Tuesday 22 July 2014

Watercolour ~ Wallington Griffin Head

The Griffin's heads at Wallington are well known around the area and I wanted to focus on just one for this painting. I have left the hall very soft and hazy in the background as the griffin was the focus. I sprayed paint on last using my finger on the brush to achieve the mottled stone effect.

I did draw out the main features on the head first, measuring out with my pencil as I wanted to get the proportions correct. What do you think of him?

Wallington Hall painting

Here are the progress steps :-)

Wallington Hall paintingWallington Hall painting

Wallington Hall paintingWallington Hall painting
  If you like this painting, you could own a card or print by buying one from my website.

Thanks for looking, Gillian.

Tuesday 15 July 2014

Changing Your Art Around

Do you really stop and look at the pictures on your walls? Or are they so much part of the furniture that you pass them by every day without a glance?

A few years ago, I saw an art collector on TV who had a great idea! He had the paintings and works of art in his house changed for different pieces every six months. He put half of his collection into storage and half of it on his walls.

Now, he was talking big canvases, filling holes and re-positioning every work of art - and had someone to do it for him but I thought you could do it on a smaller scale in your own home. Changing the artwork every now and again keeps it fresh and makes you look at the pieces more.

We were due to move house after that and due to the layout in our new house, not all of our pictures would go up again. So I decided to make a plan to swap them after six months.

Unfortunately, we moved two weeks before I gave birth, so life was a little hectic after that and I never got to change any artwork. We have been in the house for 7 years now and I have finally been through the picture box and changed some!

ArtworkArtwork

The poppies were cross stitched by my Auntie for a wedding present and have been replaced by the print of Edmund Leighton's "God Speed!". On our landing I had an oil canvas of Paris that I bought round the corner from artist square in Montmartre. Now there is a montage of postcards that I also got on the same trip which has been hanging at my mum's house.

Artwork 

The little paintings on the left were bought for me from New Zealand when my brother spent a year living there. The cross stitches on the right have replaced them and were stitched by my mum.

So I've used the same hooks and tried to use similar sized pictures to avoid making more holes in the walls!

Mind you, my husband never noticed the change at the top of the stairs...

...and who knows if I get round to swapping them around again in 6 months time!

Have fun if you swap your art around and don't forget to store the "resting" ones properly.

Thanks for reading!

Gillian.


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gillian@gilliancrossphotography.co.uk