Matthew Hillier's.."The Studio Floor"

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:42:00 +0000

I am so thrilled, I just heard that my painting" Snow in August" received the "Visitors Choice" award at this year's Society of Wildlife Artists annual show at the Mall Galleries in London. I know it's just showing off on my part, but then I am a show off!

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:57:00 +0000

Here is some more of my booth. Lousy snap I'm afraid.

Booth at the WFFest

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:52:00 +0000

I know it's a lousy snap, but here is the finished bugeye in it's frame in the Waterfowl Festival. I sold it today so I am thrilled. I made all the frames... phew 18 all together...

"Nor-Easter" 36 x 48'' oil

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:48:00 +0000

Phew, here's a new biggy. I just love painting the ocean. It was hard not to fill the painting with gulls.I spent most of the summer painting this. The focal point of this piece was always the breaking wave. larger gulls kept getting in the way and taking your attention away from the wave.In the end I decided to have a few gullsin the seascape.
This was my mom's beach in July. We had a week of tremendous gales, The sun would break through and drag dark shadows across the seascape. very dramatic.Really blew the cobwebs away.

Signals 6 x 6 oil

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:45:00 +0000

That's better ,,, I repainted the sand and changed a few of the umbrellas...I like it much better now.

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:18:00 +0000

The caps have been glued and screwed, and corners have been steamed and glued in place, not to mention lots of filling and sanding,and wire-wooling, they are ready for the next stage .

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:15:00 +0000

Once the frames have been gessoed and several coats of paint sprayed on,not to mention a lot of wire- wooling between coats, they are ready for sizing and leafing.

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:13:00 +0000

I'm in the house silver leafing frames. Julia is doing the same in her studio

The creek in January. oil 24 x 18

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:59:00 +0000

This swan was sat on the Ice opposite my house last winter.I loved the gorgeous winter light.

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:57:00 +0000

Life guard 6 x 6 oil

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:55:00 +0000

I enjoyed doing this cheeky little painting

Boogie boarding. 5 x 7 oil

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:52:00 +0000

She's a brave little girl.She could only have been about 8 and that wave was BIG!!

Bugeye

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:22:00 +0000

Here's a detail of the painting.

Bugeye 24 x 18 oil

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:16:00 +0000

"Finished" I will post the frame as I continue with it, but really I need to paint something else for the Waterfowl fest which is looming!

Bugeye update....

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:10:00 +0000

Here's Fridays' effort. I had so much fun painting the sparkles. I will finish the water tomorrow and then I will start the rigging. The end is in sight. A couple more days should do it.

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:05:00 +0000

It's been a buzy weekend and the weather has been ghastly. Went to Terry Miller's house warming in DC yesterday. Thanks Terry, we had a great time. No painting, but I did manage to steam the frame corners, Very grand!

Bugeye frame.

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:58:00 +0000

Here's the start of the frame. So far I have cut the lengths and joined and glued them together to the liner.It's raining too hard to start the next stage(filling and sanding) I will choose some slightly nautical corners. should be fun! I promise not to show every frame I make, but I wanted to give the visitors to my blog an Idea of the whole process I go through. from blobby Idea to finished painting, to gallery wall. So please bear with me.

Bugeye 24 x 18 "Stages"

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:48:00 +0000

It didn't stop raining long enough to photograph yesterday's effort. So here it is. Today I'm doing sparkles and water, I spent yesterday cutting in around the sailors and boat. I really enjoy that part of the painting process, and it's exciting to see the shapes looking more realistic.

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:41:00 +0000

This morning's post shows the progress of my Bugeye painting. I have put in the sky, and have been adding body colour to the background trees. I want to suggest shimmering trees, faded in the afternoon sunshine. I have also started to build a frame for this painting. It's chopped glued and filled . The ghastly sanding comes next... yuk

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:09:00 +0000

Very quickly I am blocking in the shape and all the large tonal areas . I am now ready to add some body to the paint. I will move to the sky next but keep going back into the boat defining the shape of the sailors and and putting in the darks and mid tones of the deck and boat body. I will leave the lights, or create them with a small cloth( rubbing out paint) This is typical of how I build up a painting. I will be able to cut in with thicker paint at a later stage to define the the edges of the boat and sailors.( That's the fun part)

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:06:00 +0000

I am now playing with the shape and flow of the boat. At this stage the oil is diluted with terp substitute. Very washy

Grand Dame, 1930's Pierce Arrow oil 5 x 7

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:39:00 +0000

Another mini of those lovely cars at my neighbour's house The car and the lady were both rather grand. Bloody hell wheels are hard to paint. I think I'll stick to boats, birds in fact anything without wheels!

Bison 48 x 36 oil

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:36:00 +0000

I saw this Bachelor Bison wandering around the Sylvan Pass in Yellowstone. I thought he was rather handsome, in a Bisony kind of way.

Bugeye oil 24 x 18

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:27:00 +0000

I have been asked for some in progress snaps, Here's a Bugeye I saw out of St Michaels at the weekend. I had never seen one under sail before so I was terribly excited. It is in the very early stages, not much more than a blob. I will post another in a couple of days when, hopefully, it will be a bit more interesting. It is usually the "kiss of Death" to post the early stages of a painting, but maybe this will lift the curse! Usually I stain the board, but to be honest I forgot to this time oops . Iam going to live up to my new name "Sparkles" ( thank you Rachelle and Wes) because this will be rather sparkly( Oh dear , how girly does that sound )

''Speeding By"

noreply@blogger.com (From The Studio Floor) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:59:00 +0000

There was no reason to paint this, except I just loved the light in the wake of this boat and the feel of speed It's also lovely to see people having a great time on the water.oil5 x 7