Imagined Places

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on August 17, 2012

17 Aug

I have been working on two more paintings which are based on an excerpt from Paul Harding’s book ‘Tinkers’ (see ‘Water, Snow and Ice’)

I had a strong idea in my head about what they might look like and I worked quickly so I didn’t pause to take photos along the way.

This piece below is a view of the frozen lake from afar. I wanted to include the cabin this time and a view of the lake that would include the water under the ice.

I started by sketching out the mountain shapes in charcoal and then the lake shape in the foreground. I applied the paint quite thickly in an effort to portray the ice and snow and I used a combination of blue paint and ink to describe the water. I then used gold and brown to paint the figure as it has slipped through the ice and I continued this shape underneath where it is dropping down to the bottom of the lake. I used small drops of metallic ink to describe the fish and underwater creatures and I bubbled the ink on to the paper to achieve a watery effect. I decided to leave the top part of the piece as it is – sketchy and thin, because I think this gives it an atmosphere of cold and quiet and I like the physical contrast between this and the thicker use of paint in the foreground.

This next piece below is the lake from another angle. I’ve added a tree this time and I’ve made it swirl around the lake, following the lines of the snow to give the piece a sense of movement. I started this one by painting the circular lake shape, this time taking up most of the page. Once again I’ve flattened the perspective at the base of the painting so that the underside of the ice can be seen. I’ve used the white paint thickly and contrasted this with washes of ink to describe the water and the ice where it is thin. I used golds and browns again to paint the figure as it has slipped in to the water and is carried underneath.

I usually base my paintings on things I’ve seen. Working from imagination hasn’t really appealed to me before but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working on these, perhaps because this place was made so real through the writing.

Water, Snow and Ice

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on August 13, 2012

13 Aug

I’m reading a book that most of the world has read and enjoyed but which I am just discovering. It is ‘Tinkers‘ the novel by Paul Harding that won the Pulitzer prize in 2010. It is simply the most beautiful thing I’ve read in a long time and I am savouring every page. I decided that I would try to make some paintings to describe one lovely passage.

This part of the book describes the ~~failure~~ efforts of the protagonist’s salesman father to sell small pieces of jewelry to peasant women on his travels. The land is frozen and the women are too caught up in their own hardships to allow themselves this small pleasure.

‘He thought, Buy the pendant, sneak it into your hand from the folds of your dress and let the low light of the fire lap it late at night as you wait for the roof to give out or your will to snap and the ice to be too thick to chop through with the ax as you stand in your husband’s boots on the frozen lake at midnight, the dry hack of the blade on ice so tiny under the wheeling and frozen stars, the soundproof lid of heaven, that your husband would never stir from his sleep in the cabin across the ice, would never hear and come running, half-frozen, in only his union suit, to save you from chopping a hole in the ice and sliding in to it as if it were a blue vein, sliding down in to the black, silty bottom of the lake, where you would see nothing, would perhaps feel only the stir of some somnolent fish in the murk as the plunge of you in your wool dress and the big boots disturbed it from its sluggish winter dreams of ancient seas. Maybe you would not even feel that, as you struggled in clothes that felt like cooling tar, and as you slowed, calmed, even, and opened your eyes and looked for a pulse of silver, an imbrication of scales, and as you closed your eyes again and felt their lids turn to slippery, ichthyic skin, the blood behind them suddenly cold, and as you found yourself not caring, wanting, finally, to rest, finally wanting nothing more than the sudden, new, simple hum threading between your eyes’.

taken from ‘Tinkers’ by Paul Harding, Chapter 1, pages 24/25

This is how I started the painting below.

The largest part of the painting is under water. I wanted to have a central shape plunging downwards and water gushing back upwards and in to the air. This is the next stage below.

I used lots of colour for the plunging shape – pinks, golds, browns, some red. I made several attempts to get this sense of movement using large brushes and lots of colour – blues first and then splashes of white for the water. It’s coming together here but I’m not happy with the top part. It doesn’t feel like a cold place yet. The next image below is the piece as I have left it.

I used a broad brush, some white paint and some charcoal to work up the sky and I’ve darkened the water at the base of the painting. Now I think it feels like snow and the depths feel like murk. I’ll let the paint dry before I decide whether to add any more to it. What do you think?

Sky and Sea

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on August 10, 2012

10 Aug

The main interest in this little seascape is the sky. It started out like this (below).

I used lots of red at the base of the painting in an attempt to give the final sea colour a richness and depth. I’ve applied the paint quite thickly on the top part of the piece. I waited until this layer was completely dry before I worked on it again.

This is the next stage below.

I’ve given the cloud shapes more definition and divided them in to dark and light areas. I then used some charcoal to mark out the rocks in the foreground and lots of blue and white paint to describe the sea. I’m happy enough not to do too much more with it at this stage and I wait for this layer to dry.

This is how the finished seascape looks below.

I’ve used charcoal to heighten the contrast in the clouds and give the illusion of rain falling. I enjoy using charcoal with paint like this although they are not traditional partners – 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?

Paul Henry

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on July 23, 2012

23 Jul

I’ve been looking at some of Paul Henry’s landscapes recently and thought I might write about them here.

Henry was an Irish artist who was known especially for his West of Ireland landscapes. He was born in Belfast in 1887 and he studied art in Paris before his return to Ireland where he lived and worked on Achill Island (1910-1919) off the Mayo coast for many years. While in Paris, Henry was greatly impressed by the modern avant-garde movement of the time and the bold colourful works of Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gaugain. Landscape painting was no longer just about realism but about colour and energy and the individual mark of the artist’s hand. I love this quote by S.B. Kennedy in his book on Paul Henry where he describes these new ideas of the time:

“Cezanne and Van Gogh saw clearly because they had cast aside all the theories and prejudices of the Schools and were looking at nature as if for the first time, and above all seeing it with emotion.”

This notion of seeing landscape with emotion really resonates with me because it seems to me that this is what painting is all about. I imagine then how Henry must have taken these new ideals and applied them to our own peculiar landscape and weather conditions, without the heat and intensity of the mediterranean sun. He recognised the singular beauty of the landscape and the light in the West of Ireland and he learned to articulate this using his own palette of muted colours. The painting above is called ‘Errigal County Donegal’ (c.1930 Image taken from imma.ie ) and it demonstrates this very well. The setting seems to shimmer in a kaleidoscope of greys tinged with blue and pink against the golds and browns at the base of the painting.

This next image below is an earlier work (c.1922-23) called “The Bog at Evening’. I love the simplicity of this composition – mountain, horizon line, turf and water. I admire the contrast that he has set up between the shadowy dark browns of the turf and purple mountain and the delicate pinks and pastels in the billowing cloud shapes. The reflections of the clouds in the bog water and the low evening light give the painting a perfect stillness where only the evidence of human activity now remains.

Image taken from D7ET website

This next painting is called ‘West of Ireland Cottages’. Once more, the atmosphere dominates this piece, the vastness of the sky and mountains over the small settlement of cottages. The strong blues of the mountains sing against the yellow of the thatch and gold of the bog, a perfect example of how complementary colours can be used together with great effect.

Image taken from Christies.com

This last painting (below) is called Bog Road. It uses similar colours but the tones are more subdued in the top two thirds of the canvas. The lightness of the sky contrasts strongly with the dark stacks of turf. The middle ground is highlighted with a streak of gold where the sun drops down between the clouds and sits beautifully against these ribbons of blue that he uses to describe the receding hills.

Image taken from Mayotoday.ie

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Paul Henry’s work for me is it’s apparent simplicity. Many of his greatest paintings seem at first glance to be composed of a simple arrangement of shapes and colours. It is the degree of complexity and subtlety within these seemingly simple choices of colour, tone, shape and gesture that make them so exceptional in my opinion. As a painter, I have so much to learn from these paintings!

What do you think about them? Do you think that they are relevant to day or have anything to do with modern Ireland?

Evening light at Tra Mhor

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on July 20, 2012

20 Jul

I caught the last of the evening light at Tra Mhor this week. This is one of the biggest beaches, as it’s name indicates at Aillebrack in Ballyconneely, just south of Clifden. It was after 8.00pm when I arrived to find an empty beach lit by the low evening light..perfect!

I love the way the light seems to creep over the sand and the finger like shapes that the clouds have made in this image (above and below)

There was a bank of yellow flowers at the edge of the strand where I took some photos (below). Is it meadow vetchling?

Here’s a few close up’s. There had been a recent rain shower and you can just the rain drops clinging to the petals.

I took the next few photos from the other side of the bank.

I love this combination of yellow and blue together. We may not be having the hot Summer that we would like but all is forgiven at moments like these here at Tra Mhor..

Sea Painting – Progression

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

18 Jul

I’ve returned to the coast, having painted the bog for some months now. I took some pictures of the sea when photographing plants out in Candoolin recently. This is one of the images (below). It’s nothing impressive from a photographic point of view but I like this green island shape sitting on the line of the horizon and I decided to use this in a painting.

This is how it began below. I’ve made the island the focus of the composition and I’ve just outlined where I’m going to add some rock shapes in the foreground.

This is the next stage. I’ve used ink and acrylic paint together to try and portray the water as it splashes against the rocks.

Here it is after some more work (below). I’m using charcoal to describe the rocks.

I allowed the paint to dry after the last stage. I then reworked the water and the rocks in the foreground and added some detail to the island (below). While the water is an improvement, I think that the rocks looked better at an earlier stage.

This is the painting as I have left it (below). I darkened the rocks with more charcoal and added some gold to the centre of the piece as I felt it was a bit too monochromatic. I then added some colour to the sky and tried to keep it watery to maintain a contrast with the use of heavy paint in the foreground. I also deepened the green on the island shape. I’m calling it finished at this point as I don’t think that I can take it any further. The painting process involves lots of decisions along the way – I’m always hoping that I am making the right ones although sometimes it’s better just to let my own painting instinct take over. Usually there is some kind of progression taking place (but not always!) – I hope so in this case but of course it is a subjective thing. What do you think?

White Sand Blue Sky

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on July 16, 2012

16 Jul

I spent an afternoon at Aillebrack beach last week. This area is just south of Clifden and it boasts a string of beautiful beaches, many of which are unoccupied even at this time of year. It was one of those unexpected sunny days after a bout of wet weather and so I seized the moment with my daughters and headed for the sea. This was what awaited us..

and looking out to sea..

We were pleased to have the beach to ourselves, save for some seagulls who decided to join us when we produced our picnic. Here’s a picture of them swooping down to the shore.

This one seems to be gauging the weight of this piece of bread!

We are so lucky to have these beaches on our doorstep, I believe that they must be among the most beautiful in the world. These last few pictures are of the clouds which made dramatic rippled patterns across the clear blue of the sky. I hope to be able to use some of what I’ve seen here in my paintings soon..

Bog Cotton Painting II

by Total WP Support Inc.. Posted on July 13, 2012

13 Jul

I’ve just finished working on this one. I’ve been tinkering with it for several days and at times painting is like this for me. Other paintings I can finish in one or two sittings. It’s hard for me to say which method works better but generally I think that there is more energy in the work that is finished quickly. This is how this painting began (below).

Here it is with more colour. These two stages were carried out during the same sitting.

I returned to the piece after a few days and added lots more detail. I’ve gone a little overboard with the blue ink here and it’s quite fluid so I have to wait until it dries before I continue.

This is the next stage (below). I’ve attempted to ‘tighten’ it up but I think that it has become confused. I’m definitely trying too hard here and it’s not working!

When I return to the painting, I try to de-clutter the image by redefining the strip of bog in the centre and I use more green in the foreground (below).

This is the painting as I have left it (below). I’ve softened some of the lines in the middle ground and I’ve used some red ink to add more contrast. I am happier with it now because I think that it has more of the atmosphere of the place. I’m reluctant to take it any further at this stage so I’ll leave it for a few days before I varnish it…what do you think?

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?