Painting towards abstraction

First week of elective projects, I chose a Fine Art brief on painting.  It's so different from the style that I normally paint in, so I was doubtful that I'd get into to the swing of things, but I actually found that it was quite fun.  These are painted from looking at a glass jar full of random objects, like material, a bracelet, shells, etc.  The idea was to focus on colour and shape, and become more abstract with each study.  Our initial studies were drawn by looking at the jar, then the next set of development paintings were done from just looking at the studies.
(Oil on paper and wood)

Life Drawing

Attempts from my first life drawing class at Brookes.
A1 size. Black marker, pencil and charcoal.

Oxford Botanic Gardens short project

A1 sheets from the sketches I made whilst at the Botanic Gardens.
The leaf cut outs below are done using photocopies of leaves I collected from the floor in the gardens, then used a scalpel to carefully cut/scratch out the shapes of the buildings and trees. 

Photographic series from Oxford Botanic Gardens

A series of photographs taken during my week long project of fine art.  We were given a spot on the map of  Oxford to go to and do a project on, luckily mine landed on the Botanic Gardens which turned out to be really interesting.  Although inside the vast and drippy greenhouses was fascinating and beautiful, I found I was far more gripped by the way the plants inside pushed and pressed against the clouded glass and the shapes and patterns this created.

sketches from Oxford Botanical Gardens

Charcoal and biro sketch.
Below is a sketch of the entrance to the gardens using a mocha I was drinking.   There's also a bit of charcoal in it too.  In the archway is a list of all the things that were going through my head at that time.  It was drizzling so they're not very cheerful.

mural stills

AGS mural

Finally finished! A mural on the back wall in classroom 03 at Alcester Grammar School.  I decided to paint one of my powder paint fight pictures from my A level art exam because they're so bright and full of life (and the people in the photo also went to this school).  I hope all the students and teachers appreciate it and don't get too distracted by it in lessons! The quality of the video isn't excellent, it had to be email format for it to even think about being uploaded.  Me painting in real time...

Wall Art

The start of definitely the biggest, scariest painting I've ever attempted. This wall of a classroom in my old school (Alcester Grammar) used to have a large, fairly..boring(?) monochrome painting of some electricity pylons on it.  I heard people might want something different on it, a bit of a change; as it'd been there for years, so I decided to give it a go!  With the help of my dad we've managed to paint over it and I've now drawn it all out. Watch this space for a video of the process and completed work..if I ever manage it :/ 

Puzzlewood

Photography from the camping trip we went on this weekend in the Forest of Dean, Puzzlewood. It's absolutely incredible in there, magical and mysterious, I love all the moss draped over the rocks and branches. The little bridges and steps remind me of fairy houses we used to make when we were little.  Apparently Tolkien frequented this wood when he was writing Lord of the Rings...Fangorn?

Lime Chrysalis'

Page 9 & 10 of the summer sketchbook. Gosh this is slow work. Watercolour base with pen over the top to pick out the detail, some of which is made to run and stain with water. This shows the start of a butterfly's life, waiting to break free of the chrysalis, their home, which they leave behind to flake away as shown by the final empty shell.