PAUSE and then press PLAY

I am always thinking about art, whether I am doing any in practice or not. Always seeing something in the landscape that would make a nice picture, patterns, shadows and handsome trees (not to mention the odd quizzical looking sheep).

My day job takes me all over the northern Highlands, covering large chunks of NC500 every week – so I travel through some fantastic scenery and miles of inspiration. But I found that, in addition to a perceived “lack of time and energy” I reached a state of inertia - with so many ideas, where do I begin?

Whilst envisaging this new journey, as if I needed some extra encouragement, I was asked to do a couple of workshops, write an article for a well known artists magazine and exhibit in a new local gallery – all out of the blue and within the space of a week ! So with both the inspiration & the incentive I better get on with it……and change the title of this post from Pause to Play!

Getting on with it in my new studio (happy)

New action photo for an updated bio (copyright Henry !)

Wonders will never cease

The artist has been painting! Not once but twice, both commissions – a card for a good friend of mine who has been celebrating a very long engagement and a portrait of a holiday cottage. Titus was very interested in the re-emergence of some painting equipment and was ever-so slightly nagged when he started to suggest this activity was far less important than a walk on the beach. Being so big (head and shoulders above the height of the table) he can reach for a sniff and a nudge of most things. A bearded snout, very handsome when dry but catastrophic when wet, can do serious damage to one’s artwork and “sniffing and nudging” what isn’t his, is what he does when wanting to be noticed. Needless to say, the walk had to wait while I was lost in a creative zone for a stolen few hours.

"Good job the lid is screwed on Titus"

A day to remember for one happy couple

A little wee croft house and not a sheep in sight

Art in the Forest 6,7 & 8

I’ve just finished a run of 3 consecutive workshops and enjoyed a little lie in this morning. The focus for these last few has been sketching with oils using a pochade box. The weather was mainly kind, although it saved it’s warmest sun for the days either side of our Sunday workshops. Last week we all showed willing, and slowly marched out in convoy to the forest track, with our creative paraphernalia, until someone said “I think it’s going to rain”, and then I heard “it is raining” followed by “no it’s not, it’s snowing!”. So we all turned round and briskly marched back to the warmth of the log cabin. But we still had some fun, mixing oil colours and learning how to “see” objects as shapes not “things”.

a little bit of sketching (in the sun)

a little demo from me (inside when it snowed)

another little demo - outside (when it was sunny)

enjoying the sunshine & the sound of the river

                     

christening some brand new pochade boxes

Blue sky

snow!

                       

mixing colours by the warmth of the log fire

                                             

and here are some of the fabulous results

Drypoint Etching

Yesterday I learnt something new and exciting – drypoint etching. I’ve always loved etchings but have been put off by the acids and materials used, but with drypoint there are no chemicals – just oil based inks and an acrylic plate. I must admit to being exhausted on Saturday morning after a busy week away, and a coffee or two was required to get me going. I picked up a fellow artist and set off on a 60 mile trek south to spend the day in a lovely converted church. The workshop was run by talented artist Louise Worthy who gave us a step by step demonstration, delicious lemon drizzle cake and lots of encouragement. We composed a little picture in pencil first then transferred it to our acylic plate with a 6 inch nail and sandpaper. Whilst the printing paper soaked in water, we squidged ink onto the plate, rubbed it in and then rubbed it off until it was ready for the final stage in the printing press. Each time the printing blankets rolled back and the prints were pulled from the acrylic plates there was an audible “ooh” , “arrh” , and squeal of excitement/surprise as another delightful little masterpiece emerged! I took inspiration from one of Louise’s photography magazines and did two plates – a farmhouse and a boat. It was quite hard work scratching into the acylic and controlling the 6 inch nail. Unlike linoprinting, which is like working in negative, the etched marks hold the ink and print a dark line. I soon worked out that to get a successful print required a balanced composition and good notan, with areas of dark and light. Achieving this however is another matter – it is very easy to over scratch or leave on too much ink, or over-rub and take off too much! Great fun and I could easily get hooked (if I could afford a printing press!)

ooh, arrh!

lots of little masterpieces

Little boat - 1 of 4

Little house - 1 of 4

58 Degrees North

The weird and wonderful clouds are as much a feature as the stunning landscape here, at 58 degrees north. You can experience all four seasons in one day, the light is constantly changing and with it the colour of the landscape and the sky. At 4pm one afternoon this week I had to inform Titus that the afternoon walk was going to be called off as we watched the heavy black clouds and listened to the rain lashing against the windows. At 4.15pm Titus reversed the decision and informed me that it was definitely still on whatever the weather. I got dressed up in waterproofs and headed for the beach. He was right, by the time we reached the shore it was a glorious summer’s evening of blue sky and white fluffy clouds and I was ridiculously overdressed!

summer's evening on the beach

weird and wonderful clouds

ever changing light

ever changing skies

the need for walkies never changes!

Sketching Workshop

And yet another mad busy week, culminating in the second of my local workshops. A good day was had by all – sketching outside in the sunshine, watching the light change on Castle Varrich. We looked at the value of sketching and finding the right “kit” to help us fit more sketching into our busy lives. My latest appendage is an overgrown bumbag (in a lovely lime green!) which holds everything I need for a long walk with Titus, including a sketchbook. Finding the right tools and having them to hand is the key to doing more sketching – but finding what is right for you can take a little while. As an illustration, I chose to draw the same view several times using different dry materials and paper sizes. Sketching is a very personal thing, an emotional response captured on paper in just a few minutes – sometimes a photograph is simply not enough.

The happy sketchers finding their own style

from the top:
4B, 8B, charcoal, conte in small moleskine sketchbook
 pen with conte on larger mid tone paper

sepia pen with cream conte on mid tone paper

Gorseness gracious me!

We are surrounded by gorse which was covered in coconut scented blooms for weeks, but sadly now all gone.  The colour was incredible and emphasised the weird shaped bushes, sculptured by years of nibbling of sheep. I start to see animal forms in their shape, rather like you do in clouds! I’ve taken hundreds of photos, made sketches and had a moment of madness with my pastels, but not yet been able to capture their brilliance. Perhaps next year I will be able to with oils outside. Using photographs for reference in the "studio" I took a new approach with an initial under-painting using ink, after my exercises in pastel. It was fun - but not sure I liked the end result!

A regular date with Jullian

It’s 2 year’s since I was paid (a salary that is) and on my first day of freedom, I started a diary of little cartoons which I kept going for a year. I intended to start another dairy of some sort, but a year has flown by and Diary Phase 2 didn’t happen. So, instead of a diary I'm doing a daily oil sketch using my dinky Jullian pochade en plein air. That is a bit of a challenge by the way – every day, all weathers, outside? (All weathers might be pushing it a bit – perhaps I might resort to indoor subjects if I can’t find shelter from the rain). Consider it a proverbial red DM up the derriere and an opportunity to get to grips with oils, painting from life and colour. I’ll show you all my paintings (including the disasters) so please offer some advice or encouragement as I battle with my crazy challenge! (it’s too late to say “don’t give up the day job love ”). These are my “disasters” from this week as I experiment with different paints, and make sure I’m committed to such a loopy idea. I can only get better with these 6 x 8’s, and early signs suggest that it may even become addictive (or maybe it’s the vapours getting to me already). I struggled to maintain daily ACEO production, eventually finding the tiny format difficult to achieve both composition and detail, but I keep experimenting from time to time.

ps. MS Secret Art Show - live from 1st July.

Sun, sea and sand

Too much choice to blog about this week. The weather has been wonderful, I’ve been out sketching, taken 500 photos, tracked down the horny beasts (at last) and even seen a golden eagle. I’ve been cycling for the first time in years (and don’t I know about it!) and been picnicking on our building plot with G & T in the flask. I have suntanned hands and a red nose after a few days out in the sun, aching limbs and head full of pictures to paint. So that’ll be all for words this week and I’ll leave you with some images of Scotland in the sun……..