acrylic painting

May 18, 2013 by Tara 6 Comments

TA DA!!!!

I don’t usually begin with so much pink enthusiasm, but something unexpected just happened. I finished a painting. {What the….} I’m very pleased because it’s been quite a while since I’ve a} finished a painting and b} done a process post. So yay on all counts.

As I mentioned the other day, I have a big old chunk of unfinished paintings hanging around in the studio, and I had some vague and ambitious notion to complete them all by the end of the year. As we come up to the midway part of the year I realise now that that was a hilarious moment of insanity, but I’m ok with that. {Aren’t they the best kind?!} You can see some of the piece that is underneath the painting I finished this morning.

I suppose you might say it was reworked, rather than finished, as pretty much none of the original remains. Since it was an experiment in colour and mark making I was happy to let it go and see what happened.

As you can see, the changes became more and more subtle as the painting went on. You can barely see what I did this morning because it was layer after layer of soft, pale glazes. I was quite glad I’d consolidated some ideas about how to finish a painting last week as I called on those ideas for this. In particular I went back and forth softening all the areas that were jarring to me {a benefit of having a long studio}.

Here it is hanging out with some buddies in the living room. Those colours make me die a little bit.

I’ll be putting it in the shop shortly. In the meantime, you can enjoy it here

In Flow by Tara Leaver

December 16, 2012 by Tara 8 Comments

I’m in! I have no internet, so posts will be sporadic til mid Jan {WHAT ~ really? WHY?!} as I borrow and scavenge interweb access where I can. I can’t wait to show you properly what’s been going on here, but am swinging by quickly to share some new work and some images from the First Day, taken just before the removal men turned up and filled my house with ~~crap~~ my beautiful things.

I MISS you guys, and blogging and sharing and being part of this little online world. {Not that little, in fact, is it, really.}

Here is the studio, empty and ready for New Stuff to happen in it.

Please note the butler’s sink, the skylights {which open electronically!?!}, the storage and table space.

The way the light falls in, the fact that that entire right wall has storage running behind it. There is room for four people comfortably I think.

And the porthole windows with views of the sea! Seriously? I get to live here?!

It takes me, oh, a good thirty seconds to reach the beach. Although the first few days I wasn’t physically able to leave the house ~ it was too lovely! Now I’m down there every day. It’s better than tv, always changing, always soothing to my soul. And as much as this move is a glorious, exciting thing, other life things continue to happen and they are not always glorious and exciting, so soul soothing is required at the moment.

So then, I had to try out the studio! I have a STACK of unfinished, unloved canvases, just waiting for renewed life, so I started on a big one that just hadn’t worked although I had loved the idea. I forgot, of course, to photograph it before diving in with the paint, but you can still see a little of it underneath the first strokes.

If you follow me on Instagram {@taraleaver} you will have seen most of these. This palette is unusual for me; I rarely use black but I was inspired by Mati Rose’s recent pieces on there too.

Besides, a new start is the perfect time to try doing things differently. It has been quite interesting putting things in place in the flat in accordance with how I live and want to use the space. That will evolve over time and a lot of it is provisional just to get rid of the cardboard boxes, but I find myself intrigued by the possibilities of how I might like to live that is different from before, from the obvious {beach alert} to the tiny daily details.

I’m really loving this painting; it’s not finished quite yet but not too far off I think. I have ideas growing and turning over in my mind as I slowly pull the studio together. Right now it looks NOTHING like the above images, as everything is unpacked but not yet put away in an orderly fashion {ha}; I have enough art materials to amuse a small army it turns out!

And I hope that I will. Amuse, inspire, offer a healing and fun place for people to find their way back to their own creative selves. It would be a crime not to share that space. And although I’m kind of terrified, now that it’s so much nearer {I’ll begin in the new year}, it still feels right.

It feels so good and comforting to be speaking to you again. Moving is a discombobulating thing, whichever way you look at it, and it feels a little like a touchstone to come here and show and tell a little bit. Thanks for being here.

Filed Under: acrylic painting, art development, creative spark sessions, home, journey, mixed media art, mixed media painting, painting, process, studio Tagged With: art studio, new home, new painting

May 10, 2012 by Tara 5 Comments

Remember this?

I wrote about it recently here.

Anyway, it’s now finished, and looks like this.

{No matter how hard I try, my photography and editing skills SUCK.}

Here are a few close ups:

It has many layers, this one. The one thing that’s bothering me now is the name. As you may know, usually my paintings tell me what their names are during the process. Occasionally that doesn’t happen and I am left with a nameless painting, and the option of calling it ‘Untitled’ which is a personal no-no for me.

All paintings mean something, and even if the artist doesn’t want to distract the viewer from drawing their own conclusions, calling a painting ‘Untitled’ feels like a cop out to me. It makes me feel sorry for the painting. {I know, I’m such an anthropomorphiser.}

So I’m asking for input please; perhaps you see something in the painting that I don’t, which would help me to name it. I may or may not use the suggestions, but daft as I am, I want this painting to know it has a place in the world.

Filed Under: acrylic painting, art, painting, paintings Tagged With: 'untitled', acrylic painting, naming

March 24, 2012 by Tara 9 Comments

This lady appeared on Thursday. She is heading in the direction of the faces in my head I talked about yesterday. In the interests of full disclosure I am including the image that inspired her; as you will see it’s pretty similar. I’ve loved the Maria Pace Wynters painting below for ages ~ colours, composition, style, elements ~ and wanted to understand with my own hand how to capture that kind of loose but powerful image. I didn’t set out to copy it as such, but in the end I did use her painting to inform how and where I put colour down, mainly for the face.

So here is Maria Pace Wynters’ visual feast, titled ‘The Spanish Poppy’:

And here is a step by step of my version, which I’ve called ‘Drama Queen’ as it just popped into my head and seemed fitting:

I taped some of my lovely new A3 360gsm paper to my desk and started with a rough sketch.

I used the principle I saw on the Agnes-Cecile video of working from light to dark; it makes total sense and puts certain paintings I’ve done in the past into a new perspective {ie. ohhhhhh, so THAT’S why it didn’t work!}! I realise this is probably one of those fundamentals of painting that just passed me by…

I had totally forgotten how liberating painting on paper is; psychologically I can be freer because it’s not as ‘important’ as a canvas. And while I’m trying out new things it allows me to do so without feeling they must all be perfect. That, people, is progress. Not to mention that when you take the pressure off, lo! The paintings seem to come out better!

I did have to go back in and completely redo her eyes; she was so cross eyed! I think it’s better now but the painting doesn’t seem to photograph as well as it looks in actual real life.

Anyway, here she is:

I may add some further details but I’m happy with her as she is for now. Very happy actually. Yay.

Filed Under: acrylic painting, art development, painting on paper, portraits, process Tagged With: drama queen, face, maria pace wynters, painting on paper, portrait, turquoise

January 3, 2012 by Tara 14 Comments

It was great to hear about your ‘words for the year’, thank you to everyone who shared theirs ~ so fascinating what people choose and their motivations behind their choices. I wish for all of us many miracles connected {and unconnected!} with our themes. I know there will be plenty. In fact I’d go so far as to say this post is about my first one; not bad for the second day of the year!

So ‘Blessed’ is kind of a working title for this painting, because of my phobia of calling paintings ‘untitled’. An actual phobia. The process photos are crap because I used my phone. Sorries.

It came from a sketch I did while on the beach a couple of months ago and has mostly come together by itself, with a bare minimum of Ugly Phase!

You know why? Cause when I felt myself coming up against the usual wall of ‘shitwhatdoidonow’, I remembered my word. That’s it. Almost worryingly easy! {But not worrying of course because of the whole trusting thing.}

So I just kept trusting and painting, with a little ‘visual inspiration’ from Klimt and Jane Desrosier…

…and with essential trips to the beach and much encouragement from D in between {D being the Artist Friend who hasn’t got a website yet but when he does I’ll let you know}.

And boom! Done. Still terrible light but you get the idea.

Filed Under: acrylic painting, painting, paintings, process Tagged With: acrylic painting, blessed, girl, prayer

November 5, 2011 by Tara 14 Comments

Oh my god you guys. A painting BEAST has been unleashed.

I haven’t been in that kind of a crazed painting state for quite some time. As I type, Small Fearful {who looks like Dobby from Harry Potter actually} is whispering in my ear “Don’t tell them! It’ll go away and you’ll be all creatively sticky and clenched again.”

I laugh in the face of Small. mwAH ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaa. {I may regret this later.}

I pulled out a painting that’s been in a state of semi-finishedness for freaking ages yesterday, with that kind of reckless, devil may care, ‘well it’s been going nowhere for ages so I can’t really mess it up by playing around with it’ vibe that sometimes overcomes me. {Any ideas on how to make that one stick around?!}

Then I pulled some of Flora Bowley’s techniques out of my metaphorical painting tool kit and set to work painting without thinking, alternating between lines and dots and random flourishes.

I started to really like what I was doing {Happy Bonus #1}. Then I spent some time turning it round and round, looking for what to pull out and what was ready to be covered.

I knew I wanted a figure in there; I did toy briefly with some kind of foliage inspired shapery but to be perfectly honest, I’ve seen rather a lot of that about lately, and besides, figures are my thing {and of course I’ve seen none of those}. I rooted about in my art college portfolio, since that’s how long it’s been since I did any life drawing {11 years in fact}, to see if I could find anything inspiring. And lo, {Happy Bonus #2}, I found the following:

{this is me in thinner days, when my work across all disciplines was figurative and I also had use of a darkroom.

i made my boyfriend at the time take some photos for me to work from. I think he was ok with it. }

{i drew this! i kind of freaked out with joy when i found it cause it restored my faith in my ability to draw

with an element of realism. Happy Bonus #3}

{this is NOT me, but i found it with the other one and loved the composition so i kept it out for possible future use}

Anyway, back to my story. The painting in question was this one:

Which may or may not have previously been this one: { I actually can’t remember but I can’t find it so this must be it!} You may remember it from a while back. {At least, I thought I’d posted about it but can’t find it just now.} At any rate, it started life looking VERY different…

So here’s what happened yesterday:

At this point I knew it was time for some shapes. Which was the point where I unearthed the photo and charcoal drawings. And I thought, you know what, I’m just going to go in there with the black paint and see what comes out. Nothing too contrived or planned out or copied. I was quite scared at that point actually; I knew I could easily bugger it all up. But I thought about this Art Every Day thing and got over myself.

And there was a lady with a beautiful dress! {Happy Bonus #4}

Look at her swirling and twirling. So yeah, this is where we’re at now.

Stuck.

But confident of further inspiration. {Bugger off Small.}

Filed Under: acrylic painting, AEDM, intuitive painting, painting, paintings Tagged With: charcoal drawings, dress, inspiration, painting, photo, woman

October 23, 2011 by Tara 13 Comments

So I think it’s finished. {That’s an outright lie; I want it to be finished. Very badly.}

Anyway as I was saying, I think it’s finished. ‘It’ being my brother’s requested birthday painting.

Parts of this painting are so gorgeous I know I was in flow when they appeared. Other parts…notsomuch. Actual tears have been shed over this one. And it pains me to consider giving a painting that I am not totally in love with. It feels like cheating him of my best effort. But there is also such a thing as overkill, and since I feel I’ve already gone there on the Unmentionable Area, I figure that it’s at a point now where it can be loved despite its perceived flaws. {There’s one of those nice little painting/life analogies.}

As if to compound my frustration, it does not photograph well and therefore does not edit well. The nebulous blob on the right hand side is much darker and less nebulous in real life, and it’s all a bit less painful to look at than it is here. I’m sort of counting on the fact that my bro has not been looking at this every day like I have, and may therefore see more to love in it. The words ‘now is the perfect time’ appeared in my head {as they do sometimes} the other day, and it felt meaningful to both me and him to have that in the painting.

And actually, I have given it my best effort. It’s full of love for my brother, including all the nebulous, harder to love parts.

Filed Under: acrylic painting, art, commission, mixed media art, mixed media painting, painting, paintings Tagged With: blue, brother, commission, painting

August 17, 2011 by Tara 5 Comments

After what felt like many weeks but was in fact maybe two at most, I suddenly and unexpectedly started a painting on canvas the other day.

I had an image in my head of what it would look like; the kind that dances around in your brain and won’t leave you alone even when you’re trying to read something you really want to read.

In the end I had to put down the book and just go and paint the damn thing to get some peace! (I suppose this is good practice for having offspring…)

Of course it looks nothing like what was in my head, which was red by the way. Although some of the shapes are similar. And I don’t know why all these images have curved corners (I have to resize them so I did it experimentally in a batch and this just happened), but I like it!So my ingredients are oil pastels (my new best friends), acrylics and some wall paint. Oh and gesso.The painting is entirely intuitive and intentionally abstract, although if you feel like reading leaves ~ or anything else ~ into it that’s fine! I’m very interested in the idea of layers beneath the white which give it depth but don’t show as part of the painting. Like ghosts of an old painting perhaps, there but not there.My good friend gesso helps me do this. There is a lot of white space in this painting; I think I just needed some quiet, although straight after I did the loudest, most vibrant painting ever so who knows what my subconscious is up to. At this point I got a bit carried away with the orange; I do so love orange right now, but then after I did it I changed my mind about the quantity…

…some gesso and a piece of masking tape later, and it is finished for now.

{My computer hates me today so goodness only knows what this image will look like in the post/on different monitors. I am going to break something if I have to continue to work with the instransigent beast right now so I’m going to leave it as it is and go and work out how my new printer works. Plus chocolate.}

Filed Under: acrylic painting, mixed media painting Tagged With: abstract, aqua, blue, mixed media painting, oil pastels, paintings

July 31, 2011 by Tara 4 Comments

***********

PS. I remembered yesterday that one of my lifelong dreams since childhood {somewhat buried the last few years} was to write a book. I have no idea what the book would be about, or whether I really have anything to say that anyone would want to read, but all the same, I would love to write one and maybe I will just let that percolate away a bit.

I feel excited just thinking about it! Even if it never happens!

PPS. I watched Julie and Julia last night, and if you haven’t seen it I really urge you to do so; what a beautiful, heartwarming, gentle, funny, touching film. I have never seen marriages depicted in that way in a movie before, and was incredibly moved by the sensitivity and kindness in them. {It doesn’t say much for my history I suppose that I kept waiting anxiously for things to go wrong and for someone to start shouting.} Not to mention all the food! And the delicious Parisian sets. And Meryl Streep who was amazing. If you feel a bit fragile and need something gentle, this is quite possibly just the thing.

So now I feel excited about potential books and relationships that last. Which is nice.

Filed Under: acrylic painting

July 29, 2011 by Tara 5 Comments

Ah, the fickleness of the artist. {This one, anyway.}

I’ve gone off on a tangent. The canvases have been cruelly cast aside while I distract myself with large paper and paintings of women.
God I’m having so much fun with these! It’s true I am being heavily influenced by Connie at the moment; her paintings and her Fearless Painting style make me want to get all tribal and feminine power-ised.

I’m also having a big Shamanism phase. If it’s to do with totem animals, vision questing, journeying, or anything remotely earthy/nature related, I’m in there, reading up on it and being interested. I’ve had some very intriguing and unexpected animal dreams.These paintings interest me because although they are not technically very good, when I look at them something happens inside me; the shapes and colours are punchy, and the symbolism seems to be the real point here.

And because they are on paper it’s easier to remind myself that I can do anything I like on them and it doesn’t matter. I keep adding without thinking too much, and without fear of ruining them. Plus, the doing of them is extraordinarily therapeutic.So every night I’m getting my paint on with large sheets of paper and cheap paints, and bringing out my inner warrior!

Filed Under: acrylic painting, journey, painting on paper