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..

Black bog, blue hills

by Deborah Watkins. Posted on November 14, 2013

14 Nov

I’ve been working on some small paintings this week ( 5″ x 7″ ) – I really enjoy painting on this scale as I can get results quickly. It’s not just the speed factor though ( impatient as I am ) it’s the ability to make a better response to the landscape. At the moment I find this more difficult with larger work – covering the canvas takes longer so the response is less immediate. I believe that smaller works and drawings often have an energy about them that is lost in larger work. I would love to scale up in the future and get better at making bigger paintings – a bigger space, bigger brushes, more paint – it’s good to think about the possibilities. For now small is good for me.

The composition here is based on a favourite spot of mine near Oughterard. When I drive past, I want to stop the car and get out and just take it all in. Sometimes I do but it’s not always possible and it is a very fast stretch of road.

This is how this piece started out below. I’ve used large brushes and lots of colour, a little charcoal too.

Here’s the next stage. I’ve played with different consistencies of paint – thick and thin layers over each other. I’ve used a sepia ink to describe the bog which is almost black at the moment. I allowed the paint to dry before continuing.

Once this first layer was dry, I used smaller brushes to add spots of colour – some green in the foreground and more red and blue on the hills behind – a little more definition overall.

Happy with this one now and eager to do some more..

Island Paintings

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on May 28, 2013

28 May

I’ve begun a series of small paintings based on my trip to Inishturk and Caher island recently. It was such a thrill for me to have the perspective of the islands from the sea – all that blue/black/green in the foreground with a gorgeous slice of land in the middle of it all. I decided to work small and quickly rather than give myself the pressure of a large canvas so I chose acrylic paper, small pieces – 3″ x 4″ and 5″ x 7″

I prepared several sheets with a wash of blue and white.

Next I outlined some rough compositions and I used acrylic paste for texture.

Once the paste was dry, I went in with lots of colour – some charcoal first for the cliffs. I used paint and ink applied thickly and thinly in turn to maximise the effects that these two materials bring when used together. I worked quickly and back and forth between several pieces. The one in the cover photo ( also below ) was the last piece I worked on. I think it works best because I had figured out what I was doing by this stage. This is what it looked like when wet below.

Here is the same piece when dry – the paint has settled so the textures are clearer. The colours will brighten when I coat the surface with an acrylic varnish later, which will not effect the texture.

Here’s another piece – the first photograph below shows what it looked like when wet.

The same piece when dry below.

I’ll be taking a break from painting and blogging soon as I have a job for the Summer months which I have already started. I’ll post more about that in a little while..

Burning

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on April 8, 2013

08 Apr

Fires have been burning here in Connemara for the past week. I stopped en route to Dublin to take these pictures at the weekend. This particular stretch of bog became a creeping line of fire that landowners struggled to contain.

It’s an annual sight here and the only way to control the voracious growth of the gorse plant. The ash from the fires also gives much needed nutrients back to the earth which promotes new growth, a kind of seasonal cleansing and renewal. The problem arises when fires get out of control and with the fact that it is illegal to burn growing vegetation in this area between March 1st and August 31st. Unfortunately this period is often the only suitable time for burning to take place due to the length and inclement nature of Winter in Connemara.

We have had an unseasonal amount of rain since October last followed by an unusually long spell of dry windy weather. This has led to the rash of out of control fires in Connemara this month. The garda helicopter was called in to assist fire services in tackling a number of blazes near Spiddal and Moycullen. The wind direction hampered their efforts and has caused the rapid spread of fires which may otherwise have remained under control.

A stretch of road was closed in this area at the week end while I was away. I could see why when I returned last night and stopped to photograph the ashen land which now reached the edges of the road. My camera struggled to capture the colours as the light was fading but these photos give an impression of the charred landscape below.

Theres something eerily beautiful about this blackened place and I will return soon to take more pictures during the day. Thanks to the efforts of the Clifden fire service, there was no loss of life or serious damage to property and hopefully this position will continue.

ADDENDUM

I understand that it is widely believed that some of these recent fires have been ignited unlawfully and not by landowners and that the gardai are involved. It is remiss of me to have suggested that any landowners were involved in this latest series of gorse fires. I met with friends this evening who spoke of the extent of the fires in the Moyard and Cleggan area and how the blaze came dangerously close to several homes, causing significant damage to some property and to underground pipes. It is also quite feasible that some of the fires may have been caused by accident or heedlessness due to the particularly dry nature of the bog grasses 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 Bog

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on January 31, 2013

31 Jan

I drove to Galway yesterday and stopped on the way to take some photos just outside Oughterard. It’s a favourite spot of mine – I took some photographs there last Summer. It’s a different place in January but no less beautiful and in fact there’s still a real richness to the colours of the bog and grasses, lovely russety browns and mahogany shades..

There was very little colour in the sky and this is reflected in the pools of water which have a metallic quality, like liquid silver or mercury. A lovely contrast against the earthy mix of colours around it.

There’s a quietness about the place, a stillness, as if the earth still rests. I imagine tiny tendrils underneath, waiting to move upwards and change this place again with a wash of green. Soon..

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.

And then came the Sun

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

Derryinver, Connemara by Renee Plantureux

15 Jan

Yes! We’ve had our second dry day in a row. In a row! Great cause for celebration and excitement after the last few weeks of non stop rain. Our poor hens have been trudging around in the swamp that used to be our garden looking very bedraggled and forlorn. I can detect a spring in their step to day which is catching..

Yesterday I left the breakfast dishes in the sink I was so keen to get outside and enjoy the sun. I went to visit a friend in Moyard, a small townland nearby and I stopped on the Bog road ( above ) to take some pictures en route. It’s near the spot where I took the blurry rain shots in a recent post, just a little further along the road. Here’s some more photos – just look at that blue sky below!

I remember taking some pictures not far from here last January and the sky was a similar bright blue colour. It’s striking when you see it reflected in the water pools as you can see in these next images.

I love the blackness of these turf stacks in the next shots, I suppose due to the fact that they are sodden with water.

Just look at this next one, it’s more like black iron or lava than turf..

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.

Winter Waits

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

09 Nov

The first week of November has come and gone with more dry days than wet. It’s a remarkable thing here in Connemara where the rain is never far away. We feel grateful when we get a whole day of dry weather, even more grateful when we get two in a row. I find an excuse to go outdoors when it’s like this, everything else can wait; housekeeping, book keeping, laundry, shopping, even painting is put on hold. If I’m really organised I’ll put some washing out to dry first thing, so that I can leave guilt free.

I took these photos out on the bog road between Clifden and Roundstone. October’s gold has deepened to these Wintry hues, it’s brown all over and under – russety, chocolatey, chestnut brown. The light is low, shining across rather than above and making the brighter grasses glint like shards of coloured glass or metal.

The water makes a silvery stripe against the bog and there’s an inky blackness at the edges where the grasses are reflected. It makes me think of a pool of mercury sliding through the landscape.

There’s a stark kind of drama about it all, a bareness from the flat grey light of the sky that seems to muffle colour like sound. I like to track down the words, sometimes a verse to match the way the land looks. That’s how I stumbled across these lines from the poem ‘November‘ by John Payne. I think they fit the mood well – the setting is an empty stage and there’s more than a hint of darkness in the shadowy figure of Winter, laying in wait.

The tale of wake is told; the stage is bare,

The curtain falls upon the ended play;

November’s fogs arise, to hide away

The withered wrack of that which was so fair.

Summer is gone to be with things that were.

The sun is fallen from his ancient sway;

The night primaeval trenches on the day:

Without, the Winter waits upon the stair.

taken from ‘November‘ by John Payne ( 1842 – 1916 )