Nikki Carr Artist

Layering up the mane on this beauty. This is the last bit of painting on this piece. I still have some more gold-leaf to add into the body of the horse - just to pick up where the sun catches his beautiful white coat. But I need to wait a few days for the paint to dry a little more before I can do that.

Private Commission - Oil and 24ct Gold Leaf, 80x70cm

Base layer now complete. I’ll let this one dry for a couple of days before adding more detail and depth of colour in the next layer. I use a little Winsor and Newton Liquin Original as a medium mixed with the oil paint so that it drys quickly - sufficient to paint over the top without disturbing the layer beneath. I’d love to know what other mediums people use to encourage faster drying? - let me know on the comments below….

Its just too hot! I’ve had enormous trouble painting today in the studio - so I just gave up and shifted onto the kitchen table where it’s cooler and made a start on a small charcoal commission. This is going to be such a cute portrait! All I’ve done on it so far is to sketch in the outshines and shapes so that I know I’ve got the proportions right. I’ll knock back most of these lines with my putty rubber so that they are barely visible before I start on the portrait properly. This helps me keep the background as clean as possible and not be all smudgy with charcoal 😂

4 hours painting in 90 seconds!
First one in a set of 3 mini swan gold-leaf paintings. This one is now almost finished. I need to leave it to be touch dry - then I will add small amounts of gold leaf to the neck and head of the swan where the white feathers are reflecting the warmest light - can’t wait to see the effect of this! 🤞 it will work!

Here you go - for all of you that requested a little close-up of the painting. And for those that thought it was a photograph - I hope it’s a bit more obvious that it’s really not! 🤣🤞

Reference photo by the very talented

Some progress from today - sooo close to finishing this piece.

TWO’S COMPANY oil on canvas, 80x70cm
(Reserved)
Fabulous reference photo courtesy of ❤️

Trying to paint around a beam of sunlight - totally magical!

Base-layer progress! This layer took me so much longer than usual - having Covid last week meant that I was working on it in small segments - when the brain fog lifted for an hour or two and I could actually focus on the canvas. Moving onward this week - hopefully refining this layer with more depth in the coat using lots of glazes.

In my happy place on a Friday afternoon. Have been feeling pretty rotten for the last couple of days with some kind of flu. But finishing of the gold leaf backgrounds on these mini swan paintings has put a smile on my face. I like to burnish the gold all over with a soft brush until it’s super smooth which is so addictive and calming - I could do it for hours whether it needed doing or not! 🤣 The final step is to varnish the leaf with a permanent (non-removable varnish) which will seal it and protect it before I start painting in oils. If the pieces were larger then I’d simply spray the entire surface and paint on top (which is why I use a non-removable varnish that won’t be dissolved by the solvent in mediums used with oil paint). If you have any questions post them below 👇 and I’ll do my best to answer them 😍

There’s something so mesmerising about watching a painting being varnished. Do you agree? I get the same sense of calm when I’m actually doing the varnishing - it’s the long, slow brushstrokes and the depth of colour that is suddenly revealed beneath the varnish. So satisfying.

I am thrilled that this set of mini paintings have all found new homes. I am just beginning to get started on my next little set - this time bringing back an old favourite - gold leaf! Pop over to my stories to see a small preview 😘

I am so excited to tell you that just maybe I will embark on painting another beautiful white horse on a gold-leaf background. The details aren’t quite decided yet but I’ll let you know! It will be slightly later in the year but I can’t wait! Who’s with me?

Details - all the fluffy details.

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First layer of this new commission is finally done!
The eye is the only part of the painting actually finished. I love painting the eyes but this one was particularly tricky - mainly because there was very little detail in the eye of the reference photo - it was just a lot of darkness and no apparent light or detail of the eyeball itself. So I searched around for some other references and put those together with a little understanding of how an eye reflects light and the shape/colours of a horse’s eye - and voila! I think it works - what do you think?

Private commission 60x60cm. Oil on canvas