It's Not All "Get Out of Bed, Paint!"

Painting Day Routine :
Wake up - Tea.
Shower etc.
Feed cats.
Breakfast.

Mary Kemp - Cley Windmill  - Unfinished

(That's at least an hour)
Occasionally miss shower, cats and breakfast and paint with painting clothes over my jim jams.

Down to the studio.
If it's cold put the heater on.
Put radio 4 on.
Think about painting.
Lay out colours and stuff.
Paint.
Tidy studio.
Think about painting.
Paint.
At the moment I have 4 paintings on the go plus ones I'm waiting for the right solutions to.
Paint until lunchtime, interspersed with tea and coffee.
At lunchtime domestic life kicks in, so I attend to that.
Might paint for another hour or two in the afternoon.
Exciting life ?????

Peterborough City Gallery Open Exhibition.

Very pleased that two of my works were selected for Peterborough City Gallery Art Exhibition.
  http://www.vivacity-peterborough.com

It runs from October 1st to November 23rd with a jolly preview evening on Friday 28th September.
I'll be there!

Mary Kemp - Cool Sea

Mary Kemp - Before the Picnic

Here's the two paintings I have entered. I'm very fond of "Before the Picnic".  I think it's one of my all time favourites.

You've Just Got to Draw. Pages from my sketch book

Mary Kemp- Sketch

Mary Kemp - Another sketch.

Here are two pages from my lovely smooth Earthbound Sketch Book from Daler- Rowney, drawn with the elegant Pilot G-TEC-C4 gel pen in a beautiful sepia brown. It just glides across the page. Unfortunately it is neither light fast nor waterproof , but you can't have everything!

I Think I'm Having a Manga Moment !

I've been reading a lot about the art of Manga recently.

Mary Kemp - Paddling.

I like the simplicity of form, the not quite realness of it, and above all the youth and energy.
It seems to have rubbed off on me because when I looked at this figure I thought MANGA.

Which Palette for Acrylic Paint?

When I paint with acrylics they annoy me. They look beautiful oozing out of the tube, glistening and new, full of promise. They're fabulous when you first put them on the canvas, so painterly, so yummy!

And then the damn things dry, just when you're getting into doing something with it. And they stay on your hands for ages, and won't wipe off.

Yes, I know about retarder, but that dilutes it. It's just not right.

I really wanted to write about palettes for acrylics.

Mary Kemp - palettes for acrylics.

1. "Stay Wet Palette" - Goes mouldy, dilutes the colours, and all the colours can run together
2. Round, deep palette and cling film -  Looks very arty and holds lots of colour, but can be wasteful and it still dries out.
3. White ceramic tile - For single colours this is the best option. Mix the colour, use it.

What I really mean is I prefer oil paint.

Monday Morning - Paint!

On Saturday I produced the ground work for three paintings. Here are two of them.
I drew the images with pencil on the canvas, having carefully worked it all out on a piece of paper, and then sprayed with fixative.
Next I got busy with the base colour, pinky for one, purply for the other. Using acrylic.  I let all this dry, and after a while painted in the main colour of cerulean blue for both of the pictures still using acrylic.

Mary Kemp - Work in progress.

Over the weekend I have let this dry. In truth it only takes less than 30 minutes, but I wanted to think about it, and now I am ready to proceed. In fact I have proceeded already because this is Monday afternoon, but the next stage is under wraps until I'm happy.

Paint Wall vs Disposable Palettes

I like to see paint everywhere and until recently at the end of the day I would smear all the tired paint onto the studio wall before cleaning my brushes and palette. (I'm not messy really..honestly..)
And now I use tear off disposable palettes.
 Wonderful !

Now I've Seen the Light.

Mary Kemp - Beach Huts at Wells (1)

Mary Kemp - Beach Huts at Well (2)

Sometimes I paint a picture and it's just not right. And I think about it, and put it on the wall, and no-one says"That's nice!"





See the first one, it's just too confused. I like the beach huts, the rest is a mess.

Now the second one has all that rubbish painted over, shame really because I thought I painted it rather well, but the detail sometimes needs sacrificing for the whole. ( I took the photo outside to show off my lovely apple tree)

Summer Just a Memory

A dull windy day, still quite warm, but the Olympics are over and the children back at school.

Mary Kemp - Day at the Seaside.

This picture will be in the Art in the Heart Gallery in Peterborough soon.

Is It Because It's Not Pretty?

Mary Kemp - Evening Shadows Hunstanton

I painted this picture two years ago or so.
I thought about it a lot, about what I wanted to say, how I liked the darkness of the evening winter sun and the shadows it cast, and how people are just shapes when all said and done.
But it's had a very mixed response. Some people like it...me. Some people don't...nearly everyone else.
Ho hum.

Sweet Papers

Cellophane papers and shade cards

Quality Street are lovely, little jewels of deilicious delights all wrapped up in bright, transparent cellophane papers.

I use the cellophane to look through when I'm thinking of adding a glaze over an oil painting. Of course they don't do a sludgy black but these bright colours give me many an idea.

You can also see a shade card, white to black in 5 easy stages. Useful when you get muddled over tones.

Life is Kind

I was writing a blog post to schedule for later when I heard the front gate clink purposefully and my neighbour came to the door.
She brought me a Ruth Rendell book full of dead bodies. We're both avid readers.
And then she said "I've brought my cheque book".
And she looked at my paintings, and bought two!!!!!

Mary Kemp - Woman and Child

I felt quite cheered up!

Quiet Time

We all need a bit of quiet time, and for some, drawing, occupying the hand and part of the mind while another part of the brain gets on with serious thinking and decision making is very important.
Here is a drawing I did of my garden at such a time.

Mary Kemp - Summer in the Garden . Drawing.

 It was a warm lazy day but the brain worked on as usual and I had decided on the way my next two paintings were heading.
More of that later.