February was a quiet month which meant I could be busy in the studio. March was very busy, mostly away from home. So I'm only just catching up with my blog now.
In January, I explained that I was doing drawings to prepare for print-making. In February, I managed to turn my drawings into photo-polymer plates, and in the course of the month I printed off some of the two editions. As always, before you start printing out the edition, you have to think about colour. With 'Riverbank' I thought about adding a bit of brightness, but in the end I went for a subtle colour gradation - two different colours of black: blue-black by the river and brown-black for the trees. It's so subtle that you can hardly notice it in this photograph.
And here's the other print: I inked the plate with a touch of lemon ink to give the impression of light. Haven't got a title yet....
Still on the Biosphere theme, I continued my preoccupation with woodland lochans and returned to my favourite spot near Achnashellach for more sketching.
I liked the composition of this and worked on a few paintings in different media.... but not sure if any of these are finished yet. But here's a small acrylic which I consider to be finished!
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| Woodland Lochan - Acrylic/mixed media |
This was quite interesting because I painted this on top of an old painting and in the course revealed lots of interesting colours and effects which I decided to retain in the final version.
However, not all my work has been biosphere-related. It was so gloomy in February that I raided my sketchbooks for some brighter scenes. I came up with ideas about Iona and Staffa. I'm now trying to paint in canvas more often, and this time I got the oils out.
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| North Beach, Iona - oil on canvas |
This was based on an early morning sketch done when we first reached the north beach.
And here's one I did of Staffa, based on my sketch from the top of the hill.
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| Staffa Cliffs - oil on canvas |
I did enjoy painting these scenes in February – it transported me back to some lovely bright days and happy memories of summer....
At the end of March, I had a great trip to Loch Coruisk in Skye.... but that's for another blog!
