My favourite clip on YouTube: Schuco Wind-up Mouse Toy

Tunnel Visions and Minotaur Dreams

These first two are small oil studies,
exploratory paintings in a new series
called "Tunnel Visions",
hinting at the preciousness of sight,
again exploring boundaries between landscape,
aerial perspective techniques and abstraction.

As James Elkins has described so beautifully in "What Painting Is",
oil paint actively encourages this kind of thing -
a sense of depth and the wallowing in atmospheric effects!

Largely the marks are made with the thumb and fingertips
and occasionally rags.
Painting medium or solvent dissolves and blurs edges and allows for subtle skeins of pigment to criss cross one another and blend.

In the above example, alizarin crimson makes a dramatic note
which could possibly be seen as jarring, but that's the point
really - experimentation.

Below, sap green, white and raw umber are applied more
loosely, but with a similar end in view; that of suggesting a heavily
circumscribed glimpse upon some new realm.

Minotaur Dreams...

Above are two from the "Minotaur Dreams" series,

where similar techniques are used with warm raw burnt and red umber,
deep orange oxides, indian yellow  and smoky transparent blacks.
Solvent is sprayed on gently to make the paint more diffuse
and give detailed drip effects in some areas.
Rags are used to expose paler golden staining from the Indian yellow.

White and naples yellow are opaque additions that immediately create

a fog like area - sometimes this gives a sense of far distance
and a blurring of any hinted-at horizon.

Below, a Bull of the Woods, with an initial improvised drawing layer
using piped black acylic from a plastic bottle with nozzle
(the type you get in haircolouring kits).
This dries very fast and it's very satisfying to rub oil paint over
and around these contour lines.
That eye keeps  recurring. Slightly unnerving...

Recent work,March - April (Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You; Entanglement)

Oh Whistle and I'll Come To You

Entanglement

Latest work, "Blush For Naught"

"Blush For Naught"
small Spring abstract
12 x 10 "
oil on canvas
view on etsy

You Did That!

Tonight the target figure for the crowd funding "Save the Old Lock-up Studio"
project was reached!
Sincere thanks to all who contributed!
I'll probably be asleep for the next few days... :-)

£1,483 funded; £302 to go!

Very exciting times! We are approaching our target with just three days
remaining on the "We Did This" Crowd Funding site!

http://wedidthis.org.uk/projects/save-old-lock-studio

£1,483 funded; £302 to go!  
This will secure the lease for the Old Lock Up studio for the next six months.

original painting by Rachael Pinks

Online gallery here

Rachael in her studio

Her art blog

Thanks so much to everyone who's contributed,

either directly or by purchasing paintings and prints 

from my etsy shop. At least 50% 

of any art sales I make up to the deadline on February 4th 

will go towards this project.  

Many thanks too to all 

who've helped to spread the word!

http://wedidthis.org.uk/projects/save-old-lock-studio

"Wenn ich trinke muss ich singen"

oil on wood, 

8 x 8 inches

view on etsy

Blizzard's Home

view on etsy

High summer revisited, mid-January

Summer Storm (II)

oil on gallery wrap canvas, 12 x 10 inches

Here I was revisiting an older painting idea, 

http://www.etsy.com/transaction/53033925

but aiming for a slightly different look, darker and more loose with less clearly defined shapes.

I

 I don't normally post such large closeups at full size but in this case I think it's necessary as my camera doesn't capture the effect of looking at the complete painting well at all!  I suppose that's only to be expected as it only has one lens for a start- like listening to an elaborate stereo track in mono!  

Violets and mauves are notoriously elusive, a camera really can never properly replicate the optical blending effects within our visual systems.  The experience of standing in front of a painting is so much more of a rich, multisensory experience. I hope one day to be able to have short video clips (in 3d?! hmm...) ranging over the painting, rather than static shots only. 

etsy link

New work, mid-January: Iced Summer, Enivrez-Vous, Bright Young Thing (ii)

Iced Summer

view on etsy (opens in new window)

Enivrez-Vous (large detail)

view on etsy

Bright Young Thing (II)
etsy

Save The Old Lock Up Studio - an exciting new crowdfunding arts project in Cromford, Derbyshire!

Fellow artist Rachael Pinks has a great little studio in a historic building in our local village, Cromford, Derbyshire.  She has set up a rewards-based initiative on the UK-based Crowdfunding site We Did This in order to extend the lease on the studio and expand its uses to serve arts and crafts activities in the local area, including a regular affordable life drawing class, arts and crafts workshops, regular "open studio" selling events and low-cost work/exhibition space for individual artists, all based on a self-supporting, non-profit making collective ethos:

http://www.wedidthis.org.uk/projects/save-old-lock-studio

A shot of the exterior of the studio (centre)

Below, a glimpse of Rachael's wonderful art:

Teardrop by Rachael Pinks

The Day After Yesterday by Rachael Pinks

and the studio space:

Below, some photos of the recent Open Studios Christmas event- (the first of many, we hope!) :

The rewards:  This is a unique opportunity for art lovers to buy affordable original works from an exciting emerging British painter.  Then there is the lasting sense of achievement from having contributed towards developing the studio into a thriving, independent rural arts hub - nurturing creativity in people of all ages and ultimately enriching the culture of the area - all from an individual contribution of as little as £10.  Quite something if you compare that to the ephemeral nature of most everyday spending!  

Framed works and prints by Rachael Pinks on display at the Apple Day art event, Scarthin Promenade, Cromford, last autumn.


 Discover more here








Rachael's art blog

http://rachaelpinksart.co.uk/