New Paintings

This is a selection of paintings done in the last few months. Sketches were made last year, seasons change and I tried to capture how I felt in the situations.

Late summer in Kippen

Light on the sea, Arran

Winter walk in Kippen

 Light on the Fields

 Coming Home in Winter

Looking Back to Kippen

String Trio

Open Studio 2013

Journey towards Abstraction

The task for the day was to draw chairs, in all sorts of shapes, sizes. etc., on tracing paper, then to move the images around until a satisfactory composition happens. Draw the image on A2 paper, using charcoal and rubber, and then start to abstract it.

I found this extremely difficult as I was not sure what I was doing or why.

Moving the images around over white paper seemed great fun but when it came down to it, I could not get a satisfactory composition. Echoing shapes, finding structure, all seemed impossible. I started to wish that I had different drawings.

I tried a simple sketch to get the idea but it still seemed very contrived.










FINAL DRAWING

This is my final drawing. Charcoal on A2. I am not happy with it as the composition is not good. The page is just split diagonally and the drawing is not abstract at all.
I seemed to resort to looking at the lines and negative space in the same way as drawing the chairs in the first place. on the whole, a failure to abstract.



SECOND DAY OF ABSTRACTION



The following Friday was to introduce colour.
We started the day with a talk by Jane on the basic principles. (see below)
I also did a few tests of colour to see what combinations worked well.

I retrieved my sketches on tracing paper, tried moving them around, doing sketches of possible compositions.
 I felt very unhappy with the whole process.

After a strong coffee and lots of thinking, I came to the conclusion that what I was trying to do from these individual drawings of chairs did not make sense to me.
If I was to make something out of a drawing it seemed more sensible to stick to my original vision and go from that rather than from something that felt more detached.

I went back to my earlier drawing of the chairs. (see below)

This was my attempt at focusing into the stack of chairs and looking at the negative space, shapes and textures.

The first painting, acrilic on A2 was done very quickly, looking at shapes, colours and patterns. What I wanted was for the top part of the painting to be quite dynamic but the bottom to be more rooted, yet holding it together by the lines and shapes.

The second painting was experimenting with different colours and getting in closer with the shapes.
Not quite successful but better that last week's drawing.

The third painting ( right) was to use mainly blues and more tone and try to think more of the composition. The yellow was added to bring more sparkle. ( complimentary colour)

On the whole I felt happier with the day painting from from my original drawing rather than trying to created something from bits of drawings.
Perhaps the whole point of abstraction for me is to go slowly and let it evolve in time rather than make a huge leap not quite knowing what I am doing.

Stack of chairs

Friday morning at Leith School of Art and I walked into the studio and was confronted with a pile of chairs!
This was the still life for the day............

 After the initial shock, I began to be quite excited by the idea of tackling such a tricky subject. Life throws allsorts at me and so, why not chairs?

 The brief for the first drawing was a five minute sketch drawn blind. Graphite on A4 paper and not looking at the easel but focusing on the chairs.

The second drawing was not much better but I was beginning to understand.

The next drawing was done with the non dominant hand. In my case, my left. I had no control over what marks I was making and I found it difficult to connect my brain with my hand.

This made it very interesting when the next short drawing was done with my right hand. 

It was immediately easier and I felt my old patterns of finding structure, brain connected to hand and vision was more familiar.

The result was very curious. In everyones' drawings, the dominant hand sketches were the most boring.

Blind drawings had more vigorous marks, non dominant hand drawings were more lively and had far more interest. They also showed the feeling of chaos that the stack of chairs produced. 

The brief for the rest of the morning and the afternoon was to spend longer on a charcoal drawing, A1 size and focusing first on the stack of chairs and then focusing in on the one aspect of the chaos.


The right hand drawing was causing me trouble as it was losing all spontaneity until, with five minute before finishing, Ginny suggested rubbing out most of it and redrawing.
Nothing like a bit of pressure and time limit to focus the mind.
The result was a more complete drawing.






The drawing on the left was tricky because of the tendency to be fussy over perspective. My aim was to capture the detail of the chair back on the left and the detail of the shadows, which echoed the amount of pattern and detail. Not enough time to get it all in....

Summing up the experience.. What I failed to do was to capture the energy and sponaneity of the blind drawings. They both became too sterile and next time I hope to remember to think less of the result and more of the initial feeling.

Edinburgh Drill Hall

Yesterday was the final day of the project to paint the impressions of the Edinburgh Drill Hall off Leith Walk.



We started three Fridays ago with spending the day sketching and making notes on how to tackle the next two Fridays painting.

What struck me most about the venue was the enormous space everywhere. The floor space was vast and the roof, made of girders with large areas of light coming in, was almost too overwhelming to take in.
The cafe, was a totally different feel. Lots of brightly coloured tablecloths and red chairs, lots of people and bunched up together by the entrance.
The other thing that struck me was the light coming in from the door, compared to the darkness immediately between the entrance and the cafe.

Jane and Ginny having coffee. It was cold and so they were wrapped up and huddled around their hot drinks.

Getting the light on the balcony area was important and the yellow ochre of the doors compared to the underneath area. The lighting was quite extreme, from the light from above to the the dark at the entrance.

What struck me was the idea of the sky being very important as part of the building as well as the amount of floor space. The roof and the sky were one. Without the roof, the sky would not be seen so intently.

This led to the idea of doing three paintings as a triptych. Heaven, Earth and Humanity.

These were the first attempts the following week. 

I wanted to get down the main structure and see how they would fit together.

 Third Friday. Final paintings..


This was about bringing the paintings to a conclusion and I decided to make the space of the floor the feature but instead of space, I concentrated on the reflections and made the lower area more structured. A hint of the metal work of the roof and sky to show the light coming in.

 What impressed me most was the feeling of the metal structure towering over my head.The enormity of space and light was the reason to show the metal work darker at the top of the painting and melting into the building.

The idea of heaven became more about the structure of the roof.

 The two figures of our tutors having coffee, Ginny's striped skirt and the difference between Jane's complexion ( she is Greek) and Ginny's fairness, the splotches of red and acid green of tablecloths, all seemed to sum up the effect of people between the two vast spaces.

All three paintings have in common the door which is the brightest yet smallest part of the paintings. The entrance and connection which makes the whole experience possible. 

Leith.. Ink and Bleach

Today at Leith School of Art was a new experience. We were handed some blue ink, brown ink, a one inch brush, a stick and some bleach. There were two models. One in Japanese costume and one nude and they alternated betwen the main studio and the sculpture room.
First was a series of 3 minute sketches with ink, brush and stick on A4 paper. Then came some more 3 minute poses but this time using bleach to take away from the drawing in order to put back more correct lines.

I found this extremely difficult as I was not sure what I was doing and then the bleach made everything run so much that there was a real mess on the paper. I could not draw into the bleach because the lines went fuzzy, also the stick was unwieldy. The blue ink turned green and trying to do a life drawing with the tools getting in the way so much seemed impossible.

The afternoon was spent in doing a pose for an hour. Point of despair came quickly and I had to ask for help from the tutor, Jane. She suggested covering the paper with ink and drawing with the stick using bleach to take away rather than using the ink on white paper. This helped.

First of the life drawings using ink, brush and stick.


 My drawing suffered as a result of trying to use the stick, which seemed to have a mind of it's own. It was two feet long and slightly bent.

I was also experimenting on putting the figure to one side of the paper instead of in the middle. Trying to work on composition as well as the form.
The left drawing did not work so well but I am more pleased with the ones on the right.

This was more successful as I got used to the materials.











However, when using the bleach, my drawing went completely off track. Shoulder problems! Tired to use bleach to get rid of bad drawing but made a great mess instead.

 This one was a nightmare as the model was practically in silhouette and I did not know how to start so left out the bleach!
Told by tutor, Jane, to persevere.. ( Leith School of Art motto)

Result was another mess.












After lunch was the hour long drawing. I chose the Japanese girl thinking it might be easier. Wrong!


A1 paper and too much to think about. Her Kimono was highly patterned and she was sitting on a chair on a patterned rug.
The angle of her knee made it look as if she were standing and as I was drawing the ink and bleach was running everywhere.

Hopefully, it was beginning to get somewhere after half an hour. Detail was out of the question and so was any attempt at pattern. Feet turned into a blur and despair took over once again.

However, at the end of the day, I was very glad to have had such an interesting experience and might even try it again..