The creation of the West Wallsend Heritage mural

 The mural is going to go on the front of the Workers Club building under the West Wallsend sign. I am painting it at home on panels. It will then be carried down in pieces , reassembled on site and attached to the frame that will be screwed into the buildings facade.


Murals are slow work! So far all we have done is make the frame to hold the panels and put half of it up.
I'm  coming up with a concept and I've sent one through and made a change and sent another idea back. Once the concept is approved I can then get permission to use some photos reference from a book and go take any extra photos I need . Once I have all the photos I will do a small colour version to nut out all the design and colour problems and have that approved.
Although it takes a lot of time to do a smaller version it's much easier to change something on a small scale than on the wall! Once I start painting the mural I'll know exactly where I'm going.

 My partner made the frame one weekend inside the garage. Lucky he is helping as no way could I have done that ! Now we have bought it outside and placed it in position against the back of the studio.

Above -  This gives a better idea of the size of the mural.

Last weekend in June -
Below- The frame is attached to the wall. He  made brackets to hold it in position on the wall so I can paint. Everything has to be square or when the panels are attached they will be uneven and warped.

Hopefully this weekend we can attach the lot and put the panels on. I then need to prime the exposed frame and panels. Once that is done I do all the indoor planning with the small version and then trace the small version and project it onto the panels. I can then start to paint! That will probably be a month away.

The local school children are to help with some of the mural so I will have to unscrew a panel or two and take it down to West Wallsend for them to paint and then bring it back rescrew it and continue.

 This  is the concept for the mural.
West Wallsend was built on mining so the poppethead in the RHS symbolises that.
 The LHS top image will be the war memorial with a lighthorse rider in front.
 Below that are grasstrees. They grow only a few inches a year and the large ones are 100's of years old. There are many on the top of Mt Sugarloaf and the grasstrees were used and had special significance for the aboriginal people of the area.
The main image is the Coop store of the area. The bird in the sky will be an Eagle which is the totem for the Awabakal people of the area.
 The town sits below the Sugarloaf range and Mt Sugarloaf so that links the whole mural.I'm still getting permission to use some of the images but hopefully that will go ahead and I can start planning the small colour version. 
 Assuming everything is opk using the Co op image I have to organise a photo shoot for the Lighthorse and take some photos of the monument. The horse doesn't have to be near the monument. It can't stand in front of it anyway as there are steps. I am going to use artistic liscense there.
 I also need to go and take photos of the Suagarloaf range from the town so it is a bit more accurate.It will be more of a design feature than realistic but I do want the shapes to be recognisable. I also want to go to the top of Mt Sugarloaf and take Grasstree photos and go to Kitchener and take photos of the Mine Poppethead there. 

Sat 6th July - A good days work today. The frame is finished and primed and the panels on! Now I just have to prime the panels and get the smaller colour version sorted out.

Priming the frame in my sacrificial clothes..

  All up and ready to prime. The panels are quite heavy so I will need to help to move and take them down for the schoolchildren. I might start another thread from now on as this one is getting a bit long.

Studio open day 10 -3pm tomorrow Sunday 30th June

My studio will be open to the public tomorrow between 10 - 3pm. Come along and say hello, watch me work, talk about portraits or view my original artworks.
Many paintings including unshown artworks and unframed works for sale direct from the artist.
 http://art-trail.blogspot.com.au/search/label/SUE-LINTON

Early morning roos around the house

These first 3 photos are all taken from inside the bathroom looking out...or more like they are looking in..lol's

Above and below - From the bedroom. The funny marks on it's body are just reflections from the glass.

It's a nice way to wake up to see them so close..They don't often get on the garden and luckily they usually don't eat anything other than grass..

Cute as! They don't often explore this close. The wood in the foreground are the verandah boards.

With mum..

He's a winner to me! My 2013 Inglis Equine Art prize entry

I didn't have time to create an entry for this years Inglis International Equine art show so I entered my self portrait with Zeuss.

 The theme is 'Anything Thoroughbred'. Zeuss is a thoroughbred breed although he was never raced. Even though he never won a race I love him to bits so my title is 

' He's a winner to me!'

 I'm actually quite happy with the portrait ( it looks even better in the flesh) and I'm growing very attached to it. 

I'm entering the Singleton Art prize portrait section and I will be entering this painting and ' Brewing a joke'

 

All paintings in the artshow have to be for sale .It's unlikely anyone would want the portrait of Zeuss & I but I may have to put a high price on it just in case!

I don't like to do that as I usually put the price that a portrait would be if it was commissioned as then if someone likes that portrait but wants one of them they know what to expect.

Some June sunsets

We've had some lovely ones lately. 

 We don't often get the cliffs lit with this crimson light so we took plenty of photos..They don't do it justice though..

The creation of Sally - my demo painting at the Hunter Arts Bazaar days

I started Sally back at the Autumn Arts Bazaar and didn't get a chance to do anymore until last Sunday at the Winter Bazaar.

This is the stage I got her to at the Autumn Bazaar.I had done a blue underpainting and decided I better finish off a bit so people would know she wasn't going to stay blue! lol's Her eyes ,mouth and nose are roughly done. She is a fairly large Oil portrait - 40 x 50cms image size.

 Here is where I started yesterday. As she is just a sample portrait and I can do whatever I want I wanted to go as colourful and bold as I could. Here I've started to put some extra colour through the blues which will be the base for the white later.
I was very busy on Sunday so I was interrupted talking to people a lot which was good as I didn't get time to start worrying about what I was doing..lol's

 

You can see my palette with the paints in the foreground. I had to keep reminding myself to stay bold and not get bogged down with detail etc . Still building up the layers..

I've started to add more white fur. She is an unusual Border collie as she has a mainly white face except for a bit more black at the back on the RHS.

This is where I got to on the day. The sun had moved around and was shining in my face and I was getting tired so decided to quit while I was happy with her.

I'm really happy with the result so far . 

I still need to come back and detail her nose , mouth and eyes a bit more and decide on a colour for the background. I don't want to lose the impact she has  from the viewing distance.

 My portraits are designed to look great when you view them on the wall. They usually look good closeup too but when they are in your home you want them to look good from the usual distance you are going to see them as you sit or walk by. She is going to be a stunner when she is framed! 

 An onlooker quipped -' You should say 'I bring out your inner dog' "- I thought what a great quote as that's exactly what I do!

 A photo just shows the outside and all the clutter whereas my portraits show you the pet you know and love.

Thanks to the person that took the photos for me!

April/ May 2013 Hunter Lifestyle article on the Lower Hunter Art trail of which I am a member

Hunter the Lorikeet

I can create a portrait of any type of pet. Hunter was a hand reared Lorikeet and had died when the family dog attacked him. I created this memorial portrait for Caitlin to remember him in better times. 
He was a cheeky little bugger so I wanted the portrait to reflect this and to be a colourful and lifelike memory.
 It always helps if you have a photo that shows something of your pet's personality as I can always enhance what is in the photo.
Here is the reference photo.

  A great pose but as usual with a photo everything has the same emphasis and Hunter and his expression is lost in the clutter.Because he is so colourful and I wanted his personality to shine I decided to simplify the portrait as much as possible. 

 Here is the acrylic underpainting. I have made him look at you more in the portrait than he was in the photo. I decided to have him on a branch rather than the upright of a lamp like in the photo.

Here I'm starting to come back in with Oil in his real colours.I started to do him section by section at first but then realised I needed to do the whole painting at once so I could compare the overall effect.I wanted to get his face first though!
 It's only rough here.I'd never painted a bird portrait before and I was having a ball!

Here he is 75% finished. I was going to have him feel like he was outdoors but that idea really restricted my choice of background colours and I felt he was just a blob surrounded by a pale whitish colour.
Back to the drawing board..Here he is finished. I wanted his portrait to be a cheery , colourful one of a ' cheeky little bugger '.

Looking for mischief!

Hunter

 40 x 50cms

 oil on gallery wrap canvas

 The portrait is more vibrant than this - around his beak should be white.

'It looks amazing. I'm very happy with the portrait.

Thank you so much'

 Caitlin

Brandy & Molly - from the archives

All my recent portraits are secret so here is one from the archives.

 Brandy and Molly

30 x 40cms 

 Framed Pastel

 Brandy the foxy had passed away and we didn't have a decent photo for her portrait.The portrait was to be a surprise 21st birthday gift for the families daughter and they wanted Brandy placed with Molly as if she was still alive and with her mate.  

We ended up finding a book on Fox terriers that had a photo of a dog that looked like Brandy. I used that as my reference photo and fine tuned the portrait as needed to make it look just like her.

We had a recent great photo of Molly the beagle and together they make a great memorial portrait!

 The portrait  was a great success and was received with many happy tears!

Hunter portrait artists exhibition at Studio 48 - our portrait painting groups 2013 exhibition.

Here are some photos from the opening. There was wide range of styles and standards . Everyone had to paint a self portrait including a hand and also another member of the group that they drew out of a hat.

The opening

Some of the portraits

My 2011 Archibald entry of my mother is on the RHS

 Denise with her self portrait ( LHS ) and another members portrait of her on the right.It was interesting to see other members versions of yourself!

  Here are 2 versions of Helen and Helen's portrait of me with one of my sailboards on the right.

Irini's self portrait top and John's version of her at the bottom. We had the reference photos next to them so you can tell if it is a good likeness.

 

Cath in front of the portraits of her. Her self portrait LHS & Bob's is RHS.

 

   Kay near her portraits. Denise's version LHS and Kay's self portrait RHS.

 My portrait of Cliff near Kath's self portrait. I didn't have enough time to paint two really large portraits.

Me with my self portrait with Zeuss. The portrait looks better than that. I edited the photo to make me look good. lol's

Here is how it should look

Helen's portrait of me LHS and mine RHS

 This is just a sample of the portraits. There were about 40 in total.