March Landscape

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on March 15, 2013

15 Mar

This landscape is probably more true to how the landscape actually looks at the moment than others I’ve done recently. Along with the richness of some of the colours, theres a bleached out feeling to the old growth which has been touched on in this piece. It started out like this below.

Next I added some textured paste to define this long gully that disappears into the distance and the movement of the grasses on either side of it.

Here’s a close up of some of the marks below.

Next, I’ve loaded the canvas with colour. I’ve left the mountains in the background as they were – just a simple wash of colours as I want them to recede behind the ‘action’ in the foreground.

Another close up below. I’ve applied the paint thickly and in layers, sometimes wet on wet.

Here’s the finished piece. I’ve left this small area of white at the point where the gully fades into the background. The eye is drawn to that point so it seems right that it should be the brightest patch. I’m happy with this one – the swirling energy of the grasses and the landscape against the cool austerity of the hills in the distance. I like the brighter tones in this piece too which I’m going to try to keep for the next few paintings. What do you think?

Surge

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on March 7, 2013

07 Mar

I began this painting (above) a week or more ago. It is loosely based on some photographs I took in the bog this year, particularly this fuzzy looking one with the trenches at right angles in the distance.

I started work on a 12″ x 14″ x 1.5″ canvas and outlined the composition with broad strokes of colour. I’ve accentuated the right angled trench and made it the centre of attention.

Next I added some textured paste. I’m really enjoying this stuff – it does exactly what you want it to do, so when you put it on the canvas it doesn’t slide off and it holds it’s shape perfectly until it dries.

Here are some close ups – I’ve used my hands to make the marks, as well as brushes of different sizes and various tools that came to hand. I’m interested in putting some energy into the piece with these marks, in making the surface seem to writhe with movement as it sometimes appears to do in life.

The paste takes several hours to dry completely so I return to it the next day. I go back in with colour to describe the grasses and the landscape and I make the trench a watery one with blues.

This is what the piece looks like when it’s still wet and after lots of colour has been applied (below).

The paint loses it’s gloss once it has dried (below) but this will return later once the canvas has been varnished.

When I look at it again, I realise that there are too many horizontal lines and shapes which need to be broken up. I decide to correct this by making some small vertical shapes in the centre of the canvas so that the eye is carried around the painting rather than stopping at the point where this trench shape ends.

I’m pleased with the results and I’ve decided to call the piece ‘Surge’. This describes for me the movement of the landscape – movement that the eye can see but also the shiftings that take place over hundreds of years. Thousands of years. Layers of matter building up all the time and layers being washed away. I love this notion of the land as a living thing, observed cooly in the distance by the unchanging character of the mountains.

Underneath

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on February 11, 2013

11 Feb

This painting below is one I made towards the end of last year. There’s something about it, something accidental that happened that really works. I want to replicate it on a larger scale to see if I can work out what this is exactly. I also want to introduce some of the textured paste I used in my last piece which I think will lend itself well to this composition. Finally, I’m keen to find out if I can change the scale of a small piece like this ( 6″ x 8″ ) and still keep the essence of it intact. I was reading some of Seamus Heaney’s poems at the time about the bog bodies and I love this idea of the bog as a resting place, a secret tomb.

Here’s how I began below. The canvas is 12″ x 14.5″ x 2″

Next I applied some paste, scooping it onto the canvas with a brush and then working it with several brushes, sometimes with the wrong end of the brushes to make sgraffito type lines

Here’s some close ups of the different textures. I love the variety of marks that are possible – thick raised pieces and scratchy sinuous lines. Hopefully it will give the finished piece some real depth.

Once the textured paste had dried, I began to paint the middle and foreground of the canvas. I worked quickly with paints and inks, taking advantage of the way the two materials behave together. I didn’t pause to take pictures along the way until I was satisfied that I had the results that I wanted. This next photo was taken after a couple of days when the colours had almost completely dried. The black/brown of the bog has a leathery feel to it that I am very pleased with but was difficult to photograph without getting too much shine.

Here are some close ups.

The next part of the painting I worked on at this point was the mountain nearest the bog. I had painted it with ultramarine blue which just looks too ‘straight out of the tube’ and is too distracting. I mixed up a slightly duller colour (below), truer to the blue silhouettes that you see here. I want these mountain shapes to be flat and serene looking to contrast with the energy and life of the bog.

I am very happy with these results as I think I have hit on the essence of this piece and the direction that I would like the paintings to follow from this point. It’s the intangible nature of this place, the idea of life underneath the surface and more. The composure of the landscape on the surface versus the darkness and unrestrained nature of the layers underneath. More work to do!

Texture

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on February 7, 2013

07 Feb

I’ve been working on this large landscape. It’s 12″ x 14″ x 2″ which is a large deep canvas by my standards. It began this below.

Then I added more colour.

Next I brushed on some textured paste, my first time using this medium. It has the consistency of thick paint and is opaque white in colour. I worked into the paste once it was on the canvas to created different kinds of textures. It should probably be applied before this much paint has been put on to the canvas but I wanted to make the textures relevant to what is happening in the painting. I have a pet hate for landscape art that uses texture randomly.

Here’s some close ups below.

$Second close up$

Next I added more paint.

Here’s the piece after a more work (below). I’ve covered the canvas with colour now and I’ve made this corner on the left darker than I’d originally planned. I’ve also added some green and brown to the pool as I wanted it to have a more murky feel to it.

When I looked back at the last two images, I saw that I had removed most of the green from the clump of grasses on the front right of the canvas so I went back and put some more green back in there.

I’ve learnt a few things making this painting – the first is that I love working with this textured paste. It brings the piece alive for me by – a bit like modeling with clay ( ahh, I remember those days ). More than that, I’ve learnt to trust this material ( paint ) which probably sounds a bit strange or perhaps too obvious but sometimes the hardest things to grasp are the things that are right in front of our noses! It’s an acceptance of the material and the ability to really work with it, to just go for it without trepidation. I think I’m finally learning to do this and I feel happy with the way the work is progressing at the moment.

Contrast

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on February 3, 2013

03 Feb

I started this one with a couple of others recently. It’s loosely based on some pictures I took out on the bog road this month. I think this one is all about contrast – between the black bog and the white/golden grasses, the darkness of the earth itself and the lightness and blueness of the sky and its reflections.

Here’s how it started below.

Here’s how it progressed – I worked this whole piece very wet, playing with the inks and paint and trying to work with their fluid qualities. I love the way they react together, bleeding into each other like glazes fusing in a kiln.

I’m almost tempted to leave it as it is ( above ) but I go back to it once the colours have dried. I try to put in just a bit more detail and to describe the grasses a bit better and give them more direction..

While I am quite happy with this one, I almost prefer it at the earlier first stage as pictured above – what do you think?

January Landscape

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on January 25, 2013

25 Jan

I started another landscape based on some photos of the bog I took in the rain this month. I began the piece on the easel and used charcoal and broad brushes with lots of colour – below.

The horizontal swipe of orange made me think of Egon Shiele‘s work – something about the combination of black and rust. I had to stop and take a look at his paintings – this one’s called ‘Truth Unveiled‘

I love the energy in the lines, the scratchiness of them, you can almost feel the hand that made these marks – the daubs and blocks of vivid colour. Wonderful.

Image taken from canvasreplicsa.com

Now back to work! I added more colour and detail to the landscape below, it’s still on the easel so the inks and paint run downwards a bit.

I take it off the easel now and do some work on the table, trying to counteract the vertical lines with more horizontal shapes of colour.

I want to darken it a little now so I use some charcoal where the paint is dry, on the hills at the back especially and in the line through the middle of the road.

I mark in the fence on the left also with charcoal.

I reworked much of the piece ( below) once the paint was dry. The fence is gone and I’ve decided to leave it out. I tried consciously to avoid being precious about what I’d already done, pushing myself to just go ahead and make mistakes – keeping the image of the place in my mind at all times.

I think this is where my greatest weakness is and I’m trying to gain the confidence to finish a painting with the same energy that it had when it began. I’m happier with the results so far and I need to put this painting away now for a few days and come back to it afresh.

Return to Painting

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on January 19, 2013

19 Jan

It’s always hard to get back to painting after a break. I’ve had a couple of false starts since Christmas but I have resolved to try to develop the work in a number of ways. I want to make some larger work this year for one and I also want to make my painting looser, less busy, and more expressive somehow. Yes, quite the tall order I have for myself indeed. This will all take time and it’s frustrating to begin with clear ideas like these in mind and then to find that it’s not so easy to translate into something actual straight away. It’s a process of course and it will take time.

So, here’s how my first painting for 2013 began – it’s really more of a sketch because it’s on quite a lightweight paper. It’s similar to some bog paintings I made at the end of last year although this was not my intention exactly. I used an easel for the initial part of the painting in an effort to keep the composition loose and energetic.

Now for some more paint..

I’m still using the easel at this next stage but I’m finding that the ink is dripping vertically ( of course! ) which is not necessarily where I want it to go.

I finish it on the table and I darken the whole piece with more brown and blue. I discover about now that if I use any more paint or ink the page will dissolve in front of me so this is my main reason for stopping! I’m reasonably satisfied with it at this stage in any case – my problem with it is that it does seem a bit of a muddle in terms of composition. I like the colours and the diagonal thrust of it but it did seem to work better earlier on. What’s your view? I think I’ve more work to do..

RTE’s ‘Nationwide’ Programme

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

21 Dec

Here’s the clip from RTE’s ‘Nationwide’ programme that aired last month. It features my work and my studio and also the Lavelle Art Gallery here in Clifden where myself and my husband Gavin make our living.

Hen Paintings in Progress

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on December 18, 2012

18 Dec

Here’s a couple of hen paintings I’ve been working on. They are at various stages of completion. The one above is the one I’m most happy with but it’s not quite finished yet. Here’s how it began below.

Here it is after a bit of work.

and after a little more work.

Just a small bit of detail needed, not too much or it will become fussy. Here’s two more paintings as they progressed.

I’ve overdone this one a bit and it is fussy – I still find it hard to get that balance right, between a lightness of touch – enough to express the movement and energy of these creatures with enough detail to justify calling it a painting ( not just a sketch ) but not so much that they become fussy and drained of energy and life. Still learning.

Maybe time for just one more post before Christmas, I have something seasonal in mind and then a couple of weeks of rest, glorious rest – school holidays and lies ins and rest. Lovely.

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.