all that glitters...

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

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

It is well recognised amongst those that know me, that I have a very limited attention span. I am so easily distracted, it's embarrassing sometimes! My latest distraction artistically is watercolour. I never set out to become this engrossed in this medium, but confess to be completely captivated by the freedom of expression it gives me and the fact that I can work quickly, which with my limited attention span, is always going to be a winner! I take influences from what I see around me and my watercolour sketches are a great way to experiment, so I couldn't resit a quick sketch of the new boy in the barn this week: The wonderful photographer, Lisa Mardell has given me permission to paint her pictures.  Her work can be seen at http://www.photographybylisamardell.co.uk/ and I have taken the opportunity and have really enjoyed it. Here are a few inspired by her Wild West series. For more regular updates, follow me on instagram @hrquineart

Art is... For me, an emotion. A feeling. Here's a thought; What other species greets a fellow with. "Hi, how are you?" There is a phrase in every language for this. So from the dawn of communication, or at least some early point, humans were aware of each others feelings and emotions. Not only that, but were interested in them, albeit it for empathetic or mercenary reasons. So art is a way to express and share our emotions. How does a painting make you feel ? A picture, play, movie, song, or dancing all provoke some kind of emotion within us. The artist is portraying their emotions via whatever media they use and sharing this with anyone who cares to partake. So what emotion am I portraying with the above picture? Well, I am happy to leave that to your own interpretation :)

Just a short, sweet update this week as I have had to work (day job) for 6 days in a row, so this is my one day off before I'm back to work tomorrow :( Still, I have made time to finish a couple of wip's so I feel that I have accomplished something! These are 2 more in the All That Glitters series. These are such fun to do. Twinkling water colour backgrounds, bordered with texture paste. The horses are painted in gouache. I love the contrast of the shimmery background and flat mat subject. It shouldn't work, but it does!