Over the Easter break I have had some of my paintings framed and done more work on two of my canvas paintings (with a view to choosing some of this work for my final degree show). I’ve also had time to pause and reflect on what else should be done now that the final degree show is only weeks away.
My degree show will comprise landscape paintings (in pastels, acrylics and oils) and photography inspired by coastal walks at Dunwich and Orford Ness.
One of the things that I am doing now is improving my knowledge of paint mixing. I think that I have a good sense of colour when painting and this year in particular I have tried to use this skill to impart meaning too. However, paint mixing has been another story and a lot of expensive paint has gone down the sink. I found the remedy in the UCS library – Michael Wilcox’s book Blue and Yellow don’t make Green – and am currently investigating subtractive colour mixing both in theory and practice. The paintings here came about as exercises in mixing blue-greens without using my usual mixes or the recently discovered free samples of System 3 process cyan and process yellow heavy bodied acrylics. I’m also more aware of transparent and opaque mixes to give different effects. I usually use a lot of titanium white opaque mixes when painting and whilst I do like the effects this gives, it will be great to expand my repertoire. The paintings shown here are just such early attempts at improving my colour mixing.
