Gilly Huber | Artist

A month since my last ‘blog’ and I’m still working on commissions! It really is wonderful that people are liking my work enough to ask me to paint something specifically for them and that they give me the freedom to interpret their wishes almost any way that I want.

I completed the three canvases of little birds a couple of weeks ago and they’ve been extremely well received. My client took them home for the weekend (as yet unvarnished and unframed) to show her family, and also invited me into her home to see where she was planning on displaying them. I have them back now allowing the next few months for them to be fully dry before I give them a protective coat of varnish, and then they’ll be framed to the client’s requirements. They all look very cute and engaging.

Immediately those were finished, I began the portrait of the Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps. That was a very interesting exercise with the badges and shoulder pips and the Same Browne belt and all the folds and pockets of the Army tunic. I also created a background very different from my usual out-of-focus blurriness. I started doing that but it just didn’t look right, so ended up slashing pastel strokes and lightly blending and it has really given a dynamic feel to the portrait. Sometimes one just has to go with one’s instincts!

The subject of the portrait is thrilled with the result and has given permission for that portrait, and the earlier one of his Royal Navy niece, to be displayed on my website. So watch out for those, whenever dear daughter can manage to install them. He also completely flabbergasted me by announcing that he wants me to do TWO MORE portraits for him!!! That will make five! These will be of himself in dress uniform, and then one of his father. For an artist who really is not overly confident about painting portraits, I feel very humble that he thinks enough of the results to commission so many.

Right now I’m in the middle of a riverscape in oils which will be a companion to one already purchased, then I have a 10 month old baby to paint before I start on the ones mentioned above. This should keep me out of mischief until Xmas, at least!

Oh, and the drought was broken last week when one of my paintings sold at Pastel Society Exhibition, so I was really happy about that. Trigg Exhibition happens this weekend and then Mazenod after that, so let’s hope the trend continues. And I have so many ideas in my head about other paintings I wish to work on - I’m hankering to do something really LARGE that will take months of intricate work. Perhaps, when I’ve completed the riverscape, I’ll be able to start thinking about that as I don’t have another oils commission in the immediate future. All the portraits, of course, are in pastels. I would love to try an oil portrait, of course, but I’m too scared to try that out on a commission. I once did a self-portrait but that was in the ‘old’ technique and I was never really happy with it. But I’m not sure if I’m skilful enough to try one in my ‘new’ technique yet. I think I need more practise before I attempt anything so challenging.

Very sadly, this past month, our little art community has lost two dear people, both of whom I considered good friends. Max Ward, President of Pastel Society for many years, finally succumbed to non-Hodgkins lymphoma after a long and determined battle. He was such a cheerful, positive soul and we"ll all miss his wonderful sense of humour. And last week our lovely Pam from Baskerville Art Group passed peacefully away at the age of 93 years. She had a wonderful life and had been here in the Valley since 1923 so was full of stories of growing up here and how the history of the Valley has changed throughout her lifetime. Both will be very much missed. 

Beautiful weather here today and off out this afternoon for a family gathering so no painting today.