Branded Goods

Some time ago I decided that I would like to have a very small branding iron depicting the monogram motif with which I sign my paintings. If it's a small canvas I don't always use my full signature and use the monogram on it's own as I feel that it is less obtrusive. A search of the internet found that it was possible to have such an item made although they are more readily available in the US and they are certainly not without their cost especially if it's an electric one.

So I had to look at a cheaper alternative and started to look at pyrography equipment instead. A wood burning pen would do the job and it was much cheaper! I did buy such a wood burning pen some months ago and haven't had the opportunity to use it before so today I "branded" my latest two canvases which had been drying.

This is the matching "brand" on the wooden stretcher bar of the box canvas and will be how all of my work will now be marked regardless of whether it's a painting of cattle or sheep etc as that is how the work is signed on the front.

Gavin, Stacey, Coo and Bill Too

I'd wanted to paint a picture of two lambs cuddling very close together although in all of the photos I had there wasn't a suitable image so I had to invent the scene. Working from photos which I felt would fit together I found a number with a similar light source which I thought might look convincing. The lamb on the left (as we see it here) has facial markings which were too similar to the other one and I felt they would appear to merge together so I used a third image for that face.

This shows the acrylic underpainting and it gives me an idea of how the final painting might look.

Still working in acrylic but using thinner washes of umber this shows the body shapes being defined and the addition of browner tones in the eye - but it's still an underpainting.

Whilst working on this painting I was aware of the feeling of being watched and I discovered my audience was a pair of collared doves sat on the fence outside the studio window. Everytime I turned around, Bill and Coo, as I christened them were craning their necks for a better view. It didn't matter which window I looked out from they were there and locked into my gaze. I can confirm that two doves can't sit comfortably on a satellite dish either so if my neighbour wonders why it's consistently snowing when watching Formula 1 that's the reason. Maybe that's why Dastardly and Mutley had an aversion, after all..pigeons are probably just doves with less dress sense. Since the time of painting Bill and Coo are "with egg" in the conifers and so I have had to reconstruct the event.

At least they couldn't be responsible for this "accident" which greeted me one morning from a top floor window and managed to strike every window over all three floors. Judging by the fishy aroma and great quantity I think the culprit was one of the seagulls which wheel above periodically. It's said that we live in a multi cultural society and perhaps the gulls prove this by depositing a litre of prawn bhuna from 500 ft - though maybe it was instant fear at failing to negotiate a 3 storey house and it's wedged in the guttering instead. We shall never know.

Ah well, back to the work..where were we? Yes, at this stage I've switched to oil and painted the blue "sky" background.

Continuing in oil I've started to paint the fur of the lamb on the left concentrating on keeping the soft feel as I wanted to emphasise the fact that they are young lambs.

The body fur practically completed, I've now moved to the darker area of fur on the face of the lamb on the right.

Same treatment here for the lamb on the left.

The final piece on the easel is shown here completed and can't be varnished until it is has dried and then it will be prepared and ready to go to a gallery.