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....

A Spot of Reflection

It's harder than people think 'being an artist'. No, really! Self-doubt is a constant companion, made worse by the highs and lows of exhibiting and selling (or not selling!) work. But never mind the generalities, it's time I reflected on what I've done over the last month, what's working for me and what is not.

After the drawing episodes (see previous post), I had a spell of printmaking using a gelatine plate.  I was using bits of bracken and shreds of sacking to act as masks and create textured 'ghost' prints.

This felt like fun rather than work....

Then I tried cutting shapes out of textured material...

 Using thread and bits of lace as well as fish shapes...

And again, mixing shapes and textures...

Becoming more abstract...

And creating bolder abstract shapes....

 Out of all this experimentation I devised a set of basic rules to follow in order to achieve a pleasing result. I used these for a workshop I ran at The Schoolhouse Gallery in Dornie last weekend.  There's a randomness about the gel printmaking process, as I suppose there is about all monoprinting - or monotyping to be pedantic - and it certainly makes me think in more abstract terms about colour, texture and form....which is a jolly good thing.  I think there is a lot of potential for me to use this process to devlop the way I see and use coloured shapes and move away from realism towards abstraction. It keeps me focused on the aesthetics of putting together patterns of different colours that bears no relation to observational drawing.

However, I wanted to get some painting done this month too and I'm determined to work more in oils just to see what kind of results I can achieve. I started with a couple of ideas for lochan pictures, based on some sketches I did while out walking. Here's what I achieved the first session

And this

They look quite good at this scale, but I'm not at all sure about them. Need more work, I think but there is that risk of overworking. And they are a bit too realistic, not abstract enough.

But then I was really doing these to paint myself into another pic I had started a couple of months ago. Here it is...

I was quite pleased with this but thought it needed more work, and it had some elements that were a bit too realistic and the composition looked a little too contrived, too studied.  It is an attempt at an abstracted composition which I had worked out through drawing. My original little study, based on an observational sketch, was this (I've polished this up now and may get it framed - ha!).

What I liked about the scene was the orange island and the blue lochan and how they are opposites and kinda balance each other. However, the oil version wasn't quite working. So I went back to drawing and then back into paint - trying NOT to be realistic - and this is as far as it's got now.

Getting better, I think.  The composition has improved, but maybe the colour is too bright now. I did like the coldness of the earlier version. But that was done in a different season!

I know that I must keep focused on what am I trying to achieve. I'm not trying to create pretty pictures or cartoons: I'm trying to say something about what the landscape means to me: what it says to me - beauty, ruggedness, wildness; what I observe - quirkyness and delicacy; what I feel - preciousness, ephemerality. But there's no point in describing it in words...the challenge is to channel all of that into paint ... ha!

Year End Thoughts

This will be my last blog post of the year. I have let the blogging lapse a bit this year, so my resolution will be to get back to some regular postings in 2015. Apart from anything else, I think blogging helps me to reflect on my work, to give consideration to what is good and bad about my painting, and to develop as an artist. Here's a few pics from 2014, some finished, others maybe not...

I'm coming to believe that focus is one of the most important elements of being an artist. There are so many things that grab my attention in the world about me, and a part of me wants to try and capture them all. But that's a sort of scattergun approach and I don't think it will allow me to develop in a meaningful way. I find that when I spend time painting 'distractions' it makes me feel dissatisfied. I realise that I much more satisfied if I focus on a few themes in greater depth. But what are these?

Shed with Green Roof - currently for sale as unframed pic

Fishing huts and sheds is one theme. I keep coming back to these rickety buildings: they excite and fascinate me, their individual histories and how they stand up to the elements. I want to continue to explore them as a theme. Linked to this are old pieces of machinery like petrol pumps, and walls and piers. Machinery as a subject is more of an exercise for my drawing skills and probably a good challenge for next year.

Red Roof - now framed.

Sheds at St Abbs - not sure if it's finished yet

I continue to paint sea scenes, but sometimes my beach paintings bore me, so I think I shouldn't overdo this theme.  This (below) is one scene that excited me in Lewis. The exposure and feeling of being on the very edge of habitable space.  I wasn't surprised to learn that there's a bit of surfing done on this beach.

Stormy Beach, Lewis - now framed - one of my favourite pics!

Applecross is a bit closer to home....

View from Applecross Bay - restricted palette holds the interest (not framed)

Maybe I'd be better to focus on hills. I've definitely not done enough hillwalking in 2014 and I so want to get back up onto the high tops. 

Beinn Damph and Upper Loch Torridon - not sure if it's finished yet

 I feel that I want to explore landscapes which are more complex and seek out the abstract patterns in the world around me.  This next view is perhaps not complex enough?

High Riggs, Summer Morning - now framed

Whereas with this other pic I made a real effort to capture the essence of the moorland by focusing on the ground cover....that beautiful 'deer grass' which you find in the hills up here in late autumn.

Deer Grass Above Achintee - a WIP

However, while I want hills and landscapes to be my focus next year, I know that inevitably I will come back to the sea, its moods and patterns and the challenge of portraying the movement of the waves.

Dark Island - Charcoal and ink and conte to reflect the moody day - now framed

Loch Carron in stormy mood - a WIP

And then again, I do like to draw faces – they are all so different – and I wonder about doing some portraiture. I don't think this would ever become a main theme, but next year I'd like to draw and paint more figures and faces. One possibility is putting figures (or animals) into landscapes and urban scenes – this is always a challenge. Perhaps I should do a few more drawings of Ness the wolfhound and see where it takes me.

Ness - a drawing recently exhibited at St Margaret's House

 See what I mean.....this is already quite a diverse mix. When you add that to my thoughts about media – how much printmaking?...should I make a serious attempt at oils next year?....Or should I focus on working with graphite and pigments? So many questions to be addressed. One thing I think I've learned is that it doesn't pay to be too serious in one's approach. It's important to play with materials and concepts. Whilst I know I must be disciplined and work hard, this does not mean that I should be dull and heavy-handed. Enthusiasm, energy and exploration shall be my themes for next year!

A Head Full of Hills

Just back in Musselburgh from Lochcarron with lots of images of the hills in my head. I did a pile of sketching and a bit of work. Now I have to make decisions - what should I focus on next?

I tried working on this image of trees beside a lochan. I really thought there was potential for a moody pic with lots of abstract textures. It started off like this.

Then I added more colour.

 I think this photo makes the pic look better that it really is.  I wasn't very happy with this result, so I started again.

I think I've used a rather confused palette, and I'm not confident about the composition, so I still wasn't happy and set it aside.
I moved on to Beinn Alligin.  I drew a motif out first in charcoal, based on an earlier charcoal sketch I had done at the roadside at Annat. I love this view of Alligin with the seaweed shore in the foreground!

Then I moved onto paper that I had previously prepared with gesso and ultramarine and some pva, and I drew it out again.

Then I added gouache and acrylic, and more pencil marks.

Actually, I quite like the palette I had used on this, but I thought it needed a bit of orange and green for some reason. Clearly I was not thinking clearly!

On reflection, I realised that the extra colour did not help the painting and at this point I thought the hill looked a little too high - as if I'd distorted the perspective. So I painted in more sky.

But then I noticed that the angle of the hill was now wrong....it looked as if it had been tamed! And I realised that there were too many different colours. So back to the Prussian Blue in order to recapture the drama.

I think this is closer to the result I was after - moody and dramatic. Sadly the colour is not as pure and exciting as the earlier version (but maybe more realistic?) and I'm still not sure about the foreground marks, but I feel as if this painting has had enough attention. So I've set it aside for the moment.

I did try a couple of other images.
Here's a stab at Beinn Eighe viewed from the path to Slioch. I used acrylic, gouache, pencil and conte.

And here's a stab at Slioch - a view looking up from the path, again based on a charcoal sketch I did on our walk.

I like the little bit of colour on the hill.

But it was back in the studio today, thinking about what to take forward. More anon...

Starting Anew

I've been so disappointed with my picture of the Nungate Bridge last week, that I came into the studio yesterday detemined to start afresh. I felt as if I got trapped by detail last week - clearly I got too focused on the stonework and ended up doing a very 'literal' picture.  I cropped it but I think it still looks a bit restrained, even boring.  So I'm adopting a slightly different approach this week.

I went back to some Applecross and Lochcarron images that I had decided to use as a basis for picture-making.  I had previously made an attempt at this motif - the view from the sandy bay in Applecross.  I started off in charcoal, then rubbed it out a bit.....

 Then I added some gouache and acrylic......

  Then I drew into the paint and also added some more acrylic.  I was trying to use the paint quite thickly, more like oil paint, and I kept to a limited palette. 

Maybe that blue in the foreground is the wrong colour - it should possibly be toned down, and the sky needs some careful work.
I set this aside and made a start to another picture, again in charcoal, rubbed out a little. This picture was based on a sketch I did of Beinn Alligin from the south across Loch Torridon (with some birches in the foreground).  I really like the composition.

I thought I'd add some magenta and burnt orange - the colours of the hills - in gouache at this stage.

 And after this I went in with the same acrylic colours and pencil.  The grain of the hill was based on the marks in the sketch I did .

I think I lost a bit of definition in the sea just when I finished, so I'd like to revisit this and then see  how it looks.  The birches are maybe a little heavy too.  I might also try this composition again in another picture.

My next effort was based on a sketch I did of Shieldaig Island from the new pontoon pier.  I had already done a fresh drawing of this in the studio which I pinned to the top of my board, and I started again with a stylised charcoal sketch.

This time I added red, green and magenta gouache.  By this time I had thinned down the acrylic paint and so it was much more watery than earlier in the day.

 I carried on with pencil and acrylic but I wasn't getting quite the same effect as earlier because of the thinner consistency of the acrylic.

I wasn't satisfied with the way the sea was looking but really wanted to hang onto the swirls in the sea in the foreground - I remember observing these and trying to draw them.

So this was how it ended up.  It still needs a bit of work, but I quite like the way the island has turned out.

Anyway, I felt much happier about the way my painting went yesterday.  The work felt like less of a chore and I feel the results are looser, freer - closer to what is in my head....I think....