Falling in love with Oils

A weekend away at Newlyn Art School always motivates and gets the inspiration going, but will I make the switch to Oils?  A two day course in Oil and Abstraction with Gareth Edwards certainly lent me towards giving this medium a go, but it’s a pretty big investment in time and money.

They smell lovely, they feel lovely; I had no idea how adaptable they were and I love breaking rules. But they are incredibly messy and take an age to dry. Working st home this was really a no no, but now I have a studio space it’s the ideal opportunity to unleash a new passion , but need  to balance whether I have the patience and care for that to happen.  It would be a new challenge as I  work pretty immediately and like quick results, but I’m thinking a slowing down of the process might allow more depth and creative thinking into a piece of work.

Of course it is possible to produce work in one session, ‘Alla Prima’ , wet in wet and this is what we did over the two day workshop, but it requires a skill in not producing ‘Mud’ but colours which can resemble ‘mud’  are apparently interesting neutrals and I am beginning to see their worth as  other colours put alongside absolutely ‘Sing’.

   
   
I have used water based oils in the past and thought they were ok, but can now see why I haven’t developed a passion for them and have tended to use acrylics instead.  They feel really dry and they don’t smell. A few years ago the thought of working in a room of ten people all using turps and linseed was enough to get me running in the other direction, but I was absolutely seduced by it, or maybe ‘high’ on it!  There were indeed a few times when we all had to escape to get some fresh air.

So.. I’ve just finished a large commission in acrylics and it looks fabulous and we are off to Madeira on holiday next week.  I have my ipad with me and might just start filling an online basket with goodies to start a love affair with  Oils 

 

How long does it take to paint that?

The age old question.. “how long did it take  you to paint that?” 

It’s a very valid question and often the first and most obvious thing people want to know when striking up a conversation, but it’s taken me a while to formulate an answer.  

I could just think about it in terms of physical painting time and this probably wouldn’t be as long as people think, but what they are less aware of is the hours spent mulling over ideas, the space in between, the walking away and letting it sit for a while while I work out where to go next. 

 I now work on more than one piece at a time, and whilst some think you need to keep the focus, it works better for me. The downtime allows my subconscious to sit with ‘the other piece’,  develop new ideas, methods and direction which I find far more exciting.

In the lead up to the exhibition, I spent many nights going over plans, thinking up new paintings and often had to get up and make notes for fear of losing the connection. 

So now when someone asks me how long it takes to paint a particular artwork, I usually say something along the lines of ’50 years, lots of sleepless nights and sitting on a beach gazing out to sea’. 

 I truly believe my creativity is in part a gift, but also 75% thinking and probably only 25% putting paint to paper, and of course some technical ability and skills and experimenting which have been learned over the years. 

I think this is where having the studio space at Wooda has been such a rewarding fruitful experience. The peace and calm has given me total focus, sometimes to the point of obsession and not having to think at all about emptying the dishwasher, how much laundry is in the basket etc.  Thank you Don 😉 .

 

 

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.

 

An Italian visitor

A bonus of having the studio where the public can pop in, is that you get special days when someone really makes your heart sing.  An Italian family are staying for a week and absolutely love and appreciate what Cornwall and we are all about.

Their daughter Agathe bounded into the studio yesterday with the broadest smile and returned today for a half hour little painting session when I let her loose with some of my watercolours. I thought she might want to paint the sea but she wanted to do animals, so catto and cane it was.

She could speak some English,  we managed really well to converse with added sign language and lots of smiles, and she confidently picked  the biggest brush and we had great fun mixing colours.

She even pulled the big chair over, sat in it in front of a large painting I’m working on at the moment and directed me to paint.

What a delight to have such a lovely free spirit with a love of creating and her father said she thought I was better than Van Gogh which really made me smile.

  
     

 

Losing my marbles and finding them again

The pressure, mostly from myself; the expectations, the doubt, the self worth, the ego. Working with the creative mind is so full of uncertainty, dipping and diving , losing focus, a mist of ideas as the mind jumps around with nothing coming to the fore. Sleep doesn’t help. Nobody can help and everyone suffers. I  think madness is sinking in, but I’m stronger and better than this so I decide to go back to meditation. 

Up early, I get the rug and sit in the decking with legs crossed, arms resting gently on my open knees with the fourth finger and thumbs just touching and find some inner peace until I take a deep breath…. Cat piss!!!! Think the cats are marking their territory in our garden and the early morning sun has warmed it nicely to perfume the lower levels of the garden. 

Oh well, it was a good try and even 2 minutes meditation was enough to bring some calm and inner strength. Onward and upward. A timely post from a friends blog made me realise I’m not alone or going mad. 

I’m writing this in the studio, having had a very productive two hours painting and nearly finishing two pieces and wondering what the hell yesterday was all about ….until the next time. 😋

 

My Mind is a Sea of Ideas

I’m usually painting flat out this time of year as my solo exhibition slot at the Castle has always been in the spring, but this year I’m not exhibiting until August.

I’ve been busy gathering images and ideas for future artwork and playing around with some ideas. I had hoped  this will all come together to provide me with some direction as I feel I’m swimming in a tidal pool amongst a flotilla of wildly opposing ideas which come and go with my mood and the day.

But as I am writing this, I realise I quite like being in this pool of ideas that are swirling around me and come and go with the tide. It’s MY pool, and I’m taking ownership of these ideas.  They aren’t going anywhere.

I am very influenced by how I feel on the day I am painting and rather than try and find a focus or direction to swim in, think that maybe this is how I work best and I need to be in this pool. By experimenting and trying new things it’s all a great experience, keeps variety and interest  and motivation going and allows more creative freedom.

For a case in point, I am very taken with some photos of the past few days and want to start some larger wilder paintings.  These might have to wait for barn studio where I will have more space, so I will be swimming with them in my own creative pool for a few weeks yet and hope that they feel as alive then as they do now.

 

Painting Interludes

The painting process for me is not always the relaxing idyll that might the be general perception of many people.  It is a constant mind game of what colour to mix and where to put it, and how much and then usually remove half of it. It is through this process that I finally arrive at a the end of a painting I am happy with.  It’s quite mentally tiring and to avoid sitting at the studio twiddling my thumbs, I have unwittingly created what I will now call ‘painting interludes’.

A bit like musical interludes, these are times for relaxation and quieter contemplation.  It’s a time to put down some paint either new or left over and not feel like its time or material wasted.

It wasn’t until yesterday though, that I realised the value of these so called ‘interludes’.  Whilst quietly playing with oilbars, my palette knife and sitting at the makeshift workstation, I was aware that my subconscious is also quietly processing the next steps.  This could be a current painting I’m working on or a project in the pipeline.

I had four projects on the go and they were taking up a lot of head space, projects that generally come to the fore when my body and mind relax, either when I’m asleep and then spend a couple of hours up in the night or during my ‘painting interludes.

Creativity for everyone works at its own pace.  Ideas might suddenly arrive and there is a desperation to hang on to them, but they are often fleeting and fluid. They change and develop.  It’s often a case of then peeling back the layers to get to the basics to grasp the concept of what it is that is driving the idea and work a framework upon which to create it.

So whilst aimlessly putting small amounts of paint onto the knife and then onto the board over the past two months, I have finished two projects, am half way through the third and the fourth although giving me some angst,  I now have a tool in the ‘painting interlude’ to aid and assist this process,  I can move forward and feel more relaxed and know that it will be alright in the end and in the words of author Elizabeth Gilbert; trust in my inner genius!

A bonus of these ‘painting interludes’ is that I have produced some small pieces of work on board measuring just 8″ x 10″ that aren’t half bad and will be for sale at a special studio price as unframed pieces.

Brooding skies and infinity of the seascape

summer warmth

Lightness and fullness

Basically a lot of red paint to use

 

 

It’s Not Rubbish Art Show

Last weekend saw the first Bude Arts and Music Festival happen in Bude. Anna Worthington of BAAM approached Annie and I with the idea to create an arts and craft event.  For the past six months, we have thrashed through several ideas and plans which resulted in ‘The ITS Not Rubbish Art Show’ held over the two days and a contemporary craft market on the Sunday.  It involved a lot of planning, reworking of ideas and weekly meetings to get it all organised, but organise we did and pulled off a very successful event.

It wasn’t all just about us.. There was a huge marquee with kids theatre, entertainment and bands on two stages along with a skate competition and roller disco.  The crooklets beach area was transformed with colour, bunting, banners and over 1000 people. The cliff walk between Crooklets and Summerleaze was host to 50 large flags which could be seen from miles away.

It really was a community event for the people of Bude run by a small band of people and teenage volunteers who were amazing. It made you proud to be a part of it and it really said ‘Bude’ is open, come on down and join in the fun.

The Rubbish Show, came out of an idea of initially making stuff to decorate the festival. Annie and I are both keen beachcombers and this winter the sea threw tons of rubbish up onto our shoreline.  It was a great opportunity to highlight the issues of sea pollution and we got Widemouth Task Force and the #2minutebeachclean involved too to promote it with beachcleans and they judged the final show.

We made a sign that went on a tour of Bude to promote the event and held a swap shop. After a winter of beaches full of rubbish, by May they were incredibly clean, we think from the efforts of the beach cleaners.

Our plan was to make lots of unusual and large objects, but time and other commitments meant we had a couple of afternoons to make a few bits and then worked solidly two days beforehand to get Rosies play shed into an exhibition space whilst throwing everything we could find in the way of beach rubbish on the outside. It evolved over the two days with some helpers and by Saturday morning we were ready to roll.

The whole festival was a huge success, and our little show had 42 entries and we reckon around 700 visitors through the doors over the two days, which in a shed of around 6m x 4m was quite phenomenal. Here are some of the entries.

 

 

The Idea of Stories in Objects and Space in Art

I’ve just finished reading “The Hare with the Amber Eyes” by Edmund De Waal.  A potter by trade, he inherited 264 netsuke. They had been in his family for 150 years and he set out in the book to trace the life of the netsuke and the stories of the Ephrussi family.

One theme from the book is the idea of objects having a life and absorbing stories, loved and handled by unknown people before, journeys as they are bought, sold and travel the world; the fact that many are bought for a reason, a love token, or to make a wedding, a birthday a gift with meaning.  This is very true of the netsuke; small  objects created out of ivory,jade and wood by japanese craftsmen in the 1800’s.

It was a happy coincidence that having just finished the book, there was a BBC ‘Imagine’ programme on Edmund, the story of the netsuke and a his new project ‘Atemwende’.

The new project links his love of poetry and music to pottery. He explored the music of poetry and importance of the breath, the space, the hesitation, the spaces.  Akin to negative space in art, these still moments are so important. and once you are aware of them, very beautiful, meditative.

I’ve been thinking about new ways to make pauses, spaces and silences, where breath is held inside and between each vessel, between the objects and the vitrines, the vitrines and the room. In working with the vessel, working with porcelain, and with colors that express the great history of Oriental ceramics, but also the colors of modernism and minimalism; this seems to be enough material to be getting on with.
—Edmund de Waal

I love the installation and you could stand and look at the 3000 little pots each made by Edmund for hours, the eye moving from group to group.  He sees them as an expression of poetry and some of the pieces also as music, but for me it’s about the objects, and particularly about the spaces and the way the objects displace space around them.

There’s a lot more  I could have written here.  The ‘Imagine’ programme might not be available any more, but there is lots of information online  from the Gagosian Gallery in New York and Edmund’s own website here.

All this reminds me of  Allyson Hallett’s poems, ‘The Stone Library’, but I will save that post for another day.

 

Fun in the Sand , Beach Sculptures

A laid back Sunday was planned. Lazy breakfast, maybe a swim and then singing with the choir at the Surf Club at 4pm.

But after a couple glasses of wine with friends the night before, Jane and I were inveigled into a beach sculpture event. Organised by Bude Arts and Music at Northcott Beach, the plan was to build Bude out of sand..or at least the best bits. We did get a bit overexcited and ambitious with our plans but decided to start with the breakwater and let it build out from there.

Up early, four of us grabbed everything we thought might be useful from watersprays, shovels, scrappers, brushes, pots and buckets and arrived at the beach.  We paid our £2 entry, and found a great spot to start excavations.

And I mean excavations.  Jane and I had brought cornish shovels which meant we could move large amounts of sand pretty quickly.  Once clad in stones, the breakwater was taking shape and we had a natural harbour as there was a stream and rockpool on one side.

Annie working on the seapool

Helen fashioning the Bude Light

The finished Bude!

Flagpole and #bigupbude

Trawler with Net coming in around the Barrel

Northcott Beach

Annie arrived after finishing cleaning her rooms.  She is one of Budes leading Bed and Breakfast Landladies and very particular with her rooms.  I think she was pretty impressed with what we had achieved, though I’m not sure  it fitted her vision.  It was after all her idea initially anyway.  But once she saw the general layout, she got very involved in building the seapool.  The only problem was keeping it full of water.  Sand likes to drain away and her plastic bag had a hole in it.

We only had two hours and always knew we would have to leave before the finish because of other committments, but the time flew!  Finishing touch was by Jane.. #bigupbude

We had a quick chat with Sarah, one of the organisers and admired the trophies she had made from driftwood and other beach material.  We had actually won, but couldn’t stay which meant we had to forfeit our prize, but  because there were no children on the team, really weren’t worried. It was after all just for fun, and fun was what we had.

After a quick cup of tea and a spruce up it was hot foot down to the Surf Life Saving Club at Bude to sing in the choir, as part of their 60th Anniversary celebrations.

What a inspired fun filled but really worthwhile day to spend with friends and play .. even if  3/4 of us are in our fifties.

 

Marketing, Networking and New Prints

Facebook, Twitter and  Pinterest are now vital parts of my marketing strategy.  Oh.. hear me say that!.  I’m no businesswoman;  I like to paint and create; but for a few minutes a day, I can get in touch with the world and the web is the way to get your work out there.  And .. I don’t mean just nationally. Most interestingly, most of my followers are people in and around Cornwall, but who access me via the web and are great at promoting what they see if they like it through sharing and tweeting.

Through facebook, I was contacted by an interior designer about producing a range of prints for some very high spec holiday cottages.  I hadn’t ventured into the area of prints before, but with the help of a great printer, I now have  around 18 images available as limited edition prints up to 60 cm x 90 cm  printed on bockingford and fabriano papers.  They look absolutely stunning and I am so pleased.

Here I am at the Framers signing and titling 14 prints ready for framing.

 

 

Words of wisdom created in 3D Collage

A while ago I was contacted by a teacher keen to develop the creative talent of a 7 year old pupil.  Rather than inspire with paint, I hoped to inspire with words of encouragement.

Here is an excerpt from Devon Teacher Blog on WordPress

“On a recent trip to Cornwall I was looking for some inspiration for an art project. I have a seven year old child in my class who is gifted and talented in art. Her family regularly visit Cornwall and so this is a real passion for her. 

At school I had already given her a special art book where she can do drawings and try out various techniques but she is always aiming higher. She wants to create something on a larger scale. So I needed inspiration…

So I took to the streets of Padstow (combining it with some much needed relaxation time over Easter) and visited art galleries and exhibitions. I found a lot of beautiful paintings which did inspire me but it was still hard to relate them to a Year 2 child.

I took down the names of my favourite artists and googled them, which also led me to find more cornish artists. I decided to email them explaining what I wanted to do and out of the few who did reply I found some true words of wisdom:

Painting is easy … have in your mind that there are NO mistakes. Be instinctive about where you put colour and what colours you use and the results can be great. Don’t judge your painting or let anyone else make a judgement… I/We should have done this or that. If it looks wrong, it just needs more work. Keep going with it. As adults we feel constrained by what we think it should be like or by convention, but there are no rules. Try spraying, dripping water into acrylic paint on canvas. Leave to dry, or rub some out before it dries to create waves. Scratch it out with a knife and then spatter paint over. “

The above was my advice and I was delighted to receive an update email from her with a photo of the resulting piece of work.

Finished inspired seascape collage by a 7 yr old

They thoroughly enjoyed working on the project

“She  loved using your art work as inspiration. She did some super sketches and paint work based on your advice. Her Mum loved seeing your blog post. She  then copied her sketches onto a big canvas and just let her creativity take over. She decided she wanted to make something 3D so built a collage like effect on top of her sketch. I have included a photo of her final piece – not bad for a 7 year old!

We had a brilliant time with this cornish art project so thank you for being a part of it.

There is a great use of materials and I love the layering effect with the fish motifs underneath.  I think she has a great natural eye for composition and colour and hope that she will continue to be creative and work without judgement or self criticism in all aspects of her life.

 

Creativity moves into the garden

 

A sunny morning inspires me to get some photos of the garden. We have a small cornish garden on the North Coast of Cornwall, a mere 400 yards from the sea.  Anything that dares to put its head above the parapet of the garden wall gets battered and shredded by the Atlantic winds which can come at any time of the year.

The colour palette changes all year round, but the high summer provides the best colour when the foliage is at its best, providing a perfect foil for the dark blacks of the aeoniums, the magenta pinks of the lilies and the merest hint of deep blues emerging from the agapanthus.

An artist can learn a lot from a garden, seeing how height and size of objects alters the scale and leads the eye between plants on a journey of discovery as well as great colour combinations and contrast.

 

Spot the heart shaped stones.  We have found these on the beaches locally over the past few years, varying in size, but beautifully shaped by the sea.  They are a rare find, but will always be brought home or given to someone else.

Bits of found driftwood scatter the garden providing perches for the birds and I have even interplanted tomatoes this year, but with little sun, they are suffering

I take photos this time of the year, because may of these plants die down in the winter and I need to move them, so a pictorial record is very useful.

I have dabbled in a few watercolours of the garden, but until I get tired of painting the coast and sea, it will never become my main focus.

 

 

“Tom’s Wave”

“Toms Wave” has been delivered to my son, so its safe for me to post it here now. He had no idea I was bringing it with me on my last visit and was really chuffed.  He loves it and it looks great in his airy flat.  It really was a loose painting, dripping, smudging and dragging using big sweeping arm movements which needed to be very confident and bold.

“Toms Wave” – a promised piece of Art for my son

Part of me thinks I could have taken it further, but it would have become much tighter and lost some of the freshness and energy in the movement.  Up close there are lovely areas where the ink had mixed into the wet acrylic and where the drizzle had left its own marks after I had left it outside. (forgot to take photos before I left it.. sorry!)

Phalto Blue  (green shade) has become a favourite addition to my colour palette but I have to be careful not to use too much.  It really lifts all the other blues into a beautiful turquoise but gives lovely contrast to darker blue mixes.

 

Instagram inspires and creates instant paintings

 

Crooklets Beach, Bude. Wondering how long the blue sky will stay.

From Crooklets Beach, Bude, looking north towards Sandymouth

The two above images were both created using Instagram.  It is a lovely app which works with both iphones and android.  It crops your photo and lets you put a filter on it as above to create different effects.  The real beauty is that you can share it so quickly via email, twitter, messaging, facebook and of course WordPress!

The effects created emphasis the contrast and give the colour a real painterly effect which will greatly help when I turn these two into paintings.

 

The Icing on the Cake

What a month!  The Mordros exhibition was a great success.  The icing on the cake was to go in on Monday and find that Summer Storm, Bude Breakwater had sold to a couple who had got married at the castle on Saturday.  I was lucky enough to meet them and they were a lovely couple who feel in love with the painting which provided a lasting momento of the day.  Fabulous!!

Many people left comments and included ” Something to aspire to”,   “very representative of this beautiful coast”, “really liked the use of colour and beautiful freeness and movement of the sea”,   “how lovely to see such a body of work, absolutely wonderful stuff”,

Special thanks to Johnny the Pirate “Great… keep up the good work”  and Lord St Germans ” Paintings have captured the light in the Port Eliot cocktail bar. Beautiful! ”  I think I know who you are under these pseudonyms and thankyou, they made me smile.

So.. what next?  How do I top this?  Elizabeth Gilbert’s  TED talk comes to mind. I rewatched it and tried to take some summary notes to pass on, but she speaks so eloquently, I recommend you watch it yourself.

If this video doesn’t work, here is the link

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html 

So, refreshed after a holiday in Spain, I am ready for new ideas and am not going to be commercially driven, but to paint what I feel and as this is what seems to connect people strongly to it, it has to be the way forward and if it sells, it sells, but this must not be the driving force.

 

Take it on the Chin Girl

Having prepared a lot of paintings for the “Mordros” exhibition, I decided it was a good opportunity to have a go at getting into the Westward Ho and Bideford Art Society.  6 paintings had to be presented for selection and scrutinising in front of a committee of RA members.

“Work submitted in application for Exhibiting membership of the Society should show a consistency of quality in all pieces, as well as a clear understanding and appreciation of the chosen media.  The Committee looks for a clear artistic identity running through all the work”.  Ok. With two seascapes and four panoramic seascapes, I think these fit the bill.

Having left them in the judging room, we returned to discover my fate;   either a big A (accepted) or big R (rejected).  Mine had neither?  I was  really disappointed to find it had been a split decision over my acceptance.  Don was absolutely gutted for me as I was told I had not been accepted.  In other words rejected…. this time; but encouraged to try again!  I went having no expectations and decided that whatever, I would take it on the chin as I had already heard the standards were off the scale of being high.

Artists are given feedback and ‘constructive criticism’ by  the secretary in front of everyone, whether you agree or not, going into great detail about presentation of work and that the mount cuts had to be absolutely perfect.  What’s being judged here…. the art or  the framing?  I knew my framing from Ian and Sally at Kilk was of the highest standard and shows my work off to its best.  Apparently, I am tackling one of the hardest subjects to get right i.e. seascape with the correct perspective and light conditions.  The paintings I thought I had got spot on were the ones they had issue with which was surprising to say the least. Other artists leaving the room listening to the feedback I was being given, were all saying what amazing work it was.Whether out of embarrassment for me or  trying to bolster my confidence,  I think they genuinely could not see why I hadn’t been accepted and agreed that the whole thing is very subjective to each judge.

So … did I set myself up for a fall just before a major solo exhibition. In one way, putting work before a panel of judges goes against everything I believe in and tell others to do.  To paint with your heart and let your instinct lead.  So that begs the question – Why did I do it.?  Having thought about this, I think that because I am self- taught and have not had the formal training of many artists, I wanted some recognition and to be a part of something.   Will I try a simpler approach and subject?  NO!!  I will carry on painting what I love and feeds my soul.  From the feedback I get I know it connects to other people too.  It’s not a case of stuff them either though.

No sour grapes.  I might try again next year. I have set my self a challenge now.  And I think through painting practice you do discover new things and are learning all the time, so maybe it will make me strive for that perfection and beauty.  As the saying goes, ” Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, so perhaps next years judges will have a completely different opinion.

 

How to inspire a 7yr old to create their own seascape?

An email from a teacher sparked some thought from me on how to inspire a 7 year old to create their own seascape . Teacher and pupil  have been looking at several cornish artists for ideas and inspiration.  These might provide a starting point, but I wanted to provide them with words of encouragement to guide them through the creative process.  Because often it is all about the process.  Often the end result is very different from the first imagined idea.  For a painting to be magical, individual and feel worthy, you have to be focused and give something of yourself to it.  So…..

There are no rules.  Don’t confine yourself to convention or what you think it should be like.  Have no expectation of what it will be like.

Choose colour and make marks instinctively.

You can make no mistakes.  Don’t judge your painting or let others criticise it.  Keep going with it even when you feel like giving up.  If you feel stuck and don’t know where to go next, step back and feel excited about the next move.  Make it instinctively .   I can promise you won’t regret it.

Happy painting peeps!!

 

 

 

A Brief Fling

I am sure you will have noticed that I have not posted for a while.  I have also not painted for more than a few weeks.  After a fab holiday in Ibiza, I really need to find some inspiration, so thought I would have another dabble with the Artrage programme.  Because you are not wasting paint or paper and only wiping a few pixels when you make a mistake, you can really let loose and all sorts of images start to appear.  Don’t ask me where the one above came from?… hopefully some deep creativity unbound from the constraints of the costs of raw materials!!. It does have its limitations ie, lack of control, as my finger slips and slides over the touchpad, but maybe that is also the beauty of it  – its looseness, imperfect lines and mismatched proportions.

Is this a brief fling to get me back into painting or will it become something more?

 

New Venture; paint greetings cards – if I have the time!

August has been a month of dipping in and out of summer events, beach, coffee with friends and catching up with family and extended family.  I haven’t picked up a paintbrush with my hand, but in my head have painted a thousand pictures.  This spawned the idea of creating quick vignettes on blank cards for two close friends as I was struggling to find a card among the thousands that are now out there, and even the funny ones either didn’t hit the spot or had been done before and all cards now seem to be incredibly expensive.

So… in an hour with my first cup of tea in the morning, I have painted a couple of cards in acrylic for close friends which have unwittingly made perfect presents in themselves.

Card for Annie - It's ok. she's already seen it.

The whole idea of painting something quickly first thing in the morning reminded me of the paintings that David Hockney created on his ipad from his bedroom each morning and sent to friends which were turned into a massive exhibition.  Maybe I am onto something here!!

 

Roll on Port Eliot 2012

We have been back from the Port Eliot Festival for four days and are already looking forward to next year.   There is so much I could write about and so many photos I could post.  Someone said of Port Eliot that “if you asked 1000 people for a story of their experience of Port Eliot, you would get 1000 different stories”, and hereby lies the problem.  I can only say you need to go and experience this festival of ideas yourself.

Me and Don enjoying a Bloody Mary Elevensees

.  What sets it out from others is I suppose the mix of literary talks with the mix of music, cinema, food, fashion, comedy, cabaret and of course the beautiful setting, which allows all the different aspects to be laid on without really being aware of the any of the  rest of it.

Taking in the magnificence of the Round Room

One thing for sure is that it could be summed up as “London meets the Cornish”, where you see the “Beautiful people” strutting their stuff, the families whose children are called Tabitha, Henry, Hector and Aerial trying to organise themselves miserably alongside the often badly dressed cornish who always appear stouter and rounder and just love beer tent hopping. This of course is finding the extremes at both ends of the scale and in between there are the most lovely people who are genuinely there to soak up as much culture,and music as possible.  One of our favourite parts is “Caught by the River”, the inspiration of three music producers who also have a love of nature, their ethos summed up by the words “An antidote to indifference”  www.caughtbytheriver.net

Chris Yates, Jon Berry, John Andrews and Charles Rangley-Wilson talking Words on Water

My festival diary is written, full of memories of everything we saw, the chance meetings with new people, the inspiring talks we hear and the great music from Ahab, to banghra band RSVP, blues from Hat Fitz and Cara, theatre from Bellowhead, dance your heart out to Trance from The Egg and the mellow sound of Louis Eliot and many other great acoustic acts.  It really is a smorgasbord of creativity and inspiring thought, washed down with some good ale and great cocktails.

Suggs (Madness) at the Boogie Round , 2 a.m all singing "Lets go fly a kite"

Another post on my new heroine to follow very shortly!!

 

Creative Mojo

Where’s my mojo??  A bad back – my own fault, too much dancing.  Winter in June – can you believe this weather!!  and Wimbledon, all mean I have had a very uneventful week.  However, it was brightened today by having coffee with two artist friends at the gallery where I am part of the “Eye to Cornwall” exhibition at the moment (see previous posts for details).  It is very refreshing to get a different viewpoint from other artists and Gabrielle, by name and by  nature is a real Angel.  She has such charisma, intelligence and love, she lights up your day whenever you meet her.  Encouraged by her comments, I came home, researched how to make my own canvases instead of buying ready made and started playing around with a newly discovered paint programme online.  It is called ArtRage.  http://www.artrage.com/artrage-demos.html . This link will take you to a download which gives you a whole month to play around with it for free. After working hard to get the exhibition pieces together, I realise the importance of play, new experiences with art, and taking time to try new things which are all working to bring back my “creative mojo”

 

Peek-a-Blue

Another new painting which is in the exhibition “An Eye to Cornwall” at The Willoughby Gallery, The Castle Bude. EX23 8LG

This painting has been totally reworked as I was not happy with the original.  But some of the old painting has been allowed to show through and created wonderful scratched out lights and texture.  Peek- a – blue is a bit of a pun on peek-a-boo as it was quite a grey day and just a little blue sky was peeking through.

 

Peek -a-Blue. Oil painting framed 30cm x 20cm

 

More Paintings- “An Eye to Cornwall”

Dimity, Widemouth Bay

It takes time to get all this internet stuff sorted, so sorry for the unprofessional disjointed way I have presented it.  Its a case of finding time to edit, crop and present pictures of my paintings.  Some of the following are some of the smaller paintings on show, but with no less impact.  One is the largest at  I wonder how they reproduce in your eyes and how they compare in real life.

Windblown Gorse in a Cornish Hedge

Summer Warmth

Dancing Surf on an Incoming Tide 100cm square

 

Go for it!

I am painting my largest canvas to date 100cm square.  It requires a large brush and lot of bravery to get the first paint down.  I had an idea in mind and like to paint my underpainting loosely.  This gives me a feel for it and I love what the paint does sometimes when very wet, running into other colours and creating great effects which I try to preserve leaving them to show through subsequent layers.   Cobalt blue for summer skies was applied liberally. My first intention was to paint a distant seascape looking over a cornish hedge, but when dry I viewed it from different angles and a different painting completely was coming to me.  I have ended up turning it upside down as lovely foamy waves started to appear.  So it is going to be a large seascape with the tide running up the beach.  I will leave it to your imagination at the moment as all will be revealed in due course.

 

Brilliance of cornish gorse painting revealed

As promised from my Brilliance of Cornish Gorse post, here is the finished painting.  It was actually finished two weeks ago, but as always I like to put my paintings away and then review them to look at it with fresh eyes. This revealed a need for more colour in the foreground to give more depth to the underside of the gorse bush.

THE BRILLIANCE OF CORNISH GORSE - CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGE TO SEE DETAIL

My inspiration was taken from a day in March when there was low light through a light cornish fog which made the yellow of the gorse really jump out at you.  To get this effect, my underpainting was purply pink overlaid with a opaque pale cobalt blue . It became a real exploration and adventure in colour with pinks and yellows being laid over dull greens and burnt siennas. Hope you like it. It will one of my paintings for the exhibition in June.

 

Spring sparks new creativity

I have now finished three new paintings for a forthcoming exhibition in June.  I had always wanted a studio/shed to paint in where I could make as much mess as I wanted and treat it almost like going to work.  But for me this doesn’t work.  I can’t afford to rent a workspace, so since I have realized my eldest son has definately flown the nest, his bedroom has become my studio. And…. I have realised that my concentration comes in short bursts. Whilst a purpose made workspace would be great, the advantage of working at home is that I can dip in and out whenever I want.  If I suddenly have the urge to make a mark, put a colour down, I can in an instant.  And…. I can also get the dinner done in between, weed the garden and hang out the washing!

New Painting. Oil on Paper

 

Perfect Day commission finished and delivered. Whoppee!!

There’s always a sense of relief when a commission piece is delivered and the client is  pleased.  I was really pleased with it and after two months of working on it, there is a huge emotional attachment to a piece of work that you have put your creative energy into.  This excitement is replaced with major last minute jitters as the time for unveiling approaches.  But …. thankfully it looked wonderful and they have an amazing space in which to hang it.

“Perfect Day” A commission piece 110 x 80 cm

Doing a commission can be daunting, but after discussion about the types of style they liked and colour, I was given the freedom to paint what I liked.  There is a growing trend of people wanting a piece of art to fit in with their scheme of decoration and commissioning a painting gives them this, as well as an original piece of art.