The Rhinoceros Painting

Earlier this year I started my Rhino painting, it was something that I had been wanting to do for quite some time. I painted it quickly and rather rough, but I knew that it was not finished yet. I was just not sure which direction to take the painting in, so like many other paintings, it sat unfinished in the corner. 

I finally tackled the painting again and decided to darken the sky and make the colours richer.  I am now happy with the end result.

 Rhino

Acrylic on Canvas

 24 x 24"

610 x 610mm

After the rain

After a long period of drought we were finally blessed with an abundance of rain. This of course caused the landscape to change colour as new growth sprouted from the ground, little flowers popped up everywhere and everything looked so fresh and new.

While driving around the countryside my father and I came across a dairy farm where little yellow flowers turned the lands into a yellow carpet.  

Carpet of Yellow
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
10 x 14"
254 x 356mm

I just have to share this photo with you, this was one of the photographs taken that day.  The farmer told us that some of his Jersey cows provide 40 litres of milk per day.  Isn't she beautiful?

Cloudy day at home

I enjoy photography and often use it as a means of capturing a scene that I might want to paint later on.  Port Elizabeth is known as South Africa's windy city.  The weather can change in a moment and very often the wind will blow dark misty clouds in from the sea. One afternoon I grabbed the camera and took a photo of these dark clouds rolling in over my home.

I did not think I would want to paint this scene, until I looked at the photo.  I finally got to paint it today.

 Cloudy day at home

Acrylic on hardboard

30 x 30cm

Catch of the day!

It doesn't matter where your talent lies, or what you are good at, at some stage somebody is going to look at you and say, "You are so lucky, I wish I could draw!" Or paint, or cook or sew!  The point is that each and every one of us has something that we are good at.  But, we still have to practice.  I haven't painted in a while, so I have to get back into it by messing about and having fun with different styles and textures.

I paged through a travel magazine looking for something to paint and came across a photo of freshly caught fish.  So I thought what the heck, let me paint one.

Here is the result.

Blue Fish

Acrylic on board

30 x 30cm

You can purchase a print of this painting in my Zazzle shop.

Blue Fish by artbyvee

Old Friends

When I was about 14 years old, I won a set of oil paints in a local art competition.  I'll never forget that feeling and the smell of the oil paints as we were first introduced.

Once I was married and had children, I put away the oil paints and moved to water colours as they were easier to pack away at dinner time and there were no fumes that could make my children ill.  Then all the paints seemed to stay packed away as the children got bigger and life got busier.  Over the last few years I've painted again, but in acrylics.  But you never forget your old friend, your first love.

A few days ago I discovered my oil paints in the bottom of a cupboard, my heart started racing, my hands started shaking and I knew I had to try them out again.

I opened the tubes, squeezed out the rich colours onto the palette, mixed in the turps and oil and started to paint.  But nothing felt the same, the way the paint leaves the brush and sticks to the board is totally different to acrylics.  It was like speaking a language that you haven't used in a while, you know what you want to say, but the words don't come out right.

Patience and determination do pay off though and the result is this little painting of my son.



"Red Faced"
Oil on board        15 x 15 cm



Trying too hard

Sometimes we try too hard.  Instead of enjoying what we are doing, we are constantly wondering what people will be thinking.  We are trying to impress!  Let me explain.  Someone I know commissioned me to paint a portrait of his late brother.  This gentleman expects perfection.  So, in my attempt at perfection, I have been trying too hard to get the portrait to be 'perfect'.  The harder I try, the worse the painting gets. 

So today I decided to try some of the loose painting style I used yesterday on my self portrait.  I quickly primed a masonite board that I had, and without grids and precise pencil drawing I just went ahead and laid paint on the board.  In less than an hour I had a better likeness on the board than I did on the canvas after days of painting.  The painting is not complete, but since it was just an exercise I'm not too worried.

What now?  Well if I can do it on board without much effort, then I better get back to the canvas and do what I now know I can do.

Getting to know you.

I'm not sure how other portrait artists work, but for me it's a case of getting to know my subject a bit better.  If I've met my subjects then it's a bit easier to interpret them in my painting.  Sometimes I'm able to convey a little something that was not in the photo.  Then there are the times I'm required to paint purely from the photo, I can do that too, but then it just becomes a reproduction of the photo.  Maybe it sounds silly, but that's the way it works for me.

If the painting is of someone I've not met, I will ask for other photographs of them to see them from different angles etc.  I will try to find out more about the person's personality and so on.  All these things help me to create a portrait of the person, and not just a reproduction of the photo.

Odd One Out

This morning I added a photograph of the Cherry Guavas that grow between my yard and the neighbour's.  This afternoon I decided to paint them on a small canvas of 8"x10" (203x254mm). 

They were a lovely distraction from the large portrait that I'm working on and a chance to test out some acrylic retarder that I bought recently.

Acrylic paints dry quite quickly in our hot climate and when working on a large area that requires some blending, it would be great if I had a bit more time.  The Acrylic Retarder keeps the paint fluid long enough to do the blending.

Love to Paint

My name is Vanessa Bentley. I've been drawing and painting since I can first remember. I did art as a subject through school and went and studied art when I completed school as well.

However, getting married and having children slowed my art down. I've been a single parent since 1995 and that also put a damper on my painting. So I have not done many paintings over the years.

My children are now all grown up and over the last few years I started painting again. I will be sharing my past and current work with you in this blog. I hope you will enjoy what I have to offer.