Alyssa

Alyssa on the Beach (SOLD)

Wow

This painting was tough for the most unexpected of reasons: I got it right. Skin tone, face, expression, everything.

The original photograph was taken by a dear friend of mine and I painted it almost by accident. The model was beautiful, the light was soft, the setting was perfect...

...but the model was a very shy girl who was mortified at the idea of her nude image (with an accurate and recognisable face) being seen by a stranger. It took a lot out of me knowing that I may have offended my model just by doing the painting. It also frustrated me that this piece may never get seen outside my own studio since I think it was easily one of the best pieces I'd done to date.

To cut a long, frustrating and dull story short, I eventually got permission. Kinda.

*Sigh*

But isn't she just beautiful? :)

The Ghastly Tyranny of Time

I still cannot get blogger and my Bugberry to agree on anything. I'm thinking of putting one of them on meds.

What I'm trying to say in my obscure little way is that I am running out of time here at the internet cafe so I'm basically just posting as many images as possible with the intention of blogging about each one later. Some are works in progress, some are completed, they're in all sorts of media and all sizes. I'm barely even proofreading this post.

I promise there's a bloody FASCINATING story behind each one and I'll tell you one day. Soon. No, really!

Please forgive my lack of blogging stylistic consistency and stuff. I know I am a bad human being.

*sigh*

Here goes:

Alyssa on the Beach (SOLD)

Knysna, Looking North (SOLD)

Roman Piazza

Under Thin Ice - Work in Progress

Almost Lovers

Adrienne

This is a portrait commission I did on heavy bamboo paper. I will never, ever use bamboo paper with watercolour again. Gah! Bamboo paper is amazing to draw on and it's like the bastard lovechild of a roll of toilet cheap paper and an ink blotter as soon as water comes into the equation.

That said, Adrienne is gorgeous and this was a pleasure to draw, even if adding the colour made me want to use the paper for kindling.

I have minimal time to actually blog today as blogger and BugBerry and Telkom are conspiring to make me pay lotsa money for very little result these days. PLEASE stalk me on Facebook for now as all my work ends up there almost as soon as it's done. I even upload work in progress

Prolonging the Agony - and the ecstasy too, for that matter...

My Exhibition will no longer be ending on the 10th of December this year but rather moving into a beautiful, contemporary space for the duration of the festive season.

Um, YEEEEHAAAA!! :D

*ahem*

The Pieter Wasserman Architecture and Design studio is a gorgeous, light-filled space in the center of Leisure Isle on the Knysna Lagoon. It's also right opposite the Leisure Isle Gallery and coffee shop so I'll be exposed to a wonderfully qualified audience of art-lovers, all in a chatty, going-for-coffee kinda mood!

My poor sister in Cape Town is going to kill me for thwarting her Christmas plans but I'll just have to make it up to her by writing her some more lyrics.

If I Give You the World this Christmas...

(watercolour post-card)

Now my only thought is: do I dare attempt another opening night, or will that melt my brain entirely?

Commissions! :D

I must apologise  for the quality of this photo. I will replace it with a better one soon, I promise.

One of the biggest payoffs of having my exhibition is the amount of PR it has generated and the number of commissions have resulted. 

This is a preparatory pencil sketch for a painting but the sketch has turned into a stunning piece in its own right.

I love working from beautiful photographs, especially when the photographer is also the client. The challenge is to produce a piece of art that compares and complements the photograph (which is also a work of art) while also being new and fresh.. The photographer is also very intimately familiar with the subject matter and I feel that I really have to up my game to feel worthy of the trust placed in me. 

I do love  a challenge! ;)

I'll post the oil painting when it's finished. I'm busy with the underpainting now and it still looks like an amorphous lump.

Alysa on the Beach

(graphite pencil on 200gsm paper - A2)