Wednesday 24 April 2013

First Step: Covering the white of the canvas


Facing the empty expanse of the bright white that is a new canvas is daunting for many artists. We often apply a coloured ground to calm our fears and banish the glare. Most times however, it's the first step of the chess game of painting. The first steps are the groundwork; setting the stage for the layers of action to come.


Girl Surfer oil on canvas © Carol Lee Beckx



This morning I had a reminder of a colour that is a frequent choice as an underpainting. Favorite Paint Mixture: Permanent Rose PV 19 was the subject of a blog post by Elizabeth Floyd this morning.

The clean freshness of Permanent Rose makes a wonderful ground for many subjects. As you can see from the images here, I have used it for landscapes as well as flowers. It gives immediate vibrancy to the canvas.

Hot Palms oil on canvas © Carol Lee Beckx


Sometimes the presence of this powerful colour can cause a few problems but it’s seldom been that I have had to obliterate all trace of it in a painting. 

Pink Roses with Mirrors Work in progess© Carol Lee Beckx



 I love the idea of hiding layers beneath my paint - only I know what secrets lie beneath the surface. (Clearly, many mistakes secrets HAVE to be well hidden, never to see the light of day)

I hope you enjoy looking for some of these early layers underneath the paint of the completed paintings.

Towards Kaapse Hoop oil on canvas © Carol Lee Beckx

To read more about Elizabeth Floyd's colour mixtures here is the link the post.




Friday 19 April 2013

Reprise - Ink and Wash


It is so rewarding to have a room full of eager students. The Ink & Wash workshop on Tuesday proved to be very popular. Experiments were done with various pens and inks then later watercolour was added for some splashes of colour. 

Favourite Vases - Ink & watercolour in Fabriano Venezia sketchbook © Carol Lee Beckx 2013

The workshop at Arthouse Northside will be repeated on Tuesday 30th April 2013. Please contact the store to sign up or contact me if you want to know more about the workshop.

Arthouse Northside Tel (07) 3869 2444
140 Braun Street 
Deagon
Lunch Break - Queen Street Mall, Brisbane Ink and watercolour in Beta Sketchbook 
© Carol Lee Beckx 2013





Wednesday 10 April 2013

New Look Website


My new website is now live. The look is clean and fresh. The motivation for change was necessary as my old site was running on out-dated software and was becoming unstable. Many of the images are from the original website but new ones have also been added. 


A screenshot of the front page - Carol Lee Beckx.com

A major advantage is that the new site uses a theme designed by an artist specially for artists.  Kim Bruce  from ArtBiz WordPress Websites, has designed a number of themes that one can choose from, all designed to showcase artists’ images, while being user friendly. Another plus is that you can join the ArtBiz School where tutorials teach you step by step, especially important if you are not a techno-geek!

Noise Hosting, did the complicated (for me) work of transferring the data from the old to the new - and were so patient with my requests, changing and adding various items until the final result was achieved. I recommend them highly.

A screenshot of the Landscape Page 

Many of the images are from the original website but new ones have also been added. 
Adding images and sorting the viewing order is so much easier, making working on the site a pleasure rather than something to be avoided, which I did in the past. 

There is now a dedicated page for "Abstracts" as this is a genre I have been drawn to lately. Another new page is “Commissions”. The local community has given me such wonderful support in the two years I have been in Australia, I wanted place where these could be shown.

There is a direct link to this blog on the bottom banner. I have also added a page for "News" that will have posts now and again about Exhibitions and Workshops.

Please let me know what you think of the new look, I’d love to know.




Wednesday 3 April 2013

Ink & Wash - a workshop


The Art Classes page has just had an update. 

Arthouse Northside  
140 Braun Street Deagan 4017
Please register in store for these classes - Tel: 3869 2444


Ink & Wash - please note this workshop is almost full, but please let me know if you are interested then I will schedule another workshop on the same topic.

A One day Workshop with Carol Beckx
April 16th 9.30am to 3.00pm $60 for the day


The workshop will cover:
  • How to overcome the fear of ink.
  • Drawing with ink - fine-liners, dip pens etc.
  • Using wash to add tonal values
  • Using Watercolour with the ink drawings
  • Materials to take on a sketching trip
Please contact me for more information and a Materials List.

Art Classes: Hamilton Road Studio

Thursday     9.00 am – 12.00 pm
Friday          9.00 am – 12.00 pm - this is a new class starting April 26th 2013
Saturday     9.00 am -  12.00 pm
Please contact me for more information.