Joan of Arc, a peasant girl living in medieval France, believed that God had chosen her to lead France to victory in its long-running war with England. With no military training, Joan convinced the embattled crown prince Charles of Valois to allow her to lead a French army to the besieged city of Orléans, where…
Tag: artbyeileen
St Brigid of Ireland
Saint Brigid was born Brigit, and shares a name with a Celtic goddess. There is much discussion over her birthparents, yet it is generally believed her mom was Brocca, a Christian baptised by Saint Patrick, and her dad was Dubthach, a Leinster chieftain. When Dubthach’s wife discovered Brocca was pregnant, she was sold to a Druid landowner. It is…
St Scholastica
Scholastica (born in Italy c. 480 – 10 February 542) is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The most commonly told story about her is that she would, once a year, go and visit her brother at a place near his abbey, and they would spend the day worshiping…
Purple & White Tulips
Some more fun with flowers, this time purple and white tulips.
Golden Hibiscus
I have been so busy painting and sketching other things, I forget how much I love painting flowers. This Golden Hibiscus was for a commission. I used 2 really fat brushes to paint this, which is a change for me considering I usually work with very small brushes and lots of layering and glazes. This…
Portrait of a woman
Portrait of a woman Acrylic on MDF board 30 x 23cm (12 x 9 inch) Developing from the limited palette exploring painting darker skin tones was the next step. For this exercise I moved away from the Zorn palette and looked at the hues within the photograph I was working from. This will make a huge…
Skulls and gold bling
Every now and again I explore sketching different subject matter. This last week it has been animal skulls and as an experiment I added a little gold leaf.
A Cornish harbour
I am trying to paint more seascapes and landscapes. I get very overwhelmed when there is this magnificent scene in front of me that demands painting – even when it is a photograph. It takes lots of practice to select a good composition, and then do it justice on a canvas. A friend posted a beautiful photo on Facebook a…
Iconic beginnings….
I love Icons. Not just for their religious representation, but the whole naivety of the image, and how the artist has translated his interpretation of something sacred to him onto a flat surface. I was first introduced to them as a 17 year old venturing into the British Museum for the first time. Coming from South Africa…
Still life – flowers in a teacup
This still life was a very quick and simple exercise in combining the texture of a palette knife with the smoother more even texture of a brush. Flowers in a teacup Acrylic on canvas panel 20 X 25 cm The petals of the flowers naturally lend themselves to the thick, impasto application with a palette…
Fishy colour shapers
Exploring my local art store I discovered something called a colour shaper. I had no idea what it was or how it should be applied and the lady in the art store wasn’t much help either. I had just recently been asked to paint a bright colourful fish in thick paint for someone’s bathroom and…
Still life – reflections in mahogony
This is the last painting in the series of a course Phil gave me for Christmas in 2013. I know, I know, more than a year ago, but I have been so busy with all my other art and giving in to urges to paint all sorts of other exciting things that I put this…
