Virtually Amsterdam

Tags

amsterdam, painting, quirky, travel, Virtual Paintout

I decided to make time to take part in the Virtual Paintout again. This is a fun project by Bill Guffey where he chooses a destination and then we use google maps to find views to paint. This month it’s Amsterdam.

“It’s Amsterdam, only bonkers” by Cate van Alphen

It was quite near the end of the month when I started, so I decided to focus on something fun rather than strictly accurate. I’ve done some messy gesso in the background on a piece of blue paper. I used paint pens and only slightly exaggerated the tilt of the buildings.

https://goo.gl/maps/tHW4mbwvsg62

I wanted something a little bonkers to reflect the feeling of Amsterdam which is full of fun surprises. For example a museum of Fluorescent Art or tiny houses in a crack between two buildings.

Featured Painting

Tags

feature, landscape, painting, polymer clay, polymer clay daily, polymer clay painting, Virtual Paintout

Yesterday I had problems with my internet so I only discovered today that my polymer clay painting of Tasmania had been featured on Polymer Clay Daily. This is only my third painting using polymer clay so I’m really pleased.

I’m still not entirely sure why I prefer using polymer clay instead of traditional paint, but it seems I do! I even started a group on Flickr for Polymer Clay Painting so if anyone else has work (or tips) they’d like to share please stop by.

“Sisters Beach, Tasmania”

“Upwards, Thailand”

“Last Light, Latvia”

Virtual Paintout August – Tasmania

Tags

beach, landscape, painting, polymer clay, river, shadow, sisters beach, Tasmania, trees, Virtual Paintout

Despite my best intentions, I have only finished my virtual paintout picture on the last day of the month (again). This month it’s Tasmania.

“Sisters Beach, Tasmania” by Cate van Alphen
Polymer clay, 10cm x 10cm

Virtual Paintout – Thailand WIP

Tags

jungle, landscape, painting, path, polymer clay, polymer clay painting, skinner blend, Thailand, trees, Virtual Paintout

This month’s Virtual Paintout location is Thailand. It is a really interesting location and I wish I had more time to explore, but I haven’t even managed to finish the painting I started.

**Edit – I’ve now finished this painting.**

This is actually only the background half of my picture as I’m only just starting to work on the interesting bits (have a look at the original location to see what I mean). Here is a look at the work in progress.

As you can see the painting is pretty tiny – 10cm x 10 cm. I started off with 6 colour mixes (see the tiles to the right of the painting) plus black and white. I made some skinner blends to increase my colour variety as I haven’t managed to get them to mix nicely on the canvas (as I used to do with oils). The flowers are pure carmine from the packet.

I’m working on a thin sheet of pale blue polymer which has been baked, on which I’ve drawn pencil guide lines. I prefer to do the whole painting before curing as I often go back and change earlier bits as I progress but at this point I’m worried the uncured clay will crack if I don’t finish soon.

I still intend to finish this painting so there will be another blog about it eventually. In the mean time have a look at the flickr group to see some other finished polymer clay paintings.

I also need to work on my Bead Soup pieces – due 11 August. At the moment I have actually finished some pieces but they don’t use either the toggle or the focals I received (I received a LOT of beads!).

Virtual Paintout Latvia

Tags

bead, Latvia, painting, polymer clay, road, sunset, trees, Virtual Paintout

One of polymer clay strengths is its ability for two colours to get really close and personal and not mush together. This is why techniques like millefiori caning and mokume gane are possible. Therefore I want to achieve subtle painterly blends and tie-dye water colour effects. Doh!

This month’s Virtual Paintout location is Latvia, and I decided to do my painting using polymer clay. As I’ve only just submitted my image I need to wait and see if polymer clay is considered a “drawing and painting medium” as specified in the challenge requirements. It was fun to do regardless and I’m getting closer towards achieving my idea.

“Last Light, Latvia” by Cate van Alphen
Polymer clay, 10cm x 10cm

The painting is pretty tiny (10cm x 10cm) so it’s smaller than it appears on my computer. Here is the reference location.

Other attempts at this technique include my earlier Art Bead Scene entry, and this swirl bead.

So far it’s super slow and my eyes go squiffy. So why don’t I just paint using PAINT instead of trying to make polymer clay do something it doesn’t want to? I don’t know, does anyone else?

Virtual Paintout – Jerusalem

Tags

door, drawing, Jerusalem, oil pastel, Virtual Paintout

Today I finished my drawing for the Virtual Paintout – another invitingly open door, this time in Jerusalem. The inspiration picture is from a “walk” around Jerusalem’s Old City using Google streetview.

“Ancient Garden” by Cate van Alphen
Oil Pastel

 

April Challenges

Tags

52 earrings, beads, challenge, coloured pencil, earring, Gdansk, google maps, polymer clay, texture, travel, van alphen, Virtual Paintout

Or should this post be titled “Where did April go?” or “Things I didn’t make”?

I was very excited to discover the Virtual Paintout this month. The idea is that every month a new location is selected and you “walk” around the area using Google street view and find inspiration to paint. April’s destination was Gdansk in Poland. What a wonderful idea – it had never occurred to me before to use Google maps to be an armchair tourist! I started off a bit like a car-chasing-dog who has suddenly caught a bus – I didn’t know how to take it all in and I started clicking randomly all over the map (with not much success). Then I decided to pick a hotel and travel from there. I found a delightful house with a door intriguingly ajar. It looked so invitingly cool inside and  baking hot outside. Here is the location if you’d like to have a look around for yourself.

Doors open in Gdansk by Cate van Alphen

It’s been years since I did any drawing and I found it required a surprising amount of concentration, but I did enjoy myself (although next time perhaps I’ll choose something quicker to work with than coloured pencil and I’ll select an image which actually includes the focal point!).

“BUT WHERE’S THE POLYMER CLAY?” I hear you cry. Disappointingly nearly all of it is still in my head. I did manage to start on some texture stamps, but not any of the exciting things I had planned to make using them.

Then there are the architecturally inspired beads from the Royal Road I haven’t started yet…

I had a wonderful idea for the Art Bead Scene Challenge, but alas, on Saturday the 28th I discovered the deadline was the 25th!

Still, watch this space, some of these ideas may make an appearance eventually – one of the major culprits for my missing the challenge times is a bead that has been sitting in my “in progress” bucket for YEARS which suddenly demanded to be finished, and has grown up into something quite interesting. Sometimes these things have their own timescales.

Amazingly I HAVE managed to keep up with the 52 earrings challenge.