Jennie's Recent Illustrations

New images added to my Sketchpad Blog…

14 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment

by Jennie in Uncategorized

Happy New Year!

Christmas was nice and settled this year, full of lazy days and chocolates, a lovely rest after all the busy preparations…

Here is a watercolour sketch I drew whilst sitting in a cafe in Blackpool – but which cafe? I wonder if anyone can tell just by the view. I have popped this and some other recent sketches onto my sketchpad blog… here is a link - http://jenniedrawing.wordpress.com/

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

22 Dec 2011 2 Comments

by Jennie in Uncategorized

… Have a lovely time everyone, Jen

For Sale: Original Watercolour, ‘North Pier, Blackpool’

17 Dec 2011 2 Comments

by Jennie in Uncategorized

… here is ‘North Pier, Blackpool’ © Jennifer McLaughlin 2011, it is being held by Julie at Fine Art and Frames, St.Annes, this is the original watercolour, now professionally glazed and framed with Silver Leaf Moulding. This original framed work is for sale at the independent gallery, Fine Art and Frames, St.Annes and costs £245. The framed piece of original artwork measures 16.25″ by 20.25″. Here is a link to Fine Art and Frames, St.Annes http://www.fineartandframes.co.uk/, Fine Art and Frames is located at 9b Park Road, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire.

Aberaeron Harbour, Acrylic on Canvas

12 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment

by Jennie in Uncategorized

‘Aberaeron Harbour’ Acrylic on deep sided canvas – I used a combination of brush and palette knife for this piece of work.

Having Fun with Abstracts

12 Dec 2011 4 Comments

by Jennie in Uncategorized

This is something very new to me and rather exciting.

Different influences have come together to encourage me to have a go at some abstract paintings:

- I have taught Abstracts to adults who have difficulties with fine motor skills and the results have been very encouraging and rewarding.

- I also noticed the wonderful variety of Artwork on display in the Grundy Art Gallery and admired the freedom in the Abstract pieces of work.

- I wanted to paint on a canvas with watercolours but the medium I had purchased to enable me to do so did not work, so I started painting with acrylics on canvas and was dismayed by my colours becoming muddy, so I wanted to find a technique that enabled me to keep the colours as fresh and vibrant as possible  - I also wanted to see if painting with a palette knife would loosen up my technique in acrylic and enhance the colours….

… and the result was this green Abstract experiment – it’s just a little piece on a small box canvas. I was very excited by the mark making the palette knife could produce –  it’s just an experiment but was great fun to create -

I decided to call this little experiment ‘Turning Point’ and pop it on the wall in my studio to remind me to keep my colours fresh in my paintings.

Here’s my second Abstract – this was requested by my daughter because she liked ‘Turning Point’ but wanted a little box canvas abstract with reds and oranges… it didn’t work for a while until I started to think about her and what a lovely personality she has. I also thought about the Autumn colours and how fast the Winter has arrived, so here is the second Abstract – we have been debating what to call this one, again it’s on a little box canvas… I thought perhaps it should be called ‘The Winter Comes so Quickly’ but my daughter thought it could be called ‘Blooming Frost’

So these are two tiny little abstract experiments – great fun to create!

Winter Light is now Sold

12 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment

by Jennie in Uncategorized

I am very grateful for a recent purchase of one of my pieces of work – Winter Light – here is an image:

Winter Light was painted after a visit to a local farm in the Winter… it must have been the winter of late 2005 / early 2006… in fact as I can remember the Children enjoying a photograph with the Reindeer it must have been December 2005! We walked around the farm in the low winter sunlight. I turned a corner and saw a group of white Ducks. There was a beautiful quality to the light as it fell on the ducks that inspired me to paint the scene.

I painted the scene using Alkyd Oils on a deep sided canvas. The painting was accepted to be exhibited at the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art in 2006.

The Blackpool Art Fair 2011

21 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment

by Jennie in Uncategorized

I popped along the the first day of the Blackpool Art Fair 2011 on Saturday. It is a lovely exhibition. I wanted to take photographs, but there was a little picture of a camera with a big line through it in the gallery, so I left my camera in my bag and took photos outside instead…. here’s Blackpool Library (it’s nice – it’s just had a big re-vamp and has some super stained glass windows) Next to the library is the Grundy Art Gallery…

Here is the Grundy Art Gallery…

The exhibition is lovely, it’s very friendly and informal with a lively mix of work from leisure painters, professional artists, 3D artists and so forth… there are even some of the houses from the Blackpool model village, with a glass cabinet full of figures from the model village and a working cable car kids can operate … the artwork styles range from realistic to abstract and experimental, and there is even one piece which is a large painting of a blackpool football player (in the Tangerine kit) with a hole for people to put their faces through as the Tangerine Army did rather well last year. (The Tangerine Army is the local term for Blackpool’s football team).

My painting is also in the exhibition, I was excited to spot it in a good position next to a painting with lovely pink colours. I have put the piece up for sale, I decided upon £200 to cover expenses and hours of work … it’s really difficult deciding upon a price, though weeks of sketches and preparation also went towards creating  the piece I didn’t want to price the piece too high as we are in such a nasty recession… here’s a little image of the painting, ‘Blackpool Beach’;

The exhibition is on until the 14th of January 2012 – here’s a link – The Blackpool Art Fair

Guest Lecturer

17 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment

by Jennie in Uncategorized

I would like to say thank you to the Literacies for Life Foundation Degree at Blackpool and the Fylde College for inviting me to deliver a session on Illustration; Enhancing the Readability of Text. I delivered the session on Wednesday and would like to add that the students were all very keen, a joy to teach.

I don’t usually mention my role as a lecturer on this blog because when I teach I am wearing my ‘other hat’ (so to speak), but as I am mentioning this today, I would also like to add a thank you to all the students I have had the pleasure of teaching part time over the years, you have all been super.

Jennie

BA MA PGCE