More about fish, and my paintings

I am busy,busy,busy.... working on my new sea-bream paintings. I am having fun with the concept and playing with my paint. I bought a new brand of oil paint from the art suppliers, it is artist quality but it contains much more 'filler' and is much cheaper to buy. This is allowing me to work with thick paint and even some knife work, which I have not done in years. I am refraining from showing the photos of this new work for the moment, since I am experimenting at the moment I am not sure if I will show them.

Because the works are much more stylised I am able to work from my earlier fish studies, and some reference photographs without the need for the actual fish on a plate. I may change my mind later and repaint the fish more realistically, or I may even take them further into abstraction. Yes, I am having fun!

Fish, and fish...

I'm back after my weekends R&R. Mind you the fishing was hard work. We had bright sunshine and no wind at all on a shallow clear lake. Almost 30 anglers only caught 3 fish for two days. Modesty forbids me to mention who caught the biggest one :)



And speaking of fish I have been working on one of the fish paintings derived from my previous posted ideas. It is coming along but it still needs more work. I need to go to the artists supply shop tomorrow to get more canvases to continue working. I have plenty of canvas, but no stretcher bars or stretched canvases. I'll keep the pics coming as I gather momentum with the works.

Playtime on the Computer.

I have been playing for a few hours... I never really considered working in 'paint' (as on the computer) but I had a couple of workup drawings that I wanted to explore in colour. I was sitting at the computer and decided to draw them on the screen. Working this way makes it easy to change hue and tone. It's a lot easier than over painting areas. (But not as much fun or satisfying)
I ended up with these few pieces. I then created a few composites, and varied them slightly. I had come to an impasse as to where I wanted to bring my fish paintings. I think I have discovered where I wish to go.

Now I need to decide if I want to try and work the ideas as woodcut prints, or in oil paint, or again maybe both.

Well, we still have plenty of rain.



I have been tied to the house for an extent for the last week as Dubh has had to have an operation at the vets. Because of this I have to keep an eye on her when she is not wearing the plastic collar to stop her biting out her stitches. She doesn't relax or lie down with the collar on, but winges and whines (throughout the night) so I don't get a lot of sleep either. We will have to wait for the results of her tumor biopsies. Hopefully the vetenary surgeon managed to excise it all if it is malignant.



Dubh is not just a dog, she is more like a child, but with more tendency to have cuddles and not let you out of her sight than most children.



She is lying on the sofa beside me, snoring away, looking cute and quite comfortable. I know that if I stand up she will come alert immediately, just to make sure she doesn't miss anything. I have my work cut out to stop her jumping off/over the back of the sofa in an effort to catch up with me... She has already pulled a couple of stitches, and vetenary bills are expensive......

Meanwhile...

I managed to get into the studio yesterday, now things have settled down a bit. Dubh is quite happy to spend time in there with me while I work.

I finished off another piece, Filleted Fish II. 40 cm square, oil on canvas.

I now have to decide whether to carry on with the series or take a break from it. I will be away for the weekend, so I'll make a decision when I get back. I have a busy week ahead so I won't get much painting done anyway, unless I get the weather and time to do some studies while on my travels. I am going up to Northern Ireland tomorrow, I have meetings on Thursday. I have another meeting in Dublin on Friday morning, before I head west to Mayo again.

I have to go now, I am due at my framer's I need to sign one work before he finishes off the framing as it will be behind glass. He has the others ready for me now.