Studio Monday

Trying to settle down to some new work.  Have been looking at my sketches and at some photos and working through these in a slightly different way.

I thought I'd start in watercolour, to help me to think in colour.  So I did this little watercolour thumbnail sketch of the Coral Beach. Then I tried to think about the motif in a more abstract way.

I also tried to sketch out ideas for the Applecross sandy beach in the same way.  Here are the initial thumbnails. Starting out realistically, then becoming more abstract.

 I followed this up by trying small pictures.  The interplay of shapes is interesting and the shape of the space between the shapes.  Although I was trying to take a more abstracted approach, this one turned out to be quite realistic.

 So I tried again with more dramatic blocks of colour. Also thinking about the play of light. This is as far as I got.

 It's quite interesting, but probably not sufficiently abstract in treatment. 

It's good to play with ideas like this.  I think the sandy beach with Skye on the horizon is quite a good motif and worth exploring further.  I had intended doing this today but it was such a LOVELY day that I skived off.  Well, I ended up doing a little sketching in North Berwick, so it was not a total holiday. And my excuse is that I do want to work on some East Lothian pictures....

A few more sketches

Managed to get a few more sketches done this week, making the most of my favourite locations. Mostly black and white I'm afraid (charcoal or graphite), in view of the weather.

Arina Shed (Applecross)

The Sandy Beach, Applecross (of Monty Hall fame)

Sketch and 2 pics of view west from Coral Beach, Applecross

Shieldaig Island, picture development

Sketch between rain showers at Loch Slapin, Skye

Another sketch of the Bealach (Applecross from Kishorn)

Shame about the weather this week. But I do like the moodiness when the clouds are down and the hills are disappearing. These sketches should be enough to work on in the coming weeks. Looking forward to some sustained work.

Sketching in Shieldaig

Up north again, at last.  Happy to be here, and even happier to get a little sketching done.
Went over to Shieldaig - always drawn to the mystery of Shieldaig Island.  Thought I'd get a good view of it from the new community pontoon, so we walked down there and I lingered to do this sketch using graphite and pencil.

Sketch of Shieldaig Island from the pontoon pier.

Also did this little pencil study, focusing on the Island's rocky edge (with Diabeg, and Raasay perhaps in the distance).

Island Edge Sketch

Drove round the corner to have a quick look at Torridon.  Hills were looking splendid with a little snow on the tops.  Managed a quick charcoal sketch despite the wind tugging at the pages.  The composition looks promising....

Ben Dearg across Loch Torridon with Birch Shore

Sadly that was all I could squeeze in today. And now I hear the rain outside.  This is good news for the wildlife here - it's been very dry and the evidence of recent wildfires was clear to see.  But I'll be sorry if I can't get out for some more sketching while we're here.

Getting down to it

Today was my first full day in the studio for a while. Was determined to start something new. Also thought I ought to focus on an East Lothian view (thinking about pictures for the 3 Harbours exhibition at the start of June). So I looked out this sketch that I did a couple of months ago.

Sketch of Bass Rock from Belhaven Beach.

I made a start to the picture by drawing with graphite and white conte then doing some rubbing out.

Emerging picture 1

I decided on a palette of prussian blue, ultramarine, allizarin crimson and white to start with.  Using the colours in a very restrained way it soon looked like this.

Emerging picture 2

Then added more of these colours along with some ochre (I had wanted to use naples yellow, but realised that I didn't have any in the studio...)

Emerging picture 3

Then more of the same, making up a little green

Emerging picture 4

But I wasn't happy with this (maybe it's just too colourful), so I decided to apply some white acrylic on the roller to knock it back.

Emerging picture 5

This was as far as I got - just left it like this in order to think what to do next....I think I'll need to re-think my approach.....Happy Days!

A Bit Too Busy Of Late

I appear to have been a bit busy over the last month - not enough time for blogging!  The exhibition that Rona MacLean and I put on took up quite a lot of time.  It went well, and I enjoyed meeting people, but nevertheless it has disrupted the flow of work.  Bit of a challenge getting back to painting.  And then I had my birthday yesterday.  Thanks to friends and family who came along for a bit of a celebration in the Fisherrow Yacht Club.  It was a bit of fun for a Sunday afternoon.

Getting back to normal today.  Didn't manage into the studio, but I did a couple of sketches on the bus and the weather was just good enough for me to sit at the harbour and do a more detailed sketch of the boats and the tenements.

Fisherrow Harbour Pencil Sketch

Well - maybe it's a start to my new East Lothian series...watch this space....

A few wee sketches

Such a beautiful day today.  Dragged Peter out for a walk.  Went down to Dunbar and West Barnes.  I think it must have been on my mind after working on that residency submission to North Light Arts this week.
 In any case, with the exhibition coming up in less than a week, I thought I ought to do some island sketches.  The Bass Rock was looking pretty good, so I had a go at that in pastel.

The Bass from Belhaven Sands

Had to use pastel because the scene was so colourful.  Also attempted a sketch of the surfers who were out in force.

Surfers, Belhaven Sands

In Dunbar, it was the boats that caught my eye.  Did this charcoal sketch of a red boat in Cromwell Haven. 

Big Red Boat

Glad I remembered to sketch in a bit of context.  Sometimes I forget and it's the context that makes the picture.  I really fancy painting this and have taken a photo for colour reference.

CROPPING

In the studio but not getting much work done.  Just a bit pre-occupied with preparing for our exhibition: it starts A WEEK TODAY!
So spent today putting mirror plates on my pictures and dropping off some posters.  Also worrying about the quality of the work, but hey-ho, I think that goes with the territory.
Anyway, it was far too sunny to be stuck in the studio.  To make up for skiving I'm hoping to go into the studio over the weekend and get some new serious focus.

In the meantime, I'm puzzling over this (unframed) picture and what to do about it.  There are bits of it I like, but it doesn't seem to work in its full size, so I've tried to crop it in these thumbnails. The picture is the view from Slumbay.

Looking back from Slumbay

This looks OK, but there's something disappointing about it.  Boring, even.  And I realised when I changed the picture on my facebook page that cropping it made quite a difference.  Look at this!

Looking back from Slumbay (letterbox)

This looks so much better than the square picture.  Perhaps it's the format that's wrong for the subject.  Although when I started out I was pre-occupied with the golden seaweed, the focus is really the landform on the far side of the loch.  
Then I was thinking that if I tear the picture up, I could maybe end up with a second picture, like this.

Seaweed shore?

It's not as interesting, but maybe it has possibilities. I might go back into the pic with some new textures...?

Continuing on this cropping theme, here's the picture that was rejected by RSW this year (I'm getting over it now!)

View from Ardaneaskan

Now, I thought that this was technically quite a good picture for me, so got it framed, but all along I've had a nagging doubt about it.  Is the space a bit leaky (to use a townscape term)?  Perhaps it would benefit from a good cropping too....How about this ruthless chop?

Ardaneaskan shore

With this crop I've kept the houses in, and they link up with the houses on the other side.  Not seeing the top of the hill is quite intriguing too.  And that little bit of light behind the hill is suddenly revealed.  It's definitely better than the big picture.  But I thought I'd try a another, different crop.

A different view of Ardaneaskan shore

This has got so much more sea (and I was very pleased with my treatment of the sea), and I thought initially that it was an even better crop, but now I'm not so sure.

Then suddenly Jacqueline's words ring in my ears - don't get precious about bits of a picture - it has to work as a whole, compositionally, tonally, treatment and colour.  How could I have forgotten that!  So now I'm in a quandry...should I take this one out of its frame and crop it.  Or will I just speculate endlessly over it next Friday when it's on the wall!

Sometimes art is so difficult, isn't it?