Author Archives: claraniniewski

Waiting

2019, Oil on canvas, 61 x 76 cm Painted from life, this portrait is of a woman in a sensuous dark velevet dress who is waiting, lost in her thoughts. Her distant gaze alludes to a sense of wait, expectation and resignation. She is partly dreamy, partly sad, longing for something or someone who mayContinue reading “Waiting”

Two female portrait studies, from greyscale to colour

The first portrait I painted under the turtorship of Atul Vohora at Heatherley’s was a black and white study, or rather a study using grey tones, from very dark to very light, mixed out of black and white oil paints. Working in monochrome presented similarities with my previous printmaking project, and allowed me to create aContinue reading “Two female portrait studies, from greyscale to colour”

Girl In A Red Dress

2019, oil on stretched canvas, 30 x 40 cm [sold] Using a limited palette of primary colours, this oil portrait focuses on the Spanish girl’s red dress matching the red background and her distant gaze. The red of the dress and background allude to the woman’s youth, vitality and determination, in spite of her seaminglyContinue reading “Girl In A Red Dress”

Discovering Printmaking – Part 3: Monotype

After etching and aquatint, now is the time to share with you a third printmaking technique I learnt with Hilary Daltry at Heatherley’s: the monotype. Monotype is a printmaking technique which, unlike etching and aquatint, yields only one good impression from each plate before the ink is used up. This makes monotypes inherently unique. A monotype is made by drawing on glass or aContinue reading “Discovering Printmaking – Part 3: Monotype”

A break from painting: printmaking part 2: aquatint

After sharing my experience with hard ground etching (see my previous post on the traditional line etching technique here), now is the time to share with you my introduction to the Aquatint technique, during my printmaking project with Hilary Daltry at Heatherley’s. Aquatint is a type of etching technique developed at the end of the 18th century that produces a range of tones ratherContinue reading “A break from painting: printmaking part 2: aquatint”

A break from painting: discovering etching

Today I am writing about a very exciting project I had at Heatherley’s: a 3-week introduction to printmaking! Tutored by Hilary Daltry, we began with etching, a traditional printmaking process by which a design is incised onto a metal plate and further bitten into with strong acid or mordant. Images 1 and 2 above show how the design, a self-portrait, is created in intaglio (incised) usingContinue reading “A break from painting: discovering etching”