After the rain

We had over 100mms of rain in 2 days plus gale force winds. here are a few photos I took. I missed the worst of it. with the camera.

 Australia!
It's hard to imagine that a few weeks ago we we had the cars packed to evacuate due to a heatwave and bushfire threat!here are sheets of water flowing into the dams which are full and overflowing.

From the studio window.A river flowing down the paddock.

12hours after the rain the road in still has water over it. It would have been a torrent during the rain!

Our big dam is full and overflowed in a few places. we could have kayaked the overflow!

The Joker

The portrait painting group I paint with is having their annual exhibition at studio 48 New Lambton in March - April 2013.

This year we have to create a self portrait with at least one hand included and also a portrait of another member of the group who we  selected by a draw out of a hat.
I got Cliff. It took me a little while to decide how I would portray him in a portrait.

I went out and took photos of him.He is a volunteer member of the Lake Macquarie marine rescue so I thought that would work well.I got some photos of him in his uniform which would have given a good portrait . I also took photos of him painting and decided that this angle would allow me to show his personality , the side I know , better..

 The group can be quite a fun group with several members joking around. Cliff and Kevin often have running jokes and try and outdo each other.

 The photo I chose showed this side of Cliff and I new I could enhance this in the portrait.

Finished portrait

The joker

30 x 40cms 

 Framed oil

Early blue stage

I started with a more finished acrylic blue version than usual as I wanted to make sure I got a good likeness and the expression before I started on the oil colour. Even though I spent longer getting it pretty accurate at this stage I still made a lot of changes as the portrait progressed refining the likeness and expression.

The 'finished' blue acrylic paint stage

 

I approached this portrait differently than usual . Instead of painting the whole painting at once I went straight in and did his face first then his hands and the rest. Not the best way to paint as you play catch up trying to get the whole portrait to hang together.I just wanted to get the expression etc plus it was the fun part!

 Now I had to paint the rest of him and tie it all together..I made his head a bit shorter and rounder.You can see the final version in the first photo - the finished version

Now to create my self portrait. Now that will take a while. I have me and Zeuss to paint and it's larger.

I better get into it as I only have 4 weeks until they have to go in!

Newcastle Herald Article Saturday 16th February

What a diference 2 weeks make! From bushfires & heatwaves to lush and full dams!

It's hard to believe 2 weeks ago that we had both cars packed ready to flee from a local bushfire, the place looked dry & dusty and it was 45 degrees!
 Today it's 16 degrees all the dams are overflowing and we don't really need any more rain as the paddock is boggy as after 250mm of rain!

 I didn't really take many photos of the dry as it was depressing. Here is one of the 45 degree day about 2 weeks ago.We have about 100 roos on the place but only a few are cluey enough to get in the dam to cool off on such a hot day. Note the level of the water.

The same dam full earlier this week . It is even lusher now. The roos in the previous photo were at the RH corner.

Lovely & green again! The grass isn't very thick but it's getting there.

On our front ' lawn'. There are a lot of dead areas that are going to take ages to grow back.

Views from the studio windows

We've had a really bad dry patch lately with temperatures often in the 40's and no decent rain for months. It's been sad watching things die and dealing with the threat of bushfires.
That all changed this week when we got cooler weather and rain!Lovely it's great to see all the green shoots appearing again. It won't be long before I'll be cursing all the new growth with Zeuss bouncing around full of feed again! lol's

 

Ellen - This weeks 2.30hr unfinished practise portrait from a model

Ellen
25x 35cms
Oil on canvas

Here is yesterday's 2.30hr unfinished portrait from a model. She is a lovely looking girl so I wanted to do her justice.
I am pretty happy with the portrait. If I was to finish it I'd just add a few more darks around her hair and under her chin.
I'd like to make the colours a bit more vibrant but the pastel delicate tones suit her..I am starting to do smaller portraits so I get more finished in the time available.
 

They all start by looking  a little bit rugged!
Here I'm just getting the shape of her head on the canvas to make sure she fits.I'll constantly refine as I go along getting more and more accurate. The important thing is to not panic at this stage..lol's
 I sometimes get frustrated as I spend a lot of time in my blue acrylic stage so that I get a pretty good likeness before I put the Oil paint and colour on. Everyone else dives straight in with colour so their work looks finished a lot earlier than mine.

I have changed my working method lately. As we only have 2.30hrs to complete the paintings I am doing a smaller portrait and when I start on colour I do the features first then the skin later. This way I tend to end up with a portrait that looks more finished than the earlier ones where I'd paint all the skintones and features last. The only problem is sometimes I'd like to finish off the skin a bit more and get gutsier colour but I run out of time!

Getting the shape of her profile more accurate and placing her features.

With only an hour left I decide it's good enough and time to start putting colours and Oil paint on.I'll fix things as I go along! I can see the right eye needs to go lower to line up with the other.

Starting to work on her features.Ellen was getting tired and starting to sag a bit so I wanted to capture as much of her expression as I could before she got too tired and stiff.

She has lovely hair so I started to paint that. I decided I'd change the angle of her mouth rather than her eyes..It doesn't matter which so long as they line up and we don't have her mouth angled one way and her eyes another!

Now I have her features roughly painted I'm playing catch up with the rest of her.

Here is where I finished off on the day. I've added a bit more colour to her face and put some light accents where the light hits her face.These are the fun bits where a portrait starts to come to life!

Trail of Art exhibition opens this Thursday 24th Jan at 6pm!

Don't forget the opening of the  Exhibition of  Lower Hunter Art trail members is this Thursday 24th at 6pm at Cessnock Regional Gallery!
 I have quite a few paintings in the exhibition so come along enjoy the opening and have a look at my work in the flesh!

Preparing for the exhibition next week.

I'm still fiddling getting my work as good as I can for the exhibition next week. I've had the stockman one out in the sun to try and dry it enough to paint another thin colour over the water.It's still not dry so I might have to try another technique over the top and hope it doesn't disturb the underpainting.
I've got to send out a reminder for the exhibition and lay all the paintings out and label and package them ready for delivery although having wet ones makes that a bit difficult. I'm also waiting on some glass to come so I can finish framing some of the pastels.
Once they have all been delivered I will have to try and start on my paintings for the portrait group exhibition. I have to do one of myself with at least one hand + one of another member who was chosen by pulling a name out of a hat. I'll be short on time as I only have 6 weeks in between commissions so I don't think they will be as big as last years.
I have some great ideas but as usual they are complex so I might have to simplify things so they don't take as long.

 

 

I've updated one of my paintings ready for the exhibition-Power & Grace

Power & Grace

59 x 59cms image size

 Framed Oil

 

 

 Framed Size c 75 x 75cms

 

 

 

Details

 

 

 

 

Chief

Here's one of my secret Xmas portraits -
Chief
 40 x 50cms framed Oil
We started organising Chief 2 years ago but things got in the way and in the meantime he passed away. luckily one of the earlier photos we had taken was suitable to create a portrait from.
He was a present for the ladies husband. I haven't heard back from her yet but here is what she said when she first saw the portrait.
"It looks amazing!!!!!....THANKYOU!"

My latest stockman painting

I'm creating this one for the exhibition in January.

As I usually do a detailed sketch and plan my commissions all the time I'm having a holiday with this one and diving straight in! That may cause problems later but at the moment I'm just enjoying putting paint on and the freedom of being able to just paint A horse & rider rather than THE horse & rider ! lol's

I'm not sure if everything is 'correct' - proportions etc - but I'll deal with that later if necessary.At the moment I just want to get it all covered so I can see how it is going overall. Then I'll come back and pull it all togther if necessary.

Next I'll do the middle riders horse then the front horse and rider and then go back and pull it all together and emphasise the bits I want most.

I will be exhibiting at Cessnock regional Gallery Jan 24th - Feb 24th 2013.

I will be exhibiting as a member of the Lower Hunter Art Trail.
Here are the details.

In memory of Staff

Heres' the secret portrait I created of Staff the 16year old staffy who had to be put down the week after we took photos for her portrait.
The portrait was to be a secret Xmas gift from several staff for their boss Marshall but they gave her

 early after she was put down.We used an unsharp photo of her in her prime and I used the new photos I took for details to help me create the portrait.

 

 

 Staff
18 x 24cms framed pastel sketch
' We gave Marshall Staff today. He absolutely loved her. He was speechless, he cried and could not believe it. He is over the moon with his Xmas present. Thank you for making this happen!'
Candice

 

Marshall sent me this lovely email -  

Hi Sue,

 I am just writing to thank you for your amazing portrait of my old Staffie. Candice & the girls gave me this for Christmas.

The portrait is so full of her character, and is almost 3D!

Thank you again; it was and still is a very emotional picture and gift, I am totally blown away by what Candice has done, and your wonderful painting. You are very talented.

 Yours sincerely

 Marshall

You can buy prints from my original artworks from my Facebook page

If you haven't already check out my shop - Blue clover leaf icon to the left of the likes icon on this page top RHS.
You can have prints - framed or canvas prints , cards etc of many of my original artworks.
Click on the title of each work to see the different options. You can purchase there securely at Fine Art America and the artwork will be delivered to your door.
Go and have a look! Click on this link to go there direct.
Sue Linton shop

Leo campdrafting

For Sale

Contact me for details

This is one I've done for my exhibition. The reference photo is courtesy of WildFillies photography.
Campdraft 1
 30 x 40cms image size
Framed oil
 I wanted it to be colourful and fun but still look like the horse Leo who is a very versatile little horse who hacks , campdrafts and does dressage! I haven't gone to as much detail for a likeness of the rider as I would in a commissioned portrait.I just wanted the overall effect.

 

 The framed painting.

Here he is in the earlier stages.

 

Above -  I've done the general shapes and gone in and almost finished off Leo. I don't usually paint like that . I usually paint all the painting to the same level at once.

 

 

 I've painted the cow in roughly. The original cow was black but I wanted some extra colour so changed it to a Hereford.

 

 Here I've painted the rider and decided I wanted the cow to be a bit lighter.The finishing touches were to get a more accurate expression on Leo and adjust the background and dust and a few other little details.

Angela -This weeks 2.30hr practise portrait from a model

 

 

 

Angela
Oil on canvas
25 x 36cm
I'm quite happy with this one.I think it has captured some of her spirit.

Scary season ahead

Friday night-

Well we didn't need this..
 A dry thunderstorm came through with heaps of lightning strikes. I lusually love storms but I hate dry ones in this weather.
We heard a massive strike which seemed to be near the house. A bit later we were on the verandah watching the storm when my partner noticed a fire which seemed not far down the drive! Argh!!
 Panic stations..We're out racing around in the dark and luckily now light rain carrying buckets to it..
A tree had been hit and it had started a grass fire about 50' in diameter.. Cripes what good are a few buckets going to do! It was also 400m from the tap..Amazingly with a few buckets and a stick each to bash out the edges we got it mainly out..
I'd rung 000 and the fire brigade was on its way so I stood sodden in the drive to direct them.We had to make sure that everything was well and truly out as its supposed to be 41 degrees again tomorrow.
Umm thats a wakeup call. I've always thought the fire danger wopuld come from the Nw where the bush is. Lucky there wasn't any wind and we had a bit of drizzle or it could have been a lot worse.
 The neighbour drove over to see what was happening ( he saw it first and called 000) and he said he saw my partner coming down the drive with 2 buckets of water and thought ' thats not going to do much!'
 It shows how helpless you are really.On an acreage you don't really have any way of reaching most areas if you have a spot fire. Boy I'll be donating to the rural fire service next time they ask!
Mm I'm not going to like this summer. If it's damp enough tomorow am hopefully I can slash some of the grass in the paddock to reduce the risk. Lucky my back has just come good! Don't think I'll sleep much tonight..
Boy a real fire must be scary!
 Zeuss gave a big whinny out of the dark as I walked by.. maybe he knew something was amiss?

Sat -
We annoyed the neighbours with some early morning slashing..( just joking I emailed them to explain and I'm sure they will be happy - especially the ones closest to the fire who rang 000 1st!).
It's good in a way as I had never thought of exiting the place other than the driveway so now we'll have to consider bush exits and cut trees down that are blocking the gate. It also made me realise that if a big fire is coming and there are spot fires 1km ahead you'd have to leave really early as if it's 40 + degrees with tinder dry + wind it wouldn't take long to be blocked  in.

I'll also have to remember to grab my current portrait commissions and take them with me when I go!
 It makes you realise how insignificant humans are.

The creation of Kiri

Kiri is the queen of the household. I have created many portraits of Sian's household of cats and Kiri is  about the 7th  or 8th portrait.

As befits a queen and favourite we have chosen a larger portrait. The rest have been 40 x 50cms image portraits while she is 50 x 60cms image size. She will be stunning when she is framed.

Kiri is a Maine Coone cat with a gorgeous white ruff , whispy tips on her ears , long whiskers and a big tail. She is enormous!

The photo we had was of her lying on Sian's suitcase. Sian goes away a lot and Kiri hates it.It's almost like she is trying not to let her go.

Although the pose was good we chose another nicer face and I put that on her portrait. I also enhanced her ruff and colour.

 

Here she is complete and I will also put up progressive photos so you can see how I painted her.

 

 

 

Finished

Kiri

71 x 81cms framed oil

 

 

I started with an acrylic underpainting and roughly covered the whole portrait. Her face wasn't accurate but that didn't matter as I fix that as I go along. When I had sent the sketch to Sian she asked me to make her paws larger as the photo made them look smaller than they are.They are fixed here.

 

 

 

Here I have started to use Oil paint on her coat but I haven't done any of the white part of the coat yet. This is the drab and ugly stage.

 

 

 

I quite like her here but she has to llok like Kiri so I had to add some darker bits. I've done a little bit of her white coat but it isn't finished.

 

 

 

Here she is about 85% finished. The final touches don't show up in photos especially if it's a large painting so the photo is taken from a distance. I decided I didn't like the blue background and asked Sian if I could change the colour of the suitcase as that would allow me to use colours that would better enhance Kiri.

 With her permission I did and I think the new colours are much more flattering ( below). Now was the time to put in her whiskers , make her ruff more 3 d and finish all the other little details

that bring her to life!

 

 Here she is again finished.

 

 

Having trouble finding a gift that's really special?

I haven't got much to show you at he moment as all my current portraits are secret Xmas gifts!
If you have a hard to buy for person who loves their animals a portait can really melt their heart. It's a great experience unveiling and seeing their reaction!
I have room for one or two small portraits for Christmas. The $350 framed pastel special makes a great momento of their special mate and comes ready to present.
Book now to avoid disappointment!

Order your own portrait blank cards for Christmas

 

 

 

You can now send a really personal card for Christmas. If you've had me create a portrait I'm now offering you the option of having your portrait on handmade blank cards like the photo ( your portrait on them of course!).

They come with envelopes ready to send.
As they are time consuming to create there is a minimum of 8 cards @ $5 each which will be $40 + postage. You can order more if you wish.
 

Contact me if you are interested.

The deadline for orders is the first week of December but obviously the earlier you get your cards the sooner you can send them out!
General cards of my original artworks available too!

Follow this link to see more.