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I was wondering if I was coming to end of painting eggs as this one is all smashed, dont think so though because I love them.  Take a look at an eggshell it's beautiful.  This is still the underpainting and is only the two colours, raw umber and titanium white.  I am building up the depth first and when it is finished it will be blue as it is a duckegg.  Also the contents will be spilling around it..  Dont forget to like my facebook page as I am giving a painting away on there.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wendy-Cook/106237526094484

 
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In a moment of madness I decided that one of my paintings is going to be given away (free of charge) to someone that adds notifications to my facebook page.  I have done it that way because the people that have always followed my page can then be included in the give away.  Dont think that this is one that I dont like either, this is actually one of my favourites.  When I told my husband he said, "what if they are in America?" well I will just have to post it in that case.  If you want to take part you will need to "like" my facebook page (there is a link to that on the Home page of this website and you have to click the box at the top that says "like".  I will also see if I can copy the link on to this diary page too.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wendy-Cook/106237526094484

 
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The finished painting, cant say much more really.  There are still only 3 colours in the whole canvas, titanium white, sap green and raw umber.  The only thing that I still have to do is to put a black wash over the background, the reason for that is it's really difficult to match a frame to raw umber.

 
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This is a painting that I have been working on at Gallery 150, Regent Court Shopping Centre, Leamington Spa.  I started off with painting the mange tout and I am now trying to make it look like a plastic bag full of mange tout.  It was quite worrying starting off because the vegtables looked ok and I had to put white paint all over them.  If it didn't work it would have had to end up in the bin.  That would not be good when working in the public eye.  Colours used are raw umber, titanium white and sap green.  There is also 3 layers of sap green on the mange tout. 

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At the start of the day Friday, the first bits of white are added.
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This was the first coat of sap green being added to the underpainting of raw umber and white.
 
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I have been doing my paintings in Gallery 150, Leamington Spa and it's closed on a Monday, so I have started another one in the studio.  That makes it four paintings on the go at once.  This one is of another egg (fixated by eggs or what?) but this one is broken.  This is just the underpainting so is in the usual raw umber and white.  The colours will be added when this layer is dry. 

 
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For the past two days I have been "artist in residence" in Gallery 150, Livery Street, Leamington Spa.  It's done me a power of good too.  I lack a lot of confidence with my paintings and the mere thought of performing in public was enough to give me the vapours.  I did it though and enjoyed it, I liked talking to the people that came through the door and all that sort of stuff.  I am back there now tomorrow too.  Another thing working there has done is made me focus on the painting rather than going off and doing other things around the house at the same time.  (Mind you my house does look very untidy and I have accrued about 4 hours of ironing).  By the way, it's an egg.

 
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That last one was too wet to work on today so I have had to start another.  This is a PARSNIP, great things they are and I love them (especially roasted).  This is just the underpainting so is only the two colours, raw umber and titanium white..  I know it looks a bit strange at the fat end but it does actually look like that in real life.

 
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I started this new oil at the weekend and it's an egg.  It's supposed to be in a frying pan .  I am still working on it so I will put a couple more pics up later in the week.  Colours used are yellow ochre, burnt and raw umber and titanium white.  The two round things at the top are parts of the shell that it has just been dropped from. 
I hope you like it.  By the way have I told you about my facebook page I would love you to join me on it, all you have to do is hit the like button on here (I think).

 
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This is a new portrait that is almost finished, only needs some of the edges tidied up.  I actually forgot to post the stages of this one whilst I was doing it.  I can say that I started with the usual raw umber and white then added colour in layers.  I had a problem with the eyes as it is so long since I have done any like this I could not think how to do them.  In the end I built up the first layers with Paynes Grey around the edges and white in the middle, blending the two together as they met.  Then the final layer I mixed some liquin into the white with a small amount of raw umber at the edges, blended as before.  The pupils were a battle.  Firstly I attempted to do them by mixing sap green with a little white, then blocking them in.  This didn't work so I took that back out with raw umber.  I fiddled about like this for about 3 days, then decided to block in the pupils with sap green and left it to dry.  Once dry I got a small amount of white on the brush and made white stripes all around the the eye and then smudged with fingers.  That gave the desired effect, just needed to add the highlights.