Merry and Bright

The title for this one is the same as the Christmas Holiday Card I'm sending out this year. Just ordered them so I hope they are back in time for me to mail them out (snail mail that is!).
Above is the card.

Here is the original painting:

You can see that it's a bit stark and featureless top and bottom. That was deliberate so that I could add lettering later. Obviously I won't sell this painting. I think Christmas paintings are a bit seasonal anyway.




It's so busy, busy, busy right now.
For the past 2 years I have been on a committee that welcomes new residents into our town.
This year I have offered to host a seasonal drinks party in my home - this weekend...gahh!  Lots to do to get ready for that.




Plus with Christmas coming up and guests arriving we have been trying to finish all of the odd jobs around the house. It's hard to fit in painting when you have other things to do.

Also just finished a big commission, which I will post soon.


(12 x 12 inches)
30 x 30cm approx
Oil on Gessobord

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I still have a set of Christmas Tree ornaments in my attic from when I was a kid; still in their original box. My husband has been trying to persuade me to throw them out because I generally don't hang them on the tree. But this year I have been absolutely dying to pull them out and paint them.
(If I get time I may have some of my paintings made into greetings cards.)

I went to pull out the box a couple of weeks ago while tidying up up there and found that a few of them were broken. I had a look on ebay and discovered that it is pretty easy to still pick up some of these vintage ornaments, so I bought a few to make up for the broken ones. This is one of them.
I painted this one first because I bought some tubes of gold oil paint a couple of months ago and have been dying to try them out.

Here they are on my palette:

I used the Gamblin Rich gold more than the others.
I just used it for some of the highlights but also used a good amount of Asphaltum (a dark brown). 
Now I need to buy some silver paint!

I think I'm going to paint a series of these ornaments.

(6 x 6 inches)
15 x 15cm approx
Oil on Gessobord