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This is another painting that I have been working on at Gallery 150, Leamington Spa.  I have a couple of commissions of dogs to do so I thought I had better have a practise first and this is it.  It makes me laugh, he looks really hacked off.  This is almost finished as I have been forgetting to update this diary.

 
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The finished painting of William, he is the older brother of a gentleman that commissioned me to paint it.  He was killed in WWII at the age of 19.  I had to take the image from a small sepia photograph that was of him, I did not want to reproduce the photo so I macroed in to just his face.  I also wanted him to be ethereal and I hope I have achieved that. 
It is oil on canvas and 20"x16", the colour pallette is raw umber, yellow ochre, titanium white, alzarin crimson, payne's grey.

 
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I have had to drop all the others for the time being and complete this commission.  It is the brother of a gentleman in Leamington, who died aged 19 during WWII.  The only image he had of him was an old sepia photograph so I have had to go from that.  The hat is also quite difficult and I am having to do some research to try to find out what it looks like.  The white things on the top there are the buttons that are on there, I would imagine they are brass but I will have to look for them.  Very sad, I have visited Ipres in Belgium where there are lots of war cemetaries and it is so sad to see all the ages of the men that died there, or should I say boys?  I started it yesterday and below is the monotone image that I did then.

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This is what I got up at the weekend in Leamington Spa.  This was the first time that I had done anything like this and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, so much so that I am going to do it again.  It was great to meet so many different people and lots of other artists.  Lots of my business cards were given out and I got three commissions, so it was really worth doing.  I think that all artists should have a go at it, much better than being holed up in the studio.  We were also really well looked after by Starbucks who brought us lots of coffee (for FREE!) and Strada kept coming out with plates of pizza and garlic bread.  Also the camaraderie between all the stall holders was very special and made such a lovely atmosphere.

I only gave myself a week's notice of doing this so wasn't best prepared and only had the original works to take.  On the Saturday I hadn't taken enough stuff with me to fill the whole stall so it was a little bit sparse, this was the picture that I took on the Sunday.  What I also didn't do was indicate on the paintings that they were the originals and, because they do not have any texture they do look like prints.  On the Sunday I wrote on the tickets that they were oils on canvas.  That made it look like I was the most expensive but it was a learning curve.

The next one will be on 24th September at Regent Court Shopping Centre, Livery St, Leamington Spa and I will be there too.  By the way, if you are an artist/photographer or sculptor and you are also interested in having a stall go to www.artstrail.co.uk and book up, the more the merrier.

 
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I started this painting on Friday but was so distracted by something else I forgot to take pictures of it to put on here.  So here it is, it is going to be a plastic bag full of pears.  I have had to do the background before I put the bag on and that is why they are in strange positions.  I have used a lot more colours than normal in an attempt to get the skin of the pear to look right and the paint has almost been stippled on to them.  Sap green, yellow ochre, lemon yellow, titanium white all on the pears.
Below is the very start of the painting, I dont sketch

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I have painted a "post it note" on to this painting, why I hear you ask?  It was too boring as it was so I've added a bit of fun.  I have deliberately painted the note on to the painting and not on to the breakfast because I want viewers to think that someone has stuck it on there.  I am looking for something to write on to it too, lots of ideas but I'll surprise you all tomorrow as that's when I hope it will be finished.  I have also painted some oily blobs on it but they are not very visible on the photo because they are so pale.