This one is for me, place to muse, share ideas and interesting images.
When I started a series of paintings called canopy for my Hotham Park residency I thought it was a good idea until I started this. Its only just begun but I’m already thinking of painting it out and starting again or using the nice canvas for something different. It looks a mess right now and I’m not sure I’m using the right medium for it. I’m working in acrylics and I think I might be better with inks. I’m not one to give up easily so will give it another go. Watch this space!
After my grand rant in the last post I have girded up something or other and begun a new project in my studio as the only way to start is to start.
Last year I took a series of photos looking up into the trees in Hotham Park and my aim is to produce a series of fresh work based on these. As Artist in Residence for the Park I’m always looking for new ways to represent it. Here is the first stage of the first painting and it was good to get going again.
Having trouble getting going with fresh work but have managed to finish this today. It started life as a quick demonstration on the theme of ‘Storm’ for my little art class. As its on a good sheet of heavy acrylic paper primed with gesso I felt I had to at least finish it off. Managed to do it without getting too fussy which pleases me. Below is the quick pencil sketch the painting was taken from. I like working from sketches if I can.
I haven’t posted here for ages. I finished the Marathon that was ” The Mavis Diary” book illustrations, then Christmas and New year – the result I haven’t touched a paintbrush for months. I always find starting from a cold dead stop really hard. I think I need to do some serious messing and sloshing paint around not worrying too much about the result until I get creatively warmed up again. In the meantime I have some paintings of Hotham Park where I am Artist in Residence in a mixed exhibition at The Oxmarket Centre of Arts in Chichester until Feb. 12 2017.
In my last post I mentioned the difficult job of hanging my paintings in a space without walls. They will be suspended from hooks in curved beams. What can possibly go wrong? I have put long strings from D rings only fastening one end so that the height can be adjusted in situ. I have tested how they hang by suspending one from a bedroom curtain rail. An additional complication is that the cafe does not have car access so we will unload onto two flatbed pull along trollies at the entrance carpark. This brings back memories of dragging a cart of wooden bricks along as a child. Down the main path, past the clock tower and boating pond then round the corner to the cafe where we will have access at 5pm. Then for an hour and a half all mayhem will break loose to get everything in place by 6.30 and attempt to look as though I have just stepped out of bath, rather than been dragged through a hedge backwards, to greet guests and the Mayor. No worries really!! Photos of the event will follow.
After an afternoon painting there is the less glamorous task of cleanng up. I use a lot of brushes because once they have been used they are too wet to reuse during a session. Then there are the enamel plates I use when working with acrylics, they have to be washed too ready for the next session though if they are left to dry the paint will form a skin and float off.
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