Composition and St Francis

Composition and St Francis, egg tempera on panel 16 x 23 cm

There is that game that writers play where they try to put random words in their text.  This still life is certainly a random mix of objects. And I had this idea as I was composing a still life another time that it would be interesting to print out some other objects (besides the myriad that I have collected - too many) to place in front of the actual different objects. Sometimes I change the objects into other objects than are in front of me in the painting process, but in this case it would be declaritvely not what it appears.

Since a still life is really just an arrangement of shapes and colours, by having a paper version of exactly the colour and shape I want, it would be playful and self-conciously direct, I thought - maybe.

I guess it turned out to be Mary Fedden meets surrealism! 

Inside out and Sauerkraut

Inside Out and Sauerkraut, egg tempera on panel, 30 x 20cm

Sometimes when I set up a still life I get really excited because the beauty of the colour relationships and shapes just feels right. On Sunday, when I put this together (minus the tulips and plums) I couldn't wait to get started.  First I needed some tulips and some fruit. I raced to Stowmarket before the shops shut and had to visit two stores and there were only yellow tulips available. I thought the plums would work. 

From the start, this was a stop and go still life - I've had a busy week. Busy because the first three days of my week I leave the studio for as much as half the day: Once for life drawing; once for portrait group and once for Pilates.  This week I also met up with three artists.  And it was also the culmination of the Impeachment Hearings so my podcasts and live stream filled the studio with intrigue.  

I named the painting from a line in an opinion column, a line that seemed to me like the perfect metaphor for the world we inhabit at the moment. I don't find the radio distracting. Painting takes over and fills my brain -  I turn the 'inside out and Sauerkraut' into something else - dabs of colour on a support, that make me feel happy. Returning to the painting again and again, gave me the opportunity to look again and again and  time to think.  Yesterday I got to that place when I couldn't make what I was painting work and then I remembered that it was time to stop painting exactly what I saw in front of me.  I needed to create a version of the stilllife that had the feel that seeing the colours and shapes had instiled in me when I began.  That's a funny thing I find happens. The most exciting beginnings often become the longest toughest slogs.  Can you tell?

Playing with subjects in Egg Tempera and then the Frame

Pink Pussy and POTUS, egg tempera on panel, 16 x 23

Back in the studio after almost a six week (forced) hiatus.  It was visitors, visits, housework, laundry, cooking and clean-up and flu that stopped play but as soon as I was able to, I was back: finishing things, and getting to things I'd been thinking about.  I've put them up in the order I completed them, from most recent to oldest.  If you have seen me in the last few years you will know that I have become something of a militant middle-aged sceptic about the state of the Union. Is this an appropriate subject for the media I chose? Should I work bigger, develop the idea to include more plonkers?

Orchid and Bowl, egg tempera on sintopia ground on paper, laid on card, 15x21cm

In this one, I wanted to focus on two of the most beautiful objects (orchid and bowl) that made their way into my studio over Christmas. As presents, I got a silverpoint holder, some pieces of silver in varying sizes and sinopia, cassein gesso, that is meant to work well with silverpoint.

I painted several pieces of paper with a few layers of sinopia and composed what later became this egg tempera.  At the National Portrait I saw that the Pre-Raphaelites painted with egg tempera on paper, so thought, why not? Until I had built up a few layers, even after I'd glued it to a board, I found that it wasn't as nice a surface to work on as my rabbit skin glue/gesso panels, but ultimately, it worked well and I like the outcome. Using a matt and framing an egg tempera drawing under glass will be a different type of experiment.

Christopher Lucas, egg tempera on panel, 16 x 23 cm,

Christopher sat for me months ago and I never could find the time to complete the portrait. I dedicated myself to doing this over the first two days back in the studio.  The real piece is richer than this. I like the way I have made him recogniseable but stayed loose. His hands are key to the painting, I think.

I dropped off for the Pastel Society early in Jan but that drawing was not ultimately successful.  Last week I dropped off for round two selection of the Royal Society of British Painters (RBA). The painting above died in a white frame so, working with Jo Hollis we decided on this ornate frame. As I had a pair, I framed them in the same way.  I hear tomorrow. 

While at the Gaugin, with Gabriella, I noticed the space above subjects.  Gaugin played with this.  I found this painting very difficult to resolve because of the space above, but will try to find the fun in point of view in the coming months and think of Gaugin!

Rudbeckia Robin and Pumpkin, egg tempera on panel, 26 x 20 cm

I know it's autumn by the colours I see, the colour I am drawn to and the way it is that much darker all the time. I began his egg tempera over the weekend and worked a little more on it this afternoon once I returned from life drawing. I wanted to create the lush feeling of each of the objects and to situate them in an autumnal setting. I Love the work of Hosep Pushman https://elle-belle10.livejournal.com/1941548.html and although my work looks nothing like his, I think of it as I work, often.

As usual, I nearly gave up repeatedly.  I would ask myself: Why can't a create a feeling of equilibrium? Even though the vase isn't quite in the centre is it too much in the centre? Which hour of light do I want to settle on? Do those rudbeckia need to be just the way I see them? Why is a cake stand used as a fruit bowl so darned difficult to draw?

I thought I'd include a very early version so you can see how much I change as I go on… how loose I start and how bad at drawing I can be!

And above was what I was looking at until I added the orange on the right to help satisfy my wandering eye.

Little sketches in cracks of time

We had a lot of rain in Maine and as my mum had injured her back there was just that little bit more to do in the garden...so this year so I drew less and had less 'headspace' in general for imagery. I carried my altered sketch books to Maine, so was determined to use them when I could. Hopefully I will use these notes later.

We went off the island to do chores. My mother and I collected new vessels from Goodwill.  Back home when it rained, we made bouquets from whatever we could find in the garden. The hellebore was the star of the counter.

One of the things I did in my 'spare time' was to renovate my travelling pastel 'kit'. The pastels have been in saggy cardboard boxes that were falling apart for the past few years - all held together with elastic bands. This year the elastic bands broke in my hands and my backpack was a big grey mess. At the workshop I took with Felicity House, I discovered the power of using rice to keep the pastels from turning grey so I searched for some new clear screw-top holders and it is like magic! It was so hard to say goodbye to this new system that on the way to the airport I stopped to buy another set and have replicated it here.

Back home I'm just coming out of catch-up mode. In the 20 mins when I should have been heading to the house to get on with dinner prep, I paused and drew the stuff at the other end of my studio. One day I went to draw with the IBBAS artists at Old Hall in Southwold. Yesterday Christopher Lucas came by and sat for me.  When I have a chance I will return to the egg tempera portrait below. Today I called into the Handmade shop.  The work by our trail looked fabulous!

Fig comes back tomorrow and It's Suffolk Open Studios soon so it will be a struggle to find even little cracks of time to sketch in...

As Spring Becomes Summer

Tulip Blossom Pear, egg tempera on panel, 27x24 cm, 

I find that so much of what I begin with feels intuitive but may actually be intentional, even though my mind hasn't caught up with what I'm responding to yet. 

I picked some flowers from the garden, wanted to use the dress I'd impulsively bought at a charity shop that was a great colour and had a great pattern but that I would never wear. I liked the idea of the IBBI bowls inside one another… As I was matching things, trying to get the balance (without thinking about it) I chose some similar blue items with bits of bright red on them. I needed height and structure to work, orange, green, more fascia.  The last few items and re-arranging them always takes the most real looking and nudging time.  The green cup on the right came towards the end of the painting, not part of the original still life at all but necessary in the end.

So what's it all about? Why did I gravitate towards those colours in the first place? I'm not sure that I can answer truthfully now that I am done but it was starting to get hotter, the tulip and the figure has a blossom feel, it's all making me feel exuberant... but is that language or what I was looking at? It felt wholesome and fecund, how do you show that, create that mood? 

Which of the players in the arrangement did I want to focus on, what does that say about my mood, the season, my thinking?  Is it really just a case of nostalgia or that thing that I love about pattern and colour? You tell me.

While it rages outside, I create my own little worlds indoors

African Palette, pastel on prepared mount board 23x22

Today it rained and gales raged, rattling the windows of the studio. I barely noticed as I was immersed in my African Palette, finding the depth of the colour.  It was another one of those drawings that didn't paint itself. I could match the colour but every piece needed layers to get the excitement that the colour had in REAL life. 

On Tuesdays I often call in at the Mind charity shop in Hadleigh after pilates. I often buy something.  In this still life, objects from that charity shop are: the purple tablecloth that is the bottom rectangle and the jug above the orange. It took me at least three weeks to succumb to the jug, though. I planted the primroses in another jug from the Woolpit car boot.  

sketchbook project page - African Palette

I often set up my still life the night before.  That way I can sketch it quickly first and then sleep on it. 

House of Cacti, egg tempera on panel

This is the third of that bright object egg tempera series.  It is a smaller panel and the objects were arranged in a very convoluted way.  In the back is one of my old faves - a Cacti I drew years ago after visiting the Botanic gardens in NYC with my dad. The cacti soldiers marching East are from Woolpit but they are IKEA, apparently. Can you find the real cactus?

sketchbook project page - Mexican Table

 

Andrew, charcoal on paper, A4, RA live life drawing

And last night I tried something new… I projected the RA  live life drawing on the studio wall and had a life drawing session.

Objects as inspiration

Jugs, Egg tempera on Panel, 23x16cm

The husband of one of my friends is giving a course on hoarding.  We went to the car boot sale on Saturday and I couldn't resist a few more ceramic objects.  The vase below is one of them.  My mother is drawing objects too. She sets them up and creates beautiful zen brush drawings on her iPad. So does my sister and my brother and our daughter buys jugs when she can. My mother tells me one day she will take all her objects back to a charity shop for others to be inspired by.  Whatever, I can't help arranging my own and working in all kinds of media to create a story with them.

Sympathy in Green , pastel on paper, 46x46cm

Snow of Memory

Snowy Walk, egg tempera on panel, 30x20, 

I was asked how I worked recently. Did I draw, did I work plein air, did I use photos? I use all those strategies but I don't work in a straight line, visualising an outcome. I begin with something I want to try out and then things happen and I need to make choices and find ways to solve problems. 

I have tried to keep the snowy light in my head so that I could make a little series of pictures of walking in the morning light. I did some drawings and took some pictures and tried to look and look. I looked through paintings and kept two books open as I worked on this: Wolf Khan, pastels and particularly: Looking towards St Peters (1963) and Bonnard (Phillips Collection exhibition) Piazza del Popolo, Rome.

Wolf Khan, Looking towards St Peters

Pierre Bonnard, Piazza del Popolo, Rome

The place and the situation are a collage of memories, stitched together to make a believable moment. The figure with the hat was added later and I removed some things that were distracting. The moon was a happy accident.  a drop of water that removed the tempera.

The Figure in Context

 Conversation with View, 23x16, egg tempera on panel

I painted a landscape of Manningtree months ago and I couldn't resolve it.  I finished it, but it wasn't resolved so it sat in my box of incomplete egg tempera panels.  When I visited the Bonnard, ten days ago, I particularly loved the figures in context and the way he paints light. So I wondered whether the idea of  'light behind' would work in this case and whether some figures might complete it.

I printed a photo of the panel and drew some figures in with a pastel pencil so I began.  what i love about working on egg tempera that has set is that you can actually wipe off the bad drawing and it reamins exactly the same.  It is permanent! and there is a differnt kind of underpainting to explore.

When something works it's time to try it another way

Snowy Walk, egg tempera on panel, 30x20 cm, 

For the past few years I have stuck to particular media to use for different subjects.  I use pastels for still life, landscapes in Maine (mostly) and life drawings, egg tempera for portraits, monotypes for UK landscapes and life drawing. Oils are for everything. I've also made a few egg tempera paintings of still lifes and Maine landscapes since I began using the medium   Today I tried it for snow light. What I was trying to do was to create the surface interest that I love from egg tempera, to try to get the luminosity you find in snow and to find colour that would provide interest.  I used a few drawings I made when the snow was on the ground and photos from walks. The image was a collage of some of these images. 

When I went to the Bonnard I saw how he used drawings to do the same thing and how he used animals as devices for colour and shape within the painting. 

I think I'll do a series of these if I can find different things to say about it all.

Still life and landscape

Egg tempera on panel, 16 x 23 cm

Thursday and Saturday was egg tempera day.  I wanted to change the face on the buddha but in the end reverted to a version of a buddha.  A laughing Buddha briungs good luck.

pastel on paper 13 x 15 cm

Today I reinterpreted the still life and added some lemons and daffodils because I need a picture with that title for an upcoming show. Now I have two to choose from!

Barns I, Akua Intaglio monotype

 Sunday was a monotype day. I made prints all day, hoping that I would love something enough to replace the print that sold at the mini print exhibtion in Stow on the Wold.

Barns II, Akua Intaglio monotype

The Resistance of Materials

egg tempera on panel, 16 x 23 cm, Dawn,

I was listening to Start The Week on Monday http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09tc4fy as I drove to life drawing.  Tacita Dean used the words, 'material resistance' and it stuck in my mind.  

I could see chemicals developing a black and white print in a photo tray; the viscosity of ink on a brush being laid down on a zinc plate; the colour of pastel on a page in an altered book; plastic, sticking, bubbling, melting and of course paint: colours on a palette or egg in pigment, the way the brush drips and pools the paint… How could I use this resistance to do something more?  Is the way the materials resist at the heart of why I flit around them?  And then, how do we go beyond resemblance to something else using the chosen material? This week has been about that.

Above, the egg tempera began in the 2 1/2 hour session at my portrait group on Wednesday. When looking at it at home I could see a resemblance to Dawn but I wanted more and the media had been used to capture what I could of her without being used in a way that made more of the medium. 

Thursday, in the studio, with the panel, a clean palette, a slightly eggy egg, some fresh pigment and a few photos;  I tried to find a way to use the media to bring Dawn to life.   

Akua Intaglio on zinc printed on Rives Lightweight with spoon

Last night at the NEAC drawing school session, I had my zinc plate and a slightly wider array of Akua intaglio colours than usual. How is this media different to the egg tempera and how could I use it to share my experience of the model in 45 minutes, in time to catch my train back to Suffolk?