‘Winter 11. Baroque’. Mixed media on 10×10″ wood panel. £150

Above – the last painting for the Winter Series, which launches this Saturday with the Private view, followed by open studio days from Sunday 26th November to 3rd December.

All details – dates/times/map/contacts – Here

All of the paintings are now viewable in ‘Artworks’ from the menu above. Sombre Constellations has sold, ‘Red Velvet Dancing’ has a few buyers interested but none confirmed as yet, so do email if you have any enquiries about the paintings, at rose.strang@gmail.com

It’s so satisfying (and a relief I must say!) to have finished this series. I saved the painting above, which features Atzi playing cello, last because it was in a way the most straightforward painting of the series.

It’s called ‘Baroque’ which was a very literal title and response to the piece of music by Atzi, which was very … Baroque! So in keeping with the theme, I decided to follow a traditional painting process that would have been followed by painters of the 17th century.

Some photos below for those interested in process and techniques…

I was looking at Vermeer in particular, and while I’m not using oil paints, or the mediums he would have used, I can at least use a similar process of a painted sketch onto neutral ground, building up the painting in tones, then applying glazes of translucent colour.

I finished with some impasto highlights (when paint is applied thickly so it stands up from the surface as oppsed to being flat).

I’d need a lifetime to paint like Vermeer, obviously! But still, I found the process interesting. I lack the patience for that amount of detail though, you can see my paint application on the Turkish carpet was quite sloppy! I focussed more on Atzi’s features and facial expression (very tricky) and the cello.

Lastly here’s one of Vermeer’s paintings The Music Lesson, and a detail …