finishing paintings

What to focus on when finishing your Abstract Painting

What to focus on when finishing your Abstract Painting

How do you know when your abstract painting is finished? In this video, I take you through the process with one of my paintings, showing you what I didn’t like about it and how I fixed it and finished the work. I talk about what I focus on and what questions I ask the painting in order to gain clarity around what steps to take next.

1. Make a big move to disrupt the work and make a big change
2. Rotate the work so you see it differently
3. Ask: What have I got?
4. Look for repetition and ask: Do I need this? Have I already got this somewhere else?
5. Is my eye led around the composition?

When you have worked through these questions, and you’re happy with the work, stand back and walk away. Look at it again after a few days to see if you still feel the same.

Acrylic Ink in Abstract Mixedmedia Painting

Acrylic Ink in Abstract Mixedmedia Painting

In this video I explain how to overcome a common problem artists have when they fall out of love with their paintings. This can happen when our style evolves and we grow in our artistic preferences. But what do we do with the older paintings that are still lingering and no longer reflect our new aesthetic?

I discovered a new technique by using Acrylic Ink to loosen the surface of the painting and freed me up to finish the painting again, this time in my new looser style. There were still aspects of the original paintings that I loved and I was able to integrate these with my new style and create a finished painting that I am much happier with.

In the newly finished paintings I used drawing with oil stick as well as flooding the surface of the painting with Acrylic Ink and water. I used these techniques to provide variety in both wet and dry media which enriches the surface and offers the viewer a broader range of experience when viewing the paintings. I was trying to move into a looser style of expression so I needed to soften edges and lose more control of the paint, ink and drawing tools.

I encourage you not to Gesso over older paintings and lose all your beautiful painting. There will be parts that can be integrated with your new style while still maintaining your authenticity. Decide what new media you can bring to the work and without a backward glance forge ahead to bring your work up to date with your growing artistic style.

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How To Start By Playing With Paint and End With A Finished Painting You Love

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How To Start By Playing With Paint and End With A Finished Painting You Love

It’s exciting to start a painting but do you have trouble finishing it? In this video I show you how to start by just playing with media and then a great tip to quickly add interest and intriguing, surprising elements into your work. Then I take you through how to clarify your composition and create a strong finished artwork.

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How I Developed An Idea From A Finished Painting Into New Art

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How I Developed An Idea From A Finished Painting Into New Art

How you get inspiration for new work? Inspiration, I think, is the most important part of the creative process. This clip shows how one piece of art can inspire another - where a finished painting can be mined for ideas that can be used to start a new piece.

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How To Use Glazing In Your Painting

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How To Use Glazing In Your Painting

Do you know one of the best things you can do in your painting is GLAZE? I've spent quite some time figuring out Glazing and I did use to skumble - I think... So how about I show you how I Glaze? It's a wonderful way of adding richness and harmonizing colour.

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Finding Clarity and Finishing

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Finding Clarity and Finishing

Here’s the final installment of what has become a 5-part grueling Serial of the evolution of one of my latest paintings. If you were with me at the beginning you'll know we had quite the journey!! Watch the Vlog to see the birth of 'Sunday Sundae with Red Lips Rose'

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Permission To Paint

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Permission To Paint

Do you give yourself permission to paint? When there are pressing demands on your time it’s worthwhile to evaluate the importance of the attention you give to your Art. What it means to you and why you want to spend time playing with paint.

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From Start to Finish - in a nutshell

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From Start to Finish - in a nutshell

Someone asked me to explain my process. The clock was ticking, we were closing in on the hour and that’s a big question. So I summed it up by saying “I add, add, add and then I start seeing shapes, decide what the paintings going to be about and then edit.” If only it was that simple…

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Painting with Total Abandon

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Painting with Total Abandon

The journey from difficulty and confusion to clarity and joy. That’s the path we are all on with our Art. We are all at different stages of that path – some at the beginning bogged down among the weeds, and others further along emerging into openness where the path widens and the walking is more easy. We can kind of see the way forward – a bit.

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Perspective

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Perspective

How do you achieve Perspective in your practice? I’m not talking perspective achieved by ruling lines and identifying vanishing points. I’m talking about how you keep a healthy balance between the good and the not so good that happens along the way in your Art Practice.

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Questions to ask...

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New Beginnings...

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New Beginnings...

I also really enjoyed letting loose with drawing and using dry media a lot more in my paintings when I was working on the large sized paintings. This added a playful looseness which I really liked and prevented me working in a straight-line towards finishing when after each painting session I would draw and scribble over the painting. Coming back into it the next day I would cover a lot of the drawing over but the little remnants that peeped through were really fun suggesting a naivety which I liked.

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Finishing a Painting II

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Finishing a Painting II

Follow the final moves as I bring this mixedmedia painting to it’s finished state. This painting integrates photocopied images with paint and collage.

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Is there ‘Precious’ in your Studio?

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Is there ‘Precious’ in your Studio?

Finally, the insistent call of the outside world drags us away and we close the studio door on that tangled grid-locked mess of paint, hope, and self-belief. As we square up to the dishwasher and the dusting that secret smile is now a nagging sense of dread. Am I good enough? Why can’t I figure this out? I’ve killed my precious ….

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Finishing a Painting

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Finishing a Painting

Watch the finishing stage of this mixed media painting with photo collage. In this video I demonstrate how I finished the painting, analysed what it needed and made final changes.

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Learning to make Art without Fear

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Learning to make Art without Fear

So how do we get the confidence in the beginning when we don’t know that much? We have success. How do we have success when we’re beginning? We need bite-size chunks, roadmaps, guides – frameworks that keep us on track, keep us safe while allowing us to make decisions and learn.

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Sealing & Varnishing

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Sealing & Varnishing

Follow my process as I demonstrate sealing and varnishing an acrylic mixedmedia painting to get a lovely soft satin finish.

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My Why - Why do I paint and Why do I teach?

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My Why - Why do I paint and Why do I teach?

When I was growing up there was no such thing as a ‘why’. Well, we didn’t know we all had one or at least there was no drive to examine our motives and find out. I remember doing quite a lot of motive examination directed by the nuns – but I always fell short and found myself counting down to the next confessional to cleanse my soul.

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To Change or Not To Change Your Painting?

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To Change or Not To Change Your Painting?

What do you do when you have a painting that is ‘ALMOST ‘ right? I had changed my mind about a painting, I liked a lot of it, but there was something not quite right….

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Tips to Title Your Painting

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Tips to Title Your Painting

Now it’s time to carefully sign my name in the bottom right corner, lay down an isolation coat, a couple of coats of varnish and ….. drumroll please, GIVE IT A TITLE. The signing and finishing coats are simple, consider them done! But the title – ugh. My brain slumps in my head, solitary dying sparks fizzle – I’ve got nothing. Not a clue or even a microscopic gem of an idea. NOTHING!!