Pictures for an Exhibition.

Winter Grasses Loch Doon Coffee at Cluny The Sheep Track Loch Doon Sold Ayr Sketch Club Annual Exhibition 2011

The annual exhibition in the Maclaurin Galleries is from 24 July till 21 Aug 2011 See you there if you can manage.  The gallery can be found at the following address. The Maclaurin Galleries Rozelle Park Monument Road Ayr KA7 4NQ http://www.themaclaurin.org.uk I have the 3 paintings above in the Ayr Sketch Club 110th Annual Exhibition.

A Postcard for July

A bit of my Garden

Acrylic on Watercolour Paper   5 x 7"

Bridget Hunter 2011

Our Sketchercise group continue to send postcards from around the world.  I've a lovely collection so far and all so varied. This month my postcard to Ronelle Africantapestry in France shows part of my garden.

Postcard from my Walk

Painting over a painting!

The Sheep Track, Loch Doon

Bridget Hunter 2011

Oil on canvas 24 x 20"

I had a painting in an exhibition in February and from the moment it was on the Gallery wall I was desperate to scrape off areas and try again to get my initial response to the place back. I've quoted Richard Diebenken 's words on my Blog - about being terribly disappointed with a painting and struggling to the point of "destroying it partially or wholly".

So now the painting's back home that's what I've done. It's out of the frame and paint's been wiped off, scraped off, sanded even and new paint's been added with fingers, rags, brushes, knife. I think this is more like the place - or at least how I saw it. Think, though,  I'd best turn it to the wall before I touch another thing and I'll away and hit a golf ball !

The first version.

Out with the bling.

Bling is the right word - being ostentatious, flashy, flamboyant. At least that's how I describe my animal print shoes. I like to do a bit of bling now and again - a sort of minor rebellion against being this age and seeing me turning into mother in the mirror- and my way is with shoes. I must add that my wee mum was the most delightful of women who "blinged" in her own quiet way.

 But sometimes bling can be painful and that's the way with these stiletto heel shoes. So they're off to the charity shop. But I had to draw them before I bid them goodbye as a reminder that I once owned such a pair.

So they've been sketched in pencil and painted in gouache and maybe they'll appear in oil one day.

Brushes and Paints.

Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12

Bridget Hunter 2009

 Now, I'm the first to admit that for me, arranging a still life composition is not something that comes easily . Unless I keep to just a few items I spend ages moving things and adding and taking away. Sometimes I just give up before I lift a brush. `

Today I was struggling to base a still life around an amazing white Carltonware bowl with red lobster feet that cries out to be part of a painting. But in the end nothing I tried was pleasing. Then I remembered a small painting I'd done of paints and brushes lying about on a table. Its not really finished but at the time I was reasonably pleased with the composition. It was simple but I felt it worked.So maybe that's the way to go. Forget about complicated arranging and just spend the time markmaking with the paint.

I like Kurt Anderson's words -

"When I paint a still life, I want it to be anything but still. I want it to shimmer with light. I want it to rustle with movement."

My lobster bowl