Just a quick message to let you know that I am still here…. I am back in the UK now arranging the final details of my wedding next month and it’s busy busy busy.
I hope to find a spare minute to post about my last painting lesson in Baku and show you some pictures of my first chain maille bracelet. I’m addicted to jump rings!
:O)
During our last two lessons we have been working on our paintings.
We started out using a thin brush and ochre coloured acrylic paint to draw an outline of our work onto the canvas. I still wasn’t 100% sure how I wanted it to look when I started but I knew I wanted it to include foxgloves. You can just about see the outline of the foxgloves in the picture above. We then applied a wash of background colours.
Once that was dry we added background colour to the foxgloves themselves in various shades of light and dark to add depth to the work. Before we knew it two hours had passed and we were ready to finish for the day.
In Lesson 3 I added further details to the foxgloves but unfortunately I forgot my camera so I don’t have any pictures to show you.
Next week we are leaving these paintings for a while and will have a go at painting still life! Ek! :O)
It’s been such a long time since I painted anything and I had forgotten how much fun it is!
I have recently started taking painting lessons. I have a lot of painting equipment at home and have made a few dire attempts at it but I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. I decided I really needed some expert guidance on painting techniques so I asked around the community here and someone very kindly introduced me to an artist who was willing to give lessons.
It turns out that there are a few other ladies interested in improving their brush strokes as well and so we started lessons.
Our teacher is a very lovely Russian artist called Lena. She has been painting for many years. Her husband, who passed away about 5 years ago, was also a brilliant painter and they shared the studio we are working in within the famous ‘house of painters’ area in Baku. Their son is also a painter, however he is currently serving his military service in the army.
Our first lesson was an introduction to Lena and her work. She showed as many of her paintings all using acrylic and other additions such as fabric and gold foil to add texture and interest to the work.
Lena then introduced us to our canvases…..
They are huge! It was a little bit daunting at first but after a while I really liked the idea of having so much space to work on. Lena explained that she wanted us to have freedom to paint whatever was inside of us. :O)
Next, we added plaster of paris to the blank canvas. This was to add texture to the surface so that the work has depth when we eventually paint over it.
Lastly, Lena showed us how she adds gold foil to her art work. I really loved the results we got on these scrap canvases. I would love to use this technique on my work.
More pictures from lesson 2 soon….
This week I visited the State Art Academy of Azerbaijan with some of the ladies from the International Women’s Club of Baku.
We had a very comprehensive tour of the different art studios including clay, oil painting, carpet weaving and the student exhibitions that will be opening very soon.
Each piece starts out as a pencil drawing and is then turned into a painting or clay model.
It was really interesting to see how each student painted the same subject.
Each room was full of colour! I really like this picture of a students easel and work space.
This room was full of students and their looms working on their graduate submissions.
The finished works of previous graduates are displayed throughout the halls of the academy.
I have just started painting lessons myself. I had my introductory lesson this week and next week we start painting! I’m really looking forward to it.
Last week we had a little incident with the car. I was at the supermarket doing the weekly shop when unbeknown to me someone hit our car whilst trying to park behind it. I didn’t notice until I was about to get in the car to go home. Here is a picture of the damage to our car, as you can see the bumper is pretty dented and the light facing is broken.
We managed to track down the offending vehicle and waited outside for the owner to return. Thankfully he was very nice and happy to pay for the damage. Below you can see the damage to his car.
Things work a little bit differently here when it comes to car repairs. In the UK it would be normal to replace the bumper and this would normally cost quite a lot. In Azerbaijan, they don’t replace bumpers and panels but instead bang the damage out and re-spray it. I was a bit dubious I have to say but it’s all fixed now and i’m amazed and really pleased with the result. It’s looks like a brand new bumper and the colour match is perfect! We are just waiting for the new light fitting to arrive as it has to be imported and then we will be back to normal.