Commissions, Tallantyres, Portraits and Prizes

So I have alot to talk about on this blog so bare with me, firstly the second commission has been started and I'm pleased to say the progress is coming along nicely.

Here are a few Studio shots from today's painting session, i have also been busy recently painting a portrait of my father, for those who followed my earlier pencil work will know that i loved drawing portraits

since I starting painting i have only done two so i thought it was about time i did another, I have always admired the artist who get Into the BP portrait award in London and after visiting the exhibition last year it inspired me to want to paint

I came away with two things from that exhibition, firstly I must paint someone i know as this helps you achieve a better portrait as you have unknowingly been studying there faces for years,

and secondly size wasn't everything as some of the most amazing painting at the exhibitions were smaller in size that i had thought,  i decided that i wanted to paint my father i had taken some shots of him a few months ago and had done a charcoal study ready for the painting, i then primed a 18" x 18" wooden panel and started sketching his portrait, but i wanted to change my approach slightly i have been drawing and painting in a realistic manner for quite some time and wanted the background of this image to be quite abstract and so i applied extra layers of gesso to add textures and then started to add tones of g blacks and whites but i could help but refine it and blend it, until my wife came into the studio and said "its not what you wanted, just go for it" so i picked up my palette knife and started work and about 30minutes later and lots of smears and flicks of paint later i had a background i was happy with.

I started studying portrait artists i admired and tried to get in my head what i needed to do to achieve a painting i would be happy with, and so the painting started i  mixed lots of skin tones and made sure my observation was on full i had to paint at weekends as i still had to paint my still life images for the gallery and  commissions.

and here Is the finished result below is an image of  the painting and another image of myself & my Dad.

"Portrait of my Father"

18" x 18"

Oil on wooden panel.

The Model, The Painting, and the Artist

I also sent "Tommy K" up to Tallantyres gallery who are representing my work in the north east below Is the piece framed by the gallery and a quote from the owners 

Tommy K framed at Tallantyres

"Introducing Chris Morgan, his first painting for the gallery Tommy K. Chris doesn't know it but I've been following his work for quite a while. He approached us a few months back and we are to be his North East Gallery. A hyper-realist to fit in with our other exceptional realists. Nice work Chris"

For more information on this piece please contact the gallery on 0167 051 7214

or email art@tallantyre.co.uk

I also ran a competition on my facebook page last month were my loyal fans had a chance to win my first ever original - "The Mrs Cherry Cheesecake"

 THE COMPETITION PRIZE

 there were two parts to the competition the first was to share the competition with there friends and those who shared the page went thought to the second part of the competition we had over 90 people share and enter the page and gained nearly 100 more fans for the page

The second part of the competition was down to a pure guess meaning It was open to anyone and i felt was fair,so as i have painted retro sweets in the past I thought why not fill are jar and get people to guess the amount

The Jar with approximately 334 sweets

We had many guesses but nobody guessed correctly and so we had to go to the closest guess of 333 and the winner Amy Lea Garvey from Ireland

I sent her the painting soon after the competition and here she Is with the winning prize and her boys

Congratulations to Amy and her Family