A look inside the artist’s sketchbook exploring the symbolic interpretations of birds and vessels. Mixed media artwork featuring gel plate printing, collage, pastel and conte crayons.
Tag: acrylic painting
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery Open 2026
“Portrait Gallery” by Rachel Crawshaw I was very pleased to hear that my submission for the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery Open 2026 was given “highly commended” at the opening on Saturday. I was unable to attend the opening but am looking forward to visiting the exhibition and witnessing in person all of the fantastic …
Grisaille technique
This month I continued my theme of vessels and flowers, but wanted to experiment with a slower process and a more traditional technique and style of painting. I decided to try out the Grisaille technique. This is a process where you create a greyscale underpainting first to establish light, shadow and tone before adding colour …
Tulips, vase and blackbird
In a previous post I shared with you a vase of flowers I’d captured in my sketchbook using colour pencils. Tulips sketch by Rachel Crawshaw I have since translated that drawing into a painting in acrylics, and on to it I have added the symbol of a blackbird. Receive joy by Rachel Crawshaw In the …
Painting of the Farne Islands
Rachel Crawshaw : The Farne Islands at sunset In this painting I used a photograph from a recent trip to Northumberland and the Farne Islands as inspiration. We went on a sunset cruise around the Farne Islands to see the local wildlife particularly seals, puffins, arctic terns, shags, gannets and other sea-birds. We managed to …
My recent paintings and some exciting news!
Hi, just thought I'd share with you today some of my recent artwork! First off we have a triptych of sheep in oils: These paintings were done simultaneously from the same palette, something I had not done before which was quite a challenge but I really like the results. The canvases are all 8 x …
Continue reading My recent paintings and some exciting news!
Bug painting
I have been doing a lot more detailed paintings recently, trying to achieve more hyper realistic effect. Here is one of my most recent paintings, it is based on a close up photograph of a grass hopper. Here is the photograph it is based upon: The photograph is by photographer Levon Biss (You can see …
What I’ve been up to PART 2: Blackburn Artists society
Over the past few months I have been attending the Blackburn Artists society on Thursday Evenings. Each week we are given a "theme" to work with from chickens to sky scrapers and we've recently been out on location drawing the amateur dramatics society during a live dress rehearsal! I've really loved attending Blackburn artists society …
Continue reading What I’ve been up to PART 2: Blackburn Artists society
Custom Paintings at RRandJ Designs
Did you know that I do custom paintings at RRandJ Designs? Here are some examples of custom paintings I have done for others... This is a watercolour of a Eurasian Jay that I did for a lovely customer who found me via my Instagram page ( Find rrandjdesigns on Instagram: HERE) This is a watercolour …
Toucan Painting
I have been doing a lot of water colour painting recently, so I decided for a change I would do a large acrylic painting. I had the idea to do some kind of tropical bird, I thought maybe a parrot or a flamingo, but whilst browsing images on Pinterest I spotted a photograph of a …
Mushroom Moon Designs 