It wasn’t just the coastline that was tangled!

Seven weeks ago I thought I was going to have to call in past commissions and sold paintings to help make up the numbers for the exhibition at the Castle. The  Willoughby Gallery is a large space with lovely white walls and huge windows, but for the meantime this was just the back up plan.  I had to see how the next few weeks panned out.

I never saw myself as the temperamental artist, but the strong focus distorted my usual day to day life as the guilt of not pulling my weight at home against the pressure of time and sorting the tangle in my brain took over.  However what did really work for me was having the new fresh uncomplicated space at the barn studio.  It is impressively lofty and incredibly peaceful, so when there I could entirely focus on the job in hand.

Another dilema.. this isn’t supposed to be a job. I didn’t want to paint to please the public, but remain true to myself and paint what I felt but as someone pointed out, it’s a vocation and Graeme letting me use the space has helped me fulfill this and I DO KNOW how lucky I am. This deliberate stance to paint what I felt mattered to me at that moment meant there were lots of varied styles as well as different surfaces, sizes and framing and this all sort of came back and bit me on the bum when it came to hanging, but after four solo shows I’m getting the hang of it now.

What some might call pressure I think I might call, shutting off the world for moments; letting others take responsibility and allowing myself  the time to really focus the ideas; work out solutions and let new ideas breath and develop.  And boy did they come!  I have to say at this stage that my husband might not agree with this as I certainly put a ‘load’ on him, but it needed to be. I now understand the solitude of art practice and how the creative mind is so underused but also so vast if it’s allowed to breath.  It really felt like it was 75% of my brain in a very physical way.

It was still very important to me to get the full experience from my surroundings, so I was up some days with first light and out with the ink sketches which enables me to lose the unnecessary, but focus on the important structure of the painting and sift through the finer detail.  Having the ideas, I needed the studio space to work how ways of how to express what I saw and felt and each piece required a different approach for me which kept it fresh, lively and exciting. I used oil on board, acrylic like watercolour mixed with inks on canvas, bright flourescents,  lots of different mediums, sprays, rollers, sponges, and of course my hands.

The resulting exhibition was made up of over 20 originals, some ink sketches and a selection of my art prints.

Read more about this in following posts to come. Purposely omitted any pictures here. The words were too important.

 

Reworking some old boards with surprising results.

Last summer whilst at the barn studio, I played around with oil bars. Big thick chubby sticks of solid oil colour that were cumbersome and either too soft or too hard. I used them by scraping off colour with a palette knife and applying it directly to the board.

It was what I called painting interludes, the little play paintings with colour and ideas that required little concentration or thought and I was quite pleased with them at the time.

After Christmas to get back into the swing after quite a break from painting, I looked at them again and had completely fallen out of love with them.  They didn’t reflect the quality of the oilbar and looked contrived, so I mixed some traditional oils and reworked them.

What a refreshing start to the year!… new ideas, new approach and looser work.  I’m thinking it might have been inspired by what was underneath, so it wasn’t time wasted and that this approach works well for  me.  It’s like the foundations or scaffolding to a controlled idea in which I then have the confidence to lay over something far more painterly.

I had trouble finding the reworked version of lightness and fullness as it had changed so radically. I hunted everywhere before I found a little glimpse of green that suggested it’s previous life.

So here they are, the before and afters. (left = before and right = after)

Brooding skies and infinity of the seascape

Magenta Nights

summer warmth

sunshine and showers small oil on board.

Lightness and fullness

pink summer seas

 

 

Tom’s home. I need a new Art Studio!

When our eldest son asked if he could move back in for the summer, my first thought was ‘where am I going to paint?’.  I’ve been using his room as my studio for five years now and it’s more than a little paint flecked.

But always an opportunist, I came up with a great idea that could really expand my art practice, take it forward and give me focused time and space to paint… to ask my brother if I could use one of the barns at the farm.

He thought it was a great idea.  Currently full of furniture and other stuff in need of storage, I think it was a good opportunity for him to take stock too and have a sort out.  It’s a huge space, one of many barn rooms high in a farm courtyard.  Stone built some two or three hundred years ago, they are incredible. Graeme, my brother had them renovated a few years ago, replacing rotten roof timbers and reslating with original local slate with new windows.

Courtyard entrance, used to be a working farm yard

View from studio window

Side view towards barn.

Studio door entrance

This barns original use was as a mill room with corn storage on one side, more storage further through and underneath animal pens.I hadn’t really bargained on the strength of memory and emotion I would feel when entering the barn again after probably 35 years. I’ve walked past it many a time, but it wasn’t until I actually went over the slate threshold, that the  strong memories came flooding back.

My dad in the farming years used the tractor to drive a belt that worked the millstone to grind the corn for winter animal feed which was collected down below. I can remember sitting in the tractor seat when this was working and helping push the feed out into the hopper, running down the stairs to make sure it was coming out the other end. The smells were warm and musky and the dust golden in the autumn light that filtered through the door. Graeme and I and Helen used to jump off the step into the corn, wade through it and bury ourselves while filling our wellie boots.  It was like our own version of the modern ball pit.

The barn now has velux windows which makes it really light and airy with a lofty ceiling.  There is a great sense of history and place here with a lovely positive soothing peacefulness as it is nestled in the hillside just under the prevailing winds coming off the Atlantic, the coast only a mile away as the crow flies. The walls are still rough and rustic and blend in with the modern blockwork where the new roof had to be tied in.

One surprise was some pencil writing my dad had left on the wall, probably in the seventies or eighties along with some cartoon pencil drawings Graeme had a penchant for drawing over anything and everything. A bit of modern history?

Brothers 30 year old pencil drawing

Dad’s signature still on the wall

The barn cleared, we swept, washed down the windows and doors and moved my art stuff up.  A whole car load and a bit later, I hardly felt like I was using any space, but one week on, I’ve managed to fill just about every corner with something and have big plans for some printing, collagraphs, painting on found driftwood and some larger canvas’s. I’ve got one new sign to put up, courtesy of friends who made it for me but might need a couple more.  I think the next couple of months will see new directions and challenges, but I’m looking forward to it.

Side doors, plenty of light and air

New Easel

two old baths make a temporary table support

Sign made by friends as surprise birthday present.

 

 

 

 

Goodbye Winter and Works in Progress

On the 1st March, St Davids Day, it does feel like spring is here with lighter days, blue skies and new shoots.

But what a winter’s weather!. No cold spells, but plenty of wind and rain and sea watching became an obsession. High tides and winds mean the sea often breached the coastal strip.  The damage was sad to see but the power of mother nature provided some exhilarating moments and opportunity to capture some dramatic photographs.

Crooklets, Feb 2nd 2014

Crooklets, Feb 2 2014

Crooklets, Feb 2nd 2014

Storm damaged beach huts removed before the next storm

Painting en plein air, alla prima was a great experience (see prev post.Painting Hercules. ) and this method carried on in the studio painting two large canvas’s which are waiting to be stretched and then finished and one nearly there still on the easel.

Work in Progress on the Easel

Work in Progress waiting to be stretched and finished

Sitting on the Steps at Middle Beach, Bude 20 x 15cm

Crooklets, Night colours

 

SunShiney Day, Widemouth Bay

The Pop Up Gallery was so much fun, and I so loved writing about it, I’ve just realised I missed the most important photograph.  The photo of my favourite painting that I sold  This is supposed to be about my ART after all.

Here she is… Sunshiney Day, Widemouth Bay.  Captures the windy atmosphere in bright sunshine, which is what makes this place so special.