painting of Annelise

I have slowly been working on Annelise portrait and because I can only paint during the weekend the process is slow. I use the old style of oil painting and wait till one layer of paint is dry and then use thin layers of glazes on top.

This is in itself a slow process,but I hope to achieve the depth in colour and the beautiful smoothness of her skin this way,without the feeling of overworking.

To create the lace in her shawl I underpainted the skin of her arm first and now I am slowly creating the look of the lace again with thin layers of paint.

I always keep correcting my painting during the process till the finishing stages,I learned this from Mehrdad Tahan,a great portrait painter I went to for art lessons.

That way I know that the painting can take me were it wants to go and I don't get stuck in set structures and know I can always make changes if need to.

This work method takes maybe longer and sometimes more complicated then when the first drawing is exactly right,but that method gives me not enough freedom.

I still have no idea what I am going to do with the background,but again this is for later and the answers will come to me during the painting process.

button necklace

In the last few weeks I have been busy making button necklaces and also using bottle tops and filling these with pictures and resin to make them into necklaces and also using other items like coins,beads and buttons.

This coming week I am going to teach a class at Hands,a Christchurch craft shop and this will be interesting,because we are going to make necklaces out of recycled materials like bottle tops.

I hope to sell my button necklaces to fundraise for my coming trip to Wat Opot Cambodia,only 6 weeks away. Time goes really fast now and so much still to organize.

Fiona is teaching me lots of great jewellery techniques and tips on how to make my own earring hoops and jump rings!

I can use all these new skills in my job now and in Cambodia,great stuff.

My painting is a bit lost because of all these other jobs,but I am slowly working on Annelise portrait.

I must say I really miss her and Rebecca in my art class at work,they are so nice to have around.

I hope they are still painting!