We have been very lucky here in Newbiggin by the Sea with the weather. We've had some warm, sunny days that have allowed myself and my partner John Graham, to get out on our bikes for a couple of hours and cycle along the coast. After 7 weeks of limited movement during the Covid-19 lockdown, getting back out to enjoy our beautiful Northumberland coastline again was wonderful. Here I share some photos of that day plus photos of recent artworks in progress or completed. Finally, a bird rarity to Newbiggin! Newbiggin in the sunLast week we went out for a bike ride along the coast. We cycled up to Beacon's Point, which is a popular spot for birdwatchers, being that it turns up rarities from time to time. It was a warm day and we sat on the cliff edge for a while before heading towards Lynemouth power station in the search for Flycatchers and Whinchats. We walked along the path at the side of the golf course which is covered in gorse bushes and an ideal place for birds to nest. This was where John once photographed a Red-spotted Bluethroat. A rarity which attracted a large group of photographers from miles around who set up their cameras on the beach and waited for hours in the hope they got a look, some did, others wasn't so lucky (me included) The latest rarity that turned up in Newbiggin can be found at the bottom of this blog. 'On the Easel' - Kingfisher in AcrylicsI have had some relaxing evenings in the studio recently. Having set my sights on completing some of my unfinished paintings which have been sitting on the shelf for a while, I got the paints back out. The Kingfisher painting is a simple composition, but this is what makes it so effective. This bird overpowers its drab surroundings so extra detail is not really needed. The wooden post was created using a mix of paint and texture gel and the raindrops added at the end helped to frame the bird perfectly. This is a 9" x 12" acrylic painting which is available for sale framed or unframed. You ca see some framed examples below. Get in touch for details about purchasing this painting. The reference image used for this painting was taken by John last year. Being surrounded by open fields and small, woodland areas, there is always an abundance of wildlife. The Kingfisher momentarily posed on the wooden post early one morning, giving John enough time to capture a few images, before it departed. 'On the Easel' - Bullfinch & Apple Blossom acrylic paintingThis painting was created using two reference images, the Bullfinch and the blossom. There is a cycle path close to home, which has a long row of apple blossom trees where you often see Bullfinches. Although I was able to get photos of the trees in blossom, I was not lucky enough to get a Bullfinch posing at the same time and so used one of John's Bullfinch images. This is an 8" x 8" acrylic painting which will be available for sale upon completion, either framed or unframed. Contact me for details about purchasing this portrait. What a find!John was extremely lucky one morning to capture a glimpse of the stunning European Bee-Eater as it flew over a lake close to home. Although it was a long way off, there is no mistaking the Bee-Eater with its long beak and vibrant colours. Although there have been sightings of Bee-Eaters around the country, this is the first time a Bee-Eater has been seen in Newbiggin by the sea.
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It has been a while since I posted on my News page as it has been very busy here in the studio and I completed my final Chesterfield Art Workshop of this year in August and so I thought I would share some of my recent Acrylic paintings with you. I currently have a list of works to start and others to finalise and more shelves have been put up in the studio to house all my portraits. I prefer to work between portraits as well as swapping mediums, as this works better for me and so there are currently 20 portraits in progress stages, more nearing completion than those in the early stages. Here are 3 of my recent works that I have not yet shared within the pages of my website: Amethyst Sunbird on Red Hot PokerSince finding the talented Scotch Macaskill's Reference photos website, I have been inspired to get back to my first love in Art which is Birds. Scotch is an amateur photographer who lives in South Africa and captures whatever photos of South African Wildlife that he can whilst on Safari with whatever camera he has to hand at the time. I have chosen many reference images from his site and these paintings when complete, will be added to a new website purely depicting all my Wildlife Art, mostly Acrylic work but some Coloured pencil portraits too. I will keep you up to date with this new website but suspect it will be sometime next year when it is up and running as I have a lot of paintings to create yet! Here is one of the first Sunbirds I am working on. It is a male Amethyst feeding on a Red Hot Poker flower also known as a Torch Lily. Hibiscus FlowerI have had the ideal composition photograph of a Red Hibiscus flower for many years and knew I would create it in Art at some point. I chose the Acrylics for such a subject as their vibrancy would be ideal for such a colourful subject. I applied some tiny blobs of Molding Paste to areas where there were water droplets on the flower and as I already had a gold frame for this portrait, decided to change the colour of the flower to yellow, although the portrait is not yet finished and I may yet change my mind again! This is progress so far along side my little pots of pre-mixed colours that I use for this and a few other paintings I have on the go. Haze the Black Labrador - Progress so far in the first 4 stagesAs we have 4 dogs - 3 Labradors & a Springer Spaniel who love splashing around in the water when we take them out on walks, I wanted to do 4 separate portraits of each and as I enjoy the challenge of painting water, I picked out 4 of my favourite photos that we have captured of them over the years. I have already completed the Springer Spaniel Casper, and this is Haze, the daft Labrador of the bunch! The slideshow below shows current progress of this painting in 4 stages. The background is always the first thing I work on and the main subject can then be finalised afterwards.
Thanks for viewing and I hope you found this post interesting, Feel free to 'like' or leave us a comment below! Have a lovely day, Karen :) Good Golly, Miss Molly! - A pretty little Dachshund girl amongst Cherry Blossoms Acrylic ArtIn between Commissions, I will pick the paintbrushes up and work on a Non-Commission portrait. The first one is of a gorgeous little Black Dachshund dressed up for her photo op in the Cherry Blossoms which I thought would make a stunning painting and after Molly's Mum gave me the green light to use her reference photo, I chose a square 12" x 12" canvas size and set to work. This is quite a technical piece as usually I will begin with the background ensuring it is 95% complete before beginning the subject itself but as there is so much detail in the background and some overlap onto Molly herself, I am doing a little bit of to-ing and fro-ing, it also breaks up the monotony of all those pink petals which can make you 'blind' to detail if I stare at something for too long. I purchased a frame for it a while back and chose the detailed yet understated 'BROCKWELL' black frame (priced at £45) mainly to set those pinks off well but also as a compliment to Molly's colouration ensuring both the frame and flowers will not overpower Molly once complete. There are many more hours to do but I will post here when I have further updates so do keep checking back regularly or you can follow me on my Facebook page at Karen M Berisford's Artworld. 'Summertime Boy' - An Acrylic painting of our Yellow Labrador 'Storm' relaxing in the evening sunshineWe have 4 dogs ( 3 Labradors & a Springer Spaniel) and 2 birds (Ringneck Parakeet & a Cockatiel) I wanted to create some small paintings of each to hang at the top of our stairs, so I opted for an 8" x 10" size and picked favourite images of each dog in the same type of stance ( head to the side) with a 'foliage' background to match. I began with our Yellow Labrador Storm, and loosely applied the background colours as a base which can look rather messy at this stage but then I tidy it up and create a softer balance of tones, I then move on to the main subject. In the reference photo, there is a lot of sun shining on the right side of the body and some of his natural colour has been lost due to the need to lighten up a dark photo and so I decided to work from another photo of him to add a more natural colour to his fur and to soften the harsh glow of the sun somewhat. I chose the ASHGATE frame (priced at £40) to compliment all the portraits as it is a tonal colour of silver/gold which would match the warm browns in the Yellow Labrador & the Liver Springer and the silver tones would suit the Black Labradors and the neutral colours (greys/whites) of my 2 Birdies also. I will keep updating this blog with progress as and when, understandably I have a lot to do with 6 paintings but I think they'll look beautiful together once all framed and hung!
Feel free to share this post or leave a comment below if you wish! Thanks for reading and have a great day! Karen
to the Jaguar itself, applying every single hair individually with a very fine brush. This fur layering process will probably take around 3 layers to get the right balance of tone and level of detail that I like to add into my work and I break up the intensity of the application by switching to different sections of the painting throughout, it also avoids paint waste as Acrylics can dry quickly so I ensure I place smaller amounts in the paint palette that will be used up before starting with a different range of tones for the next section. There is a lot of small detail on this painting and so it will take a good few hours to complete but I think you'll agree it is a beautiful subject!
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Buddy the Springer Spaniel - 11" x 14"Buddy's portrait was created using 5 different photographs. The body taken from this photo, the head from another, the tail from a third, the background from a fourth and some of the background flowers from a fifth image, all cut and pasted together to create the mock up of the reference image. Doing this can throw a whole lot of problems into the mix as different images can have different lighting, luckily I was able to ensure the correct balance as I was provided with lots of great quality photos that i could pull detail from. As you would suspect the grass took the longest as each blade of grass was applied individually and this was done in 3 layers so individually repeated 3 times! |
"I'm sitting looking at Buddy in pride of place on the wall, photo attached! It is absolutely lovely and it had the desired effect on Steve when he unwrapped - there were tears!! Everyone that has seen it has said how amazing it is with the amount of fine detail and so Buddy. If I manage to get a decent photo of Buddy next to it I will send it on! Thank you once again, it is lovely to have a painting of Buddy forever."
Esther
Dudley the Springer Spaniel - 9" x 12" in AcrylicsThis was a lovely composition but a tiny photo meaning that it pixelated when zooming in and the detail was lost in the face, especially around the eyes. The Commissionee loved the composition so much that I decided to see what I could do and asked if she could send some close up photos of Dudley taken in a less sunny environment and using all the photos together, I elaborated on the background/foreground somewhat and toned down the colouration on his head whilst still keeping the favoured stance. This was a challenge but I really loved the composition too and was happy with the final painting. |
"Just wanted to let you know that mum loves her portrait and we all cried our eyes out when we first saw it. What you've done is so special and we couldn't have asked for a better painting to remember him by. It captures his brilliant personality so well. I'll definitely be recommending you to my spaniel loving friends!
Picture of framed painting to follow soon!
Andrea xx."
The Commissionee only had a few photos of Kita who they had recently lost and so I was limited to flash photos. This image was a nice pose but as flash distorts natural colour I had to guess the balance by using online photos as reference. The image was slightly blurry up close but I found that I was able to apply a lot of fine detail simply by being aware of the fur shortness and the final portrait was far more detailed than I thought possible due to the quality of the photo. The final painting was framed in a lovely black frame which helped Kita's portrait to stand out. |
"Hi Karen, I just wanted you to know that I absolutely love my painting of Kita. Thank you so much, you have done the most amazing portrait of him. He was my best friend and my little boy and the painting has been hung in the living room so we can all admire him everyday! Thank you again xx"
Diarmid E-mailed me a great photo of himself, his girlfriend Max and their little French Bulldog Kyla stood in front of the famous red phone box from the film 'Local Hero' when they visited Pennan in Aberdeenshire. As the phone box only covered half the background and the other half would add nothing to the composition it was decided to leave the background out completely and simply write 'Pennan' in the corner of the portrait. As mobile phone images tend to 'flatten' detail, the fineness of the Coloured pencils brought back the sharpness of detail and I really enjoyed creating this portrait - I always love a challenge! |
"Hi Karen , Hope you had a lovely Christmas. Wanted to drop you a note to say that Max absolutely loved the portrait! She couldn't believe how well you'd captured the detail from the photo and was thrilled to pieces! We've already recommended you to friends and family and am sure we'll use your amazing skills again in the the future. Have a great New Year!! Diarmid"
This portrait was the last drawing I completed for Christmas and depicts 2 Bearded Collie's called Pyppa (L) & William (R) completed in Coloured pencils. I had taken some photos of them both a year earlier but as William (R) is a rather nervous little boy, I struggled to get any close ups of him. trying to distinguish between them after a year was a challenge too! I was provided with a few great quality photos which I could also use to add in their eyes a little more too. |
"Thank you so much for my beautiful portrait, you've really excelled yourself this time, its amazing!"
"I just wanted you to know that I absolutely love my painting of Kita. You have done the most amazing portrait of him, he was my best friend and my little boy. I love him so much and the painting of him has been put up in the living room so we can all admire him everyday!!!
Thank you again" xx
Rachel
Karen, I was the lucky one to receive this beautiful painting. I can't tell you what a lovely gift it is, thank you so much for capturing Willow's character so well. I absolutely love it, it's beautiful and one to be treasured for many years to come.
Victoria D.M
Murphie - Large Traditional Heart Memorial portrait
"Murphie arrived home safe and sound this afternoon and what can I say. The photos were fantastic but she is even better now I can see her in "close up". I always knew it would be hard to lose Murphie after having her in my life for 20 years but I didn't fully appreciate just how big of a hole she would leave behind. Your painting has given me little bit of my girl back and I can't seem to tear my eyes away from it at the moment. I attach a photo so that you can see that she arrived unscathed and thank you again for everything. You made the process so easy from start to finish and you took good care of my girl and have created a truly fitting memorial to her and for that I am so grateful" |
Bailey - 10" x 12" Coloured pencil pet portrait
" Bailey just arrived! Well, about 15 minutes of tape removal ago. We are so chuffed! Bailey was loved by all of us, but loves my husband best, he was over the moon! We are blessed by your talent!
I just love him! Thank you so much! xxxx"
Obe - 11" x 14" Boxer Dog Acrylic painting
Acrylic Portraits
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If you wish to view more of my pencil works, you can find more in the COLOURED PENCIL GALLERY
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