Watery Thinking

Last month I wrote that I thought I would start to explore a Biosphere-related theme. I'm happy to report that I've managed to develop this a little further.  I haven't been confining my work exclusively to biosphere-related ideas, but I'm trying to stick with it.  

I haven't been back to Garve, to my favourite black river, but I've looked back at my sketches and thought about progressing with the work.  And I've done further sketching in woodland.  However,  I first thought I'd try something out in oils....

Black River - Small Oil WIP

This is a very small oil pic, a study, really.  I'm not sure about this composition and if I was going to do a larger pic I think I'd need to go back and do a series of sketches.  There are some things I like about this, so I think I'll park it and resolve to return to Silverbridge.  

As a trip to Edinburgh is looming, I decided to focus on a different sketch of the river and redraw this on film in preparation for making a new photopolymer plate at Edinburgh Printmakers. The one I thought might make a good print is this one looking across the river.  Here's the final drawing I made on film. I think (hope!) it's got potential....

Black River With Trees

On Monday this week, I returned to my favourite woodland lochan at Achnashellach for more sketching. Of course, this year's mild weather means that there's no snow and ice, so no frozen lochan - I find the lochan's watery surface much more difficult to handle than an icy surface. The interplay between viewing the reflection on the top surface and seeing into the murky depths – it's hard to capture that.  I suppose that's what intrigued Monet about his waterlilies and ponds. Anyway, in this week's sketches I struggled to capture such visual effects, as you can see....

 

 

Sketch 1

Sketch 2

 Sketching was difficult enough, but what about turning these sketches into finished work? Well, all I can say is that I've made a start with this acrylic study - but there's a long way to go. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because I'm heading into Printmakers next week, I was thinking about other Biosphere-related images that I could use as the basis for making a new plate. This took me back to earlier sketches I had done of the river at Achnashellach.

Sketch 3

 

Sketch 4

 

 

 

 

I did several re-drawings from these and other sketches.....here are a couple of them.

And here's the final drawing on film, ready for making the new plate.

Dark Tree By The River

So this month there's a lot of work in progress and a few unresolved questions.  Will I be able to turn these new finished drawings into new plates? Will they print out well? Can I master the challenge of painting the lochan to show the dreamy interaction between reflected and refracted light? I suppose that's my challenge for next month...

 

Last Blog Of The Decade

What a poor year it's been for blogging.  I'm afraid I have fallen short of my aspirations.  Instagram is much quicker and easier to do and I think I've been distracted.  However, I can't let the year draw to a close without one last effort.

It's been a busy year and I've filled many sketchbooks.  Observational sketches of trees and landscapes. But every interruption means that I lose my train of thought - and so I end up going off down various avenues - heathlands, hills, seascapes, woodland.

I think my main inspiration this year has been Victoria Crowe.  Having seen her work at both the Scottish Gallery and the City Art Centre in Edinburgh in the late summer it has come home to me just how much hard work one must do to produce any meaningful work.  There really is no shortcut - as she says, there are no easy solutions or quick hits. There is only hard work, overcoming difficulties, and things that emerge from the process, the process of making art.  I realise that I should try to be more 'process-driven'.  It's that stage from sketchbook to finished work that is so important.

I thought I might focus on woodland or gardens for a bit, (a theme from the start of the year) and set about some work after an autumnal visit to Attadale Gardens.  I enjoyed loosening up the colour and thinking about bringing a figure into the picture. I came up with these two paintings which I quite liked. 

However, this avenue of thought was interrupted by a trip up to Poolewe - more sketching of amazing landscapes and beautiful colours. The Autumn colours were particularly lovely this year.

 

And then another trip to Edinburgh was looming and I was keen to prepare some new printing plates at Edinburgh Printmakers, so I had to set to work on some finished drawings on film, ready for exposure.

 I've been thinking too about how to add some colour to my prints to make them more interesting.  I have a few colours of etching ink, and I can print plates with more than one colour, but it doesn't always turn out well.  Also, thinking about Victoria Crowe's approach, she often brings in a wash of colour as a compositional device. I liked the idea of chine colle as a way of introducing compositional colour, so I read up on the technique, sent away for some Japanese papers and I've now had a go at it with some of these new printing plates. This was my first attempt using a paper with wavy line patterns  - I thought it was kind of interesting.

And then I tried a copper plate - experimenting with different colours and different arrangements.

It makes the printing process even more exciting - you never quite know how it will turn out! You have to take time to think it through before you make the print. It's certainly something I plan to try further - I have lots of ideas and I'm thinking about subtlety and boldness and what works best.  Or maybe there is no best....just different.

So as usual, there is much to consider....

New Studio! Up and running!

My big project at the start of this year has been to get a wee studio built. I've been planning it for a year and have had a few setbacks for one reason or another.  Eventually I decided to build a posh garden shed, or rather a 'garden room', courtesy of  a firm called Bridge Timber

Doing a building project in this part of the world in the month of January is not an easy task, but the guys set to it very cheerfully, despite freezing temperatures and days of never-ending rain. Within a few days this was how it looked....

 and within two weeks it was fully finished, like this....

I still have a few externals to do, like proper steps and a bit of landscaping. But the internals have been more of a priority.  The space looked so big at first - a lovely empty space - and it took several days to paint it.

But by the time I got the printing press installed and moved the rest of my stuff in from my temporary studio, the space had filled up quite a bit.

It has filled up even more since this point - I suppose a bit of creative clutter doesn't go amiss, but I'm trying very hard to be organised. In the past I have allowed clutter to build up and I found it very frustrating, distracting and bad for creativity: now I have a chance for a new start and I'm determined to be more organised.

At last I've been able to get on with some work. Here's what I've been up to.
Doing a bit of printmaking. (Here's my reflection in the velux window...a kind of arty photo!)

And doing a bit of painting.  Trying to keep my palette simple (not too many colours... and choosing those colours carefully).

I've also been thinking about themes to focus on this year.  I'd like to create a body of work and not be all over the place. The trouble is that the themes that interest me are a bit challenging for picture-making.  Themes such as environmental armageddon - maybe that's too depressing, anyway.  So I'm thinking about metaphors for loss, change and impending doom (nice, eh?)....motifs like abandoned villages, stormy weather, damaged landscapes.  Perhaps my most recent photopolymer print - Skyburst - is along the right lines. Something to build upon perhaps.

 Anyway, I have some themes and ideas, I have the materials and I have the working space, so I really have no excuses now.  I just have to fight off the siren forces of distraction and procrastination.  As you know, life can so often get in the way of art, and that's the biggest challenge of all.

Sketch Book Review

I have been reviewing my 2018 sketchbooks.  I think this will help me to think about what I'm going to do next year.  Once again I am resolved to do more blogging this year - I find it helps me to keep focused on my work and work things out in my head.

Trying to see if there are themes emerging from my sketches. Like the landscapes of home.

Lochcarron and Kishorn.  The sea and the hills.  Rocky foregrounds which I haven't quite perfected yet.  I like rocks and want to keep sketching these in order to get the right look.

And other less familiar landscapes, such as those above in Mallorca.

Then there are the trees at home and abroad. Like this Mallorcan pine tree perched on the edge at the top of the Barranc near Soller in Mallorca.

I was particularly attracted to the exotic shapes of Olive Trees in Mallorca.

 

 But any tree with character tells me it wants to be sketched, including an old apple tree in Colonsay.

 







And then there are buildings, groups of buildings and structures.  Like the steading at Balmacara.

 Quiet lanes in Edinburgh's New Town.

The narrow streets of the Alfama in Lisbon.

 And monumental buildings, such as the Belem Tower

Not forgetting the architectural details of buildings in Soller, Mallorca.

And bridges are a favourite subject, including this one nearer home at Duncraig Halt on the Kyle Line.
















These are just a few of my sketches from 2018.  However, it's one thing to sketch but quite another to create paintings, and I know I have to spend more time in 2019 playing with sketches and creating pictures. That's probably my resolution for 2019.  Happy New Year!

Winter Lingers On

January/February is the time of year which gives me the best opportunity to get on with new work. The village is quiet, the Gallery has been closed and the New Year surge is still fresh. Lots of time and motivation to get on with work you would think.

Well, there are always distractions, and, as I mentioned in January, the snow has been a huge distraction, or then again, perhaps it's been an inspiration! The transformation of the landscape with a blanket of white, the change to the light. And the roads have been a bit icy so it's been difficult to get out and about for new sketches.

More Snow pictures

I've been continuing to try to capture the joy of the snow – I do love it! And because it's come and gone and come again this year, the snow patterns have changed. One day I was preoccupied by the 'iron filings' patterns on the hills, the next I was transfixed by the shroud of ice on the shore, and another day it was the sweeping snow showers. I've also been trying to come up with a satisfactory painting of Meal Cean Dearg, one of the Strathcarron/Torridon Munros.  I got as far as producing these two, but not satisfied with either.

However the snow inspired me to make a new linocut plate too. 

I made a sketch of the kale in the garden of Seabank Cottage in Lochcarron - here's a photo 

I could see that there were the makings of a good black and white picture - loved the black patterns of the kale leaves.  So I've made this linocut and have called it 'Winter Garden'.

'Winter Garden'

  Trip to Inverewe

Despite the ice and snow I managed a trip to Inverewe Gardens in January. A number of artists met up – there was a residency on – and we managed a walk and a couple of sketches in a weather window, until the sleet started. I loved the bleakness of dead plants in the snow and managed to do a few sketches such as this one of dormant Gunnera. I was intrigued by the black shapes against the snow, but I haven't thought through where to go with this idea.

However, I'm starting to think that gardens might be a good focus for me this year. I find plant forms (and trees) interesting and I think I would like the challenge of a slightly different focus this year.

Making New Prints

Just last week I was down in Edinburgh for a few days and managed to get a couple of sessions in Edinburgh Printmakers. I was making a couple of new photopolymer plates, like this one that a re-working of an older print.  It's known as 'photopolymer gravure' as I make the drawing first on a piece of transparent film.  Here is the drawing on film and the Toyobo plate I produced.

 And here is a finished print I made this week.  I think if anything it's more expressive that the drawing, so I am pleased with it in that respect.

 I was also trying to improve an aquatinted plate that I wasn't happy with.  I realised that the composition was not good enough and so I cut the plate and did a further series of aquatinting to bring out the landscape, and here's how the finished print looks.

 It's based on a view of a lochan in the hills above Achintee, on the south side of Loch Carron.

They were good sessions – I think the new plates are OK. Now I just have to get down to printing out editions...on my printing press up here. But at least I have made a start.

Painting vs Printmaking

I find it difficult at times to switch from painting to printmaking. I think you must use different bits of your brain. With printmaking you have to be so clear about what you're trying to achieve – plan it out properly in advance – whereas painting is more of an exploratory activity. Matisse said something along the lines of drawing is of the mind but colour is of the senses and I suppose this explains the difference. Anyway, I feel as if I'm in a drawing and printmaking zone at the moment, so that's my focus for the coming month...I think...