Painting 2016

by Deborah Watkins. Posted on May 2, 2016

02 May

2016 has been a year of false starts and I have found it difficult to settle into a good working routine. I messed up a couple of paintings early in the year and it was all the harder to get back. There is always a countless number of tasks to hoover up my time when I allow them to. Then there were the usual winter related flus and viruses, one particularly nasty one has just made it’s way through three members of the family, myself included and here we are it’s May already.

If I have learned one thing over the past few months, it is that I need to allocate some time every week to painting and stick to it. Then I must use the time as efficiently as possible. I cleared out my painting studio a couple of weeks ago and this helped to make a fresh start. For me, it’s a question of focus and confidence. I visualise what I want to do and then I set about getting it down on canvas. I don’t worry too much about making mistakes, I just keep going until the painting is finished and it is usually fairly clear to me when I can’t do any more with a piece.

The inspiration for this painting came from a photo I took near Maam Cross in January. I used this image for the basic composition – the large mountain in the background, the strong cleft through the landscape and the swirling grasses.

This is how the piece started out. I took the photo late at night so there’s some reflection. I thought afterwards that the mountain looked a bit too like Eyre’s Rock so I scaled it down a bit at the next stage.

This next stage is interesting because the inks and paint are still very wet – the ink has bubbled where I’ve applied it. I’ve put in lots of contrast – blue to dampen down the background and dark brown to highlight the blue channel and some shadows in the grasses. I’ve tried to introduce lots of movement in these grass shapes with each application of colour.

This photo was taken once the paint had dried. The colours have died down, although the movement is still there. At this point, the piece is almost ready for varnishing.

I added some red paint in a few places before varnishing as I felt it needed a bit of warmth. I’m happy with this one and glad to be back to work.

November Landscapes

by Deborah Watkins. Posted on November 21, 2013

21 Nov

Cover image – ‘November Pool’ by Deborah Watkins

These landscapes were worked together. They are all done on 5″ x 7″ heavyweight acrylic paper. The one above is based on a view of the Twelve Bens mountain range from the Roundstone Bog Road. I’ve kept the mountains sketchy and light to make them recede a little and I’ve used lots of thick paint and ink in the foreground to describe the grasses and this large pool. I didn’t take photographs during the process – they were worked quickly and sometimes I find that stopping to take images interrupts the session too much.

I’ve called this one below ‘November Red’ – the colour of the bog has been exaggerated but the contrast between the paleness of the grasses and the peat itself is there.

‘November Red’ by Deborah Watkins

This next painting was also worked quickly – I’ve used large brushes for the foreground and smaller ones to describe the hills behind. It’s evening so the colours are all quite dark. I’ve attempted to heighten the drama with this dark cloud shape that mirrors the swirling lines of the bog.

‘November Evening’ by Deborah Watkins

A little too much colour for November? Perhaps, but is is all fading now and quickly so maybe I’m just taking stock..

Winter Cleaning

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on December 4, 2012

04 Dec

I’ve been busy doing lots of this kind of painting below

..and not so much of the other.

It’s a spring cleaning kind of thing that I’m going through but for us this has to happen in Winter as there’s no time in Summer when the gallery is busy. Our poor house has been sorely neglected for a good many years and so I’ve been painting walls and ceilings and skirting boards and architraves and bookshelves and window sills.. It’s time consuming and addictive because once you start in on one corner you have to take pictures down and clean them and then maybe change them around or replace them. Then you go looking for new photos or older ones and before you know it, the morning has gone!

I found a photograph of this painting while doing just that. It’s one of my early seascapes, from about 2009. It’s most likely based on the sea out at Aughrus which is a beautiful coastal area near Claddaghduff, just a few miles north of Clifden. I was using a lot more charcoal as you can see in the background of this piece. I often cringe at older work but it was nice to come across this one and I’d be happy enough with it if I produced it today. So forgive me if the posts are a little threadbare while I do this nesting cleaning tidying thing and I’ll be back soon.

Miry Place II

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on November 21, 2012

21 Nov

The last time I worked on this painting, it looked like this (below)

It sat around for a long while and every so often, I would pick it up and tinker with it, always feeling that it needed something more. Here are some of the stages I brought it through;

During this time, the seasons changed and those bright yellows turned into darker browns. I thought I’d try to reflect this in the piece and to darken the whole painting considerably. Here’s the result below.

It’s a far cry from where it started! It has completely lost the freshness it had early on. There was something there at the first stage that really worked – the deep blue and ochre colours against each other especially. Perhaps I should have left it as it was but it did seem to me to have an unfinished air about it. I was very unsatisfied with all these in between stages but I am quite happy with it now in it’s darker form. It does seem to me to reflect the darker hues of the landscape at the moment. What do you think?

Welcome Back! Seascape in Progress

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on August 6, 2012

06 Aug

I’m back after my short break and I’ve returned to the sea to do some painting..

I started this one with the idea of setting up some kind of contrast between the bright shore line and the darker water out to sea. This is how it began below.

The sky takes up less than a third of the page so the emphasis is very much on the water. I’ve used a touch of red on the island shape and some charcoal in the foreground to suggest some rock shapes. The rest of the colour is a mixture of acrylic paint and ink.

This is the next stage below. I’ve used lots of bright colour near the shore line – turquoise, green and some pink. I find the colours of the sea seductive and inviting near the shore and I want to play this against the water further out towards the horizon where it becomes mysterious and dangerous.

The next image is exactly the same but taken a couple of days later. The paint has ‘settled’ and some of the thin layers in the foreground have shrunk a bit as they have dried. The colours have dulled a little too but I’ll bring them back later when I varnish the finished piece.

This is the finished painting below. I tidied up the horizon line and added a bit more purple to the island shape. I also used some more paint and charcoal on the rocks. Once the paint was dry, I varnished the whole thing.

I’m happy enough with this one – it needed very little adjustment after the first sitting so I think it has an energy that reflects how it was made. I like the way the paint and charcol bled together in the foreground into these watery shapes that look like seaweed.

Do you think the contrast works here? What does the sea mean to you?

Bog Cotton Painting

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on July 9, 2012

09 Jul

I wanted to make a painting of the Summer bog and include some bog cotton as I saw in Oughterard recently. This is how it began (below).

I used more paint to describe the grasses in the foreground and the bog surface as it recedes in to the distance. This was done while the first layer was still wet. I decided to wait until the paint dried before painting the wandering water channel (below).

After a couple of days, I returned to the piece and used some blue and grey ink together to describe the water. I also added gold paint and green ink to enrich the colour to the right of the painting. Then I applied a touch of white to describe the bog cotton. I leave it at this point although I feel that it needs more work.

When I return to the painting I see that it needs more contrast and more colour. I darken the area to the left foreground with a combination of red and purple inks and I add some pink and red to the middle ground. This is the painting as I have left it (below). I will leave it for a couple of days and then decide if it needs anything more..What do you think?

Landscape – Dark Pool

by Deborah Watkins. Posted on June 9, 2012

09 Jun

This is a landscape on canvas (5″ x 7″) that I have just finished. It is based on an area between Clifden and Roundstone known as the ‘Bog Road’ which offers impressive views of the ‘Twelve Bens’ mountain range.

The photograph below shows the painting after the first sitting. I have used quite a lot of acrylic paint and ink to get it to this stage. The pool in the centre is the main focus of this one as you can see.

Here it is from a different angle – I’ve brought the painting around the edges of the canvas (below).

I wanted to make the piece darker in terms of colour and mood when I came back to the painting. These bog pools have a bottomless watery darkness about them that I am trying to convey here. I got it to this stage (below) but now I am not happy with the sky or the mountains in the background.

I returned to the piece when the paint had dried and attempted the background again. I decided to introduce some reds and purples to the mountain range as there is too much blue in the piece above. Here is the painting as I have left it (below).

In an effort to create more drama and movement, I allowed the grasses and water to spill over the front side of the canvas (below).

I am happier with the piece now and I think that the red mountain range is an improvement. I hope that I have managed to create this dark mood I am looking for. What do you think?