Acrylic Painting – Chrissy Turley Artist

Weekly Art Review 21/10/2018 – 27/10/2018

This week I’ve been playing with Resin for the first time. It’s been a weird experience and I think I’ll be definitely using it again. I was coating coasters that I’ve painted with acrylic paint. They turned out really well. I think the saying about robins has a bit of truth to it. I always think of my Dad when I see one.

I have also been sketching and designing some other cute little designs in my sketch book this week. I’m loving holly and leaves with yellow edges. I have a special little project I’m doing just for myself that I’ll hopefully finish this week.

I’ve had a very up and down week this week. Struggling with certain areas in my life but I guess that’s just parr for the course. I’ve been sketching a lot more and managed to get myself a couple of commissions.

I have released my first grey scale colouring page. You can find it in my Etsy store. Carnations are so intricate, it took a while for me to perfect the grey scale.

If you’d like to keep up to date with my current work, follow me on Instagram and Facebook.

Art week in review 19/10/2018

What a week it’s been! I’m exhausted, I have however sorted all of my accounts out and I’m up to date with those. YAY! This is a new thing for me…… organisation is a foreign and strange word.

I’ve been preparing for Christmas these last couple of weeks. I’ve made tree decorations, gift Tags and cards. I love how they turned out. I’ll have to do some different designs next year. Check out my Etsy store to see all of my available art.

Above: Work in progress shot, the first of many layers.

I have almost completed my Robin winter coasters. I have to apply resin to them to make them super shiny. It’ll be my first time using resin so it could get interesting……

I have also been researching authors, artists and poets over the last day or so. Let me just say it’s been interesting reading about authors in the 1800’s. I’ve never had to worry about being motivated to draw or paint, but doing the other things that need to be done for my business have been the hardest to get done. Reading about artists and the traumas and triumphs has been a real motivator to get all aspects of my business up to scratch.

One last picture of what I’ve been working on this week. A beautiful little sketch of lavender and bees. I feel very strongly about bees and protecting them. I’ve planted 5 or 6 bee loving plants in my small garden but I am always trying to finding more plants and other ways to help and protect our wildlife? I love drawing bees.

If you would like to stay up to date with my projects follow my Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Floral paintings

I’ve really been getting into the floral paintings over the last few months. I have done some water colours that I’ll show you next week. I’ve also done several sketches for my colouring book.

To check out more of my work go to my Facebook or Instagram feeds to see some work in process pics.

Here are some of my recent acrylics paintings on canvas board.

I really love sun flowers and so does my step mum. I painted these for her when she came over to the uk earlier this year.

Poppies are just beautiful and stunningly bright! These ones are already sold.

Lilies are my favourite flowers and I absolutely love this little one. The most realistic I’ve managed to paint so far.

And the last of my acrylic flowers for now, my yellow roses. I will have to revisit these ones as I’m not 100% happy with them.

Thanks for looking at my work,

Chrissy xx

Obsession – Abstract Art

Obsession uses my all time favourite colours. Aptly named, I have an obsession with the colour purple. I like to have some drama in my paintings, the more contrast and texture the better.

Starting off with some basic colours and soft blends. I love to blend the paint together on my canvas, mixing the different colours by adding different amounts of each colour.

Adding more depth of colour and changing shapes where I think I need to. Nearly finished, I have to just add some more texture with the palette knife and I’m all done! I’m using packing tape to hold my canvas sheet to my board. It’s a really handy tool as it will give me a lovely little border around the edge of my sheet.

If you fancy popping over to see my next piece in progress, I have progress pictures available on my Facebook and Instagram accounts.

If you’re ready to purchase one of my paintings please pop over to my Etsy store.

Cheers guys,

Chrissy xx

Eternal – Abstract Art

My latest piece Eternal, I think, is one of my best abstract pieces. I loved creating it so much. It brought joy to my day, even if it started out terrible. Now that I have finished it, I don’t feel sad that it’s over. I feel excited. Excited to put it out into the world. No matter what anyone’s reaction is. I’m endlessly proud of my work and it’s the closest to perfect I’ve managed to obtain this far in my new found love and appreciation for abstract art.

Above: The first stages of creating Eternal.

Most people see an abstract piece and think “well that must have taken all of 2 seconds to slap the paint on.” But let me tell you, Abstract art, a good piece takes hours. It takes mastery of techniques that most people don’t think of as techniques at all. When the only map or blueprint you have is in your head it is incredibly difficult to transfer that on to a canvas. It also takes a skill that I’ve been finding the hardest to master so far and its probably the most important……. knowing when to stop.

In the picture above I am introducing some deeper colours and shapes with green, blue and purple. I love soft blends and cloud like shapes. I love adding the deeper colours to give the piece more drama.

The texture of paint is what I love, using paint brushes and palette knives to create depth and interest in the piece is something that is new to me. I am really loving learning about how the palette knives work and the interesting shapes you can make using them.

Above: Eternal – the finished piece.

With my new found fascination for soft blends and dramatic depth of colour I think I will be creating many more pieces similar to this one.

If you would like to follow me on my art journey come and follow my Instagram or Facebook pages. Want to own one of my pieces? That’s easy, go to my Etsy store to check out what’s available!

Cheers,

Chrissy xx

One year Anniversary – where on earth has the time gone?u

I have now been an Artist for just over a year. I am shocked at how far I’ve come in one short year. I’ve made so much progress and I’ve been able to address some of my confidence issues.

Above is one of my very first sketches……. 🙈🙈

As an artist you are forever being judged. So many people think you don’t actually “work” and that it must be easy to throw some paint on a canvas. There will always be someone sniggering behind your back, sometimes even to your face. But you know what the best thing I’ve learnt this year is? Is not to care or listen to the armchair critics. The quicker you learn to ignore the ‘know-it-alls’ the better off you are going to be.

Above is a short video a start of a puffin sketch. It turned out really nice. It just shows a little bit of effort every day over time is totally worth it.

I have enjoyed so much about the last year. I’ve loved that many people love my art and that lots of my pieces (prints and originals) are making lots of people happy. I’ve loved learning new skills and learning how to perfect certain techniques. I’ve even enjoyed finding myself lost and not sure how to move a piece forward. I have also enjoyed being able to put those pieces down, move to something new and then coming back to the old piece and knowing exactly where to go.

Learning that I don’t have to force myself to be creative and enjoying the fact that some of my better pieces were created when I threw the rule book out the window.

I learnt to TRUST myself. Trust that I am actually good at this. It’s wonderful that after many years, several different jobs and career choices that I have finally found something I love. And yet I still have SO much farther to go. The road may seem never ending, but holy moly I am going to enjoy strolling off down the winding dirt path with the fairies.

Keep up with my progress and all my new pieces for this next year by following me on Instagram and Facebook. If you would like to see what original pieces and prints I have on sale at the moment check out my Etsy Store or my Redbubble Site.

River through the mountains

Here is my first ever painting done with a palette knife. A river running through the mountains to the ocean.

I love the flow and peace that this painting seems to give. Although the river is clearly forcing its way to the ocean, the flow of water makes me feel calm and relaxed. This is the first piece of a series of paintings featuring rivers, the ocean and mountains. I’m surrounded by mountains here where I live so it’s not hard to find plenty of inspiration.

The first stage of this painting. I blocked in the background colours with a fat brush. I very much limited the amount of colours I used for this painting. I wanted to challenge myself to create a piece with depth using limited tools. I had 1 brush and one palette knife, red, blue, yellow, black and white. My favourite kinds of skies to create are definitely stormy skies. I like my paintings to have lots of drama in them. The acrylic paint I have used is Daler Rowney System 3 acrylic paint.

Next week I’ll be publishing another river painting I have created this year. To keep up to date with my current work please pop over to my social media pages.