This the painting I am currently working on, so far its a good start and I envision a whole army of Gnome portraits by the end of the year. The room I use as my art room, painting and sewing, has no direct sunlight after 9am so the shadows are very shallow and subtle. So getting the nuances of the tones is quite difficult.  As I am currently painting from life I do not paint once the light starts to fade. So in the evening I  work on sewing/beading projects.  Truth is  I am still more comfortable working on my stitching and beading at the moment and to that end I have just re-started a project from 2 yrs ago.

This week I came across a really good blog called Making a Mark by an urban sketcher called Katherine Tyrrell.  This will definitely be a blog I will make regular trips to as it contains all sorts of useful advise for artists and art lovers.

This week she has whole host of posts about the current BP Portrait Award.   This was one of my favourites art shows when I lived in the UK.  However the last time I visited it in 2010, I must admit I was very disappointed in it as I think the only painting I liked was the winning portrait.  Most of the other were photo realistic (from my memory) and often I had to look at the labels to see if they were paintings at all. Not that I am against photorealism in painting, I have admired a lot of that sort of work in the past, usually cityscapes of inner London or other big cities. There was a very big movement in that direction when I was at Camberwell in the late 1970’s.  However, to me, a lot of it,  is just a way of showing off,  look at me , I have mastered a technique and it lacks any real connection with the viewer. This year’s painting seem to have strong influence of photography but there seems to be some growth away from the actual photography to create a unique perspective in painting  the subject.  So I am very disappointed that I am going to miss this year’s show by one month.   It is going to Edinburgh in November after being in London. We will be visiting Scotland in Sept/Oct 😦

The winner this year is  Aleah Chapin who is only 26yrs old and American. Wow, she is a very talented young lady. Reminds of Jenny Saville who also has a show opening this week in Oxford.

Whilst on the Guardian’s art page this week  I noticed that another painter who work I love, die this week.  Mary Fedden.  Take a look at the gallery of pictures the Guardian has provided.