Microscope slides

Recently, I've been neglecting to post my new etsy additions to this blog, so I'm adding a group of pictures today. These two paintings are abstract impressions of microscope slides of rock thin sections. I spent lots of time looking at such things when I was a geology student, and it was one of my favourite parts of the course (drawing fossils was another one; I was obviously doing the wrong course!). The colours you'll see in rock slides are intense - it's like looking at a stained glass window - and under cross-polarized light they change as you rotate the microscope stage, so that they transform through violet, intense blue, turquoise, orange, pink, lemon yellow, etc. These pictures are in acrylics with oil pastel, and are a good size (16 x 20 inches).
These are available at my etsy shop, at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/66836354/microscope-slide-1-original-mixed-media
and http://www.etsy.com/listing/66836740/microscope-slide-2-original-mixed-media

Geological abstracts

I've now finished my two geological abstracts. They were great fun to paint and took me away from the colours I tend to use. The first makes me think of a wild autumn wind, and is based on a microscope slide of a rock from the Ross of Mull in Scotland. The second painting is of a garnet-containing rock in Central Europe, and gives the feeling of spiralling into a gemstone. I've posted them both on etsy now, plus detailed views of parts of the pictures.
These are available at
http://www.etsy.com/listing/59729952/geological-abstract-1-small-original-oil
and
http://www.etsy.com/listing/59730899/geological-abstract-2-small-original-oil

Work in progress

Here's a view of two abstract oil paintings I'm working on just now. The left-hand one should be ready to add to my etsy shop soon. I'm not quite sure where the right-hand one is going yet. (Or perhaps I should just treat the drawing board as an abstract painting?)

They're both autumnal tinted pictures based on tiny parts of images from my collection of photos of rock and mineral microscope slides. These provide inspiration for all sorts of paintings and have great colour combinations.

(I've just realized that if you click on one of my blog images a large-size version pops up.)