Children on the Beach

This is the finished painting based on the previous photo. It's currently up for sale in the Potting Shed shop in Llantrisant, near the Royal Mint. It's acrylic on stretched canvas and the size is the same as an A4 sheet of paper.

A few elements not in the photo were added for interest, such as the red bucket and spade and the rocks and reflections in the distance. A slight hint of red was also added to the sand to warm it up slightly.

I've been commissioned to paint a much larger version for a friend of mind for her mothers Christmas present. It'll be on a landscape format with an extra child added and a dog running in the distance too. The accent colour she wants is turquoise, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Children on the Beach

I've been working on a series of paintings for a local shop The Potting Shed which feature children playing on the beach. I've done a small version based on this photo which has come across really well. The painting is painted primarily in black and white, with tones of dark brown, then as an accent colour I also added a red bucket for the girl and a red spade for the boy. The painting shows really well how elements from a photo can be kept as they look in the photo whilst also adding features from the imagination that add to the composition.

Children and Milk Cart

I wanted to make a painting from this image because of the wonderful collection of children tumbling about and trying to find space in the back of the milk cart.

Terrace houses are so hard to paint becuase there are all the rules of perspective to obey whilst also making sure everything is straight and parallel for windows and doors. A lot of time was spent on the background making sure everything measured up right before I could then do the fun bit of adding the figures in the foreground.

There's a project coming up in the Painting degree which asks for an urban or rural scene and I'm tempted to paint the local terraced houses here but depicting them in an abstract way. I've bought a lino roller, for making prints, but will use it to lay the paint down to make really precise horizontals and verticals. Look out for images on my course work blog goldfishfindingyourway.blogspot.com for more possible images!