A simple study of fish Acrylic on canvas board 20 X 30 cm For the Coloured Ground Raw Umber Titanium White Acrylic For the Main Painting Titanium White Raw Umber Phthalo Blue – Red Shade Permanent Alizarin Crimson Raw Sienna A quick study of every day subject matter in a combination of paint and glazes…
Author: artbyeileen
I am a South African born artist, who has lived in 5 different countries in the last 20 years. I returned to South Africa in 2016 and I am now living in St Lucia, a small tropical village on the shores of the Indian Ocean. My rather unusual life experiences and travels have influenced my style and choice of subject matter. The rich desert colours, the vibrancy of the tropical flowers, all my paintings communicate my connection to the land and nature. Flowers are my main subject and I am inspired by layerings of colour, be it bright and ebullient, or understated and muted. Colour can evoke so many different responses in someone and my paintings speak to their viewer through their movement, colour and texture. Painting is my way of sharing the pleasure I derive from the beauty that surrounds me in nature and especially the flowers I so loves to paint. An ability to communicate all of this through granular sculptural textures, three dimensional application of paint and striking use of colour makes my art work bold and engaging.
Pouring paint
A commission for a young mans living room. The palette is very limited and the focus is a huge TV screen and 2 big comfy chairs all geared towards gaming. The stipulated colours for the acrylic pour were silver, charcoal, and grey. The colours I used in the pour to create the combination his Mom…
Baking Cupcakes
I love cupcakes and I get requests from the family to bake cupcakes on a regular basis. My problem is I am a very lazy baker. I hate sifting flour, I hate beating this, and adding that in little portions, and then whisking between additions, which is why I absolutely love Nigella Lawson’s book “How…
Tulips
For the last while I have been trying to develop a technique for using a palette knife. There are all sorts of different shapes, sizes, and angles of palette knife. When I used to do my camel landscapes I used palette knives almost exclusively for the application of the mixed media onto the canvas, but…
Hands and feet
During the last week I have been sketching hands and feet. 6 to be precise, 3 studies of each. Running a guesthouse and maintaining everything is often a juggling skill that keeps you on your toes. There is always something that needs replacing, repairing or fixing. We just did the roof which took a rather…
Acrylic pouring
With the move back to South Africa and the adjustment to a knew environment it has taken me a while to find my rhythm and mojo. Even now, 18 months down the line there is so much to do in the guesthouse, I struggle to find the continuous hours I need to complete a…
A vase of white peonies
The first step was to stain a 30 X 30cm canvas ready for painting. The practice of staining a canvas is called, imprimatura. This is an initial stain of color painted on as a ground. It provides a painter with a transparent, toned ground, which will allow light falling onto the painting to reflect through the paint…
Grey Tonal Study of a Lily
A brief very quick “painting sketch”of a lily in various shades of grey, black and white. Titanium White N8 Neutral Gray 8 N6 Neutral Gray 6 N4 Neutral Gray 4 Carbon Black
Sunny sunflowers
Sunflowers always make me smile! They are these beautiful, cheerful heads of bright yellow nodding their heads in the breeze. I used only a palette knife for this painting. I am in the process of teaching myself to use a palette knife with some particular subject matter in mind that lends itself to this style…
Red Nguni – “the stones of the Ngoye forest”
Nguni cattle form a vital part of the Zulu heritage. The uniqueness of each cow’s skin has been catalogued and forms part of the Zulu oral poetry and storytelling. The interaction between the tribe’s natural surroundings and the patterns on the Nguni hides led to the formation of over 300 illustrative words in the Zulu…
Portrait of a Zebra
Portrait of a Zebra is the beginnings of a wildlife series I will be doing inspired by where I live. St Lucia is a small village with a population of about 1000 permanent residents. It is the gateway to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa’s first World Heritage Site. It is located on Zululand’s Elephant…
Donki ko lo football jersey
Donki ko lo football jersey is the fanagalo name for a Zebra. I have always found it aptly descriptive. Fanagalo is the linga franca language used in the South African mines, composed of frequently corrupted elements of the Nguni, English and Afrikaans languages. Zebra’s have always had a very specific significance for me. When I…
