and start again, something which caused me headaches at the time, but now I am happy, and I hope you the viewer will also think so.

http://www.michewatkins.com

Twitter: @MicheWatkins

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‘Liberation’ Week 2. November 4 2015

Again, my sincere apologies that there is no image with this week’s Blog;  a problem again with the new website being in transition.  I am  SO excited about the new site and am impatient to see it up and running.

This piece ‘Liberation’ is about new beginnings for this woman, I think.  Off comes the bra and into a new life for her, a strong and confident woman – does anyone else see this?!  Would welcome any feedback.

I have lost count of the times I have changed the background and flooring in this piece.  I was determined not to use brown – why do I have a horror of that colour? – and tried various shades of blues, all of which just took over the picture too much.  In the end I decided to go for black to show up and compliment the legs more.  I mixed Ultramarine  (Michael Harding paints are AMAZINGLY pure, so you use less of them) and Burnt Umber to get the desired shade.  I find using just black paint is too matt, too deadening.  By mixing these two colours I will be able to vary the depths of tone as I go along.

I had painted the floor cream to the left of the piece and a more muted reddish grey to the right of the legs as this is how the photograph is;  but it just looked a mess – too busy.  So I went with my artistic side of my brain and made the floor all a cream colour and brighter than in the photo.  I will add different shades in next week when the paint is dry.

The bra has proved a complete nightmare as I used two different photos not realising the light source was coming from different sides for each photo, so have battled every step of the way. Why do I always make it so hard for myself?

Next week the detail and hopefully finished work.  Lace on the bra will be fun and more glazing on the flesh of the legs.

A tip:  I sometimes turn the painting upside down and immediately see my mistakes.  Not too sure why this works, but it does, believe me.  Looking at the work in a mirror works as well.

If you would like to see more of my work, have a look at my website:

http://www.michewatkins.com

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Twitter: @MicheWatkins

‘Liberation’ Week 1. 28 October 2015h

My apologies as for some reason I cannot upload the image of this work.  It could be because I am in the process of having my website completely revamped and therefore I can’t manually upload images temporarily.  If you would like to see the image, please have a look at my Twitter account @MicheWatkins from tomorrow (29 October).  Thank you for your patience.

This painting is in its early stages hence only one leopard print shoe so far.  This is a young woman who is confident, modern and very into her fashion.  The red bra has come off, hence the ‘liberation’ but I leave the viewer to imagine what happens next.  She could be going to a burlesque class, or just finished it;  or about to meet her lover, who knows?  This is why I so love painting pieces like this, I have my own ideas as to what is happening, but you the viewer will have your own ideas.  I may soften the colour of the bra as at the moment I feel I have a bit of overkill on the red tones.

There will be more contrasts of light and darks as I go along I think, to give the picture more impact.

If you like this work, please have a look at my website for more images, or ‘like’ my Facebook page Miche Artist.  Thank you.

http://www.michewatkins.com

Twitter: @MicheWatkins, Facebook: Miche Artist, LinkedIn.

‘Downtime’ completed. 21 October 2015

Happy with the way this has worked out.  It has proved almost impossible to completely replicate the colours on Photoshop for Twitter and here on my Blog, so my apologies.  The dress is a more vivid sea green and there are shades of this on the shoes too.   I decided to add the rhinestones on the heels as bit of fun, as I feel most women like a bit of glitter on their stilettos….

This painting is now available to buy on my website http://www.michewatkins.com at £295 and is 45 x 60 cm.  If you like this painting, do have a look at my website to see more of my work.  I like capturing a moment in time in a woman’s day, a woman who is strong, confident, happy in her own skin.  Quite often I will crop the work or turn the head away to make the image more anonymous.  The viewer is then free to make up their own mind as to what is happening. I am also a great lover of bright colours!

I am in the process of having my website completely overhauled and already the work in progress is looking wonderful.  Will look forward to any feedback when it is completed.

http://www.michewatkins.com

Facebook : Miche Artist

Twitter @MicheWatkins

‘Downtime’ Week 2. 14 October 2015

Enjoying deciding on colours for this.  I particularly like the red of the sofa and will put more lights and darks into it as the painting progresses as I think the contrasts of light and shade always make for a more interesting work.

I had about a 50/50 split on Twitter feedback regarding leaving the shoes as they were or changing them.  In the end I a) slimmed down the straps and b) changed the colour to incorporate a coloured sole.  They may well become more pink next week.

The dress at present is sea green and I might put a pattern onto it as I go along.

I hope you like this painting and enjoy seeing the process behind it.  You can see more of my work at http://www.michewatkins.com.  I am interested in portraying women who are strong, independent and beautiful but with a touch of anonymity such as cropping or turning the head away from the viewer who can then make up their own mind as to what is happening.

I am having my website updated which is very exciting.  Watch this space and feel free to give me feedback when it goes live.

http://www.michewatkins.com

Facebook : Miche Artist

Twitter @MicheWatkins

Week 1. ‘Downtime’. 7 October 2015

A new painting, which always excites me.

The model for this work is one of my life models who has such wonderful skin to paint and a natural grace when she poses for the life drawing class that I run.  I asked if she would come to the studio and model for me in various settings that I had in mind.   In the end she had her own ideas as well, and we came up with some brilliant poses which will feature in future paintings – and in fact already have.

With this work I wanted to convey the woman of today, confident, happy in her own skin, hard working etc.  She has had a good day at work and is relaxing with a glass of wine before she goes out possibly.  Or this could be her workwear and she is knackered and just wants her downtime.  The hands behind the head are so that she can be just thinking her own thoughts, reflecting on her day, or wondering on the evening ahead.  Or just listening to some cool music.

Sometimes, as I have said before in one of my blogs, cropping a painting works well.  The viewer does not always need to see a complete face, he/she will make up his/her own mind what the person looks like.

I am delighted with the red sofa in the composition.  Red always lifts a painting, as I have discovered with the red shoes in previous works.  Initially, I thought the red might be too strident in the picture as a whole, but having put in the black and grey cushions, the red is slightly more muted.

Not sure yet what colour the dress will end up being.  The model was wearing a grey dress, but this is too similar to the cushions, so need to have a think about that.

I think the composition works very well portrait size and cropped and have yet to decide what else to put on the table next to the glass of wine.  Something to make the viewer think I hope…

I am in the process, finally, of having my website updated.  Thank you to everyone who has kindly agreed to have their comments uploaded onto a separate page on the new website.  It should be up and running in a few weeks, so bear with me please!

http://www.michewatkins.com

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‘Hanging A Painting’ completed. 1 October 2015

I am immensely grateful to a follower on Twitter who told me they thought the shoulders were too broad and the legs too short for this woman.  I get so involved with my work, I can’t always see errors that are glaringly obvious to anyone looking at the painting for the first time.  So I pass on another tip for what it is worth.  Always, if you can, get someone else to peer over your shoulder at your work. A fresh pair of eyes is always good and first impressions are usually correct.  Constructive criticism is always helpful (so my tutor used to tell me….)

I had already made the arms smaller than from the original photo, but could now see more work needed doing and I have altered them accordingly.

The reason the legs looked short to this viewer was that I had got so involved in painting the hair that I was adding more and more brushstrokes, hence an overlarge head of hair and little legs!  I have taken away some of the hair and now feel happy with the result.

A little more fine tuning of the paintings and I was done.  I will not be putting my paintings into another work for a while as I am too impatient for such detailed work.  It was a compromise trying to get not too realistic a finish to these paintings and then overworking them.

This painting is now sold and going to a good home which is great.

I now finally have a Facebook Business Page called just Miche Artist.  Have a look and please ‘like’ the page ….if you do that is.

http://www.michewatkins.com.

Week 3 ‘Hanging A Painting’. 24 Sept 2015

So I sat down this week with my my Ipod Shuffle plugged in  (yes it does still exist) and turned up the volume on the Rolling Stones and off I went..

I never seem to learn that is better to approach the painting of the flesh ONCE I have been experimenting and gaining confidence with other parts of a painting.  Painting flesh tones is notoriously difficult, at least for me and needs to be approached with caution!  A skirt is blue, shoes are red etc., but flesh is pink, blue, purple, yellow ochre etc etc etc and I always, always get it wrong first time around.  As I did this time – again.   Anyway, with Mick and Keith in the background I calmed down and got the flesh tones going again AFTER painting the picture frames etc.  I do like adding in my touches of blue and pink to the skin as it adds interest.

Talking of which, I have set myself a really hard task putting my paintings into the picture.  For a start they are unframed, so have had to imagine the frames (with a little help from Google) and then how much detail do I put into the actual paintings?  Too detailed and they will look overworked, but not enough will not fit in with the detail on the blonde.  I had hoped to finish this today, but decided the paintings needed more detail, but by this time I had lost the will to live and needed coffee.

So next week the final details on the paintings, a touch more highlights on the hair and possibly a bit more paint splashed/dripped onto the back wall.  The rest of the figure I think I am happy with now.  I like seeing her hanging a painting of herself on the wall!

I am going to go with a cropped figure for my next painting and I think she will be lying on my red couch with a mysterious man in the background….

http://www.michewatkins.com

http://www.michewatkins.com