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.

 

It started with a Sketch. “Sea Gazing”, the work in Progress

It started with a fleeting glimpse of winter light over the sea with a heavy sky, a snapshot put to memory whilst walking the cliff path between Summerleaze and Crooklets Beach  on a winters afternoon in January.

Quick watercolour sketch from memory , the starting point

I wanted it on a large scale and put some initial colour down on a piece of unstretched canvas. The canvas was thenstretched and measured 130 x 110 cm, so I found myself straddling it when it wasn’t on the easel.  I like to move the paint around and let it do it’s own thing; create surprises and happy accidents

As I started painting, the perspective just wasn’t right and it was sending mixed messages.  Don thought it was the middle of the breakwater and I could see that would work, so several photographs later, I changed the angle completely and decided to record the progress.

1.  Added some rocks to left and drippy foreground
2. Depth to the sea, highlights to sky and sea and different rocks. The perspective was wrong.
3. I added the breakwater base and worked on the cliffs and mid ground rocks, highlighting.
4. The bigger pebbles of the back of the breakwater added and more work on the sea and highlights to horizon
5. Definition to the water and foreground and softening the light on the sea and Finished!

Loose Foreground developing

Adding rocks and sea changes

Changing the rocks and adding breakwater foreground

Highlights to the rocks and creating pebbles

Movement in the waves and finished

Completed only four days before the show opening, it is now hanging at the Willoughby Gallery, The castle as part of my solo exhibition titled “The View From The Shore” on until the 16th May.

“Sea Gazing” 130 x 110cm on canvas

 

Amsterdam Part Two :Stunning Rijksmuseum

Full of museums and art galleries, you are spoilt for choice in Amsterdam.  Top of the list had to be the Rijksmuseum, a ten year renovation project culminating in the lifting in of the Rembrandt’s mammoth painting ‘The Night Watch’.  It is a huge building with a busy thoroughfare running through the middle, which the dutch insisted stayed for the bikes as it was the original city gate and its all in the museumplein, an area of several museums and galleries together.

It didn’t disappoint with the added bonus of  photography allowed (no flash). As a building it’s not that old, mid 19th century, but they have retained its character with modern glass and concrete additions, knocked down walls to create 80 rooms and added great lighting and atmosphere to over 8000 exhibits.

Don’t forget to look up at the star sky in the modern room, painted by Turner prize winner Richard Wright,(most people didn’t even look up).  It was in brilliant contrast to the rest of the Rijks taking the star motif and making something intricately contemporary.

We covered around a third of it in two and half hours. The website for the Rijksmuseum is addictive and  well worth exploring the collections and restoration info.  The brilliant Andrew Graham-Dixon also did this excellent programme, Tour the Rijksmuseum

Front of Rijksmuseum

Looking through the fence

Back of the Rijksmuseum and garden

Seperate gallery rooms long halls

Magnificent Night Watch by Rembrandt

Two portraits I picked out were ‘A Shepherdess’ by Moreelse (1620) and Andy Warhol ‘Queen Beatrice’.  The first is exquisitely painted and 400 years old and the latter, a screenprint and ink which doesn’t do justice in the photograph but was stunning up close.

Shepherdess, Moreelse 1620

Queen Beatrix, Andy Warhol 1985

And as a lover of the impressionists and the sea, this has to be the top picture for me. The photo doesn’t do it justice.  It feels so modern, yet was painted in 1887 by a Belgian artist, Jan Toorop. There was so much paint and so much colour in it, I was totally mesmerised and could have gazed into it for hours.

Next blog to follow very soon: Amsterdam Part 3: Van Gogh Museum

 

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.

 

Spirit of the Sea … in Cornish… Spyrys An Mor

Spirit of the sea sounds so romantic in Cornish, and perhaps this describes my style of painting.  Energetic, but with a romanticism about it, picking out the beauty in all things in nature, even finding it in the depths of the winter hedge.

This is the title for my solo ART Exhibition which begins this weekend.

With the sea in always in view, there’s always an immediate feeling of peace.  It calms and lifts the spirit in all weathers, even through some of the stormy spring, early summer weather we are experiencing at the moment.

Is it the space, the infinite horizon that allows the eye to relax into it?  Or is the memory, instant transportation to a time you spent on the beach which has stayed deep. All what has become known as the ‘feelgood factor’

All these things mean something to all of us.  All encompassed in the ‘Spyrys An Mor’, Spirit of the Sea.

Manonabeach is an internet phenomenon who asks “What does the beach mean to you”.  There are hundreds of short videos of him interviewing people of various beaches all around the country.

Here is his story  www.manonabeach.com   And his YouTube page. He started his journey in Cornwall but has taken it everywhere calling  journeys around the coast.  He remains anonymous, to keep the focus on the beaches, but has got an invite to my exhibition.  I am not expecting him to introduce himself, but I will keep my out for him at the Private Viewing.

 

Reworking an Old Painting

Time for painting has been short of late.  Time seems to pass far too quickly. Maybe it has something to do with the shorter days and lack of light, although this may be more of an excuse as I have a daylight bulb  to paint by. A while ago I wrote about reworking an old painting “Path to the Coast”

Well here we go again.

This is what it looked like in 2010.  It was admired, but didn’t sell.  There was something that troubled me about the composition.  Some people don’t like roads in the landscape.  It interfers with nature, but for me leads somewhere, especially on this north cornish coastline and gives weight to the idea that the road descends down into the depths of the valley.  There is a sense of the low sun in September after the harvest

It seems to me two seperate paintings, the foreground with the hedge and road, and then the more distant sea and sky and nothing ties the two together.  It could be said that this gives in distance and perspective, but it lacks harmony.  So here is version number two.

The hedge has greater depth and much more colour.To harmonise with the pink in the hedge  I gave the sky more yellow light with pink tinges towards the horizon Bolder brushstrokes and more weight to the left was given to the cloud forms. The sea was given more depth  This stronger light meant that the road needed more definate shadowing. This lifted the whole painting . So now it looks like one painting.

“September Glow, the Road to Coombe Valley”

 

Autumn Colours of the Beach

Colours of Autumn are everywhere in the Landscape, but can also be found in the Seascape. Here is a collection of things found on the beach this morning, full of beautiful autumnal colour!

Wanson Mouth Beach is slightly off the beaten track.  Accessed by a track over and following a stream down to the sea, it is not a ‘pretty’ beach, but is magical.  Sometimes in an eerie way, but more because of the solitude.

It is nearly always deserted and can often resemble a moonscape at low tide.  Below the tide line, it is ribbed with sharp low rocks and few surfers brave it.  It is quite stony and where there is sand it is a mix of ochre and greys and very gritty. Strewn with weed it looks grey green brown at first glance, but there is a lot of colour, shape and texture in the variety of weed which has been washed up.

A rain cloud approaches in the photo above, looking south over the stream and towards Millook.

Below shows the rocks to the north of the beach.  Angular and grey with a  beautiful flash of burnt sienna and foamy waves washing in.  Somewhere, nowhere, but a place which touches me and inspires many of my paintings.

 

 

Bigger Painting Revealed

In May, I posted three small thumbnail sections of a large painting I was in the process of completing.  It sparked some interest and now is the time to reveal the finished painting.  I wish I had  taken stage paintings to show how the painting evolved and changed, but I didn’t, so hope that the following description gives a little insight into the process.

A blank white canvas measuring 120 cm x 90cm stared up at me as I lay it on the decking outside. I had been looking forward to the challenge and waited for a settled day to be able to put the first paint on in broad loose strokes outside to get the feel of the energy of the sea.

Once dried, I knew I wanted to try and depict the wind on the sea seen from the full height of the North Cornish Cliffs.  We often get windy conditions even in summer. Being exposed to the full force of the winds off the Atlantic, the sea swirls around the foot of the cliffs, pushing you in all directions as it eddys around the cliff edge tempting to pull you over.

The painting took about three weeks to complete.  The sea needed deep perspective whilst the cliff sitting next to it two dimensionally on the canvas needed more detail.  Dilema!  The whole picture needed lots of layering of tonal colour to give depth to the sea, depth and tanglement to the foreground and solidity to the cliff face.

I have been increasingly interested in playing around with conventional composition and the viewpoint of this piece was challenging, but think it fully conveyed that feeling of standing high on the cornish coast looking down at the sea, everything blown out by the strength of a summer wind…. a Cornish Mistral

Cornish Mistral. 120cm x 90 mixed media on deep canvas

 

A bigger picture, a bigger message.

I am painting my largest canvas to date!  120cm x 100cm.  Having put the initial washes on outdoors, I have been working in acrylics, building up colour to give the painting depth. I often get a virtual painting in my head, inspired by a photograph I have taken.  This virtual image is of  the sea on a windy day looking down a very steep sheer drop into the sea.  It suits the theme of Mordros , “the sound of sea” very well as the waves crash against the cliff and the wind almost draws you over the edge as it eddies around the cliff edge.  This bigger picture will give a bigger message as you are enveloped in the expansiveness and depth of the sea with the wind around you.

Below are three taster sections of the painting measuring approx 30cm x25cm

   

 

 

 

This throws up various challenges as I try and convey the wind and movement of the sea in a larger scale.  Being such a large canvas, I have had to move it from the easel where I can barely reach the top, to the floor and even outside. Anyone who thought painting was relaxing…. well it can be…. unless you are painting such a large piece!  From straddling the corners to moving away from it the whole length of the hall to get a perspective on it,  Having created the dark areas I am not concentrating on bringing the light back into it and using oils which have greater weight and light reflective qualities. But enough for today.  I am sitting on the sofa writing this with a glass of red wine and bed is beckoning me.

But… I can’t wait to get up tomorrow morning and get going again.!!  I am finding that I get my best ideas when I first wake up, so after a quick cup of tea I will get going straight away as I am finding  the early morning  the most productive. It has helped my painting practice that I am working towards an exhibition and this one should just be dry enough to be hung, but I am finding it increasingly obsessive, wanting to go back to it frequently to move it forward as I get inspiration for colour and how to convey movement. It’s like a lost friend who is in need of a direction.

 

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!!

 

 

 

Colours of Winter

I have framed the first of my paintings for the forthcoming exhibition, so here is a sneak preview.

The unseasonally warm sunshine has pulled the landscape out of winter and truly into spring and summer.  Leaves are on the trees, the gorse is in flower and everything looks fresh and lovely.

But…. I love the colours of Winter.  If you truly look at your landscape, far more colour is there to be seen than you think.  The low sun softens the shadows and reflected light warms the greys. The sea in winter can be very grey, but on a sunny day warms to cerulean, one of my favourite blues.

The gorse in contrast has no flower and some no leaf either as it has been battered by the Atlantic winds.  It is a tangled mass of grey and brown which in the sunlight give an overall pinky purply hue.

 

 

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.