Reflex - collage

 

Shredded - iPad painting

 

Emerging light from the darkness - three monoprints/paintings

Each of these paintings/monoprints is about 8"x10"

Whatever happens, make art - iPad painting

 

I really think that however I feel, however tired I am, however fed up, making art is my saviour. Keeping in touch with the creative process is essential for me. I just watched Alastair Sooke talking about Matisse when he was aged and infirm creating those fantastic cut outs. Sooke said something to the effect that Matisse needed to create to live, and that life and art in the end were the same thing to him. I agree with that.

By the way, I'm fine ! Just the darkness of this piece made me think, and that yesterday I sat at my table in the studio almost completely devoid of inspiration, and thought OK, just make marks. So I did and I do and it somehow makes everything come back into place.

There's only one secret to creativity. Just do it !

 

Two small sketchbook paintings

8"x8" gouache, watercolour, inktense pencils

10"x10" watercolour, gouache,inktense pencils and blocks, oil pastels

Squared circles - waterbased media paintings

Watercolours,Gouache, pencils on paper approx 8"x8"

Bank Holiday Blues - iPad painting

 

Dotty self portrait - iPad painting

 

Loosely connected synapses - iPad painting

 

Translucent Rocks - acrylic painting

 

Acrylic and graphite on paper 24"x24"

Night Dots - iPad painting

A mash up of yesterday's paintings and drawing in Procreate.

More Rocks

 

Acrylic, collage and watercolour 8"x9"

 

Acrylic, watercolour, wax crayon, collage 8"x8"

 

 

Acrylic 16"x16"

I've been really busy today with three more rock paintings and a couple more starts. I've fallen in love with quinacridone gold, permanent violet, phthalo turquoise and quinacridone orange.

The art of spottiness - iPad painting and watercolour

 

Rocks

 

I love rocks and stones, and today I just felt like drawing some. These are all approx 8" x9" and painted in watercolours and acrylics. I splashed on some watercolour on to the paper and when it was dry drew some rounded shapes. Then painted the white acrylic on top.

Predominant Reds - iPad painting

 

 

Just a little Sunday watercolour scribble

Scribbled drawing pencil with watercolour over it. These are mostly natural earth pigments I made into my own watercolours.

Feeling the pull of a blue moon - iPad painting

 

Receding Blue - an evening iPad painting

Playing with colour

 

Compositional playtime on the iPad

 

What a great tool the iPad is for exploring ideas. Here you can see how I made 4 drawings change from simply black and white to colours. They were done in Procreate, pure and simply, no fiddling about in any other apps. I made most of the brushes.

 

The twisty Path - a watercolour

On A5 Paper and done in watercolour. It reminds me of the twisty path that life sets us upon. Things are never very straightforward ! I don't know where I'm heading, but it definitely involves creating things...

Emerging square - iPad drawing

I've been experimenting with a new brush I made in Procreate. This is the result. Now I must go out and interact with the real world today as it's so sunny !

 

Glimpses of the invisible

I've been somehow preoccupied by things at the cellular level. or the atomic level. Things we don't see with our eyes. That microscopic world in constant agitation. And all my work has been predominantly red recently too. I would love to talk to Jung about it !

Both watercolours on A5 Khadi paper, just love the deckle edges...

A space of one's own...

I've been meaning to write a post about studio space for a long time. I've been yearning to have a studio for many years. I have what I call a work room in my house, but I didn't really think of it as a studio. Recently an opportunity came up for me to rent a studio space in an artist's collective. I really couldn't afford it. So I decided to call my work room my studio. It has made a real difference to how I think of it. With a bit of judicious rearranging, a few new shelves and an easel it really feels like a studio now, even it it's a small one.

Here's the far end, it's where most of the action takes place. It's quite small but I have all my paints and pencils to hand. The ones I am currently working on are out. It think it's essential to have things as accessible as possible so that it's easy to start working. It's like practising music. If I put my instrument back in its case then I won't play it. If it's out and I pass by it I will play for a few minutes every so often and so more practise takes place.

 

Here's a detail of the work bench. I've got it at a height that means I can stand at it or use a high stool. Being able to stand at an art table is great, it makes for more dynamic work, but for careful work sitting is better. I have more control then.

Having a dedicated space for doing art is really important. For me, it also needs to be kept clear of any other interference. Other people are welcome only when invited for example. I personally need a lot of silence when I work, although I will occasionally listen to BBC Radio 4 but only when I'm doing tasks such as painting paper for collage, or gessoing paper or boards. Every so often it gets a drastic tidy, but when I'm really working hard things go all over the place, the photos show it in this state. Mid working.

 

 

Unknown alphabet - 4 watercolour experiments

I wanted to work fast and in a small series and with watercolour today. This is the result of the first lot. Each piece is A6.They remind me of a kind of undeciphered alphabet, and stepping into the unknown with the medium.

I'm struggling with watercolour, I'm either working too loosely or too tightly, and can't seem to find the balance. These are getting closer to what I want to do.

More small critters - watercolour

About A4 sized
Layers of watercolours and inktense pencils

Inktense pencils are great because when you have drawn with them and wetted them, when they are dry they stay put. You don't pick up the colour from underneath in a subsequent layer.

A quick scribble on the iPad

Just playing with colours in Procreate

 

Two Collage Paintings for Friday

 

A strange beast - Acrylic and collage on paper 8"x8"

Two tiered landscape - Acrylic and collage on paper 8"x8"

I haven't done much collage lately and I really love making them so here are two of the pieces I've been working on this week.

Tricolour painting

 

A3 paper using acrylics and pencils and neocolour 2 crayons plus white and black paint. So more like a quintet of colours.

Today I was experimenting. I used process cyan, process magenta and process yellow. I was looking for vividness and I got it. Don't know if I really like the lack of subtlety but it certainly sings out.

 

Two drawings

On A3 paper done in charcoal and acrylics

After an excess of very colourful watercolours I wanted to return to something a lot more simple, and to work really fast. I love gestural work, immersing myself in the movement.

 

The ghost of Industry on the landscape - iPad painting

I went for an evening walk at Levant on Saturday. It's a beautiful place, with old mine workings being eaten away by the renewing of nature. I think it's one of the most inspiring places for my art work, and how I feel about ancient West Penwith. Standing stones and old mine workings and the magical sea.

This piece created in Procreate and several other iPad apps. I can never remember exactly what I used. One day I will get it together to explain how I do this work !

 

Bright Sunday - iPad drawing

 

Dark Portals into light worlds

 

Acrylics, gouache, collage, pencils approx 8"x8"

A bit of colour for a grey Bank Holiday - iPad painting