The Agonies

 It's less than 3 weeks to the opening of "Our Fragile Land" in Gairloch Museum, and I'm just in those pre-exhibition agonies.  Deciding on which paintings should go up on the wall and worrying about the quality of the work.  I know it's always the same before an exhibition...the same old agonies.

But, to start with, I'll follow on from my last blog and show you what I developed from that winter woodland sketch in the oakwood.  Here it is - in acrylic.

After doing this, I decided to have a go at a slightly different version of it in mixed media, on a canvas.  Here's how that one is coming along.

 Interesting...Huh?  I was so pleased with the initial one, but now I think I prefer the larger more horizontal one.  I suppose they're just different.  I'm having a little pause now while I get things together for the exhibition.

I had this idea about doing some linocut trees in various forms.  Here's a linocut (well 4 linocuts, actually), printed over a gelli print.  I like the soft intrigue of the background that you can get with this.

I then had this idea of doing something different on the other side, so did a few drawings, like this one.

And then I concertina'd the cards, like this.

What do you think?  Not quite an artist's book, but a little fun.  I commissioned a friend to make a little plinth holder and I'm going to try and display a few at the exhibition...if they'll let me.  If you want to see the lovely plinth, you'll have to come along to the exhibition!  Well...I'm trying to keep them a surprise until then: I'll take a photo later.  I thought it would give visitors something a bit different to look at as well as the wall art.

Anyway - here's the official poster.  I'm in very good company for this exhibition, as you can see.  So perhaps you'll understand my agonies now. 

Exhibition runs from 4th May to 29th June.  It's a must see!

Where Does the Time Go?

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!

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.

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.

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!