painting
I thoroughly enjoyed this commission last year. An oil painting of Rueben the Dog. I loved the challenge of creating enough mood that dog stood out from the tussocks. This dog had sadly past away so I wanted to bring life back to Rueben through this painting. The client was stoked when she saw it for the first time as a surprise gift.
Check out the video below which shows this painting evolve throughout the layers.
Reuben the Dog, 2017, Oil on canvas, 350 x 450mm , (13.7 in x 17.7 in)
I had never dreamed at the start of this year that by the end of January I would be exhibiting my work in my own show. Yet indeed this is what happened. With the help of my friend Lorraine I stumbled upon an opportunity too good to miss. A gallery space in the Arts Centre had become available the week of the World Buskers Festival so there would be a greater amount of foot traffic. I had to dispense with the fear and just do it!
So with just one week before opening I managed to get together enough of my work to fill the four walls. As well as organising paintings to to be scanned and printed at the printers and getting them produced in time for opening. It was an intense week!
This exhibition could not have been possible without the help of many people. Lorraine, who has owned many galleries, manned the show for me throughout the week days. She taught me so much throughout the week about how exhibitions work. My father helped me set up the exhibition on the Monday. My mother and partner supported me during the weekend with manning the show. At times it got very busy so it was so great to have their help.
For me it was so lovely to see how the public reacted to my work by seeing what their favourite pieces were and explaining the stories behind those pieces. I was overwhelmed (in the very best way) by the support of friends and family who came in to see the exhibition and feel so honoured to be surrounded by such love.
Me looking chuffed at the exhibition. Sketches and prints behind me.
Click to the right hand end of this picture above to view more photos.
Lorraine and I colour matching with the paintings behind us.
My plan was that I would use the walls of the gallery leaving the floor space available to promote the talented work of my father Chris Thompson of Thompson woodworking. He designs and crafts custom furniture, to view his work see his site thompsonwoodworking.nz
The talented work of Chris Thompson.
Over the course of the weekend I set up a Go Pro to capture the coming and goings of people during the exhibition. This is just some of the weekend.
Recently I got to spend time with my gorgeous wee niece Ginny over the Christmas holiday. Gosh how she had grown since I had painted this portrait. It was wonderful spending time with her and watching her learn to walk. Then she hoped on the plane with her parents back to the US.
Here is a video of the process I took to paint this portrait earlier last year. I was such a pleasure to paint, as I knew it would be for my own collection, I could relax into the process more than normal. And obviously I was inspired by the subject too! Enjoy the video.
Recently I had a request to show how I create my watercolour washes in my illustrations. Here I go through the whole process explaining my approach. In essence it's all about having fun!
It was quite cool recording my first 'How To' video. It was interesting analysing my process to be able to convey it in the video. This was also my first attempt at doing a voice over. It is quite strange hearing your own voice on the video. I took several takes until I had to say "that'll do".
This video shows the process I use to create the coloured areas used in drawings like below.
Wahoo!! My first ever time lapse of the entire painting process!! I've learned so much and made so many mistakes along the way from filming to editing and spent waay to long selecting the 'right song' but here it is.
I wanted to show the whole process from prepping the board right through signing it off. Still getting the hang of filming there were some mishaps along the way. I missed most of the sketching as I hadn't properly hit record and I took 20 minutes of blurry film as I hadn't focused the scene.
Compressing many hours of film down to 1 minute is quite the task. What I found super interesting while editing was that well over half the time the brush is not on the canvas. I didn't calculate the percentage but it was rather high. There is a lot of thinking that happens when painting, always planning your next move, and as you know there is no handy undo button.
It's always satisfying looking back over the process of a painting in retrospect and seeing it come to life. Throughout the process there are often times when it feels like portions are not working out. It's part of the challenge of painting - resolving areas until you are happy with the final result.
Here is 'Grazing in Glentunnel' from start to finish shown in progression. At the end of each step or session I would take a photo. First is the acrylic wash, then a charcoal sketch and then building up the oil layers.
Music: Good Old Times (Alex Cohen)
Grazing in Glentunnel, 2017, Oil on canvas, 700 x 400mm , (27.5 in x 15.7 in)
It's not every day you get to 'break into' a house to deliver a painting. This was the surprise waiting for the client arriving home from her honeymoon. By 'break into' I mean - let in by the house-sitter to hang the painting in place.
Grazing in Glentunnel insitu above the fire place.
I started this commission in January, it was to be a surprise wedding gift. So I have been itching to reveal the results - but only after the client had seen it first! Thankfully they arrived home yesterday.
I am stoked with how this painting worked out and I am truly going to miss it. I find the colours so typically 'kiwi' and restful yet there is also an energy to vibrant colours. I took a series of photos out at the farm to work from. I returned home thinking I hadn't quite captured the true essence of the place but after a little merging of different shots I came up with a composition that both I and the client were happy with.
This was my first time painting a cow I'm quite happy with how this came out. Check out some of the detail photos below.
Grazing in Glentunnel, 2017, Oil on canvas, 700 x 400mm , (27.5 in x 15.7 in)
Detail photos - click on the right side of the photo to see more.
It has been a few months since my last 'proper' portrait. So I am excited to have started off a new one last week! Itching to get stuck into this project.
So I thought I'd show a bit of the process of 'Firenze'. I did this portrait as a birthday present for my partner's 30th. We came across this chap in a bustling market square in Florence. We wondered what was his story, was he waiting for someone, was he contemplating something or was he just having a rest?
Firenze, 2016, Oil on canvas, 350mm x 450mm (13.7 in x 17.7 in)
First session VS final session. Clearly a bit of time between these two shots.
Below shows the progression of the painting and the various steps along the way. I start off with a charcoal sketch on top of an acrylic wash. Then a monotone value study where I figure out where my high and low lights will be. This give me a road map for the rest of the painting. Then into building he coloured layers.
Progress photos: From start to finish.
Watch the time lapse of the painting coming together below.
Finished this bad boy of Mt Aspiring last week. It ended up taking longer than I expected to complete this painting. I had thought I would try a quicker style on this but then I couldn't resist and had to put the detail back in. As I explained in an earlier post this landscape is painted from a photo I took helicoptering over the Southern Alps. I remember circling Mt Aspiring, the sharp peaks standing so impressively. There were some hikers near the top on the other side which made me feel rather lazy at that moment. I bet it was hard work getting up that high!
As always, I learn from every painting. This time I was reminded of the value of "just paint over it and start again". I had a particular corner of this painting that was not working. I struggled with it for weeks until I just went over it. Fixing the corner in a matter of minutes! Sometimes a fresh approach is all you need.
Mt Aspiring, 2017, Oil on canvas, 700 x 400mm , (27.5 in x 15.7 in)
My first time lapse of my painting progress. You get to see the way I work as I add extra detail to this dog portrait. Turns out painting with a camera in the way is more challenging than I thought!
Music: Myself dabbling on the acoustic guitar
I learned a lot working on this wee video. Film setup, video cutting, music editing, then adding start and end frames. This was a lot of fun and I hope to get better with the next one.
It's amazing that you can be making art without even realising it. I looked down at my painting cloth yesterday and just loved the overlapping colours. How often do we stop to reflect on the colours we have mixed on their own, as these are the foundation on which the painting is built. This cloth is the result of years of use. I really must get a new cloth as it is hard to find a clean spot. This can be quite frustrating at times but I love the way it looks. It tells a story of the paintings I have created over the last few years. Some of these colours are never seen in the final paintings and as time goes on the colour of the cloth itself is slowly disappearing.
Close-up on my painting cloth.
There is something really nice about seeing a painting again after some years. I got to see this gem again on a recent trip to the States to visit my sister, her husband and my new niece. I had painted this as a wedding gift for them. My brother-in-law took this panorama of Yosemite as I hadn't been there. The painting spanned over a year, taking some 130 hours. I started the painting in California and finished it back in NZ before the painting was eventually settled back in California. It's a well travelled painting! Years later I visited Yosemite at that very spot and it was the most surreal feeling. It was like walking into my painting.
Yosemite, 2011, Acrylic on canvas, 1016mm x 609mm (40 in x 24 in)
I am currently working on a landscape of Mt Aspiring, New Zealand. I took this photo from a helicopter as we were crossing the Southern Alps. My brother-in-law took my sister, partner and I on a trip in 2014 and I still cherish the memory of that trip, even though, I was a bit scared of the helicopter wobbling about in what was actually a very still day (thank fully). I am happy with progress and I will show the finished piece soon.
Work in progress on Mt Aspiring, Oil on canvas.
