Sunday 23 February 2014

23/02: LOVELY, LAZY SUNDAY

Yesterday did the round of family visits then on the way home we popped in to see friends who'd volunteered to witness our latest Wills.    Sounds gruesome, but we realised our Wills were out of date and needed revising in the light of births/deaths/marriages etc in the family since the previous ones were written.   Obviously we hope the new documents won't be required JUST yet ... but we're doing a lot of travelling and, well, we aren't getting any younger so just taking precautions!

Today was lovely ... no reason to get up early and nothing urgent on the Agenda so we just pottered.   I gave David a list of jobs he had to complete before he can go out to 'play' tomorrow.   He wants to do another few hours at the eBay office - he loves doing all the research on some of the more obscure items donated to the charity shops.    His main job at home today was to hoover the upstairs carpets.   Downstairs in our house the floors are all oak wood and I just sweep/wash those but I hate hoovering.   He has done it now but is complaining of back-ache  (Bless).      We also loaded our bicycles into the car (tight squeeze) as they'll be going to the charity tomorrow to re-sell.   We haven't used them in the last 3 years so no point in them cluttering up the shed (and making us feel guilty every time we open the shed)!   We have an indoor static bike which we can use if/when we get the urge to exercise LOL

Anyway,  arty stuff:

Great news this afternoon.  I had an email from the UKCPS saying they've received the marks back from the three judges for this year's UKCPS annual exhibition  and both of my entries made the grade so will be exhibited at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Gallery from 28 April to 10th May 2014.   Perhaps more importantly, this helps me on my way to earning Gold Signature Status with the Society.

'Signature' status is awarded to Full Members accepted into the Open International Exhibition 3 times and entitles members to use the initials "UKCPS" after their name.

Pictures accepted into the Open International Exhibition on  5 different occasions earns  'Silver signature' status which is what I currently have.   I'm now aiming for acceptances on 10 different occasions which earns  Gold signature status. I've been a member now for 8 years (I think) and submitted/had pictures accepted for 7 years so a 100% success rate (so far) just 3 more years to go then (fingers crossed)

One of the accepted entries is 'Lulu' based on a photograph of our neighbour on fuerteventura ... I plan to give the portrait to Lulu's mum, but obviously that is now delayed until after the exhibition.


so.  back to current arty stuff:

as you know, I'm working on character studies based on photos taken during our recent tour of India.
This was meant to be a lady Indian study to complement the previous two male studies.   But I got the sizing slightly wrong.

If this is to fit in a mount/frame to match the previous 'male Indian studies' the crop would need to be something like this:   The top of her head would nearly touch the mount at the top and the area of 'veil and cardigan' would be reduced - but she'd be in the same size mount/frame as the previous two pictures



I've drawn her on a large piece of pastelmat and could easily make the portrait fit the next 'standard size' up mount  .... so that shows more background above her head, and a greater area of veil and cardigan at the bottom ...

What do you think works best?    if working towards the larger picture obviously I'd need to do a little more work on the veil at the bottom of this photo.  Only a couple of inches in it, but it makes the difference between her face being the main focal object, and perhaps the clothing taking away some of the impact ???




all good fun!     The fabric of her veil has a distinctive woven pattern which I'll work on next, once I'm happy with the shados and patterns on the veil .. it has taken an age just to get enough depth of colour into the yellow fabric without worrying about the tiny detail.  




4 comments:

  1. Congratulations on being accepted at the UKCPS exhibition but did we have any doubts?!!!! Lulu is a particular favorite of mine so I'm really glad it was accepted.

    As for the Indian lady, I'm partial to the crop but I don't know how it would look with the other two, male, portraits. Would this lovely lady look large and crowded next to the two men? But then, you may not exhibit them right next to one another. Do you have some mats/mounts to at least hold up to kind of judge how they would look together?

    No matter which size you go with, it's beautiful and will be perfect.

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  2. Personally I think the cut down version, her face is more immediate. The clothing shouldn't be so noticeable. IMHOP anyway.

    Glad your pics have been accepted. Bet it makes you feel good.

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  3. Thank you Jan
    As you know 'Lulu' is the daughter of a neighbour at our holiday home. Her mum doesn't know I've done this portrait and I will give it to her as a surprise gift ... but by the time she gets it Lulu will be a year older than she is in the portrait and quite the 'little lady'. Never mind - I hope she'll still enjoy it.

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  4. Thank you Jan and Jo
    I'm going with the cut-down version. I think it will be nice to have all the Indian characters the same size - even though the mounts/mats will be different colours. Less work for me LOL

    Yes I'm very pleased to have got both entries into this year's Int'l Open Exhibition as I understand there is only space to hang around 78-80 pictures and 240 were entered.

    ReplyDelete

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