Three new ones on the go - make that FOUR!

1. Along the lines of the Approaching Aotearoa painting I did, this one I call Country Cross-section, the merging of North and South Islands, and the sky and sea squeezed in between.
I'm doing another painting for Ngaroto Nurseries cafe, and have chosen this scene with the countryside behind, to get a good portrait shaped picture for the cafe wall. At the moment it is all just texture and base.
and finally. . . some small triptych for a friend's birthday, of the Owl and the Pussycat, just for fun. This is the middle one, and no detail in it as yet.
They all show coming and going of the boat and the cat trailing it's paw in the water. FUN FUN FUN.

Spring in the Waitakere Ranges

We're getting some foliage now. . . SO important in anything to do with NZ bush. Thank heavens for the palette knife technique or it'd take forever to do it all. Hopefully it's improving not getting worse.
Still have to pick out detail and sharpen up some things, but we're close. The silver fern in the foreground is too light but that'll change once it all dries and I get stuck into it again.

Last of the Cafe Painting and ongoing bush

Okay, well this is the last of Megan's painting, which will get delivered either this week or the next. I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.
This is the ongoing bush walk painting, with some of the green starting to show through now.

Two more on the go. . .

While I wait for paint to dry on the cafe painting, I have a few other things on the go. This is one I am calling 'Aotearoa - the Land of the Long White Cloud'. Just like the idea of what the Maori must have felt approaching NZ from the sea, which was vast and endless, and the sky which filled the horizon, and then they saw the cloud which hung over New Zealand, caught between the two forms. Simple but a nice design.
and someone I did work for on his logo etc, hiking in the Waitakere Ranges, had a photo of a bush walk, and I'm keen to paint that one. This is its' beginning. . .

Not long to go!

Okay, we're down to the details now, with the cakes and cups etc. I really like the life in this painting, I prefer it to the earlier "Pink Cafe" one. Anyway, here's hoping Megan does too! This is one of the cakes she was famous for making. Need to let it dry to pick up the highlights.

Filling in the details. . .

Now we're starting to see some life in this painting. I love getting to this stage, when the colour can be put on in rich broad strokes and some depth coming into the scene. I'm heading onto the table now, and getting that cake to look real and that coffee hot. Got to wait until paint dries again. Sigh.

Megans Cafe painting part two

Okay, I've been doing some more on this now that it's dryer. Just remember (Megan!) that sometimes it gets worse before it gets better, and I'm laying down background to both faces and scene before I tighten it up again. That's the plan anyway. Still a way to go.

Presentation of Police painting

Very exciting day today, having taken these paintings in to the District HQ and put them on wall. The police all seem quite pleased with the painting (whew) and now want letterheads and stationery with this kind of view on them to brand them.

MEANWHILE. . .I'm continuing to work on Megan's painting, with more this weekend now that the first layer/s are dry. Watch this space.

Megan's Cafe Painting

I've started a cafe painting for Megan, who commissioned it after seeing "Ladies at Pink Cafe" (see earlier in blog). Hoping I'm capturing the fun and essence of what she wants. This is it so far, with quite a bit more to do, but wanted to get the characters done first. Some of you may recognise the other faces, but I tried to make them just general faces, expect for Megan's which I'd like to look a bit like her.