Oil wash sketch

Oil was sketch
Oil on canvas covered board
22 cm x 31 cm

Ever week a bunch of us get together to paint a lovely lady in the nude (well she's nude not us!)
Figure study is very intimidating, there so much stress involved - the painting has to look like the model and it needs to make her look good - it's the least I can do in return for the privilege I have of her posing for me!

This little painting was done during a once off session and was done as a sketch using paint and a paint brush instead of traditional drawing medium.
The effect is very much like that of one of those old sepia photos.

I find that this is a very hard way to sketch/paint because it is almost impossible to make a correction - if there is an incorrect line trying to erase it will only smudge the paint and it will never be restored to its original white!

Here's another beautiful example of this method - Oil wash sketch

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Nude in the sunlight - a painting in progress

This is another small painting that's on the easel in the studio. I spend a few minutes each painting session working on it. It should be finished within the next week.

Seated Nude - Second Painting

Seated Nude - second session
(secondary Painting)
Oil on Board

I'm fond of having a second painting on the easel as a secondary painting, this keeps me from overworking the main painting and also serves as a testing ground for colour and tone for the main painting.

Sometimes the secondary painting, as in this case, is as nice or better than the main painting. The last pose with this model is next week, hopefully I'll get them both finished in the final two hours.

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Seated Nude - Main Painting

Seated Nude - Primary painting
Oil on Board

This is the second last session on with this model, next week we race towards completion and I'm feeling the pressure. Both this painting and the secondary painting are small works, but they have consumed many hours so far!

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Seated nude - oil on canvas

Seated nude
Oil on Canvas

Again the same model, but in a slightly diferent pose and in oils. It's a lovely painting!

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Nude in white robe

Nude in white robe
Oil on stretched Canvas

She was a lovely model, older than the others and a mother, but still a very lovely model.

Modeling for us was the first time she modeled for an artist group, and she did it fantastically. It is a pity that she can no longer model for us, I'd like to have done more of her.

Standing Nude - oil painting - Alla prima

Standing Nude - Alla Prima
Oil on canvas - 25cm x 36cm

This is from the archives - which in my case is a pile of paintings that have been stacked away in a dark cupboard, mostly of unfinished paintings and paintings that desperately deserve to be shredded... finding this one was a nice little surprise.

The model for this painting was a lovely mother of one in her early thirties, she decided she wanted to try modeling for an artist group - we were very happy that she chose us. She has a lovely figure and a very pleasant manor.

The paint on here is very thin on a canvas roughly primed with gesso, it's the texture in the gesso that you see, not really the brush strokes.

The painting was completed in one two hour session so the size was a perfect fit for the amount of painting time I had available, any bigger and it would have looked incomplete - smaller and it would have looked overworked.

Reclining Nude

Reclining Nude

Oil on Canvas board
300mm x 225mm
SOLD

This little painting was on the easel at the same time as 'Reclining nude on Persian carpet' - I've found that at times it is a very good idea to have a smaller painting available to work on so that I don't over paint the piece I'm working on.
In this case the smaller one was where I tested my colour mixes before applying it to the bigger painting; colours and tone need to be caefully mixed before applying.... as it turns out it turned out this experiment, or side project, became one of my favorites.
The painting has an alla prima feel to it, but it was done over about three sessions with the model.

When I listed 'Standing Nude' on a local auction site... I accidentally loaded the image of the original 'Reclining nude', which was already sold in March!

To my amazement it was snapped up within hours of posting it; I had to cancel the auction, which left my buyer disappointed. I offered him this painting as an alternative - he accepted two days later he had the painting an I had the cash.

I've got to get this model to pose for me again... she's lovely!

Alice - 1 & 2 (November 2007)

This is the first nude that I was happy with, I know this is not the one that's going to make me famous, but I'm also by no means embarrassed by it; I'm quite nostalgic about it actually.

This is the only acrylic painting in this set, I've given up on acrylic for now. It's also the only painting I've done on paper that is not water colour.

About Alice, she was a wonderful model with a lovely full figure and divine breasts. She had a very hard jaw line, but she was an absolute joy to work with... till the last session.

Alice sat for us in a three poses, the one above was the second pose and we were over the moon about how well she sat for us.

The third session changed everything - One of the artists asked if we could have a standing pose... and the pose was fantastic, however Alice neglected to tell us about her wild afternoon at the pub. Every second was a different pose to the last, she swayed from one side to the other and her expression was of someone trying not to be sick. It certainly was entertaining, but she's never been invited back.

This is a quick sketch from that ill fated last session:

Pastel pencil on paper

As with all my paintings, feel free to make an offer (leave a comment), these two are particularly affordable ;)

By the way, if you're wondering who 'we' is - I belong to a figure study group, we paint together once a week. It's a collective idea to reduce individual costs.