#189 Sprig of Larch

Back from our mini holiday deep into the Forest of Dean, well the edge of it, but we did go deep into it yesterday in the caves! The colour of the rocks was so vivid in some areas the red ochre really got my colour gland going (the colour gland is located just under each eye if you were wondering!). Imagine my delight when, coming out of the caves past displays of digging tools, old miners boots and the like, how I wanted to take some of those to paint, I saw a whole shelf of red ochre pigment made from the iron oxide from the caves I had just been through....then underneath those was a selection of little bits of minerals from the caves, which is what I painted. Anyway, that was yesterday, today I have painted this little sprig of larch tree which fell right next to where we had our breakfast this morning. It belonged to the tree we have been camping under over the last two nights so seemed a good object to paint when I got home, so I did. Oil on Gesso, 16cm x 12cm.

#188 Iron Oxide

This is a painting of a piece of iron oxide from Clearwell Caves. Made using iron oxide pigment, also from Clearwell Caves. Go on, guess where I have been! Oil on gesso, 16cm x 12cm.

#187 Mushroom

This rather dry, unappealing mushroom has been in the studio since day #182, I was going to use it to cut in half for the halfway day paintings but didn't. I painted it this morning when I got up because we are going away over the weekend and it was there and as I hadn't had much of my day yet! I will still be painting over the weekend and will find a way to post it here. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#186 Dwarf French Bean

This dwarf french bean is just about the longest thing I could get away with, following the strict yet occaisionally flexible, 'Dan Young, Daily' rulebook. It's nice when you all know what I've had for my evening meal, well this time you know what I had a last night and I just fancied painting it today! Oil on gesso 16cm 12cm.

#185 Pencil Eraser

I do like an object that is completely out of context! This is one of those little rubbers (erasers) you get stuck to the end of pencils that usually either break off when you first use it, rip the paper when you first use it or leave a greasy mark when you first use it. This one broke off completely, I don't know when, I stumbled across it today whilst clearing up the front room. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#184 Packing Materials

I have used a lot of these three items over the last 184 days, from left; packing tape, cardboard and bubble wrap. Today I have been to the post office to send off a big batch of paintings (I am afraid I got a little behind due to being stupendously busy). There was a lot of cut off bits of tape card and bubble all around so, I thought I would paint some of them for your veiwing pleasure. I am looking forward to the irony of packing this painting up to send out. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#183 Half a Tomato

As promised, another object cut in half to celebrate the mid-way point in my painting endurance challenge. I have always been drawn to the red and green colour contrast more than any other so, fruit (and or veg) like this tomato always appeal to my colour eye with a green stem still attached, which is not easy when you are cutting it in half. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#182 Half a Lemon

Well here we are, half way. I would like to say a hello and a thank you to everyone who has been following the project from the beginning, or from whenever you found it. I know it's a hard slog but please do stay with me over the next six months as I continue my painting challenge. I am thoroughly enjoying sharing my painterly endeavors with you all and am utterly amazed at how far around the world my little project has gone. I have sold paintings to Slovenia, America, China as well as up and down the United Kingdom. I also see people are following from Australia, Canada, South Africa, most of Europe to mention a few.

So, here is a painting of half a lemon to commemorate getting to the half way point. I will begin the second half of the project tomorrow by painting another object cut in half, but I am not sure what it is yet. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#181 Bee

I have been pretty much surrounded by these little fellas for most of the day. Burrowing bees have decided to make their home underneath the area where I am building steps to the vegetable garden, so I tend to disturb them a little when I dig out the foundations. This one had died of natural causes over night! Oil on gesso 16cm x12cm click here to bid.

I getting very excited about tomorrow and Monday, not only because it is a glorious bank holiday weekend. It is alo the halfway point in my painting challenge. Half of 365 is actually 182.5 so I intend to celebrate the half way point by painting one half of an object on Sunday #182 and then paint the other half on Monday #183.

#180 Strap Hanger

This strap hanger, used on the back of larger pictures to hook onto heavy duty picture hooks really has nothing to fo with putting the degree show up this week because no-one chose to hang their pictures this way. Shame really as I have only just got to terms with using the stupid things! Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#179 Picture Hook

It was 110 days ago on day #69 when I painted a single nail picture hook that was taken out of the wall and encrusted with paint. This double nail brass plated picture hook (no3) was one i found in my box of things 'n' tools at work and thought it a perfect object for degree show week tool 'n' equipment series of paintings. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#178 Mini Screwdriver

The next degree show hanging tool; this tiny screwdriver, perfect for opening tins of paint, shame I found it today really as we finished most of the painting on Monday. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#177 Bradawl

Second in my week of degree show related objects is this bradawl. Otherwise known as a bodger, little pointy thing or wall stabber. I like the old wooden handle types best but I do admire the unnecessary over design of the handle on these modern ones. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.

#176 Mirror Plate

We have started to hang the students degree show at the Fine Art Department at the University of Gloucestershire (plug). I had always intended to paint a mirror plate this week at some point and I found this one with pink paint on it this morning and pocketed it straight away for painting this evening. A mirror plate is a clever fixing for attaching paintings to the walls. We will be using an awful lot of them over the next few days as we fix lots of pictures to walls. Oil on gesso 16cm x 12cm.