Christmas Print Show at Gloss Gallery in Exeter, Devon Friday 2nd December to Saturday 28th January

Christmas Print Show at Gloss Gallery in Exeter, Devon Friday 2nd December to Saturday 28th January




If you're in Exeter City Centre over the next few weeks why not take the 1 minute walk to the beautiful Gloss Gallery which exhibits a wide range of work by local and national artists alike. Whether you want to spend tens of thousands of pounds on an original painting or buy more affordable work by emerging artists then Gloss has got you covered.

One of their current shows is the Christmas Print Show which runs from Friday 2nd December to Saturday 28th January. There is a wide range of work and media including some of my hand-embellished giclee animal prints, glass ware by Will Shakspeare and work by Paula Youens, Simon Ripley, Cathy King, Simon Uden, Sally Hebeler, Emma Molony & Catherine Cartwright from the Double Elephant Print Workshop.

The Christmas Print Show is the perfect place to purchase a unique Christmas gift!

Above: Glassware by Will Shakspeare

Photos below: Prints from Artists from the Double Elephant Print Workshop currently showing at Gloss.

2012 Calendars featuring a range of cow, sheep, horse and landscape paintings now available

2012 Calendars featuring a range of cow, sheep, horse and landscape paintings are now available. The perfect gift for Christmas! :-)

Cow Sheep and Horse Paintings 2012 calendar by mike_jory
Browse Cow Calendars

Martin Bentham exhibition now showing at The Art Room in Topsham

Established oil painter Martin Bentham has a range of work on show at The Art Room in Topsham until 6th November. Animals, people, landscapes, trees, walls and plants are all depicted in his distinctive style of oil painting that almost carves form into the paint and then includes delicate details on top.

'Death and The Maiden' by Robert Lenkiewicz at Torre Abbey, Devon, UK

Above: one of the Lenkiewicz paintings currently showing at Torre Abbey

I went to the Robert Lenkiewicz exhibition at Torre Abbey a few weeks ago and with only a couple of weeks left (the exhibition ends on 2nd October 2011) I thought I would write a few lines about it.
First of all, if you like art, you should go! Plymouth-based artist Lenkiewicz was famous and infamous for his art, unusual life-style, major projects, book collection and headline-grabbing activities (perhaps the two most well-known being his faking his own death and the possession and preservation of  the corpse of his long-time friend and model "Diogenes" (whose embalmed corpse is on display at the exhibition)).
There are several examples of Lenkiewicz's exquisitely precise and vibrantly colored paintings on show, but even if his artistic endeavours are not your thing (I've heard his work described - I feel unfairly - by fellow artists as either "chocolate boxy" or "bloody awful") you should check out this exhibition for the insight into his working process that is provided by the less-often exhibited sketch books and watercolor paintings.
In addition, the Abbey has stunning paintings from many artists of different eras on permanent display that are well worth a look too.
You can find out more about Robert Lenkiewicz at theLenkiewicz Foundation Website

'Painting Landscapes & Animals with Interference Acrylics' New article on Squidoo

As a follow-up to one of my previous articles on interference acrylics, I've just published another lens, this time on 'Painting Landscapes & Animals with Interference Acrylics' which you can check out here. The article describes the step by step creation of 'Heather Bed' and some of the iridescent effects than can be achieved.

Finished Painting: "The Defenders"

Here's the finished painting "The Defenders". The main developments are increasing the size of the head on the right hand bull, adding details to all three of the herd and painting in some grass and flowers in the pasture foreground. The title comes from the both the stance of the herd, the tribal mask-like appearance of the left hand animal along with the inclusion of the blue on the right hand bull which I think looks a little like war paint.

Continuing with the new painting

Here are the next few stages of the new painting. Added another layer of paint to the center and right hand cow, the latter has also had its head enlarged from before

The pic below shows some texture added to the sky and grass, more definition on the cows, the right hand bovine head being enlarged a little more and some hills and trees indicated in the background.

In the 3rd photo, the sky has been blended and some clouds added. This was accomplished with interactive acrylic: The paint was applied and kept moist by spraying with water to allow the blue sky to be readily blended. Once fully dry the clouds were painted on and immediately sprayed with water and allowed to run a little to give a wispy effect. All three bulls have had their horns added and become more defined and some splashes of blue have been included on the right hand animal.

First few brush strokes new painting on the way

Following on from the preliminary sketches posted recently, here are the first few brush strokes, laying out the position of the cows in blue acrylic.

Second stage, blocking in the cows, also moved all but the left hand one over to the right a little

And now blocking in the grass and sky

You may notice some iridescence from the canvas in the photos which is due to the canvas being painted with interference acrylic.

Preliminary sketches new painting on the way

Just starting work towards a new animal painting and here is a series of thumbnail sketches in biro to work out the composition. First pic above, quite like the arrangement of the group of 4 cows but the one on the right isn't adding too much.
Sketch 2, below, is looking more balanced but perhaps a bit crowded and the middle trio are all on a straight line.

No 3 below, slightly better arrangement

No 4, simplify things by reducing the herd to 3 cows and add some landscape in the background

sketch 5, prefer the staggered positions /distances here

Number 6: Think this is it, just 3 cows some landscape visible thro the gaps and I like the arrangement of the bovines.

Changing Weather Iridescent painting of cows lying down on Dartmoor

Here's the finished painting (as posted last time) viewed under normal lighting conditions. Notice that the sun seems to be shining on the distant hills on the left.

In the next picture (below) the the painting is viewed from a different angle and the distant hills are now duller as if the weather has changed to cloudy conditions. This effect is a direct result of the interference acrylics that were used on the hills.

 The photo below shows the painting under dimmer lighting conditions. Even though the sky and background hills were over-painted with interference blue these particular lighting conditions result in the complementary interference color showing up, in this case (interference blue painted over these particular colors) the result is a coppery / reddish brown. This gives the effect of "sunshine and showers" over the distant hills i.e. it is as if the sun is shining as the rain streams down over the hills (weather conditions commonly seen on Dartmoor the setting of the painting).

 

In the fourth photo shown below, the painting is shown again, but this time in even lower lighting conditions. The sky and distant hills have now taken on a misty, luminous appearance while some of the interference blue is starting to glow thereby illuminating the foreground cow.

 

The picture below shows the effects obtained by viewing the painting in very low lighting conditions. Now the hills are nearly consumed by the luminous blue while parts of the foreground heather are also illuminated giving an eery night-time feel to the image.

Finally here's the painting once again shown under normal lighting conditions. The combination of 3 types of acrylic i.e. conventional under-painting that is then over-painted with alternating layers of interactive and interference acrylics allows subtle, changeable iridescent effects to be produced. These can either be well controlled and quite deliberate (e.g. the sky and distant hills) or more random and left to chance (e.g. the changing color of the cow and heather in the foreground). I plan on experimenting further with this technique in future work.

 

Finished Painting of cows lying down on Dartmoor

Here's a quick photo of the finished painting, I'll post more soon on the iridescent effects due to the use of interference acrylic. In the meantime I need to think of a title, any suggestions welcome!

Step 4 of a new painting of cows lying down on Dartmoor

Here's step 4, just a couple of modifications for today, the distant cow on the right is starting to take shape and more detail has been added to the foreground foliage, plenty of magenta for the heather and cadmium yellow for the gorse flowers.

Step 3 of New Painting on the way Cows lying down on Dartmoor

 

Here are the next couple of stages of the paintings. Above you can see that the cows are still in their metallic blue phase but some modifications have been made to the background hills. The right and left hand thirds of the hill-scape have been coated in a thin layer of interference blue while the middle section is now coated in interference yellow (the latter being created by mixing some cadmium yellow with some pearlescent tinting medium).

Once dry the trees and hedgerows were added in a loose style. In the second pic (below) I've started to "knock back" the shimmer from the interference blue on the cows by over-painting the cows with interactive acrylic.

When applying the paint at this stage I'm just painting as I would normally, regardless of the fact there is interference acrylic beneath. When the painting is finished I want any interference blue that shows through to be serendipitous in nature and not look "planned".

At this stage I also notice that the cow on the right is somewhat out of shape and resembling one of those creatures Anakin rode in Attack of the Clones. Some bovine surgery will be required very soon!

 

Step 2: Cows lying down on Dartmoor

The plan with this work is to alternate layers of acrylic with layers of interference color. In this photo you can see that the cows have now been over-painted with interference blue as has the sky and distant hills. The moorland in the mid and foreground has been painted with interference copper & violet, respectively. Although it appears that most of the previous layer has been obliterated there is actually a mixture of areas where only the metallic colour shows and areas where some of the under painting is showing through
As the painting progresses the intention is to make the layers of interference color progressively more transparent...but we'll see how it goes!

New Painting on the way / Cows lying down on Dartmoor

Here are the beginnings of a new painting, some Dexter cattle lying down among the heather and gorse of Dartmoor. I've enjoyed painting these cows before, their dark hides lend themselves to the inclusion of plenty of blue where the light catches them. They also contrast well with the magenta, green and yellow of the surrounding flora.
My previous paintings "Time For A Nap" and "A Lunch Interrupted" were both small (24"x8") but this time I wanted to work on a larger scale and this canvas, being about 30"x40", is for me near perfect in size as it allows me to use a reasonably large brush and not get caught up in the annoyances of fiddly intricate bits!
This new painting (if it proves successful)also marks the start of what I hope will be the next stage in the development of my artistic technique. I'm combining my normal combination of conventional and interactive acrylics with the iridescent effects that can be achieved with interference acrylics.
The landscape and cows were all painted with a layer of interference acrylic before over painting with acrylic and I'll expand more on the planned technique when I post the next stage.

Sketchbook Lamb Sketch 'Taking A Bow'

'Taking A Bow' the latest cute lamb sketch

Highly Commended in Patchings Exhibition 2011

My painting 'You Again' has just won a "Highly Commended" in the Professional category of the Patchings Exhibition 2011. It is now eligible for the People's Choice Award, so if you have a moment or two please feel free to visit the Patchings Website and vote for me! (or indeed any of the work by other artists that you like :-))

Sketchbook Lamb Sketch

Sketchbook Lamb Drawing

Another lamb sketch, once again, pencil, blue pencil and biro :-)

Sketchbook Sheep and Lamb Drawing

Another sketch from Bicton Lambing Sunday the other week. This one is done with biro, pencil and some blue colored pencil.

Paintings on show at the Bath & West show this June

Each year Somerset sees the arrival of the Royal Bath & West Show, a major agricultural show that features an array of attractions and several thousand visitors. Among the cattle, sheep and motorcycle stunt shows you'll also find an art exhibition. I've just had 2 paintings and a drawing accepted for the show which runs 1st - 4th June 2011, so if you happen to be passing the art pavilion please feel free to have a look.

"Ready Steady..." Lamb and sheep acrylic painting by mike_jory
View other Lamb Posters

The Luminary Acrylic Cow Painting by mike_jory
sell my posters for free on Zazzle.

'Clear Air' by Mike Jory

Inspiration

Took this snap on a walk to the Turf Locks Hotel (pub) the other day near Exeter, Devon!

New Frames

Had a couple of paintings framed recently by Bizzy Be in Exeter who are always really helpful and provide a great service. Well worth considering if you live in the Exeter area and want some framing done!

Jorys at Jurys: Paintings on show at Exeter hotel

I currently have a selection of paintings and hand-embellished giclee prints on show at Jurys Inn Hotel in Exeter. The paintings are being exhibited in the conference area on the lower ground floor. Many thanks to Francesca at Gloss Gallery Exeter for organising this.

Here's one of the pictures on show:
'Come On, Keep Up' (Limited Edition, Hand-Embellished Giclee)

I also have paintings and prints on show at Gloss itself which is about 3 minutes walk from the hotel in Barnfield Crescent (opposite the theatre)