News Page
August 29th. At last, dot com is up and running properly, now on a British web-host. My available time for painting remains excruciatingly limited, but I am trying to do what I can. An experimental work, "Autumn Impressions", has been uploaded to the Flowers painting page. This is very much a one-off work (at the moment), but if it attracts any interest then I might follow it up with something similar. I need to work in a separate room when doing my canvases; at the moment I cannot, hence the difficulty in producing new canvas work of any size. "Autumn Impressions" used different techniques, which meant I didnt have so much paint swilling around and could achieve quicker results than by pure brush-work.
August 23rd. Dot com site still offline, trying to sort out the snags. Please note that my CONTACT email has now been changed to sales at christinederrick.co.uk. This is partly to offset the current problem with the dot-com site but in any case the change of contact email from this website is permanent.
August 20th evening. Between today and Monday, the dot com website may be unavailable, due to its transfer process to a new webhost. All being well, it should be operating properly by the end of the weekend.
August 20th. I am not a great fan of Ebay, but with a number of art books available to offload, I have started placing them in auctions. Here are the links to the three items I have running over the next few days; (THESE HAVE NOW FINISHED).
Pastel Painting by Aubrey Philips
Folk Art painting book by Sybil Edwards
Drawing Animals, by Joe Singer/Norman Adams
.If they don't sell, I will be giving them away to a local museum shop to sell for fundraising; and they'll be offered at more than the 99p that I've currently got them at.
August 18th. With the little time I have available, I have been inching my way towards completion of a box-canvas oil painting that has been ongoing for several months. That will come online in around six to eight weeks from now, when dry. I have a number of ideas for pictures but it is impossible to produce them all while looking after an ill person, so output will remain slow for some while yet. My dot com website will move to a new British hosting provider very soon; it is currently in the USA and politics there are fast becoming very unfavourable towards the Internet, its stability and neutrality. Time to leave. Ironically, this co.uk website is also USA-hosted; but having purchased two years' worth of hosting for it, I shall have to leave things as they are for now and simply cross fingers.
August 3rd. Other outside personal issues mean that new paintings will not be forthcoming for a while. I do not yet know when I will have sufficient time to get started again on new ideas and work. I will try and keep these newspages updated but new pictures will be somewhile in materialising. I may only have an hour per day to paint, if that....in the meantime, delivery of sold work will continue as normal.
July 29th. Quiet period. New acrylic semi-abstract painting now two-thirds complete and I hope to finish it soon, but available time is restricted. Please note also, for family illness reasons, I am temporarily not taking on any more commission work.
July 14th. New oil painting this time, in the Landscape gallery, called "Serenity". I have been wanting to work an oil-painting in a single colour for some time and this is the result. Acrylic is excellent for strong bright colours such as reds and orange, but when it comes to subtle colour changes, I find oils provide the softness required. "Serenity" uses at least four different blues, along with white and touches of violet and deep green. Another larger oil painting is in progress but is currently taking a back seat while commission and a new acrylic canvas are under way.
July 12th. I'm currently working on a commission, so new paintings for the galleries here will be fitted around it. The continuing heat has taken its toll on some of my garden flowers, despite careful watering. My sweet peas, which had looked so promising, are now shrivelling and setting seed; however I have managed to photograph quite a lot of them so these, along with the remainder of the real thing, will have to do for this year. My poppies are battling black-fly and a number of cosmeas have been flattened by a passing badger. Who needs a world war when you can have one in your own back garden?
July 6th. I have been adding an enlargement feature to some of the paintings' descriptive pages. This is enabled where the caption "click on image for larger view" is placed below the painting image, just before you read about the description and price of the work. What will happen is that a larger watermarked image will open up, as an overlay across the page. Once viewed, all you have to do is click on the big image to close it, and thus return to the previous page.
A number of large online galleries use this type of viewer and I have now installed it on this site. I have not enabled full-screen viewing for all the paintings, just the newer ones and mainly those still for sale. I hope this will help people get a better idea of what the paintings look like.
July 2nd. Following a really brisk work-session on the 28th, I now have a new 24" x 16" acrylic completed and online in the Flowers section. It should perhaps go in the Landscape page, but seems to qualify for both sections. I will leave it where it is!
June 24th. Yesterday was so hot, even indoors, that I had to abandon painting by lunchtime. My oil picture is further on but I've left it to settle now for a few days, since it is drying at different rates in different sections. Today I shall begin a new acrylic canvas and maybe, if I have enough time, draw up a layout for an exploratory watercolour. I have a couple of pastels half-finished, but being half-finished they won't be on the website at the moment. I have some sweet-pea flowers appearing, I am hoping they will come in sufficient numbers to make a few nice studies in various media.
June 19th. I have a 32" x 16" canvas on the go at the moment, in oils; a bit larger than I usually put up, but I've had this idea for a picture in mind for quite a while now. Time will tell as to how it works out. I have spent a little while tidying up webpages and cleaning code, however my commission-page is down at the moment, due to a coding-tangle. Should have it sorted soon.
June 14th. Me and horse-flies do not hit it off well together. Having bashed my left wrist during the May Bank Holiday period, I added further aggravation to it a day or so ago when meeting up with several of these beasties in a local field. My left hand is now a match for any puffer-fish. Thankfully I am right-handed, but until the swelling goes down I am reminded of its existence 24/7 by the constant itching. Such things are considerable distractions, especially when trying to create a picture that relies partly on imagination input. I have daisies in a vase lined up for a possible work today; outside, I hope to have sweet-peas later on to use. Several attempts to raise annual poppies this year have been thwarted by slugs and tiny spiders; I am still hoping for some survivors to deliver their goods in a month or so's time.
June 11th. Embedded video of my oil-pastel poppies on the Free Articles page.
June 10th. At last, I have completed my project from May 29th, and it is now in the Flowers Gallery. It is a somewhat different approach, concentrating more on patterns than modelling of form; and there is more simplicity about it. Those seeking red, yellow and orange in their pictures will find plenty of all of them in this one. Plus, another small mini-painting, placed in both the "Flowers" and "Other Media" section where the small canvases are.
June 5th. I've now recovered a bit and am ongoing with my larger square canvas. I completed my new pdf file "Welsh Poppies demo" and that is now on the free downloads page. I have been enjoying the use of a new medium, the oil-pastels; it is quite a different work-method since, like soft pastels, there is nothing between my hand and the paper.....nothing, that is, in terms of another tool, such as a brush. This allows very direct movement and marks. Flowers are now springing up all over the place in my garden and I can't keep up with them all. The Welsh poppies (some people call them Iceland poppies) are the subject of my oil-pastel demo; I photographed a vase full of them several days ago, and they will form new subject-material. This is where the camera is such a useful tool; if I had to rely on capturing everything by painstaking drawing, I would be into winter-time before completing the first few subjects. Now I can view the flowers in bright sunlight on my computer, during dark winter days.
June 1st. A heavy fall yesterday has left me with a swollen left wrist and every bone in the body jarred. Had hoped to finish my oil-pastel demo today but I don't feel up to it at the moment. Another day or so should see improvement.
May 29th. I have a number of ideas now for some new paintings and have started the ground-work for a new image on canvas. I shall be working on a 24-inch square picture, in between tackling some smaller ones, possibly on paper. I have also begun a new pdf file for the free downloads section; not ready as yet, but it will cover another oil-pastel painting, of small poppies in a container. It is quite difficult trying to produce a picture AND take photos of it as one goes along; having to keep stopping, getting up from the work and photographing it at various stages disrupts the flow. However, I hope it will add a little more interest to the site.
May 18th. Thought I would take the chance to put up a new little canvas, since tomorrow I shall be busy and with no time at all for drawing or uploading. It is a mini-canvas, just 4 x 3 inches, featuring a pansy. It is in the Flowers gallery and also on the "Other Media" page, under the Small canvases section. I have a few more similar ones, same size, in progress, which will be put up when completed.
May 16th. During my "time off" I've been doing a stock-taking exercise on all my art materials. Just as well, since the UK is likely to be hit with a VAT rise before much longer. Thanks to the Internet's alternative news media websites, I've been aware of it (and other financial problems) for a long time. So although I've not been doing a lot of painting, I have been re-stocking, and I'd advise any other artist who is reading this to do likewise; get your materials up together NOW, before costs rise, taxes rise and your activities are sharply curtailed. The next 2 to 3 years will be no picnic. I fully intend to continue painting, even if no-one's buying and even if I've only got one brush and a tube of black..... and when all this is finally over, I intend to "regroup" myself and continue (God willing) with new work.
Smaller paintings are on the cards and those visiting my new Gallery3 page, "Other Media and Sold" will have noticed this. It will eventually lead to some adjustment in the web-pages and content, but I won't make rapid changes.
May 7th. New oil-pastel at the Other Media and Sold gallery-page. I have also added a new page called Free Articles, where I am aiming to put a number of free pdf downloads. These will be fairly brief little articles on various media and, when I can get the process right, a start-to-finish demo of a small work.
April 28th. I've added a new Gallery to the site, titled Other Media and Sold. This is to help with the merging of my dot com site and bringing over images from there that do not normally appear here. It will be something akin to the Archive Page on my other site; i.e sold work plus other smaller paintings. You might know that my other website is hosted in the USA; I predict that well before the end of this year, the USA will be having more than enough to cope with, without worrying about hosting people's websites. Therefore dot com will eventually be redirected via nameservers to my co.uk site.
That aside, I have also added a couple of new sketchy pieces to the new gallery; a pastel sky and an oil-pastel mountain landscape. These are not for sale. Oil-pastels are a medium that I have not really tried out to any great extent before; during my "break" I hope to play with them and explore what they can do. I have just purchased some more and may add to them shortly.....before the world goes into financial meltdown.
April 20th. I am recoding some of the Paypal buttons, to return buyers to my co.uk website, rather than the dot.com one. It will take a while to fix all the buttons, so if you do make a purchase and don't get a proper page re-direction, don't panic..... just email me if you wish, to confirm that I've received your order.
April 16th. Four canvas paintings completed in four weeks, with another two under construction.... I'm heading into my pastel-box for a short while, which is a useful exercise for developing ideas for new paintings. I seem to have not fulfilled my earlier quest of doing some smaller works; sometimes this happens, the paintings take off on their own and agendas go out the window. April is, however, still rather cold; the sunshine is bright but sitting outdoors is not a comfortable task. My digital camera is out of action until the weekend, when I will be off to get new rechargeable batteries for it; the first set of Ni-MHs has now completely died, incapable of holding their charge. Well, they are five years old; that's not too bad, I guess.
April 12th. Another new painting now complete in the Flowers gallery; unusual composition of dandelion seedheads, in deep shades of blue, mauve and metallic. Quite different from the other pictures I've put up this year, so far.
April 7th. New painting "Wildflower Sands" now online in the Flowers Gallery.
April 6th. While the oils are drying their first layers, I have started two new acrylic paintings. I'm hoping to have one of these finished during the coming week. Over the past month or so, several poppy paintings have been bought up.....there will be some more, when I've had the chance to design them!
March 28th. I shall not be adding any updates between now and the end of the Easter period. At the moment I have a couple of small oil paintings in progress; both are a bit experimental, so they aren't going to be rushed along. Unfortunately I have had to abandon the oil painting of three poppies, which has appeared on the paintings page; I discovered a weakness in the canvas material that was forming a bulge with a hole in it. This rarely happens, but it was easier to call time on a half-finished piece. I may start a similar piece at a later date.
March 24th. Completed yesterday. "The Morning Tree" in gallery 2/landscapes.
March 23rd. Another 20" x 8" painting is in progress. I hope to be completed before the end of the week.
March 20th. Finally spotted a daffodil out in flower, in the neighbouring village. Everything is very, very slow. I have one pansy to look at, in my pots near the front door, along with a small group of blue primulas; and that's about it. This past week I have been stapling up new canvas on old stretcher-bars; I cannot decide what to paint next, which is rather paralysing. Hopefully I shall shake that feeling off, this coming week.
March 12th. "Golden Evening" now online.
March 12th. "Golden Evening" now available on Gallery 2/landscapes page.
March 10th. I should have a small 20" x 8" canvas completed over the next few days; simple landscape with flowers. Bad headaches slowing progress on this at the moment. It will be one of several ideas that I have for some smaller, landscape-format pictures.
March 3rd. Following a strong push-on with painting during the last two days, I have now completed the current acrylic work (all bar a few minor lines and dots), and it is online, on the flower paintings page; featuring white calla lilies. This one really started to paint itself yesterday and I was pleased with the overall flower shapes and colour. Anyone expecting or hoping to see paintings of spring flowers here might have a little longer to wait.....because Spring has not yet arrived. This time last year I had daffodils out in flower during the first week of March, but this year I am lucky to have even the leaves above ground. My garden faces north, which doesn't help a lot. Even the local garden centre doesn't have anything very exciting to look at yet. We must therefore wait a while.
February 19th. I am working at creating another page to bring over a few more images from the dot com site. It will be a bit of a combination of both archive and small paintings pages. I haven't got a name for it yet. In the meantime, another acrylic painting is under way, with some calla lilies. This won't be ready yet, maybe not for a couple of weeks, since family requirements have been eating into some of my working time again. Although acrylics dry quickly, they do not have as much "body" as oils, and often a painting needs building up with acrylic glazes and gels, for extra thickness. This adds extra working-time to the picture.
February 9th. A good working session yesterday completed the acrylic (all bar one edge), plus a sunset mini-canvas (which is now online in the landscape section) and the watercolour of pansies.
February 7th. The "in-progress" poppy oil painting has now been uploaded. Better images will be added when it is ready for sale. In the meantime, I am working through an acrylic painting, this won't be ready just yet because I am dithering over the final stages (as usual). On a slightly more unusual theme, I have a small watercolour in progress as well; I don't do a lot of these, but do sometimes when I have an idea for a larger canvas work. If that doesn't work out, then the watercolour is kept and sometimes put up on show.
January 31st. Another oil painting should appear here during the coming week; it isn't dry yet, however.
January 21st. This month has been painfully slow as regards me getting new work under way. Having drained my energy shovelling snow during the first couple of weeks, I am now trying to untangle administrative nightmares involving goods and couriers (thankfully, NO art materials involved!). It is quite amazing how a delivery service with sat-nav still can't locate me, despite being provided with a clear, precise address and postcode; AND the fact that I live on a main through-route. Of course, they have all the excuses under the sun available and it's always the recipient's fault.... and they still expect to compete with Royal Mail/Parcelforce?!
I can see a big collapse in mail and Internet orders if carrier firms continue with the shoddy services they offer. No cards through door; can't find the house; no-one was in; the driver knocked off early; it all kind of adds up to a war of nerves between consumer and company. I send all my pictures out to buyers via Parcelforce, with complete tracking details. I always check their website to see if the item has been delivered, subsequently I can always advise the buyer as to where their parcel is. In addition, buyers are always supplied with the tracking number so that they can double-check for themselves, if necessary.
Must finish now; new oil painting in progress, hoping to get a bit more done on that today; and juggling two or three candidates for the next acrylic work.
January 17th. Slight change in arrangements; instead of providing framing details by autoresponder, I have made a new page; hyperlink to Framing in the navigation bar.
January 13th. Small new landscape on the landscape page, still wet so not offered for sale at this time. I hope to push on with a new painting next week, but am currently busy doing a frame for a buyer, so that comes first.
I am now offering to provide frames for my canvases, since some people have sent in questions. It is possible to provide framing not just for standard-depth canvases but also for box ones. I am writing up an automatic email, so that requests for more details can be sent out from an autoresponder....it isn't ready yet, so in the meantime, if you are interested in having something framed, please ask.
January 10th. Distracted most of the week by unexpected routine changes and very low temperatures that have put my workroom off-limits. I am sifting through my many flower-photos and picking out potential subject matter. In the absence of new completed work, here are a few photos of my home "patch", complete with snow-loaded branches and a flock of fieldfares. They were all taken through windowglass, so are not particularly clear but I didnt want to frighten the birds away.
January 6th. I am aiming to get all the detailed pages updated with Paypal logos during this week, although the task has been frustrated by slow-loading of the Paypal site (no doubt due to my bandwidth being throttled by the ISP). However it shouldn't take too long. I aim to have the co.uk site running pretty much parallel with the dot com one, since it will be fairly easy to redirect domain nameservers, should the need arise. At the moment I'm finishing off a little landscape that I have been promising myself to do for some while now; about 12 x 9 inches, in oils. I'll then be getting started on a larger oil canvas, with poppies. The natural light-levels are bad to work in at the moment and so I have to resort to the daylight bulb....not entirely satisfactory but good enough for now.
January 1st 2010. Apart from a small wintery landscape painting, I have not yet started any new work. The past week has been quiet. A little flurry of sales just prior to Christmas has kept me occupied; I have also been mulling over my memberships of various online galleries. As far as I can see, Artfair365.co.uk has been updated so rarely in past months by the owner that I don't expect to see it survive beyond 2010, if that; the news on it is months out of date and the Artwork of the Week has been the same image for in excess of a month. So I wont be renewing there. I have work at Affordable-British-Art and The-Artists-Studio; both active websites and I shall remain there. Several paintings have now been offered at PlatinumGallery, and as long as the owner doesnt jack up the commission too much, I'll be remaining. Conversely, another has decided to charge 35% commission on all sales; this is a lot for someone like myself who doesn't sell work at particularly high prices. Yes I know artists pay 50% in London, but I'm not in London or anywhere near it. It is my guess that 2010 may see people with less spare money in their pockets than ever before; at which point I hope that I will be able to maintain my own prices in a similar range to what they are now.
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