Wednesday 2 July 2008

Nana's Bulrushes

So here it is, later than predicted, the triptych I have been working on, on and off, forever.


The inspiration for this piece was prompted by a post on Jafabrit's blog, saying that 60's and 70's crafts and fashions were back. I've noticed a slight 70's feel in the decor of some places, such as Café’s, and this got me thinking back to my own childhood. My Nan's house had orange walls in the dining room, with a vase of brown Bulrushes sitting on top of the side board.

After painting the canvases orange I painted the Bulrushes very quickly (with a brush that was probably too big for the task), and then spent the latter half of my life trying to neaten them up! Looking back, I think masking tape may have made the task easier, but I painted these free hand. The orange is like a burnt orange, labelled "India". As usual, I'm not sure if the photograph really does the colour justice.


Nana's Bulrushes - emulsion on canvas, 50cm x 40cm x 3.

7 comments:

jafabrit said...

wow, I really like these, visually and technically :)

Kathy L said...

So very cool! What a great idea and yes, the colors are so very retro! As far as my on line classes....we can draw both from a photo model and from imagination. I think though that one of the main reason I am taking the class is to be able to draw a face from y imagination... So I have done both ways in my excercises. The noses, lips, and eyes are both from paintings of masters and from my hed :)
k

Undaunted said...

Thank you Jafabrit! :) I'm not sure what you mean by "technically" though. Sorry that I always end up asking you what your comments mean!


Thank you Kathy! Wow, well done. As I said, I think drawing faces from imagination must be very hard.

Leanne Pizio said...

Wonderful!
I love them. They remind me of summer time at the beach where we would pull the soft seeds off of the bulrushes (we call them cat tails) and let them fly in the wind.

Undaunted said...

Thank you Leanne :)

Actually I was thinking of doing another piece with Bulrushes silhouetted against a sunset over the sea. I did the little pre-drawing ages ago. I have no idea what the seeds look like though. I may look that up!

jafabrit said...

What I meant is it is beautifully drawn out and painted.

Undaunted said...

Thank you Jafabrit :D I'm gonna have to learn the lingo aren't I?!