all that glitters...

I can't help it, I am compelled time and again to painting dark shadowy images and I don't know why. Maybe it's because I love a bit of contrast. I love how back-lighting can bring out all the beautiful subtle details of shape form and texture. It creates a mood, an emotion - open entirely to the perception of the viewer. Maybe it's the simplicity. This style is easy to live with as there is no fear of a colour clash! .  So recently I have gone back to playing around with monochrome ideas. I visited this style briefly a while ago and decided it was worth a reprise. I used ink previously, but this is an unforgiving medium for this style of painting, so now I am using heavy body acrylics. It's quite a messy process, getting the right effect  involved the use of highly technical equipment.... fingers!  I like the thought that different people feel differently about these in terms of  the mood and the surroundings.  I am keeping quiet as there i...

So the final week of my challenge came and went! It was a great experience and has given me confidence and structure that I don't think I would have gained, certainly not that quickly. Day 23: Gouache Day 24: Ink Day 25: Pastel Day 26: Acrylic Day 27: Acrylic Day 28:Acrylic Day 29: Pastel day 30: Acrylic Most of the pictures from this series are available for sale. If you are interested, please message me for details. So now for a short time to reflect on what I have learned and where I want it to take me.  You can follow my progress here, or on instagram @hrequineart

August is whizzing by and I can't quite believe I only have one week of my challenge left. I will miss it in some ways, but won't miss the struggle of finding time to paint. Some of these have been very late night sessions. Day 16: Ink Day 17: Graphite Day 18: Pastel Day 19: Ink Day 20: Gouache Day 21: Graphite Day 22: Gouache You can follow my progress daily on instagram  @hrequineart

August is flying and I am already past the halfway mark of my challenge! Day 9: Pastel Day 10: Watercolour Day 11: Ink Day 12: Graphite Day 13: Acrylic Day 14: Graphite Day 15: Pastel You can follow my progress daily on instagram @hrequineart.

So after a diverse start, a rather watery week followed! Day 3: Watercolour Day 4: Watercolour Day 5: Watercolour Day 6: Gouache Day 7: Watercolour Day 8: Gouache Follow me on instagram  @hrequineart for daily updates

Time to challenge myself! 30 paintings in 30 days. But there are more rules to make things interesting 😈 1. One subject. For me, horses obviously. 2. Six mediums: Watercolour, gouache, acrylic, ink, pastel, graphite. 3. Only 5 paintings in each medium. So... I have put the name of each medium on a straw, to be drawn each morning, so I never know what I will get! Once I have drawn/used a medium 5 times, that straw will go in the bin so potentially the scope could narrow fairly quickly. Time will tell. Day one was graphite. Not my favourite medium and one of the reasons for the challenge; to get me out of my comfort zone and try different things Day two was ink and another medium I don't usually use, talk about in with a bang! I thought I would try my hand at zentangling for this one. It hurt my eyes! I now have to wait and see what tomorrow brings! You can follow my progress on instagram @hrequineart