Painting Updates

Mainly painting work over the past week or so. The underpainting to my ArtSupport entry is now done, it's my largest picture yet but only took a couple of days because of its relative simplicity (and the length of the working days). I've also added a glazing layer to Sisyphus but there are some aspects I wish I'd have done differently. Lavender oil seems to be slightly more powerful as a solvent than aspic oil, as well as being more pleasant in aroma and less fuming so I conclude that lavender is superior. Today I've added the final layer (excluding signature) to "half a broken heart", my smallest picture and entry to a competition held by the Samaritans. At the moment, my Memory of my 34th Birthday is on exhibition at the Minshull Vernon garden show so take a look if you're anywhere near South Cheshire this weekend. The Flute Player has been rejected by the Chester Open people, which is a little disappointing but not very serious. Perhaps the Hitler portrait was thought controversial, still, I'll paint superior pictures in future. It's a pity that I'm running short of good pictures to exhibit, but some of the simpler ones, like Portrait of Kate Bush as a Winter Tree and Waiting for B.T. are pleasant to look at and didn't take many days to make. My work pipeline is long but lined with gold. I suspect that the ones in progress (The Execution of King Charles, Portrait of Marlene Dietrich as a Waterfall, half a broken heart) will surpass any before. Sisyphus I'm less sure of due to silly niggles with the colouring and detail issues. The landscape is wide and littered with a few small surreal objects that would have been best done on a separate layer but now look a little fudged, smudged and ill defined. That knowledge though was something I didn't have before painting it. My lessons are getting less painful but still I learn.