The Big Picture

In the studio I've been working on a big painting recently. Oil on canvas. Haven't worked in oils for a year.  The subject is based on this sketch I did of Loch Torridon, looking east.

I made a conscious decision to work on a big painting in oils. I reminded myself of Egon Schiele's approach and started in oil paints and turps, and pencil marks. I got it as far as this on the first day.

I was pleased with this, but it is a bit colourless really. I was wanting to try and capture the beauty of the scene but not be too heavy-handed. I find it more of a challenge working in oils, and have been determined not to lose a lightness of touch that I'm striving for in acrylics and I'm keen to capture in all my paintings.
 
As we've been up in these parts again this week, I wanted to do some extra colour studies. So I went back to my sketching place and did a couple of sketches in pastel.  First I focused on the long view. I was struck with how colourful the water looked. But I think now I was exaggerating this a bit.

Then I focused on the trees on the promontory. I really want this to be the focal point of the big painting.

When we got back to the cottage, I had a go at painting these views as studies, using acrylic and conte and pencil.  First the long view, trying desperately hard to capture the feel of the water in the loch, so many different subtle colour transitions.

And then the view of the trees, with the dark water and the bright trees. Thinking about colour relationships and juxtapositions...

Interesting....but where do I do from here?  Back into the studio on Monday. The big painting should be dry enough to work on, but the challenge for me is to retain that lightness of touch, I think.

Composition is so interesting, isn't it?

Strathcarron Hills In My Sights

For the last couple of weeks I've been focusing on my sketches of the Strathcarron Hills and working on  a painting using this as a motif. It's a bit of a departure for me cos there's no sea in this view - it's all landscape. And it's quite a complex landscape of hills above hills involving different textures of landscape. I suppose I'm trying to do something a bit different.
Here's the original sketch that I did sitting above Achintee, looking over the Strath. I quite enjoyed doing this and I had time to complete it as the weather was not too cold for once.  I like this sketch!

 I started with a composition which was smaller than the sketch. Used a graphite stick and some pencil.

I thought this was quite a good composition so then got going first with some gouache then using acrylic of watercolour consistency. Yellow ochre was the main colour.

Strathcarron Hills (small) - unfinished?

Now...I quite like this. I like the restraint of colour and lots of white showing through. But on the other hand it did look a bit unfinished. So I carried on in acrylic and pencil. Added Prussian Blue and Ultramarine.

Strathcarron Hills (small) - Finished?

I then got to this point with it. I quite like this - I think it looks quite polished. But it has lost a certain something, maybe a certain mystery? Anyway, I thought I'd try anther version, this time with a wider perspective, with a composition closer to the sketch. It started off like this.

Gosh - it's a bit messy, isn't it? Then I added the acrylic again - using pretty much the same palette.

Strathcarron Hills (large) - unfinished?

This is a great mess, but nowhere near finished so I fiddled around with acrylic paint and pencil till I got to this point.

On reflection, I thought this looked a bit drab and uninteresting. Maybe a bit sedate for my liking. What was the point of this painting? So after a few days I returned to it and tried to add a bit more colour interest to the lower slopes, bringing out the landform and knocking back the high hills a bit. Also did a bit of extra work on the trees.

Strathcarron Hills (large) - finished?

I'm stopping there and I'll leave these alone for a bit.  What do you think? Are these two paintings finished? Or have I gone too far with these?

Experimenting and Playing

I didn't feel that I managed to achieve very much while away, but I did have a go at playing with some pigments and making egg tempera and glair.

Using the tempera paint, I thought this would be best suited to small paintings and I cut up some Arches card and before I knew it, I was painting little hill pictures, like this one.  The motif was based on a little image I've had in my sketchbook for ages. I found the egg tempera made me paint very precisely - I had to use a small brush - and I wanted to do something a bit looser.

 So I tried another hill motif - based on the view of Beinn Damph from the Torridon Road.  With this one, I tried to make the pencil marks stronger, as an intrinsic part of the painting.

I stuck with the hill motif, and another day I got out the beeswax. I wanted to experiment using aluminium foil encased within the beeswax. This was the best version - using a single piece of foil cut to a recogniseable shape. I thought it was interesting, but not sure what to do next......

Another day I tried using graphite powder dissolved in rabbit-skin size.  This was how it looked on Arches card. I added some water, and scattered a little salt.

And this was the same graphite 'paint' but applied to a board which had been gessoed.  Some interesting effects here...especially with the salt.

I tried another painting on a gessoed board, using a tree motif. Again the effects were kind of interesting.

I was not immune to the weather outside, and after doing a few sketches of the raging sea, I did this little painting using white-of-egg ink or glair.

But the best thing about using pure pigments is the intensity of colour. My favourite colour studies from the hols are these two.  I love the cobalt violet pigment and keep thinking of ways of using it - it's such a pure and bright colour.

And, of course, I always have to do some kind of hut. I had seen this hut as the last dwelling standing in a deserted village in Strathcarron.

Now it's back to the studio and on with some serious work (?).  But there'll always be time for play....

Continuing The Struggle....

Still up north, and finally, yesterday, it was good enough for a proper sketching trip. I headed over to Sheildaig and turned off into Applecross.  I thought the clouds were coming over so with no time to lose, I stopped and did a couple of pencil sketches. Sheildaig was looking lovely in the sunshine, with a snow-capped Beinn Alligin rising in the background.  Had to sketch in pencil for speed as it was a bit cold.

In terms of composition, I was keen to try and capture the pine trees in the foreground. There was a lovely specimen close by, so I had a go at sketching it too.

By this time I was freezing, so it was back in the car, and on to Fearnmore, to visit my favourite corrugated iron hut. I thought I should sketch it from a different angle, so here's my first attempt.

Fearnmore Shore (sketch)

I thought a composition with the boats in the foreground might look interesting. I then followed up with a closer view, making more of the old wooden posts.  This time I used some wax crayon to get the rusty colour of the hut.

Fearnmore Fishing Hut (Another sketch)

I was quite pleased with this composition, and I was trying really hard to capture the birch trees slightly silhouetted against the sea in the middle distance. Again I was a bit cold after this, so it was back to the car to warm up. Then another couple of sketches of Fearnmore before heading off again.

The Road Past Fearnmore (Sketch)

I like this view of the road at the entrance to Fearnmore and have sketched it before. There are some nice little shapes of colour.

Abandoned Cottage sketch

And I did this abandoned house very quickly - I liked the little window and took photos of the textures....there may be a painting somewhere in this.....

I was a bit sketched out by this time and headed back to Kenmore, by the sea.  Had a walk in the adjacent woodland and then came across this lovely group of mature birch trees clinging on to the edge of the hill. I loved the angle of tilt, thought they were a crazy little group, showing so clearly how they struggle against the effect of the wind. It was beginning to get dark, so this was definitely my last sketch of the day.

Old Birch Trees (Pencil Sketch)

On reflection it reminds me of Cezanne's picture of Olive trees. I'm not sure of the title.  Actually, I just tried to find it in google, but couldn't see it; however my search has alerted me to just how many paintings of trees Cezanne did, and Van Gogh too. Gosh, I've got a long way to go...

Nothing Is Easy

Happy New Year! (or is it?)
I seem to recall a track by Jethro Tull - 'Nothing Is Easy' and that sums up my mood at present.
The excesses of New Year are finished and I've had a clear run to get on with some painting. But am I happy with the results? ....NO....it's been a struggle this week.
I thought I would start with my pencil sketch of Slumbay....

Reflected on the composition - looking for connections and abstract values. 

 Continued working in ink and graphite and white acrylic.

I set this aside - not entirely happy - I think a landscape composition might be better.
Another day this week I wanted to try out some eggy paints, but was distracted by the stormy weather. I did a pencil sketch of the waves that I could see out of the window, and then I found myself doing a pic of the stormy sea in 'glair' - ink made from pigment and white of egg.

Stormy Sea (1)

I was surprised about how good this looked and I decided to try doing the same image again on a smaller format.

Stormy Sea (2)

What do you think?  I really liked the way the eggy ink moved around the surface. It was very fluid.
I also tried out some home-made tempera paint and finished this little pic in a mixture of tempera and glair.

Coral Beach, Applecross in egg tempera and glair

But these little pics were the best of the bunch this week....I'm not so happy about my bigger pics..for the next post.

Sketching out the Old Year

Well, the weather hasn't been great so far on this trip up North.  Here's a flavour of that recent storm that blew for two days....

December Storm, Lochcarron, Sketch

In fact it was so bad, I could hardly see out of the window.

Cottage Window Sketch

As soon as the rain stops, I rush out and try and do a little sketch before it rains again...

Lochcarron Corner Sketch

And the other day it was dry enough to get the pastels out. Briefly.

Snow on the Tops, Strathcarron

Yesterday........ 

Loch Torridon Sketch

....yesterday it was a bit better - we had a walk along the shores of Loch Torridon, with great views of the Torridon hills.

Two Pines Sketch

I was determined to sketch some of the beautiful Torridon pine trees.

 

 

Slumbay View Sketch

And today I did a couple of sketches in and around Lochcarron again. It was a bit gloomy!

 

 

 

 

 

Defiant Cherry!

Finally, can't ignore my favourite Cherry Tree.

So...here's to the New Year!  Hope 2014 is a good one for us all!

Urban Studies

For various reasons I've not had as much time in the studio of late. However, I did want to explore a few urban scenes before the turn of the year. I focused first on the sketches I did on our recent sketching group visit to the museum.

I focused first on Greyfriars Corner.  What I liked about this as a composition was the glimpse through the gate to the graveyard, and the gravestone sitting like a focal point. So after re-drawing it once, I started again in graphite, rubbing out and oilbar.

I was wanted to use ink to get a darker moodier look to the painting. So I worked in both diluted and undiluted black ink.




Then I added a little oil-crayon/oil bar for a little colour. I somewhat boldly decided that the double-yellow lines were important to the painting, and so it has ended up like this. So far so good.

The other view I focused on was the view from the Meadows to Argyll Place.  I particularly liked the drama of the white sheen of the light on the wet tarmac and wanted to try and recreate this. This one started to look like this after a bit of work.

But I realised when I checked it against the original sketch that the position of the trees and the proportions of the street were not quite right. And I had not really captured the drama of the light.  Again by working in ink, I tackled these shortcomings.  I think it's close to the look I'm trying to get, but this pic is a bit out of focus.

 Continuing with this urban theme, I pulled out an earlier sketch of Stockbridge Market gateway. I love this piece of townscape and wanted to try a pic. I started on an old piece of card.

But I thought this was a bit too pale - wanted a darker look.

 By this stage it was close to the textured look I was trying to achieve, but the card was disintegrating, so I realised I should do a new painting.

 I ended up with something looking like this. However at this stage I thought some of the texture effects were a bit unsubtle, so I continued to work at this aspect. I also introduced a couple of ghostly figures - can you see them?

Not sure if I've finished it or not yet. Perhaps it's just a bit too dark now. And I need to go back to my sketching spot and check the proportions against the actuality.



Anyway, I'm setting aside my urban preoccupations for the moment; hoping to do a little landscape painting. If only the wind would drop and the rain would stop raining....