Out of the box (untitled charcoal drawing)

Charcoal on paper 28" x 33" (approx) - sorry, not for sale.

Ok, for those who don't know I am a member of the Daily Painters Gallery and we decided that it would be fun on 1st April to flag up on the DPG web site work which was not usually expected from us. I have not had time the last couple of days to do anything new but I found some old, big, charcoal drawings I did some years ago. In fact, none are dated except one which seems to say August 1997. I can't believe it was that long ago but it must have been.

What happened was I got hold of a book by a man called David Friend and the book was called "The creative way to paint". It was published in the mid sixties (most of the best books are the older ones don't you find). The book begins by drawing - but not the technical "rules" of drawing, rather drawing from within yourself, your own vision. He advised getting big sheet of white paper and a piece of charcoal, sitting comfortably on the floor in front of this, totally relaxing, close your eyes and just empty your mind. When you are ready take your piece of charcoal and make one mark on the paper - long or short, straight or squirly, don't matter. Look at it for a while then make a second mark. If you see "objects" or people emerging, don't bother about it, just let it happen. Just make the marks as they "feel" right to you. I wish I could lay my hands on that book - I could then explain it better. You keep adding marks at your own pace and eventually you may no longer be able to resist that person, that object, that landscape which is emerging. Believe me it is an amazing experience. In fact now I have described it to you I am going to try it again.

So anyway, at that time I did around 5 or 6 of these big drawings over the course of a couple of weeks (I'll post the others up over the next few days). Friend advises creating paintings from them and goes into some detail about how you might do that but that part never worked for me. It felt like a bit of a false intervention. Mind you, I know a bit more about how paint works now, so it might be worth a try.

I am putting the comments box back on for this one because I am interested in whether others have tried meditating before painting / drawing and with what results.

By the way, I found towards the end of each drawing that figures/scenes were emerging who were part of my life. This one is about my grandchildren playing. They all used to come every Sunday and made the attic their playroom. Sadly they're too old to do that now and prefer WIIs, UPSs, Facebook, boys, girls, bless them.......:-D

Kitchenalia

This painting has been sold


Oil on wood panel 8" x 6" £55 (British pounds)plus postage & packing

Still lifes so nice to do, so relaxing and its interesting to see how far you can "suggest" things rather then paint them in detail.

I am taking my Comments box off for a while. I have a lot on at home at the moment and it's taking up some valuable time responding to people and also checking out their blogs, leaving comments there etc. However I would like to thank those of you for the comments you have left on my work. It was kind and I appreciate it. If you need to contact me of course I am at the end of the email system.

Pak choi

This painting has been sold

Oil on wood panel 6" x 8"

I have been studying Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings and notice how they get as much mileage as they can out of every square inch of canvas in terms of colour. I have said before that I am not comfortable with the technique of placing the different marks of paint on and leaving them - no blending - but maybe it's a good way to extend the learning about colour. This one was fun to do but again, difficult to photograph.

Aubretia mid morning

Oil on wood panel 7" x 5.5" £50 plus postage & packing

When I went up to the attic this morning I saw that the aubretia had perked up and were smiling at me so I had another shot at them, this time with more light on the subject.

Earthenware

Oil on wood panel 8" x 6" £55 plus postage & packing

I just like these objects I collect. The big jug is a particular challenge because it is quite scratched and rough in parts. I don't think it is very old but you never know.

Thought for the day

I have recently finished reading that engrossing book "The Art Spirit" by Robert Henri. Thanks D.Prizzi for the recommendation.

I like what he says on pg.88:

"There are mighty few people who think what they think they think".

Humbling, eh?

Norfolk green turnips

This painting has been sold

Oil on wood panel 7.5" x 8"

I will cook these now but I must admit I bought them for the colour and then I went in Ikea this morning and they had an offer on tea towels, soft cotton, some with a red stripe and some with blue. So I bought two lots. The folds are tricky!

Polished gourd with persimmons

This painting has been sold

Oil on wood panel 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing

I bought this gourd in Ghana some years ago. They are I think big seed pods which are allowed to dry out then they are polished and figures of animals and birds made in clay are fixed to the surface and painted black. It's one of my favourite things.

Society of Women Artists

I am pleased to announce that I have had three paintings accepted for the juried exhibiton of the Society of Women Artists in London in April/may. (And so has my friend Olha Pryymak although she might be too modest to say - you can see Olha's work by clicking on the link in the post below).

An Award

This award was given to me by Edith Dora Ray - many thanks for your kind words and confidence in me edith. I am asked to pass it on to two more bloggers. This is always so difficult because as we all know it is not a case of "who can we find" but "who shall we be leaving out". I am going to name anyway two young ladies who live in this sceptered isle (even though they do live in the south - they can't help it LOL).. They are firstly : Olha Pryymak whose wonderful scenes of city life in Europe and in England are so full of life and enjoyment; and secondly, Annie (sorry Annie, I don't know your surname) who lives on a narrow boat in London - isn't that great? Annie does terrific and dynamic ink sketches but also wonderful oils. Please check out these two blogs - they are really worth it.

Can I just say that although there are quite a number of these "awards" going around what I value about them is the fact that they have been created by ourselves. This is recognition coming from a real democratic base which is such a great antidote to the somewhat materialistic and money obsessive culture of the art world and its markets today.

Sharon from Israel

This painting has been sold

Oil on gessoed card 10" x 6.5"

In the States I think these fruits are called Persimmons. In the UK we call them Sharon fruit and a Wikipedia search informed me that they are so called because they come from the Sharon Plains in Israel. They are also apparently grown in America and in Japan. Anyway, it gave me a name for a title for the painting.

Painters who follow this blog will notice that the last few paintings have been decidely more vibrant colour wise than usual. I was working with a limited palette but I simply felt the urge to use more colour and so red and ultramarine crept in and I just thought - oh, go for it! I do think the neutral palette of greys and umbers helped me a lot to understand colour and value and I am pleased with what I have achieved with these latest paintings.

Ripe mangos

Oil on wood panel 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing

Had to catch these mangos before they reached the end of their lives. They will make a nice after lunch treat.

Tomatoes and basil

This painting has been sold


Oil on wood panel 8" x 8"

I re-took the photograph of this painting today and this one is much more like the original painting - quite dark and rich. Wish I had someone to take the photos for me. It always seems a very hit and miss affair.

Picasso - A man of many talents (nodp)

Portait of Olga 1923

(In case you are wondering the "nodp" is a code to tell the Daily Painters Gallery not to include any of these images on their site.)

Ok, yesterday I was in London delivering some paintings to the Society of Women Artists exhibition and I called in at the Picasso exhibition "Challenging the past". This exhibition aims to show not only how Picasso was influenced by other artists but how he took their paintings and made them his own (eg. Delacroix "Women of Algiers"; Manet "Dejeuner sur l'herbe"; Velazquez "Las Meninas" are some good examples). I should say at this point I am not a great fan of Picasso, especially his later, more cubist work, but this exhibition set me thinking.

On searching the web I found this comment by a journalist: He said "A painter friend visiting the exhibition's preview said that he almost never goes to museums for fear of being influenced and losing his originality. Picasso had no such worries."

I myself commented in my blog the other day in response to someone: "When you look at your "favourite" painters you find that none of them paint identically - some may differ radically in style and approach - so why should we like all these different ones? It must be that something in us is responding to the "difference" in each of them. It helped me to see that I didn't need to try to emulate anyone, simply learn what is inside myself." It seems that Picasso was reaching inside himself all the time but at the same time responding to different stimuli and the outward expression, in terms of the painting, was often radically different from one painting to the next.

I have included here three Picasso paintings of women, all done in an apparently radically different style (it is acknowledged that it was Ingres who provided the influence for the first painting of Olga.) Olga was Picasso's first wife and a beautiful ballerina. I believe the second painting shown here called "Seated woman" was also of Olga. (she looks far less delicate in this one doesn't she).

Two points:

Firstly, for me there are two "clues" that painting one and two are done by the same artist: the first clue is in the forefinger of the left hand in 'Portrait of Olga'. It is decidedly "sausagey" and very like the fingers of the "Seated woman" and other of Picasso's 'monumental' figures series. Also, to me, the expression on the face, the look in the eyes is similar although the whole image is treated so differently.

Secondly it is comforting to know that this great painter had no hang ups at all about putting the paint on in any way he felt comfortable at the specific time of completing each painting... So, back to the drawing board..LOL..

Picasso "Seated Woman" (1920)

Picasso "At the Moulin Rouge" (1901)

Flowers in an old inkwell

This painting has been sold

Oil on wood panel 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing

I am guessing this is an old ink well because of the shape. I bought it in an antiques emporium in Haworth, North Yorkshire last week when my daughter was here. It's made of beautiful green glass. I'm sure I'll be painting it again.

Garlic in the light

This painting has been sold


Oil on gessoed card 5" x 4" £40 (British pounds)plus postage & packing

I did these yesterday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. If I was teaching art I would definitely get my students to paint garlic on a white background. You learn so much from it - mainly what we all know that "white" is hardly ever "white".

Garlic on a shelf

This painting has been sold

Oil on gessoed card 5" x 5" £40 (British pounds) plus postage & packing

The silver spoon

This painting has been sold


Oil on wood panel 8" x 8"

For some time now I have wanted to try painting still life objects at eye level and I had no stand on which I could do that. So yesterday I fixed a shelf up on the wall which gets the best light in the attic and is in the area where I normally paint still lifes anyway. It was great to get up close to the objects and really see them well.