Behind The Scenes

Hello everyone
I had a lovely visit from award winning artist Olivia Irvine the other day. She had just purchased her latest batch of tempera pigments and was on route to buy the eggs to bind it with. I thought you might like to see the tempera, or what I like to refer to as "the magic fairy dust", in it's raw state. Sadly I was unable to provide an image of the eggs in a raw state.
Here they are:

Delicious colour choice!
Anyway, Olivia had purchased these because she was holding a demonstration class on the ancient technique. As I said before, Olivia is regarded as an expert on the practice.....many people pay money to get the inside know-how.
 I also thought you might like to see some of the behind the scenes working drawings that help construct a final painting. I think it's exciting and interesting for visitors to be exposed to the thought process that goes into a work of art, and not just the final "product".

This was obviously used to help arrive at the piece below......

"Rosalida in the Night" by Olivia Irvine.

And I just happened to pick out the following two sketches from Olivia's books as I think they are really lovely drawings in their own right; not over worked or fussy.

and.......

Particularly like this one. No doubt these drawings will also help to create another really special painting.

Similarly, with Fiona Jappy's work I thought you might be interested in seeing some of her working material.

I mentionad before that Fiona gets so engrossed in her work that it becomes a way of life, creeping into her everyday, personal diary. Although I can't show you her diary I found these images fascinating:

Fiona was intrigued by this impressive house and the solitary figure that happened to be passing by. She gave a lot of thought to creating the perfect composition and then Fiona gave it the unique and dramatic Jappy touch.....

Which translates into.....

"Silent Traveller" by Fiona Jappy.

I love the eerie red on the drain pipes subtly emerging from the darkness.

The amount of work, effort and thought process that goes into an individual painting is fascinating, I am sure you will agree.