Sooty Crayfish (part 1)

Some things we know only from fossils. Some things that we know of today may be found again as fossils in the future. Some things we knew within living memory will never be seen again.

A picture of the Sooty crayfish appeared in a 1959 journal. Sadly that creature which once lived around the San Francisco area seems to have lost the battle to survive introduced species. Sooty crayfish is extinct now so there is little chance it will become a fossil. We will never get to see one swimming about. I will never be able to see what one tastes like.

"Sooty Crayfish" stage 1

At least there will be one "Sooty Crayfish".

Let's see how it looks tomorrow.

Wedding Flowers (part 1)

You will note that my engravings have recently involved endangered things. This work is about weddings, something which for some folks is a thing of the past. Now I am married and for me being married is not about the legal bit of paper it is an extremely strong expression between 2 people showing how they feel about each other. It is also a great celebration of that expression to family & friends. 

"Wedding Flowers" stage 1.

 The design is fairly simple but I had to work fairly quickly to prevent the moulding paste getting a custard skin (which happens when the stuff starts to set & then can drag large parts around).


I now leave it to set overnight...

Each person may have their own reasons for deciding if they think that getting married is a thing of the past or not but I do think that a lot of people follow the crowd and dismiss things based on what they hear someone else say. A bit like saying you don't like a certain food even though you have never tried it.

"Wedding Flowers" stage 2.

You can see that I started in the top left. No particular reason for this other than I am right handed so it makes sense to minimise getting my cuff in the way.




In my life I feel that getting married was a great thing and a part of life that I would not wish anyone to have to miss out on.

"Wedding Flowers" stage 3.

Most of the foreground is filled in (as I tend to do with my "DNA stain" system). Now what about those two circles in the top right, above the thistle?




We are heading towards Valentine's Day and I normally buy my wife some flowers that we had at our wedding. Now although these are beautiful it is a shame that they do not last for long. I have decided to make my wife a picture for Valentine's Day. Yes, the Qatar Royal Family have the most expensive painting ever sold but they can not afford the price of the most expensive painting never sold. There is, of course no sum this piece can be purchased for. At least while it is in my posession any way.

"Wedding Flowers" stage 4.

Those could be moons / suns etc. but no, they're our wedding rings.

"Wedding Flowers" stage 5.

I normally go directly to the background layer but once it takes beyond a given time the earlier paint is already dry so to get a consistent finish I waited for the whole lot to be dry before the next stage.

"Wedding Flowers" stage 6.

I hope that my wife likes it.

I have completed a couple of things in the above photo. Firstly I applied the background wash and then blotted it, mostly removing it from the engraving. I then had to do more intricate blotting to remove some of the wash that needed it. Finally I have touched up some areas of both background and foreground.

This is not quite finished as I want to check how this looks when everything has had a day or so to dry.

Pulsemaster (NOT by me but J J Bramhill)

I have not done any physical art today (just thinking about some ideas and so on) so I will share a great snap I took of a picture completed a few days ago by the extremely talented young artist J J Bramhill.

Pulsemaster (Feb 2012) by Joe J Bramhill (age 10). Pigment ink on canvas.

It is such a great picture, well done Joe.

Gooty Sapphire (complete)

Now then, I bet quite a few of you like the thought of a wonderful sapphire. How about one that has occurred in nature to have the form of what looks like a fabulous creature?

This sapphire really exists.

Gooty Sapphire just after engraving.

 Those who have been following will notice that this is going to be in my "DNA stain" style. You can see that I have engraved the outline of my subject into the moulding paste. You can also see the dark coating under the moulding paste where I've engraved to the fullest extent. I want quite deep engraving for some parts of this to really emphasise the edges.

Once the moulding paste has cured things will open up a little more as you can see below.

Gooty Sapphire a day after engraving, paste cured.

Now the creature that is "Gooty Sapphire" reflects a metallic blue/purple light so I have used a mixture of metallic and conventional acrylic to get the effect that I want. As this is in the style of my "DNA stained" fossil images I have selected a rock colour (sandstone here) that is actually applied after the creature colour and is applied on top of it. Suitably quick blotting then brings out the original colour where planned.

Gooty Sapphire nearly finished.

You can see the completed "Gooty Sapphire" (and read more about it) HERE.

Ascension Island Fern (complete)

I continue my "DNA stain" engraved acrylics with "Ascension Island Fern" (which I mentioned in yesterdays posting).

This is a lovely simple picture of a lovely simple plant. At times there needs to be more to move me to pick such a thing as my subject. This is one of those times. There estimated to be just 500 of these things left in the wild and that makes me wonder what on earth are we doing to our world?

Ascension Island Fern - just 500 left. Of the plant that is. Just one engraving.

You can see a much better picture and a shot of this work framed HERE.

Event: "View at 42" May venue - Logo

I have not managed to get any art done today as I've been setting up things for some of the other artists that will be part of "View at 42". I did make a logo last night which you can see here:

"View at 42" event logo - Kevin Bramhill.

I have also continued to tweak the even page which you can see HERE.

There is also a "View at 42" Facebook page, you can "like" it from the link above if you like.

I do hope to crack on with more of my own work tomorrow.

Event: "View at 42" May venue

It has been an extremely busy day chasing people so that I can get things ready for an Artist Open House listing as part of the May 2012 Brighton Festival. I wanted to get some words from each artist ready so I can submit them to the event publishers web site that other artists are complaining is a bit of a struggle if you have to re-edit. Artists have been great and I now (think) I have everything. It would be nice to need to do less prompting next time please!

You can read a little about the open house via this new EVENTS link on my web site.

I have consequently not got quite so much done as I foolishly imagined. Here is one piece almost finished (needs to dry & be varnished etc.).

Ascension Island Fern - "DNA fossil stain"

As you can see, it is a nice simple picture, nothing too busy here today! It's done in engraved acrylic moulding paste. I will write more about it, probably tomorrow.

I have also worked on a more intricate picture but that one is at the waiting to cure stage so I will tell you more about it tomorrow.