finished oil painting of a family allotment Posted Friday, 4th of March

 In a previous blog or two i went through the process of how i build a painting up from the drawing stage. Since that time i have painted the picture and it sits below. You may notice there are a few changes since the initial  drawing. I have taken out the landscape at the back as i preferred the zig zag of the rooftops.. I have also taken out the two children because I felt that they cluttered the composition and the eye was left wondering about in the middle.

I don’t often change my mind at the  last minute though for this painting it was the right decision. The cabbages were great fun to do. I was surprised how much purple and lilac they contain.

Click on the image to see it larger

liamofarrell.com 


Modern British Sculpture at the Royal Academy of Arts - A laymans point of view Posted Thursday, 3rd of March

It all started with that latrine, you know the one, originally cast to be just another receptacle in the privies of Paris. Then in 1917 it was re-cast by Duchamp to take centre stage in a revolution. He signed it, interestingly not with own his name, and boldly declared that anything can be art. This [...]

getting a painting onto board Posted Saturday, 15th of January

I paint on board. This is first primed with the acrylic gesso. I paint the gesso on with two or three coats. Once dry it forms a tough and forgivable surface to take oil paint. Now I need to get my composition onto the board. My work does not go edge to edge. I choose [...]

adding all the elements together for a painting Posted Saturday, 15th of January

All the separate elements of the painting are finally pulled together in the composition. There is no real rule on how to achieve this aside from moving things around, re tracing, looking at it all in a mirror and eventually it just starts to ‘work’. This process can be a little frustrating and always seems [...]