A new Stalybridge painter !

Although she has been painting for many years Theresa Evans has only recently decided to set up a blog and paint and post on a daily basis. I love her landscapes of the Peak district - please click to have a look for yourself.
(No, I haven't given up - it is just that I am struggling with technical problems at the moment. Stay posted)

Tinsel Town

This painting has been sold

Oil pastel on paper 10" x 8"

I'm beginning to see that none of the buildings seem straight. I don't know if they really are out of line or whether it is a perception of mine.

Train line

Oil pastel on paper 8.5" x 8.5"

Dark tracks, distant mill chimneys and a few lights dotted about - this is what a winter evening feels like here.

Bar Liquid

This painting has been sold


Oil pastel on paper 9" x 8.5"

Stalybridge is a one-horse town, but it has a surfeit of take-aways and bars which have taken over the old industrial buildings but it only takes a cold, rainy day for the former mill town spirit of the place to re-assert itself.

The 348 to Carrbrook

Oil pastel on paper 11" x 8"

I live on this main road, so lots of traffic going past including buses. I always find the combination of dark evenings and rain quite seductive.

Destination

Oil pastel on paper 11" x 8"

It's so interesting when you get into these empty rural areas how the scene before your eyes constantly changes as you walk along. I have got into the habit now of turning round sometimes on my walk and just looking back at what I have travelled through and the perception, the vision has always changed. I suppose in some ways the journey itself is the destination.

Independence

This painting has been sold


Oil pastel on paper 11" x 8"

I hope you can tell this is a summer scene. I took these photographs in June. I am using my new Sennelier oil pastels. There are some lovely subtle colours and the texture is soft and pliable. I am trying to understand colour and colour harmonies better. Particularly with pastels it seems the colour of the support is very influential on the finished product. This support was paper of a warm ochre colour and I could use it to good effect here.

The estate

Oil pastel on paper 10" x 7"

Exposed

Oil pastel on paper 11" x 8"

Again the photo was really difficult to take of this painting. But I think it more or less retains the feel of the scene.

Torside, November

Oil pastel on canvas board 12" x 9"

A very cold, windy day but still there were people wind surfing on Torside reservoir. I worked on this for an hour on site, then rain beat me back to the car park where I could still glimpse the scene and I worked on it some more. Then finished it back home.

Hemmed In

This painting has been sold


Oil pastel on paper 9" x 7"

The colour and texture of the support has a lot of influence I think on how oil pastel painting works out. This was done on a grey, neutral coloured pastel paper and in contrast to working on black, I felt less obliged to "cover" the surface and enjoyed drawing with the pastels as well as creating body colour with them.

Email alert

Sorry folks, my email provider, Onetel, is acting up again. If you have sent me an email in the last few days it is likely I have not received it. Please could you re-send it to vaughansheila@yahoo.co.uk
Apologies for the inconvenience.

The wool merchants

This painting has been sold



Oil pastel on gessoed paper 7" x 5" (approx)

Apologies to those of you who received this via email in its original form. Shortly after I posted it yesterday I took it off again to work on it some more. Painters' licence I'm afraid. I wanted the hills at the back to be more purply. I've got that now as far as the original is concerned. The photo is still not quite capturing the subtle colour harmonies but there you go.
Learning points: Only my second oil pastel painting but I now know you can scrape off with a clean palette knife any areas you are not happy with and re-do them. Perhaps you can even use a cotton bud dipped in white spirit to clean up right back to the base too but I didn't try that. The other thing concerns colour. I am learning that detailed observation of colour harmonies is vital - and its darned difficult to do. In the end it may matter little whether you have included that old barn or whether a sheep has 2 or 3 legs but if you don't harmonise the colours it just won't work. So detail in terms of colour rather than drawing accuracy.