Painting Sketch

Ive wanted to sketch with oil paints and make the whole painting process alot quicker as this makes your brain see things more instinctively, and yesterday i got the chance, I found a old box canvas that had been unused lying about the studio and so i thought why not....two hours later i had a quick painting sketch done in a looser style than I'm used to and my first ever self portrait.

Step by Step process.

Close up of self portrait sketch

Oil paint

on Box Canvas.

Commission, Warwick Studios, and the Future

OK so I have not posted anything for a little while and for good reason, its been a little bit emotional the last few weeks.

Firstly I was commissioned by The Five time British and Commonwealth professional boxing champion Chris Edwards.

He wanted me to paint him during the fight he won his title,and  I was given an Internet image that if I'm honest was poor in quality, but i accepted and tried my best to capture as much detail as i possibly could, and I have to say I was pleased with the result and thankfully so was he.

Chris Edwards with his British title belt.

"Chris Edwards - Commission"

18" x 18"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

Then on a very sad note, on Friday 25th May the Gallery Warwick Studios that show the majority of my work Unfortunately  suffered a terrible tragedy and an electrical fault caused a major fire and as a result the gallery was destroyed along side 9 of my originals, 6 of which had been sold and awaiting collection.Thankfully no one was hurt and my thoughts go out to David and his family and hope he can pick himself up and move forward, and im sure we will see the gallery up and running again soon.

Now obviously I was totally gutted to have lost so much work in this manner but thankfully i have an amazing family that support me so much and within days I was thinking about the future and not allowing this stumble in my artistic journey to slow me down and i picked my brushed up to produce my latest two originals and my first diptych

"The Four Evens"

12" x 18" (each paintings)

Oil on Wooden panel

Reflections

I have to admit posting the latest painting i had flutters of nerves as i knew this was something different to what i had painted before and i was anxious to find out what people thought, but thankfully i had a very good reaction to this piece.

To explain a little about it, these bottles are my wifes they sit in the window of the top room in our house and look down on the street below, I often look at these bottles and have always loved the way the light shines through them creating flicks of colour and shapes almost being abstract in some areas, but what was more interesting is that the two stopper lids flipped the street below upside down, i often thought about painting these but put it off for some more of the work im known for but i decided i needed to do it and so i started on the journey and nearly 3 weeks later it was finished!

"Reflections"

24" x 24"

Oil on wooden panel

I decided that i would title this piece reflections for two reasons the first and most obvious one was because of the rfections in the lids of the glass bottles but the second was the way i feel about them as often i sit looking at the bottles reflecting on things happening in my life.

Available at Warwick Studios

call - 01926 423529

Rita Simons Commission

So a couple of months ago whilst I was on my Twitter page I was surprised to find British Eastenders actress Rita Simons aka Roxy Mitchell follow me and then direct message me after seeing my art work.
She was enquiring about a commission piece for her kitchen. Of course I said yes and asked for a  brief for the commission. She wanted a Marmite painting, something I'm known for but wanted her's painted different to my normal realistic style.  She asked for a pop art style painting including the colours hot pink and purple to go with the decor in her kitchen.

I finished this piece a few weeks ago and i got it framed in a complimentary thick high gloss white frame and delivered it yesterday, and I'm so pleased to say she LOVED it!!!

"Marmite"

30" x 30"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

Me and Rita with her painting.

I only joined Twitter not so long ago so please feel free to follow @chrismorganART

Saucy

I have been painting away the last couple of weeks on the latest commission, i felt this painting has taken me some time and some elements of the painting moved along at snails pace, i think the reason for the length of time taken was due to the fact that there was two sauce bottles in the image and that obviously meant two labels, and that means ALOT of work as i had to contend with the lettering (something I always find difficult) and the dreaded houses of Parliament on the HP bottle.

I also needed to make sure the distance, height and width of the bottles was correct and that the lines were as straight as possible, this lead me to one of the best purchases i have made to aid my art.....frog tape

 A new tape on the market that stops paint bleed something you often get with normal masking tape, i used the tape to ensure the lines were as straight as possible as my hand sketches do not leave me with very straight lines and this also helped me relax a little as i didn't need to pain stakingly make sure the paint was straight

As you can see  here is the painting with the frog tape aiding my lines

I also did something very different with this piece, being self taught ive always used photo references, but felt i needed to push my self and try and capture a more realistic approach in terms of colour so i worked with a life set up alongside the photo references I found this refreshing and gave me a better ability to "Check" colours.

"Saucy"

36" x 25"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

I also ran an Easter competition on my Facebook page to get the kids involved in art.  The idea was simple, the kids painted a plain egg and the most votes/likes on that image would win my 2nd ever attempt at oil painting!! there was a great response and some really great work.

I had 13 children enter the competition and they were all great, some comical some abstract, some clever

and so the competition started and votes came in thick and fast and there was a definite lead straight away

    and then the Easter deadline came for votes and there was one clear winner Aimee Smith  with

egg titled "hide and seek"

The winning egg with an incredible 98 votes :-)

on another note i had the great honour of having my own portrait painted by the amazing BP portrait exhibitor and winner of the BP travel award  Paul Bee,l i found out he was doing an art project where he used the medium of Skype to paint as many life paintings as he could from people all over the world, he spends a maximum of 30 minutes on these pieces and has so far created many portraits, we spoke about him painting me but I was busy painting at the time so he painted me whilst i was creating my commission "saucy"

Paul Beel and the portrait of me.

New works.

Here are the latest two painting to come out of my studio, the first is a the third of the five commissions from the gallery that represent my work exclusively in central England Warwick Studios and a new painting for AAF in London through the north east gallery Tallentyres.

"Grolsch Bottle - Commission"

36" x 20"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

For more information on commissions or up and coming works please contact the gallery on

01926 423529

The client wanted the grolsh bottle with the swing top lid in order to make the bottle show the lovely green colour of the glass i needed to have a green background so when the light hit the bottle the light would bounce off and illuminate the centre and background. I was happy how it turned out and I'm looking forward to the next :-)

"The Great British Butty"

30" x 20"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD



Cola Can commission.

Here is the latest commission piece titled "Cola - Cans" this piece certainly tested me at certain times, Ive always thought the hardest part of art is getting past the mental barriers stopping you from working happily and this happened to me on this piece I started the red cola tin to find i felt it looked flat and unlike my reference photograph, i even got to a point were i was sat in my studio head in my hands contemplating throwing it out and starting again, but i am very lucky to have a wife who supports me and my work 100% and she made me realise how silly i was being and that i needed to get a grip. and thank god she did as i finished it feeling pleased with the end result.

"Cola Cans"

30" x 30"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

I'll soon be onto the next commission, but i have had to spend this week priming boards, sketching, taking references and creating a excel spreadsheet for all my accounts to make it easier to keep on top of it. but painting should resume VERY soon.

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

 

Commission Number One

I have been painting away the last couple of weeks on the first of the five commissions confirmed at the beginning of the year, I decided the first painting I wanted to do was the Guinness piece as It had been a few months since I had painted  the last.

Guinness and Smoky (Commission)

30" x 30"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

It started well with the Guinness being painted in ever so carefully making sure I captured every reflection I could see, I then moved onto the crisp packet, now I remember from my last Guinness piece "Cold and Crisp" that I found the crisp packet a little challenging mixing the correct blue but for this one It just seemed to flow but as I have posted before I really like painting with all different tones of red.

 I was then filling in the lettering of the Walkers when DISASTER struck as the metal  end of my brush came off the wooden handle falling down my work leaving a trail of white splodges, I could have almost cried when this happened but I remained calm and focused and went about using my experience and knowledge to fix the problem and thankfully all was good again.

I have also been to Warwick studios today to deliver the commission and the latest original "Playing for Keeps" the gallery were happy with the painting and had It framed and up on the wall within a few hours.

Playing for Keeps - Framed at Warwick Studios

For more info please call  - 0 192 642 3529

"Playing for keeps"

I completed this piece a few days a nice 18"x18" painting of a childhood Item Marbles!!

I wanted to do a marbles painting  for a while because even as a child I loved the colour spirals In the middle of that Glass ball and thought that It would look great as a painting, I had taken the reference photograph last summer but with a busy schedule up until Christmas last year this painting has been put on hold and has now become my first painting for  2012.

"Playing for Keeps"

18" x 18"

Oil on wooden panel

Available at Warwick Studios

SOLD

I loved the blurred glass in the background and the distorted marbles within the jar but painting those became a huge struggle for me as I'm used to painting the finer details but with this blurred Item I struggled keeping It out of focus, first I would keep the lines entirely soft but then step back and want more detail, even tho the reference didn't show them.  I would then realise that I had added to much detail and would then soften the entire thing again so It resembled my reference and so on, and It wasn't until I started adding the crisp detailed foreground marbles that I realised that the soft focus jar worked.

I felt happy with the end result and loved painting the details in the main two marbles especially the spiral colours It totally took me back to my childhood and this led to the title, I remember playing marbles with my school friends and they would always say "Are we playing for keeps" which  always filled me with dreaded In case I lost my favourite marbles.

On another note I am running a competition via my Facebook page where you could win the chance to win my first ever oil painting to be involved in  the competition and have the chance to win this prize please click the link - http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Chris-Morgan-Drawings/305661991067

I also created this video to show the exhibition pieces for 2011.

"Busy few Months"

I know I haven't posted on here for a while, But I promise I have been busy painting away, I completed the first of the 6 commissions that I received after the exhibition at Warwick Studios, the first being a huge 5ft x 2ft painting. And for the first time I had to put a "NO ENTRY" sign on the studio door, now normally I like It If the kids pop In to say hello, But with the piece being so big I just couldn't take any chances as It would have been so easily knocked over!!

I was then busy taking studio reference photographs for the client to select for the further five commissions which I have now sent over to them and awaiting there reply, And whilst I wait for the clients response I thought It would be good to get another piece completed ready for next year.

I decided I wanted to paint another tomato ketchup bottle from a reference photograph I had taken In the summer, I loved the lighting on this one as the bright sunlight shone through the bottle It created lovely pattens within the bottle almost fire like and as a fellow artist friend of mine said Its "Beauty In the Mundane" and this Is exactly what I hope to achieve In every piece.

"Tommy K"

18" x 30"

Oil On Wooden Panel

I also had a trip down to the gallery to personalise the sold exhibition pieces, It was alot of fun and great to add that little message to all the lovely people who purchased my works I still find It a lovely compliment that people love what I do and I hope I continue to do so for many years to come.

                                              

"Sweet Treats"

I decided to work on a medium sized panel for this painting as It was a little more complex with the glass bowl, and the different sweets and textures, the benefit for doing this was being able to produce the painting A little quicker than If I worked on a much bigger size.

I enjoyed working on this piece and loved the different textures I needed to achieve, and loved the lighting and the way It cut through past the jelly Cherry hitting the candy canes.

"Sweet Treats"

24" x 22"

oil on wooden panel

On another note there has been a small Exhibition of my works at the Warwick Studios Gallery and I am thrilled to say my works have been very well received and all but 3 paintings have been sold with still over a month left of the exhibition. and leading on from the exhibition I have received 5 commissions confirmed taking me to at least April and a further 10 to be finalized which will take me towards the end of the year.

If your Interested In having your very own original commission please get in quickly to avoid to much of a wait, to discuss commissions and prices please contact the gallery at :-0192 642 3529

"Hot Shots"

Usually In order to get my reference for a painting I set up my still life item and photograph them at home. But this one was different. I had taken my younger brother Dominic out to play pool and as I had my camera with me I  thought why not take some pictures.

  I asked permission at the reception desk and then started snapping away for about 15 minutes or so until my brother reminded me we only had an hour to play so I put the camera down and we played pool and unfortunately I lost 3-1 which I was hard to swallow but thankfully looking through the pictures I had taken when I got home there were a few I was happy with and this one stood out to me and I knew I had to paint It. I decided to title this piece after the pool hall we played at hot shots.

"HOT SHOTS"

18" x 18"

Oil on wooden panel

Available through Warwick Studios

SOLD

"Luscious Liquorice"

This Is another smaller painting for the show and again Its another Allsorts painting this Is due to the popular demand after the first Allsorts painting was received so well. and again this one after only a few hours at the gallery was pre-sold before the show launches In November.

"Luscious Liquorice"

18" x 18"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

For more Information about the show Please contact Warwick Studios Art Lounge

"My Mate Marmite"

The Latest painting was a repeat of a subject I had previously done before, ...the mighty Marmite jar.

The first painting of this series sold within 3 hours of being hung In the gallery and ever since there has been a demand for another one and with the small show approaching In November I'm trying to get as many pieces as I can and so I have been working on some smaller 24" x 24" and some 18" x 18" to go along side the larger 30" x 30 - 40" x 40" pieces.

In some ways I found this easier the second time but It brought back the memories of the the first painting "You'll either love it or hate It!" and I realised just how difficult this Label Is, Its all because of It being blocked colours and It requires several layers as I find White and Yellow the hardest to paint with as It doesn't take very well and requires those extra layers for a better coverage, I also painted a reflection In this piece and I found this odd to paint as Its a very blurred image to paint and I kept finding my self refining It then realising It needed knocking back and softening again, But the end result I am happy with and I'm getting excited for the Show.

"My Mate Marmite"

22" x24"

Oil on wooden panel