I am still mentally reeling from the the images of the devastating Australian bush fires and here is another picture started in the firestorm series this time collaged paper and acrylic on canvas. In progress. 50x70cm
Wood & fire
After the fire
Yesterday I posted some digital sketches on the theme of the Australian bush fires. This painting in oils is called ‘After the fire’. It is 80x80cm on coarse Jute canvas. I used black oil stick to create the tree lines which worked well on the jute though used the stick up rather quickly.
Anguish
As some one who believes passionately that we need to take the issue of climate change much more seriously than we are doing I was filled with anguish and horror at both the burning Amazon and the terrible bush fires caused by drought in Australia. As an individual there is very little I can do but as an artist I can try to put some of this distress into my work, This probably achieves nothing but at least it gives me some relief.
I have been using my new iPad to produce sketches which I will turn into much larger paintings and here are a few examples.
Hello new decade
Well hello 2020, so far Australia seems to be on fire, south Africa in the grip of drought and famine, Jakarta is flooded, Harry and Megan have resigned and we are told by those who are really paying attention (unfortunately not the ones who should be) that we have ten years to get our act together or we are doomed to fry drown or starve before the end of the century if not before.
In the light of all that I thought I would share some of the good things that have happened for me last year starting with my lovely Garden.
Joie de vivre, finished
I’ve just realised that I never got round to posting the finished version of this painting so here it is.
Sea Kale again
A while ago I shared my work on a painting called Sea Kale which had languished in my studio for a couple of years. Having just registered for the 2020 Chichester Art trail I decided I had better get on with finishing it. Its always hard stopping and starting a painting with long gaps between work and as I began I realised just why it was the painting got pushed to the back of the pile in the first place. As I started I wondered what fit of madness had made me attempt the thing in the first place but I have a thing about finishing things so gritted my teeth and got on with it. After a while I began to feel chilly as I did not have the heat on though I did warm the studio, a log cabin in the garden, before I began. Oil paints make fumes so its not a good idea having a heater going whilst working with them. Before you get your violins out, its long way from the starving artist in a garret and I do retreat to the warm house when I get cold. Any way the painting progressed though its not finished and there are many hours of frustration left in it!
Elmer Sands
I live in Elmer, by the sea, and sometimes I forget what a lovely place it is to be especially when harsh salt winds blow in to scorch my garden plants, but this beautiful September morning I took a walk to see the progress on the improvements being made to our sea defences. There are some lovely old Groynes washed by the sea but as I suspect some of them will disappear under more rocks I decided to do a photo sweep before that happens. I won’t say any more but let the images speak for themselves.
Ghost forest,
I was so distressed at the sight of the burning Amazon forest and all that means for the animals trees and humanity that I got a large, 100×120 canvas on my easel to express what I feel. In the end I settled for covering the canvas with red, orange and yellow alkyd oil paint diluted with thinners. I allowed the paint to drop from the top edge rather like tears then took a cloth to wipe out the shapes of trees using photos of the forests as shape guides to make them appears negative images, like ghosts. Alkyd oils are quick drying and can reworked again after six hours especially when thin. The next step was to turn the painting upside-down and dribble black paint down the canvas wiping the trees clean again after. I’ve added some grey and one or two white bits. This makes no difference to the forest but helped me with the grief I feel.
Multitasking
Another of my harlequin paintings. I guess we all know the feeling of having to juggle too many tasks and this work is a playful representation of that feeling. Alkyd oils on linen canvas 80x80cm
‘Riot in the garden’ finished?
This painting in oils which is 70×70 cm on box canvas started as a wild sketch but as I worked on it in my studio I was afraid of losing the wildness. I find most paintings end up as a compromise between what one sets out to do and what one is able to do. I’m sure I could go on working on it but feel to do so would end up with what I call knitting where all freedom has been lost, not that I have anything against kitting, just not in a painting. No doubt I will see things that need tweaking as it hangs around my studio though.
