White Ladies - 16

More work on the trees..the snow continued to fall today with record subzero temperatures expected here over night.

Below, bumble the tailess kitten is now 10 weeks old!

The Lady In Red - Finished - 67 Hrs 35 (400th post)

TLIR Detail b

Here is the second batch of photos showing the work on the Lady in red. I hope you're not disappointed by the way she has turned out..I'm very happy and look forward to showing you the 'bigger picture' when it's finished which should be today, but as I've got to help get the house ready for in laws visiting for Annie's birthday tea..I might not put the final touches on till tomorrow...anyway..time will tell!

TLIR - detail a.

Once more in reverse order, I will show the process of applying dots to create the Lady In Red. This is the first part in a series of posts today to let you see the process in detail. the series represented here shows two hours of work this morning..I have worked on the trees above the lady also which will be show in a later post.

TLIR - 62 hrs ......HAPPY BLOG BIRTHDAY !

Back to the job in hand...The Princess Ida project was a welcome relief..(a paid job no less!) but my heart lies here. And hopefully I should finish this week. you can see the outline of the Lady In Red as I seek to furnish the world around her before committing myself to the red.

Today it seems almost wrong to talk of celebrating ..it is also a time to remember not only the deaths of the poor souls in the 911 Terror attacks, but the lost lives of ALL the innocent caught up with in the conflicts be they Iraqi, Afghan or whoever.My thoughts lie with the families whose sons will never return home..with the children who do not understand why they lose their parents and homes.With the elderly seeking to scrape together enough food to live whilst foolish and deluded extremists detonate a living hell within the neighbourhoods of their homes.

There are millions more who are yet more eloquent than I..but YOU AND I CAN learn to live in peace and understanding..as long as we have open hearts, open minds and a willingness to shut up, listen and learn!

TLIR - 56 hrs

I thought I'd show an enlargement of the 'car' area.I have mentioned before about how indistinct and shadowed figures interest me..here you can see a few people milling around in the back ground, but I'd really like to have a picture full of crowds..when I went out to photograph for this project it was what i intended to capture.It was a surprisingly sparse day in town.

TLIR - 54 hrs

Don't know why my camera has decided to add a blue tinge to everything..it did it once before, when I said it was faulty and I'd buy a new one, it suddenly got better. It could be alive!..(Terry Pratchett readers will know this!)..perhaps the Imp has a cold!

TLIR - 51 hrs

I've passed the 50 hours mark!..it seems never ending, but I'm happy pushing the level of realism on this. I often look at the work of other artists..(did you look at Ascenderriseaabove yesterday?) and wonder if I should just cut loose and do some action painting..either way the intensity of this piece mind boggling...I spent today's session on the shadows in the foreground..One comment mentioned that it was good I'd finished the shadows a few days ago.I'm afraid i was only just beginning!

TLIR - 46 hrs

At the end of the day I'd spent around six hours(I did some after this picture was taken too) on the trees leaves.I also put some more to the shadows (just for a bit of variety). I did all this whilst listening to one of the most exciting one day Cricket Internationals ever between England and India..it's a seven match series and after today the scores are 3 - 3...the final match is on Saturday.I know most readers will not be interested in Cricket, you don't know what you're missing.

All three of my children are now back at school..my hoped for routine can re establish itself...expect to see this picture move along quickly now!

*Whilst composing this post I had a comment from a fellow artist based in California..take a trip to Ascenderrisesabove and see some magical work.

TLIR - 41 hrs 15

Ooops!..photographing in the dull light of my lamp is not recommended. Another thing that is definitely not recommended is misreading the name of a fellow blogger who kindly makes very complementary comments. I'm talking about my reference to 'Anonymous' yesterday. I have received my reprimand and hereby confirm that it was 'ANONYMOM' who commented. Please take time to visit her site..!

Once again progress is slow..I went into town this morning. You see I need to read too, and I'd just finished reading 'Like Water For Chocolate'..a wonderfully magical and food orientated romance/fantasy. I'm now settling down to read 'The Unbearable Lightness Of Being'
So I wasn't able to do any work until this afternoon. Oh, and although the boys went back to school today, Annie is now not due back until tomorrow, so she was around too. I hereby promise that tomorrow will bring a more prolonged bout of work.

TLIR - 37 hrs 35

The temptation was too great..I had to start work on the shadows on the ground..it adds so much to the overall effect .The good news is that I've finished the darkest part of the picture now. However the rest is quite intricate and subtle..and right in the middle of it all will be the Lady In red.It's hard to imagine now, but stick with me and you'll see...!

An anonymous comment on yesterdays post asked me to write about how I decide when a picture is finished. Much of it is down to 'Artistic intuition'..as a famous teacher of painting once said.."When you start looking for things to do, then you should finish"...it is quite easy in my opinion to over embellish a piece...a shadow is not dark enough..a green not deep enough...Sometimes (as the great Impressionists showed us) it is acceptable to let the viewer do a little work . I have been guilty of going back to a piece days or even months later and 'touching up' a detail or deepening a shadow.But that is rare.

TLIR - Size does matter.

Tysonice asked me what the size of the current picture was. Well, check the comments of the previous post if you'd like to know the exact measurements. Otherwise, here is a close up shot to give you an idea of the scale ( I usually include shots like this for each piece I work on) sadly the resolution isn't great but at least it gives you an idea.

I'd be interested to know what concept of size you had when you saw this developing. It's something I hope to address in the near future when I have a go at oil painting and recreating the techniques Seurat used for his pictures..I can increase the scale of the work then.

TLIR 35 hrs

I seem to be spending less time each day working at the moment. This should change next week when the children go back to school (Tuesday)..I'll be able to drop into some sort or routine then. today (apart from listening to my football team Derby County lose to a bunch of amateurs called Liverpool 6 - 0!!) I set about refining the bicycle and putting in some more 'street furniture'..the hardest part is yet to come as I attempt to recreate the dappled shadows on the ground..I think I might leave this till last.

TLIR 8 -32hrs 30

I've not progressed much today, but I'm liking what I'm doing. I had a nice surprise today when I had a comment (see yesterdays post) from a friend of Preeti's who lives in Taiwan. VJ said some very nice things and told me she had looked on Wikipedia for information on 'Hyperpointillism'..finding none she has very kindly inserted a piece which is now attached to the definition of 'pointillism'. Thank you VJ.

TLIR 7 - 29hrs 30

I've decided to call this picture 'The Lady In Red'. It should have in brackets after it 'the Man With Red Eyes'..it's so intense working..i don't think I've ever put so much into such a small space...( and for what?)Despite having been away on holiday a few weeks ago..I'm feeling exhausted..when ever I read about the artists I admire down the ages, they never seem to have had to contend with children on school holidays who seem to be unable to motivate themselves beyond the television or games console.It seems ever more to be that the longer I go on , the bigger my dreams become and the smaller the chances of them coming to fruition...

I'll try to be more positive tomorrow.

TLIR 6 - 23hrs 55

TLIR 5 - 17 hrs15

It is rather voyeuristic...each morning I've come to this picture and caught myself thinking.."He's still there!..what's he up to?"..I initially thought he was using a mobile telephone..but now I think he's rolling a cigarette...he's certainly oblivious to everything else that's going on.

I've started on the stonework of the building..I like working on buildings...it's quite like putting pieces of a jigsaw together..odd geometric shapes that when viewed look like walls and arches....I'm thinking back to the old Magritte picture 'This is not a pipe'...I should be saying..'This is not a man out side the Library'. It's a collection of carefully placed dots of ink which resemble the form of a man outside the library.

TLIR 4 - 12hrs 50

As you can see..I've not actually done much work today..you see it's a public holiday here, plus my family are back from camp, and we've had a couple of friends round to eat wit us...so it's been a relaxed day with good weather. I've also listened to England play India in a One Day International cricket match..(have I ever told you I'm a fan of the Cricket?)...was a very close match which England won taking them 2 - 1 up in the series.

despite this I've worked on establishing the leaves in the picture..you'll see the area of image increase slowly for the next few days as this part is quite dark...the area in the right of the picture is very light, when I get there it will progress quickly.

See you tomorrow!

TLIR 3 - 10 hrs20

Today I've put a telephone kiosk into the background and extended the picture upwards..there's a nice atmosphere developing to this one.To me it feels relaxed....maybe it's me that's relaxed..what with there being no children around this week!!! I spoke to Jan who expects then to leave their camp this evening and be back around midnight.

Today also I am once again challenged to think about how often I take things for granted. Don't you find it amazing that you can sit at your keyboard and be in contact with people in all parts of the World?..isn't it wonderful? I could never have hoped to speak to you and share my work with such a wide audience if it were not for this Interwebby thing!..now,if someone out there can invent a Transporter device a la Star Trek, then we could all meet and have a party!

TLIR 2 - 7Hrs 35

I have worked on strengthening the contrasts, putting in the parked bicycles and extending the picture upwards to include leaves. I've only worked for four hours on this today as it involves a high level of concentration..and there have been plenty of distractions. This seems odd to say since Jan and the kids are still away camping in Wales and won't be back until late tomorrow evening. My friend 'Devilmood' who writes the Blog : 'Love Is Stronger Than Pride' ( which I recommend you to visit) wonders along with me why more couples don't take holidays apart. Jan is very happy taking Sam Will and Annie camping, and I am happy getting a few days of total quiet to draw and taste wine (he euphemistically quips!)....

I must take this opportunity to answer those who have questioned why I'm not 'famous'..In truth, i don't want to be famous..just able to take my responsibility in my family and earn enough to pay the bills. I've waited all my life for the time I'm having now having been made redundant from my work as Residential Social Worker of many years....it was the kick I needed, and without it, I wouldn't have been able to embark on the work I am now doing.

Life often throws a surprise or two..often we can't see the reasons why at the time, but if you can grasp an opportunity (blind ignorance is often needed) and take a step into the dark..you can change things...the only barrier is fear!...as a favourite author of mine (Frank Herbert) wrote in his book 'Dune'.."Fear is the mind killer..I will let it approach, I will face it and I will let it pass over me, and I will continue"(paraphrased )..but the essence is there.What do you dream of?....what are you waiting for?