Graphite powder is messy but easy to apply.

Graphite powder on oil pastel and masking tape. It’s brilliant stuff!

Trees covered in ink, PVA glue, tissue paper and more graphite powder

A few hours later I removed a few of the masking tape trees, so as to leave the impression of trees, yet one formed by an absence.

Acrylic on canvas: 2010

This painting took several attempts.  The numerous layers of paint caused by mistakes roughen the surface and give it a lovely texture that helps create movement in both the sea and sky.

I have this hanging in my living room and find myself getting drawn into the sky again and again. I find it calming and enlivening in equal measure.

A powerful medieval tree in Suffolk.

I painted this after spending a weekend camping in the woods. I painted over the Painting of a Blonde Woman shown in an earlier post on this blog. You can make out an elbow in the trees if you look carefully!

I haven’t decided if this is finished yet. I don’t want to lose the freedom and broadness of the strokes, yet I feel like there isn’t sufficient texture or detailing.

What do you think?

I find Brighton beach endlessly inspiring.  This is an autumnal snapshot of the old pier that is slowly but surely being reclaimed by the sea.

I’ve been experimenting with my palette knife recently, and I love the texture and the vibrancy of the colour I can achieve when layering up the paint in thick slices.  This one is 125cm x 75cm and has been commissioned by a friend, so is not up for sale.

Painting Of A Blonde Girl By Kate Duffy

This is my second painting of a woman, in what I hope to be a series of figurative paintings.  I’m going to complete a range of pictures in this style which I’ve achieved using a mix of acrylics and charcoal on stretched canvas.

It’s taken me ages to paint a face and facial expression that I was happy with.  She started off with red hair, turned blue during an impulsive phase before finally ending up with her current blonde barnet – and the face followed from there.  The girl is loosely based on someone I know, but she is intended to be more of a symbolic woman than a real life individual.

The picture was taken with my phone camera which is why it’s a bit grainy.  I’m hoping to get my hands on a decent digital camera soon, so I’ll be replacing it with a clearer version shortly!

Size: approx 125cmx75cm

“Beautiful Woman” – acrylic on stretched canvas, 2008 This painting of a beautiful woman was inspired by a photo composition. I decided to paint over an old city painting that I completed a few years ago – so started out by sketching the figure in charcoal over the city-scape. When I started filling in the portrait I decided that I wanted to integrate features from the city painting into the design (like the building facades), so you can see these peeping through in the top left and bottom right corners. It’s this integration that gives the picture a slightly abstract feel. Information about “Beautiful Woman”:

• Acrylic on stretched canvas
• 50cm x 75cm
• 2008
• Status:SOLD (£70)

“Upwards” – acrylic on stretched canvas, 2005

I completed this abstract painting of a tree after being inspired by Mondrian’s Grey Tree painting (image below) .

What really impressed me about the Mondrian painting was the sense of movement and growth that it conveyed. Rather than painting the tree itself, in his picture Mondrian has concentrated on painting the spaces in-between the branches – and the shape of the stretching limbs surfaces from within the myriad of white triangles and squares.

In order to capture that same movement in my painting I worked the paint very quickly, adding layer upon layer of colour before the paint dried, so that each segment of colour sits on top of the other, or merges into it – the earth sliding into the sky as the branches reach upwards.

Information about “Upwards”:

• acrylic on stretched canvas
• 25cm x 50cm
• 2005
• Status: SOLD

Grey Tree by Mondrian

“For Nemo Lovers” – acrylic on stretched canvas, 2006

This is a painting of a mother and baby clown fish swimming through some sea anemones. I deliberately kept the background colours dark and fairly neutral so as to off-set the fish’s bright orange and white scales.

Information about “For Nemo Lovers”:

• Acrylic on stretched canvas
• 30cm x 60cm
• 2006
• Status: SOLD

“Varenna, Lake Como” – acrylic on canvas, 2006

Lake Como in Italy is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. This painting is of Varenna, one of the small towns that sits on the edge of Lake Como.

I wanted to experiment with texture so I created this painting using large amounts of acrylic paint and a palette knife. Although it’s difficult to see the surface of the painting in this picture, in real life it is rugged and thick with slices of colour. Yum.

I also experimented with texture in my painting of Brighton Pier.

Information about “Varenna, Lake Como”:

• Acrylic on stretched canvas
• 75cm x 50cm
• 2006
• Status:SOLD