James Flynn

Greetings.......

It has been a very busy time for me just lately, which of course, I am very pleased about.

As per usual I have been sketching a huge amount.  Probably more than I ever have done before, and I always love posting my drawings on twitter, it gives me an extra sense of satisfaction.

I am also building up more paintings for my next solo exhibition.  I haven't got an exact date yet, but I am looking forward to this already, it will be a great collection of my new work, with a specific theme.

I have finished a new painting today which will be saved for my exhibition also.  I have named this one "Ambience", and I am really pleased with the outcome.  I am having a great time painting with a "loose" style, and I think I have definately found my niche.

Up until a while back I generally painted in a more traditional style, but I have definately loosened up a lot now, and I love the effect this has had on my work.

Here is "Ambience".....

Another reason for me to be cheerful is that I am fortunate enough to be attending a six hour painting session with a great artist named Rob Wareing, on the 4th of august.

Rob Wareing is a great portrait artist who was once commissioned to paint Nelson Mandela, so as you can imagine, his work is quite amazing and I am really looking forward to it.

I will leave you with a link to a video of Rob Wareing, and I will let you know how this day goes, and I will try to take as many photos as possible!........Enjoy......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIstLTXDw8Y

I'd like to show my appreciation for deviantart....

I recieved an email a couple of weeks ago saying that some of my work was being shown at their latest print exhibition.  As you can imagine this was great news.  Even greater when I discovered that this show was being held at Shoreditch, one of my favourite places in London, a kind of mecca for contemporary art!....

Believe me, this was completely out of the blue, and I had no idea about this exhibition until I got this email, so it was a pleasant surprise indeed.

So on monday the 2nd off I went, not really knowing what to expect, and one train and one tube later, I was walking down leonard st on my way to blackall studios, eager to see what this was all about.

I certainly wasn't disappointed.  Blackall studios is a spotlessly clean, bright premises and was perfect for this kind of show. 

After meeting members of the deviantart team, I eagerly walked over to two of my paintings that they chose, and just had to get a quick snap.....

After chatting to a few other artists we all walked down to a nearby bar/restaurant, and had more food than we could possibly dream of eating, and plenty of drinks too...!

What more could you ask for?  A great night all round, and thank you very much deviantart for making this happen.  This was a night I will not forget in a hurry, and I urge everyone to make the most of http://www.deviantart.com as it really is a great site, and a good way to get prints made of your best paintings.

Once again, thanks for reading, and stay creative!....

James Flynn

Hi all....

Just a quick update to keep you informed of up and coming events....

As you may or may not know, my local art society has an annual exhibition over at coolings nursery, rushmore hill,  Knockholt, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN14 7NN on the 20th, 21st, 22nd of July.

Anyone local to the area, or anyone who may me passing by, please do come in and take a look.

A selection of work by http://www.chislehurstartists.com/ and some of my paintings and prints will be on display, so do feel free to pop in...

Also, I just wanted to leave you a link to a recent review that was written up about me by a great guy named Shylo.  His site is great for art based news and reviews, so make sure you check out his site!.... http://www.shylosworld.com/2012/06/artist-drop-james-flynn.html

Thats all for now, but stay posted for updates on some plein air paintings I have in progress....

James Flynn

Hello again, hope you are well......

I wanted to give you an update on a painting I started quite a while ago now.  A couple of months back during a brief spell of good weather I headed down to greenwich riverside equipped with my easel and a good selection of paints.

I made a start on two paintings that day, one of docklands/canary wharf, and another of the thames overlooking the cutty sark in greenwich.

Admittedly, the docklands painting I decided to abandon, but the greenwich painting was sitting around for two months and as we had a little sun again recently, I decided to carry on where I left off last time.

So off I went again, loaded up with easel, paints etc and had a good few hours of plein air painting.  I must say also, I didn't really do myself any favours picking this spot, as it isn't really that "interesting" to paint as you can see......

However, I persevered and although there was times when I felt like abandoning this one too, I eventually got to a stage where I was reasonably happy, and I am now fairly happy with this one.

This is the end result from that day, and as you can see, I did use my artistic license a bit just to "spruce" it up a little!  But hey, that's what painting is all about isn't it?.....

As you can probably tell, I have brightened up this scene quite a bit, for dramatic effect too, but I think I can call this one a success!...

Let me know what you think of this, as I always like to see your comments.

Don't forget to drop by soon as i'm going to do some more plein air painting over the next few weeks and I will be posting more paintings up here shortly.

Thanks for reading,

James Flynn

Just a quick update folks....

As always I have been busy painting away and having a pretty good time.  I have made some adjustments to a plein air painting that has been sitting around for a month or so, bugging me, so I will be getting out my portable easel in the next few days adding some more detail to this one.

I tend to paint landscapes in a very different way from portraits.  Style wise and in the length of time spent painting them too.  I can quite happily spend weeks or months on a landscape, whereas I tend to spend a good few hours "in the zone" on my portraits, and generally knock them out in one sitting.  But I personally think this is a pretty good way to paint portraits, as you transfer your mood into the painting.

Anyway, I haven't got my plein air painting to put up here yet, but this is the scene that I am basing it on.......

Those of you from london may recognise that this is the river thames at greenwich.

I understand that this isn't  very inspiring shot, but I am juicing up the scene a little, and I am getting quite excited about this one!

Stay posted for updates on this, as I will be putting it up here soon........

Also, in case you haven't seen it already, here is my latest portrait....

This one is titled "air of utopia"......

Busy times indeed!

Speak soon,

James

Hello there, and thank you very much for dropping by again.

I wanted to share with you my thoughts that I have been having just recently. 

But first, in case you haven't seen it already, here is my brand new painting, titled "less is more"....

I hope you like it, I am quite pleased with some of my latest work and I feel I am opening up a lot more just recently. 

As you can see, I tend to leave a very "rough", unfinished look to a lot of my work now, and people have asked me why this is.

And, to be honest, for quite a while I didn't know.  I just thought it kind of looked good.

That is until a couple of weeks ago when I was looking at one of the best paintings I have ever seen.  A painting that was so grand, so epic, that I just couldn't help myself staring at it for a good few minutes.

The painting I am talking about is a piece by Cole Thomas, click on the link below to have a look for yourself.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_Destruction_1836.jpg

A great painting, i'm sure you will agree.

So what did I realise when I was looking at this painting?  Well, I realised that although this painting is so good, and so polished like so many other works by the old masters, in a way, dare I say it, it is not actually that revealing about the artist.  Because there are no mistakes, or no rough patches there, I cant quite see what the artist's true style is, exept of course..."perfect".

I actually remember thinking once while walking around the national gallery, looking at some classic work, that I would love to see some failed paintings by some of the masters.  I would love to see some paintings that have not worked and have been abandoned, because it would be so interesting to see, it would be very revealing about the artist.

And then it clicked.

That is what appeales to me about leaving a painting with an "unfinished" rough look, it is so revealing.  I like to let people see what goes on behind a painting, and let them see the rough marks, and some of the process behind the finished piece, and that is what I would like to see in a lot of other paintings too.

So this is the direction I am going in at the moment, and hence the title "less is more".  I hope you understand my train of thought on this, and please do not think I am putting down any work that is "finished" if you like, not at all, this is just what is inspiring me at this stage.

So watch this space!  I am not going to hold back with this, I am going to paint exactly what I feel like painting without worrying about whether it fits any kind of criteria, and that is exactly how it should be, shouldn't it?......

Let me know what you think.....

James Flynn

Hello there, I hope you have been well and good.....

This is a quick post to keep you up to date with my latest life drawing session.

I always look forward to these sessions, which come along once a month for me, it is always a challenge and this month was certainly no different.

We had a regular male model who we use quite often, and he is quite an experienced life model and very good to work with.

As always, we started off with a few five minute "warm up" sketches before we attempted anything to detailed.

Here is one of my quick sketches.....

Nothing too fancy here as you can see, although this certainly helps me to loosen up before attempting anything half decent....

I thought i'd try something different this month and I ended up toning a piece of watercolour paper with "sanguine" pastel, and complete a drawing with a sanguine pastel pencil.

Of course this was easier said than done, and although I am not really satisfied with the result, I suppose it's worth putting up here....

As I said, these sessions are always a challenge, and half the challenge is finding the right materials that work best.  I think I will use sanguine again next month, but I think I will use paper with a little less texture, as I don't seem to get on with watercolour paper that well at the moment!....

Thats basically it for now, I wont go into any other stuff that I have been busy with lately, as I will be writing another post very soon....

Let me know what you think, and contact me with any questions you may have.

See you soon!

James Flynn

Hello once again, I hope you have been well, and have been creative as usual....

I have been busy with the pastels once again, and I am still having fun with this great medium.

Tonal studies is my passion at the moment and I am always on the lookout for reference material. So when I found a classic photo of Audrey Hepburn in black and white, I just couldn't resist! I just had to paint it and add my little "spin" on things.

Apologies I have not got the reference photo to put up here, but I will show you my painting step by step.....

So, as always I started putting down the eyes. Nothing too fancy at this stage just getting some lights and darks down as you can see...

Next I start to refine the eyes slightly, and start to "mold" them into shape. I spend quite a lot of time around this area before moving on to the surrounding areas. This is to ensure that the measurements are correct before commiting to anything else.

As you can see here, I have now moved onto the nose and eyebrows, and I am starting to work outwards....

I have moved outwards further to the mouth now, and at this stage I am basically working around all these areas, adding bits here and there before moving outwards any further.

And onto the neck! A lot of filling in here, there was no way around it, so I just steamed into it, and got some black put down...

You can see I just started to put some hair in here....

Here I have started to put down some background. I decided to give this painting some of my "wild" energy that I like to put down. And I started to make some marks....

And finally the finished piece!....

I went a bit wild with the mark making but this is the effect I was going for. I decided to add some crimson red to give the painting a little something extra, and I think it worked.

So there it is, I hope you enjoyed seeing this as much as I enjoyed painting it, because I had a good time with this one!

As always, comments welcome, let me know what you think....

Thanks for reading.

James Flynn

Hello again, I hope you have all been well...

It's been a busy time for me again lately, which is a good thing right?.....

Following the feedback I recieved from my exhibition recently, I have been producing a lot of black and white portraits. Mainly because these are what got the biggest responce, and perhaps more importantly because I absolutely love painting in black and white pastel!

I can safely say that if I ever had to choose just one way to paint for the rest of my days, I would choose black and white pastel straight away! I just love the simplicity of it, the high contrast marks you can make really appeal to me. Hence my latest portraits have been mainly in this medium.

So here is my latest portrait. The reference picture is basically a newspaper cutting that I found a while ago, which can be a good source of reference material. If you ever need to brush up on your portrait drawing/painting skills, buy a few newspapers and you should find plenty of reference pics in there!

I have taken a series of pictures at various stages for you to see....

OK, here is the beginning stage. The beginning is probably the most "scary" stage of any painting as you don't know which way it could go! Here I started to model the eyes and nose, and put down some lights and darks......

Next I started to stretch out over the face down to the mouth, and get the overall shape of the face put down. I usually work this way, working inside first, and then stretching outwards. I find it works best for me.

Here, as you can see I started to add some clothing. Never an easy thing to paint, but remember...the face is the focal point in a portrait more often than not, so you can get away with "loosely" painting this part.

Here I have worked the face some more. Making the dark areas darker, and the light areas lighter. The reason I chose to paint this picture is because of the great shadow across the face, and I wanted to really bring these lights and darks out.....

At this point, I am really hovering over the whole painting, adding bits here and there, adjusting things and adding detail. This is where I enjoy myself the most, and get in "the zone"!...

And finally, I have added some background here. Now believe it or not, this can be the hardest part of a portrait like this, finding a dramatic effect that brings out the portrait is an interesting process. I think I got away with this here!...

So there it is. I did have a slightly clearer picture to put up here but my computer has decided not to let me! So sorry about that....

I finished this painting fairly quickly, over a few hours or so, which is another appealing quality of this medium, you don't have to spend days and days on your artwork (unless you want to of course). Let me know what you think, I always love a bit of feedback. And if you end up doing a few yourself, email me your pics and I might just put them up on here in a new post....

Speak soon,

James Flynn

Hi guys and girls, hope you have all been well......

I just wanted to share with you a new found pleasure of mine.

Something I look forward to everymonth and keeps my drawing skills nice and sharp....

Life drawing of course!!...What a great way to fine tune your sketching hand and practise your art work.

I have been attending these for quite a while now but I enjoy them more and more each month, and I highly recommend it.

Here is a couple of my recent drawings from these sessions for you to see, and I should be updating these fairly regularly so stay posted......

James Flynn