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.

Come and say hello at the portrait group exhibition at Studio 48 New Lambton

Here's a bit more information about the portrait group I paint with on Mondays.

Most art shows or exhibitions don’t feature many portraits as a portrait of a person is the most difficult painting an artist can create!

The painting has to look like the subject and capture something of their personality.

I paint portraits for a living so I realise how challenging that can be!

Our group are all members of the Society of Artists Newcastle .

The group started as  a Monday drawing group who used to take it in turns to sit as the model for the others to sketch.. Below is a 20 min sketch of Dudley I created at one of these sessions.

The longest time we could have someone pose for a drawing was only 30mins which didn’t really allow enough time for a painted portrait or a more finished one.

About 4 years ago I suggested we start to have a few longer 3hr sessions  so we could practise our painting. 3 hrs is still not really long enough to complete a portrait but you can get some quite interesting results. ( see Michael below).

It’s got so popular now you have trouble getting a place to set up your easel!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                The group in action at Lambton- the model is sitting at the front out of sight of the camera.

Each year we have an annual exhibition where the members get to do a more finished portrait. This year it is at Studio 48 opening this Friday at 6pm.

The challenge this year was to create a portrait of yourself including at least one hand ( hands are hard to paint) and also create one of another member of the group who’s name was selected by a draw out of a hat. 
There are a wide variety of styles in the group. Several of the members  have entered the Archibald art prize  so there should be some good portraits on view!

Here is my portrait group ( & Archibald) entry from last year..This painting ended up winning first prize in the Oil section at the  Dobell art show at Rathmines 2012.

‘Making a mark” self portrait Sue Linton 2012

 Here I am creating one of my two entries for this year..

 "He's a winner to me!'

Unfinished self portrait with Zeuss 2013

I'd love to see you at the opening!
 I will also be at the exhibition from 12 - 2pm on Sunday the 7th April ( this Sunday) so drop in and have a chat!

Memorial portraits - one from the archives - Missey & Tilley

 Missey and Tilley
 20 x 30cms
 Framed pastel pencil
I'm painting a  memorial portrait of a young boy . In my years of creating memorial portraits people have told me that being involved in organising the portrait has helped them with their grief.
Someone once said that I must find it it sad doing memorial portraits.
I find it very rewarding that I can help someone come to terms with their loss.Having the portrait to look forward to gives them something positive to brighten up their life in those hard times.
Of course once they have their portrait ..
'Everytime we look at the portrait it brings back great memories of the times we had with Missey & Tilley '
Sue D

I combined the best photo of each dog to come up with this portrait.

A secret gift- Boris

 Boris

 18 x 24cms image
Framed Pastel sketch special

Alison had me paint Boris as a secret gift and he was presented a few days ago. Boris has been around all of Jade's life and he is getting on so Alison thought a portrait would be a great way for her to remember him when he's gone.

'Last night was the presentation of your wonderful work. Jade is totally amazed - so are her mum and dad. The portrait is a real treasure for that family and will hang in a place of pride. Andrew said 'Jade that's the kind of work you will have till you're my age' her reply was -'more likely Grandma's age'! Thank you for your talent and obvious love of the work. "
 Alison
'Thank you so much for that lovely piece of art work that you did for me. It was amazing and so realistic and colourful and so detailed and we will find the perfect place to hang it up. Thank you so much. It is perfect. ' From Jade.
 Alison told me she had second thoughts when she booked in but told me when she received the portrait..
"‘I’m so glad I had the portrait done. Don’t walk away and say ‘No you don’t need that!’.
I’m glad not only for myself but knowing someone else will treasure the portrait long after Boris is gone!’

A lovely afternoon in Autumn

I looked out of the front window and had to take some photos!I counted 86 roos ( we have more but that was just in this group). Our semi tame ducks that we feed were there as was Zeuss and he lighting was lovely.The grass is so long that if the roos are lying down you can hardly see them.

Quirky colourful affordable portraits!

 
You can now have a quirky , colourful Oil portrait of your pet on a 20 x 20cms canvas ready to hang!
 
Very affordable a generic quirky portrait is $110 including postage Australia wide
A guaranteed likeness is $310 including postage Australia wide
All you need do is email through your favourite photos and I can tell you if they are suitable. Start taking some quirky photos now!

Some small cute dog Oils I've just created

I have created these to sell at the Autumn art Bazaar this Sunday at Booragul but they are for sale now . Move quickly as they may not be around after Sunday!

 They are all 20 x 20cms Oil on canvas's $100

For sale 

' Happy'

20 x 20cms canvas

 Oil

 $100

For sale 

'What do you want?'

20 x 20cms canvas

 Oil

 $100

SOLD

' Hello..?'

20 x 20cms canvas

 Oil

 $100

 

Sold

' What's this?'

20 x 20cms canvas

 Oil

 $100

 

I'll be painting at the Art Bazaar at Booragul Sunday 10th March

Here are some details about the Art Bazaar. Its a lovely location right on the Lake and near the Lake Macquarie Gallery and Cafe so you can get a nice lunch or devonshire tea too!

 Come along and say hello and watch me paint! At the moment I'm planning to be  painting an Oil dog portrait on the day. I'm chasing up photos now.

 I'll have sample portraits for you to view or purchase and cards from my original artworks. There is an ATM on site.

Trent - an experimental 2.30 unfinished portrait from life

Yesterdays practise portrait from a model.The portrait painting group is where I go to experiment and be radical and learn. Lately I have been getting really conservative so I decided to push myself out of my comfort zone yesterday and go more colourful.
It's unfinished and I'm not happy with his forehead colour but I like the zap it has. Here is where I can try different colours and note which works and what doesn't . It's easy to tone down colour if necessary but much harder to paint in a colourful manner and still get a realistic / convincing result.

With this experimentation and practise I then have a bigger bag of skills for when I am doing a commissioned portrait. Unless I am asked for a colourful portrait I then use more subtle variations of what I have learnt . A portrait painted with this knowledge will still be more realistic and colourful than a photo.
 Cameras don't record all the colours our eye can see which is why photos of people are often quite bland and a good portrait so much more interesting and alive!

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!