Red Arrows, Bournemouth - The new Dorset Magazine cover

Thrilled to see my linocut 'Red Arrows, Bournemouth' on the cover of the new Dorset Magazine!!
The cover was chosen to promote Dorset Art Weeks which is on 24th May to 8th June. I'll be showing my work alongside Ruth Oaks' beautiful prints and paintings at her studio above Poole Printmaker's studio, we are venue 11 in the DAW brochure or website.

Here is the front cover for our May edition. Let us know your thoughts & get your copy here - http://t.co/Eba6F1aHbI pic.twitter.com/P9LXjsTari
— Dorset Magazine (@dorsetmag) April 23, 2014

Poole Printmakers at the Lighthouse

Poole Printmakers are exhibiting at the Lighthouse in Poole for 6 weeks starting next weekend. And I just managed to get my latest linocut finished in time to go on the poster! It's a reduction linocut and I've kept to almost monochrome colours (which is quite a change for me), but added some small touches of blue and red. You'll be able to see my 'Poole Quay' linocut and the other linocut that I've been working on 'Bournemouth Gardens' at the Lighthouse exhibition.

 

New Year, new site!

I've discovered Society6, and it's beautiful!
Having tried out a few similar sites in the past, Society6 is a really good-looking, and easy to use site, full of beautiful artwork and a slick range of products.

In their own words:
"The artwork on Society6 is created by hundreds of thousands of artists from around the world.

When you buy a product from Society6, we produce it using only the highest quality materials, and ship it to you on behalf of the artist."

I've decided to start with just a few of my favourite prints to begin with, and try and add a new one once a month... Here is a preview of what's in my store so far:

 

To see my new Society6 store, go here

New Year, New Career, New Paintings!

The week before Christmas was the end of my career in IT. After more than 10 years working as an IT consultant, developing code, analysing systems and managing a team, I've taken the plunge and traded it all in for the chance to make a lifetime's dream a reality - to become an artist, full time!

It's going to be a major challenge, and will take a lot of hard work, new skills and struggles, but I'm ready for it!

In my first few weeks I've been researching, planning, stocking up my shop and starting to make the most of my time to develop my art and find my direction. I've also been working to a couple of exhibition deadlines - more on that to follow.

For now, here are a couple of my latest paintings, with some photos of the stages and how they were built up:

Pears for Breakfast

Planning - I started by arranging a still life, choosing complimentary colours and some of my favourite objects (you might recognise the central vase from some of my other paintings). The colours were also based around some beautiful yellow tulips and lovely conference pears. In the background of the still life set up I propped up one of my framed monoprints, and a book on botanical art. Once I was happy with the arrangement I made a quick sketch in pencil and watercolour, which allowed me to see anything that I needed to adjust, and got me started thinking about the structure of the painting.

First steps - I wanted the tulips to be the main focus of the painting, so without making an preparitory drawing on the paper, I started building up the tulips with loose bright yellows. I tried to keep each mark fresh, and used watersoluble coloured pencils, wax crayon and oil pastels throughout the painting, in addition to the watercolour.

Next - After completing most of the tulips and leaves I started to paint in the vase and some of the background - the little blue arches, and a bit of the cream book cover. I then tackled the other main features of the arrangement - the blue and white tea-pot, the lovely pears, the start of the mustard coloured vase, and the beginnings of the willow pattern plate:

Adding the background - The next step was to start tying the seperate areas together, and building up the background. I've used some spots of grey oil pastel to link up the middle section to the bottom left of the painting. I've added more of the monoprint and book cover behind the tulips:

Adding structure - Now that the painting is coming together I've added in a few lines to try and improve the composition and lead the eye around the painting. To echo the plate and bowl in the foreground I've added another curved edge on the left, a possible table edge. I've also added a couple of diagonal lines to draw the eye in to the composition.

Final stages - I've used some more of the deep blue from the central vase on the table edge, to balance the strong colour across the painting. For the remaining background areas I've used more subtle greys and cream, so that they don't distract from the main subject too much. There was a lovely red squiggle pattern in my framed monoprint in the background, which I've extended out from the monoprint to the far left top corner, as if the squiggles are floating from the tulips. I've used masking fluid to suggest the pattern of the green and gold tin which the tea-pot is standing on. I've also linked the apple into the painting by the addition of the rusty red sliver on the right of the pears.

The finished painting - Pears for Breakfast

Watercolour Mixed Media  - 48cm x 36cm

David Hockney

I'm a huge fan of David Hockney and I've been wanting to paint his portrait for some time, it was great to have the time to do it!

I took quite a few (bad) photos of this as I went - I find it really helps to see your progress on screen, it's the same as looking at it from a distance really. I'll save you from a detailed description this time, the main stages were:

1. Pencil drawing directly on the watercolour paper, in an attempt to keep the energy of the drawing, rather than tracing from a separate drawing.
2. Watercolour for most of the painting but I've used some watersoluble coloured pencil to build up the darkness and depth of parts of the face.
3. When I'd almost completed the portrait i decided to add a simple background.

 

Finished!

 

If you like my work...

Check out my full stocked online Gallery & shop - www.francescawhetnall.etsy.com

I now have a Facebook page, where you can keep up to date with my latest work, exhibitions and discounts if you 'Like' my page: http://www.facebook.com/FrancescaWhetnall

You can also find me :

on Twitter - https://twitter.com/CeccaArt 

on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/franny_b

on CafePress - http://www.cafepress.com/whetnallart

And at my website - http://francescawhetnall.co.uk/

Lucian Freud in pictures

Girl with kitten - 1947

Blond Girl - 1985, Etching

Eli and David 2005-06

Rabbit on Chair 1944

Girl in a dark jacket - 1947

Girl with a white dog - 1951

Interior at Paddington - 1951

Bella and Esther - 1988

Naked portrait with reflection - 1980

Reflection (self portrait) - 1981

Lucian Freud - Obituary in the Guardian

Dick and Franny ~ April Discount!

I've just listed some of my new prints in my Etsy store in a brand new Printmaking Section and to celebrate I'm offering a lovely 15% discount on EVERYTHING in my Store for the whole of APRIL for all of my blog readers!

The code applies to ALL items listed in my shop (excluing postage and packaging).

To claim your discount simply type BLOGAPRIL2011 into the 'Shop Coupon Code' box when you place your order. The total will be recalculated to include the fab 15% off!

New Portraits

I've created a new portraits section on my website and started updating it with some of my recent JKPP portraits. It's such a motivating group I've really been learning new ways to paint and draw and although I've drawn many pencil portraits in the past I used to lack the confidence to paint portraits. Now I can't wait to try out a new technique on a new face. Thanks again Julia!
I've also joined a new group with similar ideals, called Doodle Face. Even more faces to have a go at!

My website home page shows a random selection of images - sometimes I just can't stop refreshing the screen to see what combination comes up next!

Here are a few of my latest favourites:

The Happy Painter - Donna



I'm a huge fan of Donna's painting style, she is so free and expressive with her watercolours, I would love to learn that skill.  I started this portrait with the hope of emulating some of Donna's style  and capturing some of her energy and happy spirit. But my initial attempt was failing to capture any likeness.
So, I dampened the face area and started again with a more accurate drawing (in my initial attempt I'd begun with watercolour without any drawing lines). I then used Gouache to build up face. I've had some lovely comments on Flickr about the texture of the skin - but I wasn't really thinking about it's texture, I was just trying to get the right colours and tones in the right places - and it seemed to work quite well. Although this isn't a perfect likeness, it's quite close and I'm pretty happy with it as a painting.

What Donna said - "Oh yeah! The eyes, the eyes have it! And I am jealous of the way you do noses and skin!!! Yeehaw. I LOVE IT!"


Fairsquare - Sean Cronin



Sean's drawings are stunning, he's done many beautiful portraits for JKPP including a great one of me which I posted in my last blog - it's one of my favourites and really captures my frowning stare!
After my experiments with Gouache on Watercolour paper I thought I'd have a go with some Acrylic paper I've had for years but never use. I drew a quick pencil stetch to begin with and then used a combination or watercolour and acrylics to loosely sketch in the colours and tones. Although this isn't as 'finished' as it could be I really like the fresh and loose feel of the painting, so I decided to stop before loosing that.
As soon as I'd taken a photo of the portrait it was much easier to see where i'd gone wrong with the likeness, but nevermind! I think I captured Sean's sparkly eyes and slightly cheeky smile at least.


What Sean said - "Franny, you've got me! I'm dead chuffed! This is great. Thank you so much - love this."

Devon Lawrence



Devon is the only person so far who has chosen to tackle a portrait of me at an early age. His drawing is so beautiful and delicate, it's really lovely. Devon also has a fantastic set of photo references to choose from.

In attempt to learn from previous mistakes I tried to draw a more accurate pencil sketch before starting to paint this. Unfortunately my impatience kicked in and I didn't entirely perfect the likeness before diving in with the watercolour. In this painting I've tried to keep my washes large and fresh, and avoid having to rework them too much. I'm fairly happy with the results even though it did start to get a bit overworked in places. I also had to use a little bit of white watercolour in places to pick out the highlights - I would have preferred to have managed to keep the white paper showing for these, but I wasn't careful enough.

What Devon said - "Beautiful work Franny!"

Red Tulips

I'm trying to absorb some abstraction and expression into my painting. To add more life and colour than a naturalistic impression might allow. I love pattern, colour and painterly-ness, and hopefully I've managed to capture some of that in my latest painting. Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Please visit my Etsy shop to see more of my work - Dick and Franny

Interview with an Artist - Tracee Murphy

Tracee Murphy is a talented and creative artist I met through the fantastic Watercolor Works team of Etsy Artists. Her work is fresh and loose, a style that really appeals to me. Tracee is also the founder of the Watercolor Works team, she puts so much hard work and creativity into the group, she is a real inspiration!

Name: Tracee Murphy
How would you define your artistic style? Loose and painterly
When did you start painting? First started 10 years ago, but i have been painting more as an artist for the past 2 and half years.
What is your favourite media and why? Watercolor, of course. It's what i'm drawn to and probably has a lot to do with the fact my mom is a w/c artist too.

Cactus Flower - Original Watercolor (22 x 30 inches)

How long does it usually take you to complete an artwork? Several small paintings can be done in a day, a 1/2 or full sheet anywhere from 1-3 days unless i'm not happy with it and i put it away for a while. depends on how much detail the painting involves.
What do you like best about being an artist? Artist freedom and license to paint anything any color or any way i want!
What advice would you give other budding artists? I'm still budding, but for newbies i'd say practice, practice, practice, but most of all just enjoy what your doing and if you like your work then others will too.

Original Watercolor (8 x 10 inches)

What or who is your inspiration? The many wonderful local artists i get to be around in classes, workshops, and art organizations.
Which artist, past or present would you most like to meet? Terry Madden is my favorite artist and I've already had the privilege to meet him. i just hope i get to meet up with him again.
Which is your favourite gallery and why? The Art Center of Corpus Christi is where i'm currently putting in my work and trying to get involved with.
How do you define Art? Art is in everything whether you design buildings, a landscaper, tattoo artist, etc.

Cool Winter Landscape (5.5 x 7.5 inches)

To see more of Tracee's work -

Website - http://www.traceemurphy.com/
Blog - http://traceemurphy.blogspot.com/
Etsy - http://www.traceemurphy.etsy.com/

Step by Step - Botanical painting

Some of the photos are a bit too dark but I managed to remember to take a few as I painted this picture of three Sycamore leaves. View the set as a slideshow , or have a look at the set on Flickr for some notes on each of the steps.

Inspired

Inspired by beautiful blogs like Sigrid's: http://sigridfrensen.blogspot.com/ ,
Gustavo Aimar's: http://www.mimesa.blogspot.com/
and France Belleville's: http://wagonized.typepad.com/wagonized/
to name a few, I've decided that I need a blog to display my artwork and tell you a bit more about the process, trials, highs and lows of my artistic experiments...

This is me - not sure why I look so confused but I was working on a commision which was going quite badly!