Marissa resting

Hard pastel and charcoal pencil on paper 24" x 16"

When I look at this with my specs on I realise I must have drawn it without my specs on (I do both) and that I draw "better" without them on. I was pleased with this - the angle was awkward and I had just finished quite a tight rendering of the model so went for it with the hard pastel first. (Click on it once then again in the new window to see detailed marks) Done last Thursday night.

Travelling

Collage and acrylic on canvas 20" x 20"

I was tidying up a bit and found this painting which I did last year. I remember I spent ages on it. So many styles - so little time.

John (re-worked)

Oil on canvas board 9" x 7"

John Constantine was my grandmother's brother. He died at age 17 of tubercolosis. The one love of John's life was his pigeons. He kept racing pigeons and I wanted to capture that pride he had in them which is so evident in the photograph which must have been taken shortly before he became ill.

Gladys Beaumont (re-worked)

Oil on canvas board 9" x 7"

In those days families like ours did not have a camera, so if you wanted any family member photographed you had to save up and have a "studio" shot done. That is why Gladys happens to be wearing a fur stole in this shot. It would be part of the photographer's equipment. She probably has her sister's best dress on underneath.

Way Out (re-worked)

Oil and acrylic on canvas board 16" x 16"

I laboured for hours on this painting, kept changing my mind, putting figures in, wiping them out, starting again. There is learning to be had from the process. In this case it was that when I create figures out of my head a little bit of them remain figments of my imagination and it bothers me that they don't quite ring true. In the end I took an old black and white snapshot of myself and put "me" in this different environment. I know it looks a bit like an underpainting but I instinctively knew it didn't need any more work doing on it than this.

Ok - I said all that on 17th Jan, the day the painting was posted. Today, 22nd Jan, my so called "instinct" told me to do some more work on it. I mean, what is this instinct - a joker or something?

Grey interior (2)

Oil on fine canvas mounted on board 9" x 7"

I decided to do a second quick study for two reasons. Firstly I wanted to substitute ultramarine for cobalt in creating the greys (I've used a bit of the cobalt mix in the floor area though) and secondly, this surface is finer than the canvas weave of the first study and it's this finer surface that the bigger painting is going to be done on.

Grey interior

Oil on canvas panel 8" x 8"

This is a small study for a larger figurative painting I am working on. I'm finding that greys in a painting actually take just as much time, effort and decisions as a wider palette.

On young shoulders

Oil on hardboard 24" x 24"

The idea of "time" is at once simple and complex. There is no way we can impart to the young, even if we wanted to, what experience will impart to them. There is a saying "you can't put an old head on young shoulders" - although I believe the young shoulders sometimes have an inkling of what is in store - but thankfully most of the time nature steps in to push the notion away. "If only I could be young again and know what I know now". I used to hear my mum's friends say that and I used to think - what are they going on about?
That explanation is to help you to understand that the "heads" on the young shoulders in the painting are deliberately of older people and not the errors of a poor draughtsman (aka me).

First Communion

Oil on canvas board 24" x 24"

It was their little old fashioned faces that got me. This is one of two bigger paintings I have been working on this past week. Will post the second one soon.

Regard

Oil on canvas board 9" x 7"

I have not painted in oils for quite a while. The paint seems to go on so well compared to acrylics so I might stick with them for a bit and put up with slower drying. A very limited palette as you can see. I am working on two bigger paintings at the moment along the same theme so posting might be a bit erratic unless I can fit smaller ones in as I go along. Really enjoyed the canvas panel. Its actually fine cotton on board. The maker is Bella Arti. I found them at the back of the cupboard. Must have been there for ages.

The Painter's window sill

Charcoal and charcoal pencil on smooth drawing paper 12" x 8"

It's surprising what a difference the texture and underlying shade of the support paper can make in a drawing. This persisted in being more "gentle" than the pastel paper support of the previous one.

Winter bathroom

Charcoal and charcoal pencil on tinted pastel paper 12" x 8"

When I'm coming down from my third floor painting space (aka 'the attic')I have to descend a spiral staircase and if I look across the landing this is the view I get of the bathroom. I always love the quality of light that comes through the big pane of frosted glass on that back wall, especially in winter.

Clutter

Charcoal on paper 9" x 12"(cropped)

I feel as if I need a break from the following: acrylic paint; digital images; photographs; what is going on inside my head; sitting down to work..

I like the idea of just drawing around the house but looking for the big shapes among the small clutter of daily life. Someone who does that exceptionally well is the British artist, Roy Freer. Take a look at his drawings. I find them quite an inspiration.
Since first posting this I have cropped it. You can see the clutter better now. But you can't see it perfectly, because,.... it's clutter.

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

Are you - Nobody - too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise - you know!

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"
People could not be blamed for thinking Emily D a bit morose but I would say rather she is "introspective". Her work deals with mortality rather than 'death' and I have claimed before she has a sense of humour. I think this poem is so witty and I think I like it more than any of her others.
Here is the second and final verse:

How dreary - to be - Somebody!
How public - like a Frog -
To tell one's name - the livelong June -
To an admiring Bog!

You can't resist teasingly inserting an "l" into that final word can you? This is the fourteenth and the penultimate painting in the series.

There's a certain Slant of light

Winter afternoons -
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes -

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

Untouched by Morning-
And untouched by Noon -

Photomontage & acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

When I'm painting I often rotate the board. Especially when you are working with more abstract elements it helps to see the work holistically. However, there is always in my head "the right way round" and the right way round for this one was not as you see it but as it would be with one turn counter clock wise. When I looked at it this way though (as you see it now) it definitely had more drama. By the way, that is me, taking a break from painting, lying on my bed and consulting one of my hundreds of art books.

This is painting number 12 in the Emily Dickinson series

About my Feet the Sea

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

The poem goes:

I stepped from Plank to Plank
A slow and cautious way
The Stars about my Head I felt
About my Feet the Sea.

This is the eleventh in the series inspired by Emily Dickinson's poetry.

I dreaded that first Robin so

But He is mastered, now,
I'm some accustomed to Him grown,
He hurts a little though -

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

All her poems are poignant but I find this one particularly expressive.

The Soul selects her own Society

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

Number nine in the Emily Dickinson series.

The Past is such a curious Creature

To look her in the Face
A Transport may receipt us
Or a Disgrace -

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

Another piece inspired by the poems of Emily Dickinson.

Alain de Botton

The wisdom of the faiths belongs to all of mankind, even the most rational among us, and, throughout the liturgical year, deserves to be selectively reabsorbed. Religions are intermittently too useful, effective and intelligent to be abandoned to the religious alone.

Alain de Botton, 2011

A Vastness, as a Neighbour, came,

A Wisdom, without Face or Name,
A Peace, as Hemispheres at Home
And so the Night became.

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This is the seventh in the Emily Dickinson Series. The first line of this poem is: "The Crickets sang" if you want to Google it.

It is an honourable Thought (re-worked)

And makes One lift One's Hat
As One met sudden Gentlefolk
Upon a daily Street

Photomontage and Acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

My dad. He often wore a trilby hat and he used to raise it to any of my mother's friends we met when we were out walking the three of us. This is a continuation of the Emily Dickinson inspired series.

Since first posting this I have re-worked it quite a bit. I don't know why I post things when in my heart of hearts I know they are not finished. It's a bit like "the show must go on" kind of syndrome. Ridiculous. But that's blogging for you. Makes you paranoiac. Anyway, hope you like the improvements.

By the way, this is the end of that poem...

That We've immortal Place
Though Pyramids decay
And Kingdoms, like the Orchard
Flit Russetly away

Self portrait December 2011

Acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This felt good to do. A more constructivist approach using palette knife - particularly in the early stages - and brush. It's a good way to get colour variation and also lets me feel as if I am "building" something. Even after so many layers I can still see the wood grain on the finished piece. I like that.

Presentiment (re-worked)

- is that long Shadow - on the Lawn -
Indicative that Suns go down -

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This was done on Sunday evening - after the sun had gone down incidentally. It was meant as a "starter" for this painting. And maybe it still is, but when I got to look at it this morning it seemed to be saying all I wanted it to say.

I went to Heaven (re-worked)

Twas a small town, lit by a Ruby, lathed in down..

Photomontage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This was the hardest so far. ED's idea of heaven was not a cloudy, fluffy, insubstantial place. My grandmother (pictured) would be delighted to discover that heaven was a small town. She was not a country girl nor was she a city girl. She was always a small town girl. I like that metaphor very much.

Since first posting this I have re-worked it, getting rid of the large darker shape in the foreground.

I'll tell you how the sun rose. (re-worked)

a ribbon at a time -

Photo montage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This is the third in the Em and I series which I am concentrating on at the moment.

How happy is the little stone (re-worked)

Photo montage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This is the second in the 'Em and I' series (Emily Dickinson inspired). I had originally painted this with quite a bleak and very abstract background. I worked on it for some time yesterday and this emerged which is decidedly sunnier. As I (think) I was working intuitively, then so be it. The titles of these paintings are the first lines of some of my favourite ED poems.

That Love is all there is

Photo montage and acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

I'm intending this to be the first of a series of work inspired by the poems of Emily Dickinson. She is one of my favourite American poets. Her life and her work resonate with me and it felt so right to do this, as though many of the important decisions around a painting were being taken care of quite naturally.

Maggie Smith look-alike

Acrylic on wood panel 6" x 8"

A woman who looks a bit like.... me

Acrylic on wood panel 8" x 8"

..hang on a minute..it is me.

Paul

Acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

This was done largely from life in the studio session last night. Paul was our model - with a face full of character. Great to paint. I altered the background when I got home. It was originally dark red and just wasn't right. It detracted from the colours in the face.

A woman who looks a bit like Judi Dench

Acrylic on wood panel 12" x 12"

When you're stuck, just keep painting, keep painting, keep painting. It don't matter what, why and who. I saw this photograph of one of my favourite British acresses, Judi Dench, and I had to try an interpretation of it. Sadly I have elongated her face ever so slightly and when I realised it, I was past the point where I wanted to start correcting it. It isn't a commission after all, LOL. She's a great actress, a wonderful woman and she ain't done nothing to her beautiful face thank goodness.

Life studies - Marissa

Left: Marissa with easel II hard pastel on paper approx 18" x 12"


Below: Marissa with easel charcoal and charcoal pencil on paper approx 18" x 12"

I have been attending the studio sessions regularly but just not been posting the work. So here are the 2 pieces I did last night. They took about 45 minutes each.

Sacrifice

Acrylic on hardboard 14" x 14"

Themes in art are often about the 'human condition': how we understand ourselves, our feeble attempts to relate to each other and to our environment. Many artists however also use "carriers". I can't explain this better than to say for me that means a 'local activity' such as war, family, journeys. (Artists and critics often call these 'themes' but I see them a bit differently). These carriers are useful because a piece of art is a concrete thing, a 'focussed' thing. And because we are driven in our lives to 'do' things - go on journeys, make war, make peace, have families and so on.
I find the underlying themes easier to deal with than the carriers, which always give me trouble. I like how some artists relate to something another artist has done (Hughie o'Donoghue with Van Gogh or Picasso with Velasquez) or relate to something that happened in the news - o'Donoghue's 'Diver' series or in their own family - his father's war memoirs. These kind of things pull you back into the real world but then allow you to reflect on the human condition. Does this make sense or am I rambling?
ps. I need to put a halo on the dog - now what is that saying??

Untitled as yet

Acrylic on hardboard 8" x 8"

I was messing about the oil pastels again on top of an old piece and suddenly decided I wanted to blend - really blend, like a Richter blend. So I wiped off the oil pastels with some spirit, got out the acrylics and this came out. It is not the new painting I refer to in the last post, but actually something totally different. Now this feels like painting, so maybe I'll try another.

Woman in grey

Oil pastel on hardboard 8" x 8"

This is a re-work of an older piece which actually started life as a self portrait. If I could shed x amount of years it might look a smidgin bit like me so anyway, it stopped being me and became someone else. I'm ok about that. I have started work on a series (I hope) of figurative acrylics emerging out of memory and imagination. I have tried something like this before but never been totally happy with it. This time I'm planning a bit of a new slant. Hope to post something soon.

Copies of Picasso

Picasso "Girl with fan" 1905



(below) Picasso "Self portrait" (detail) 1906

It was Picasso who requested Sennelier to create oil pastels and Sennelier complied. The Sennelier pastels are rich, creamy and so saturated in colour they are almost voluptuous. (No they are not paying me- unfortunately). Picasso must have used them extensively but finding evidence of that is not easy. He certainly did not seem to use them exclusively even though they had been created first and foremost for his use. I think he used whatever was at hand to be honest and as for me, I find his work captivating. It's a pleasure to make some poor imitations of it.
These copies (in Sennelier oil pastel) measure approx 8" x 5"

Nude on red

Oil pastel on card approx 15" x12"

This was done in the studio session last night. It was a 45 minute pose which was not really long enough for what I wanted to do so I worked on it a little more from memory today at home.

Practice pieces

Oil pastel on card approx 6" x 6"



Oil pastel on card approx 6" x 4"

I know some people work in this size regularly but these are tiny for me. What was I practicing? Well two things: firstly how oil pastel works on a surface and secondly how to create people from my imagination.

For the love of wisdom: Gypsy

Acrylic on canvas board 14" x 10"

For the love of wisdom : The sad queen

Acrylic on canvas board 14" x 11"

By the way, I have posted the third and final framed landscape on my Stalybridge paintings blog at the special price of £115. Just email me if you are interested.

Stockport Art Guild 91st annual show

Today was the opening of the Stockport Art Guild annual show at Stockport Art Gallery and some great work is on display there. I was honoured to have 3 of my paintings accepted for the show and even more honoured to win a prestigious "Jack Lees certificate of Merit" for one of them. So if you are in the area, give it a whirl. It's kind of nice to support the north of England in the Arts as we are ever seen as the poor little sister to big brother London, but watch out London, we are fighters up here!!

For the love of wisdom: the benevolent king (re-work)

Acrylic on canvas panel 12" x 12"

Our faces are not absolutely symmetrical and yet portrait painters tend to make them so (I don't except myself). Here I wanted to exaggerate the difference a little without losing the emotional response. A lot of the work of other painters that I enjoy uses figures as metaphors (David Brayne? Jeannie Tomanek? )so it is the message which is emotional but I have a tendency to want to portray the figures themselves as having an emotional dimension. On another note entirely I visited a small Yorkshire town yesterday and found in a second hand bookshop an account of an interview with Ron Kitaj. His favourite painting is Cezanne's 'Bathers' which he claims was done absolutely from the painter's imagination in his studio. This painting of the king started from a found image of someone I didn't know but morphed into something else completely. And yet I feel I now know this man. Strange. ps. Since posting this I have reworked it and reposted. First 3 comments refer to the first version.

Portrait of Dan with iPod

Charcoal on cartridge paper 20" x 15"

Got back from Ethiopia Sunday. Although the work is totally enjoyable and satisfying, I must admit is was wonderful to get back to drawing last night. The model was a serious, music loving young man called Dan. Today I'm back with the paints after about a three week absence and I feel like a complete novice.

One more framed painting for sale....

on my Stalybridge paintings blog. I leave for Ethiopia tomorrow - back on 23rd October. I should be able to send and receive emails whilst I am there as usual. Thanks for looking!

Stalybridge blog and travelling

Have just put a new entry and a painting for sale on my Stalybridge paintings blog. I'm travelling soon - off to Ethiopia again for a couple of weeks. Not sure I will have time to post anything here until end of October now. Blogger is banned in Ethiopia but I should be able to check my emails.

Review time

I had one of those "Look at your last ten pieces and decide your satisfaction level with them" sessions. I propped all the pieces up in a row and made notes (don't laugh). The outcome was that I liked two of them and that most of them were write offs destined for the make-over pile although a couple might be salvaged with a re-work. Therefore a number of pieces will shortly disappear from this blog. I think one mistake I make is to rush the paintings. Because I can't spend every day painting and many days go by when I cannot even paint at all, I think I tend to rush things when I do get chance for an afternoon at the easel. Anyway, made lots of notes for myself. I need to re-read them once a week I think!

Pennine Gallery

I have been invited to join an exciting new venture Pennine Gallery which aims to represent those artists who are based in this area of the north of England and whose influence is prominent in their work. This is both an online and a "bricks and mortar" gallery where you can see the work face to face so we get the best of both worlds. I am really happy to be part of this with my Stalybridge work. Please click on the link above or in the side bar to see more.

For the love of wisdom (no.1)

Acrylic on canvas board 12" x 9"

This is the same (limited)palette as the last painting - exactly - but I used knife instead of brush and tried to work as conceptually as I could. It's funny how many different ways of working we have within us as long as we are not afraid of them and not afraid of being seen as eclectic (or worse, lol).

Inside Out (no.1)

Oil on hardboard 12" x 12"

I've been experimenting. Some of it worked. Most of it didn't. But I have found that if I don't experiment nothing at all moves. I can think and write about it till the cows come home but it's the "doing" that pushes me forward. This is a return to oils on board and a return to brushes rather than palette knife. The planes of any faces are seductive. I'm doing what I hope is a mini series but as we all know anything can happen.

One smart lady

Oil on canvas board 12" x 9"

Woman in a black jacket

Oil on canvas board 14" x 11"

The photo didn't quite capture the exact green in the background but I think it's close enough.