Sophie Ploeg

Had a great photo shoot today, with a huge piece of antique lace. Cannot wait to get started on painting it all.

The summer break is nearly over and the kids will head back to school. Although I have been painting a little during the summer months it is hard to find the time. So soon I am diving right back into it. I'm doing a little warm up with a small (tiny!) painting, enjoying some rich colours, painting deep blue velvet. I think I am nearly using all of my blues (which is probably a mad thing to do, so much for a limited palette) but it is really letting me get re-aquainted with my blues. For a lot of my work bright high-chroma colours are of little use and I either spent time toning them down or I use ready-mixed greyed tints, but sometimes it is so much fun to indulge in sheer colour! I am trying out my newly purchased Cerulean blue, which is a lovely greenish colour. I finally found use for my Vasari Video Blue, which in most situations is way too strong for me. The same goes for Cobalt Blue - it only rarely sees its cap taking off. I definitely want to try Vasari's or Mussini...

Photo by Gareth Iwan Jones Taken for the article in Artists & Illustrators Magazine, August 2012 about painting drapery. See this blog post about the article in Artists & Illustrator’s Magazine. Artists & Illustrator’s Magazine also published the article as a four-part series on their website . 

My palette in my palette box. I close the box (sealed with insulation tape) whenever I have to stop painting and the paint stays wet a little longer - ready for the next painting session. I have tried many palette setups and this is the latest one. The Masterson palette box is a favourite as well but it doesn’t seal as well as a wooden box. I often use disposable palettes but am now trying a glass one. I am not one for cleaning my palette very often (as I continually paint on and off throughout the day and evening depending on the demands of family life) but I imagine I’ll have to clean this glass one at some stage! I would like to try a traditional wooden kidney palette one day but again, am not sure the cleaning issue will make it suitable for me. I’ve seen palettes that you can put vertically, next to your painting which seems a great idea (the closer it is to your painting the easier it is to judge what colour or tone to choose/mix). At the moment the glass palette in wooden box ...

Excuse the title of this blog post...my children are Star Wars mad.... Here is a sneak peek of a work in progress, depicting black lace. It is part of a larger painting of about 45x35cm, exploring the textures of black lace. After having painted a few paintings with cream-coloured lace it is a very interesting process to paint black lace. The technique is the same but, as always, values are key. Although I rarely use black paint straight from the tube (I mainly use it for mixing) I have been experimenting with it and found it a tricky paint to use on its own. I have ivory black and recently bought some lamp black which is a slow drying, deep cool black (of course besides ivory and lamp black, there is also mars black which I’ll try and purchase soon). The funny thing with both is that is dries up quite mat, which lightens the value visually. That makes it, for me, a difficult paint to work with as you can only see what you’ve done when it is dry or oiled out/varnished. Of course ...

My Artists Materials shop Jackson’s has featured me as a guest artist on their blog: http://blog.jacksonsart.co.uk/2012/02/27/guest-artist-sophie-ploeg/ For which I thank them very much!! I hope you find it an interesting read. Let me know if you have any questions or comments! Here is the text: The Guest Artist section is a place for artists to talk about their work, techniques and materials. I am sure that one artist explaining how they solved a problem will help other artists and I hope that a community evolves where artists will assist each other with their artistic dilemmas, share ideas and technical information as well as make connections and give each other friendly support. To join the conversation please add your comment below. It will be great to have some interaction! Here today to share her art with us is  Sophie Ploeg  who paints in Gloucestershire, UK. Thanks Sophie! 'Autumn' by Sophie Ploeg, oil on canvas (Click on the images to se...