Colourful hare paintings
I’m really enjoying these new colourful hare paintings, adding interest to their background in an intuitive way, it’s fun!
This is a wonderful way to handle the stress of the current situation.
This piece is from a lovely close-up reference photo, and I have used my imagination for the background and colour palette.
Update* this painting has sold, however you can sign up to my newsletter to receive word when new pieces are released, or check out my originals page
Painting a Fox
Still getting a little bit distracted by goings on, but I'm finding that if I sit down here and paint for ten minutes, two hours will pass, so I'm tricking myself into working that way. 😊 This fox has had a, second layer today. By the way, this fox is vegan and sneaks around at night pulling up carrots and turnips from the allotments, and blackberries from the wayside.
Commissioning a Custom Highland Cow Painting on Canvas
i am currently working on two very exciting commissioned projects. Each features a large scale highland cow portrait or double portrait in beautiful rich eyecatching colours. These are going to be really great focal points in the spaces that they are being designed for.
Each of the paintings requires a specially built bespoke canvas as they are custom sized pieces.
I offer international shipping for my canvases, and one of these new paintings will be travelling to Switzerland once completed.
I have created sketches and mockups on PhotoShop to plan each piece before I begin the actual painting process. I expect the painting stage to take two-to four weeks including drying time between layers.
Here are a couple of highland cow commissioned canvases that I had the enormous pleaseure of working on last year.. These are companion pieces for the same client.
Some landscapes on the easel this week
i have been looking forward to trying some landscapes with the new transparent earth tones and blues that I have been enjoying recently. I love nocturnes and moodily lit landscapes , and there is currently a lot more standing water on the fields than usual which is interesting to paint.
Re-working an older piece
This week I have been gathering my available paintings together and having a look at them with fresh eyes as I prepare for two exhibitions coming up in the Spring. With oil painting there is always the opportunity to return to an unvarnished piece and make some ‘tweaks’ at a later date. This week I decided to take 4 of my pieces to one side and give them a little facelift, adding a touch more vibrancy and contrast. This is possible by gently cleaning the surface and ‘oiling out’ the painting to provide a uniformly glossy surface to work smoothly onto. I then apply glazes of fresh colour, which can be removed , or partially removed to give the desired effect if necessary. I find this process super enjoyable and quite exciting.
Two of my bird paintings acquired a second set of wings along with the makeover!
Working on a pait of blackbirds
Adding in a little friend for my lone Starling…
Visiting Spring Fair
I popped to the NEC for the Spring Fair at the weekend, mainly to see everyone on the Wraptious stand and wish them luck for the show. It was also an opportunity to have a look at the new collections.
With Simon and Naomi and some of my designs.
New wildlife gift designs for Spring
Wraotious have just released a new selection of my latest designs of their luxurious quality homeware and gifts in their new Spring collection. I think they chose well, the new collection looks great!
Barn Owl painting in a woodland setting
This Barn Owl Painting is one that I worked on for a long time until I found my way and was finally happy. I initially took the photo of the two Barn Owls at a local fair where the bird rescue organisation Woodies Wings was in attendance. I wanted to place the owls in a wild setting of course and I used blues, greys and lilacs to create an evening/nightime feel. The surrounding grasses and twigs and flowers etc were indicated with various brush marks, as well as marks made with twigs, feathers and card. I use Liquin Oleopasto gel to give a bit of extra texture in the grass. II used a big dry brush to soften the edges of the birds and this was key to the total look of the painting.
Thi s piece is now sold and has travelled off to join my Woodland Hare painting in a lovely new home up North .
Painting poodles
This week I have begun to paint new portraits of my own dogs as they sit and watch me paint in the studio. I use a very bright daylight white light to paint by, and I have managed to take a couple of fairly decent reference photos of the girls with good contrast to paint from. The canvases are 50 x 50cm square and Im using a limited palette of titanium white, transparent maroon , quinacridone gold , cobalt blue and ultramarine blue. on both portraits.
I sat them looking slightly away from me and then got them to look back at the camera just with their eyes, so that the nose is angled away. I like to do this for long nosed dogs so that the expression isnt dominated by a big button nose which can happen when long nosed dogs are looking into the camera head-on.
These photos show the results of the first session on these paintings, once dry I will make a few tweaks , resolve a few mistakes that I can see. It was really enjoyable painting my girls.
Vegan Silk Scarves with Wildlife and Flowers
I have been thinking for a long time about producing silk scarves printed with some of my oil paintings . I don’t want to use traditional silk because the way it is produced goes against my beliefs on animal welfare. So I have sourced a vegan silk alternative and printed a small batch of scarves.
I am reallypleased with them! They are made in the UK and I package the scarves in fully recycled and recyleable gift boxes. Inside the box with the scarf, I enclose a little leaflet with the story of the original oil painting that features on the scarf.
I have chosen some of my floral designs, birds, hares, a pheasant and my ‘Party Animal’ Alpaca design (see left)
Each scarf looks different each time it is worn due to the variety of colours and random nature of where the brush strokes appear.
To see the full range of cruelty free silkscarves available please click here I think these scarves would make an unusual, beautiful and interesting gift for an art lover.
Wildlife Jigsaw Puzzles with Geckorouge
This week I began working with Puzzle Prints at GeckoRouge to produce some 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles featuring my latest animal paintings. The puzzles are being made in the UK by the Surrey based company and I think they make a good gift idea. Here is a snapshot of some of them, there are 9 designs available in total , including the Hazel Dormouse, and wildlife including a fox and a stag, birds and a highland cow.
Wildlife Art Exhibition
This has been my first solo exhibition of work, taking place at The Green Man Gallery in Buxton. The Green Man is a collaborative venture operated by a group of local artists in residence. As such, the gallery is full of varied and very interesting work. I found the organisation to be faultless, leading to a really fun and enjoyable experience for my first show. Here are a few photos I took on the first day.
Cross Stitch Kits with GeckoRouge!
I recently had the pleasure of signing up to work with Surrey company GeckoRouge to produce some cross stitch kits featuring my oroginal paintings. Im very excited to be associated with this ethical and excellent company. The kits are produced to order and are absolutely beautiful, there are four of my designs available at the moment, with more to come, check them out here https://www.geckorouge.co.uk/sue-gardner-204-c.asp
Two wildlife oil paintings accepted into the Sock Gallery Open
I entered the Summer Open Art Exhibition at the Sock Gallery Loughborough this year, and these two newly finished wildlife oil paintings were accepted. The gallery occupies the entrance of the Town Hall, and it is a beautiful building with great big rooms, high ceilings and big sweeping staircases, Like a theatre or cinema really. (update - it IS a theatre :) ) I am excited to go back and view the whole exhibition , which runs the whole month of August. These two contemporary wildlife art pieces are: ‘Midsummer Messenger’ owl painting , oil on canvas , size 60 x 60 cm, and ‘ Woodland Keeper’ deer painting at 60 x 76 cm, oil on stretched canvas.
Painting sheep - work in progress video
Oil paints are so 'squidgy' and nice to blend. Before I started videoing, I had already placed light and dark paint on top of the dry underlayer. Here Im doing some blending with a cleanish brush. Once Im happy with this layer, Ill leave it to dry and next time Ill add some more detail and textures.
Im using: Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Orange, Magenta, Cadmium Yellow Deep and Lemon Yellow and Titanium White. Cad Orange and Cerulean Blue mixed makes a nice sheep colour.
New work on show at White Dove Gallery
Yesterday I visited this lovely gallery on one of their open weekends, and took my new Highland Cow painting, titled ‘Highland Colours, to join my other paintings on the gallery wall. I had time to have a good look round at all the new work that I havent seen before, by some brilliant local artists.
The gallery is well worth a visit, they display a really well curated collection of beautiful wall art, sculpture and decorative pieces. Part of the space is occupied by a very welcoming cafe, complete with large and gooey cakes (vegan and gluten free options). They open Saturday and Sunday the first weekend of every month, 11-4
White Dove Gallery is at: The Old Village Hall, Shenton Nuneaton, Warwickshire
Where to buy art supplies?
Are you starting out as an artist and looking to buy art supplies?
I buy most of my paints, canvases, solvents etc. from a company based here in the UK,
It feels like Christmas when my Jacksons’ Art delivery arrives! They hold in stock everything that I need, as well as luxury paints I can only aspire to and beautiful, massive easels that I hanker after. These days I prefer Michael Harding oil paints, and I also love the Williamsburg earth tones. I start with the small 37 or 40ml tubes and then when I find that I am using a lot of a certain colour, I start to save up to get a big 150 or 300ml tube of it next time, as they work out cost-effective.
I paint on stretched canvases and I have tried a few brands but I prefer the Jacksons Premium canvases as they are very good value for money, beautiful canvases, nice and firm to paint on and very good quality. I generally buy them in boxes of 10 which reduces the single canvases price by a worthwhile amount.
The items are always packaged like the crown jewels, and this company offers speedy UK and worldwide delivery options as well as free UK delivery over £40 which is their standard.
I have recently set up an affiliate account with them which means I receive 5% commission from any orders placed through my link to them. This is much appreciated as it helps me to replenish my own painting supplies! If you are new to Jackson they will also give you a 10% discount through this link. Jackson’s Artists Supplies
Above Left: Some recent acquisitions. Permanent Orange, Indigo, and Quinacridone Gold from the range of Michael Harding Oil Paints. Above Right: Detail from an image painted incorporating the new paints.
A lion portrait commission!
This was a very large and very exciting recent commission of mine. My customer had a very clear idea of the very lion he wanted the portrait for and I was able to source a super, clear photograph with high definition and clear details. The piece is an oil painting in black and white and is one meter squared. At this size, the canvases that I use are lovely and chunky, with very sturdy 38 mm sides, and the finished painting makes quite an impact!
Adding detail to a dog portrait commission
*Update* This painting is now with the owners at their home in Scotland. Here is a photo of the finished piece that I took just before I began wrapping it up for the journey.
This week I am spending time painting in some details on this current commissioned portrait.
This piece posed interesting new challenges for me. Although the total piece is large at 50 x 75 cm, his face is actually quite small on tbe canvas and I have been using my tiniest ever brush today for shadows and highlights. I love the challenge of it all! My heart has been in my mouth when moulding his beautiful almond shaped eyes-one false move and whoops. Fortunately oil paint can be moved around on the canvas, so I was able to work back into the paint with a dry brush, untiil I was satisfied. I will wait a day or two for this layer to dry a bit, then I will go back in with a final layer on his face and body.
By the way I have to lean back on my rickety studio chair to get as much as possible of the canvas in, Im just a risk taker today.
Oil paint and brush strokes
Painting every day, one often comes up against a newly realised problem or difficulty that needs to be resolved. I say newly realised because it seems that the problem has likely been there all along, unrecognised as such. Ignorance is a kind of bliss, that's true.
This week I have struggled with brush strokes in one of my commission portraits. These are usually tighter and with more detail than my other paintings. Unfortunately this can lead to some overthinking and soul searching during the process. I have decided that it will help me to pay more attention to mark making, and to be deliberate about it sometimes.
I am exploring the possibilities in a variety of marks and shapes, and attempting to create illusion of lines (for instance) rather than the simple directional lines that I naturally go to first. I have found than by breaking up lines and adding movement to them, the effect is more natural and attractive, and the eye still reads the whole as a line.
Here is one example, the tan dachshund's ear just looked flat somehow. The straight down highlight on the edge drew the eye too much and looked wooden. Yet I wanted the left edge of it to be highlighted with the palest bright yellow as the light falls there in the reference photos. So I experimented with a broken line instead of the straight line which works to make the ear sit more naturally
At the same time, I simplified the shape of the ear, removed the extra colours and made the big shape of the ear all one colour (tan). Sometimes as painters we have ideas in our mind as to what things are, and they dont translate or 'read' properly to the general viewer. This was one such case, the extra colours didn't read as an ear so I simplified it back down again. I remember hearing an artist interviewed on the Artists Helping Artists podcast, I wish I could recall her name, but Ill always think back to her words of wisdom.
It was something like ' Don't leave weird, un-recognisable bits in your painting'. I expect that she worded it differently, but it is a great bit of advice all the same.
