To Regions Solitary

By the seashore

2012-02-13T08:40:00.001-08:00

I discovered these two paintings in my art cupboard sadly forgotten. Both are oils on canvas 16 x 12 inches and now up on the wall. I was experimenting by painting in a landscape format and also dividing the canvas in half with the horizon line dividing the scene. I have 4 medium sized canvases arriving soon as I have ideas for more paintings! working in this format. It is surprising how few landscape formats I do but I like the colours and the life of the sea in the top painting and especially the colours in the bottom twilight seashore scene. The blue one has some of the dark paint stuck to it from having the twilight one rest against it! now I have to work out how to remove it without spoiling the painting!! I think it is important to hold onto paintings you like in your cupboard as they seemed to come to life again after the hibernation away in the art store shelf!

Homeland reworked with Viridian

2012-02-04T04:51:00.000-08:00

I am captivated by the Gamblin Viridian colour. It is beautifully transparent and wonderful for glazes. I liked the way it goes over the warm areas I had before in this painting. Let me explain the painting originally had a lot of the green in it, then I wanted to try warmer colours in the sky which you can see in the last post. Yet I wasn't happy with it, it did look nice enough but it wasn't the feel I was trying to get. Placing now the viridian back into the painting yet over the warm bluff areas has given the colour a new life. The painting is 60 x 60cm and I was wondering if it looked like a shore or a moorland to you?

More on learning from the Masters

2012-01-31T13:19:00.000-08:00

A monochromatic painting I finished recently 18 x 24 inches oil on cotton canvas. The exercise was for me to study the sea and look at how a master would paint the sea. It is from a painting in colour by the great American painter William Trost Richards. Do look at his paintings his seascapes are incredible especially the detail. I had quite a few painting sessions with this scene. The value study helped me a great deal to see the many different values and most of all to see simply how the waves are formed and the way they fade away gently into the distance. I decided to stop and not become too detailed and for me I think I got the balance right. I am happy with it as an exercise. I have also been down observing the sea again and doing a few very small value sketches, more on that later!

Homeland

2012-01-24T03:04:00.001-08:00

Homeland
A Wild Place
Land Light
work in progress

Hi Folks, I mentioned in my last post that I was working on a series of moorland paintings. I wasn't sure why I felt very inspired and moved to work in this way, after all most of them look pretty similar in colours, composition and mood. Yet each one was painted with a fresh eye, it did not feel as if I was repeating myself. I have decided to go along with it and not force myself to change the colours maybe that is not the right way to go, maybe I need to make myself seek others colours and compostion. Yet when sitting one evening looking at the paintings and trying to work out 'why' I was painting them I suddenly saw the reason 'why'. These are the places that mean so much to me these are my homeland paintings. When I first arrived in Scotland in 1980 I was greeted by the extreme harshness of the intense cold, the croft was basic and there was no central heating. I had to collect water from outside and washing sheets in a bowl was not much fun. While feeling cold for most of the time during the winter I baked bread in our rayburn and remember well my first cottage loaf as it was a shape I had not made before. I placed it in the window while the gale force winds outside which had been blowing for over a week non stop made a sharp contrast to the warmth of the bread fresh from the oven. I finally fled back to the culture and warmth of Oxford for a while but soon returned back to Scotland. Each time I have tried to leave this country I have always come back because the landscape is so beautiful. Compared to America and Canada it is just a wee back garden but maybe that compact wildness is what draws me to this place.

The paintings here collected are of a trip I made many years ago around the west coast of the highlands. I suddenly noticed it while looking intently at the paintings in my studio that night. I 'saw' the moors and the beaches in the distance. I 'saw' the rich earth colours and the beautiful light in the sky. I felt moved to tears which is perhaps a little silly as I don't think I am a sentimental person but I felt tearful as it has been so long since I have been in those places. I was also aware that as I have grown older I now see things differently to that young woman who drove about the highlands in her little red car with only her trusty dog Spot the border collie for a companion. Together we sat and gazed for hours at the different lighting at the different times of the day. Little did I know back then that I would be painting those scenes nineteen years later! in a more gentle country setting which is nice and warm to work and live in! so now I am pleased to know why I painted all of these paintings, it is possible no one else will be interested in viewing them as a collection but does it matter? we want so much to share our vision, yet it is wise at times to keep that vision for ourselves. Perhaps. While we can feel a little sad to look back at special times and to know that we now see things differently I would add that it is all part of the journey. As an artist as we grow older we can still create and capture all that is dear to us, so it doesn't matter how old we are. That after all must be the excitement of it all. I would say to you that at times it is ok to repeat your work or aspects of it, as after all your paintings might just be trying to say something to you!

viridian green

2012-01-16T11:29:00.000-08:00

I have been gradually working some more on my two 60 x 60 cm moorland paintings, I also started another one. It is perplexing me that all three paintings look almost identical in composition and colour choice. I remember seeing an exhibition in Aberdeen a few years ago where all the paintings had lilac in them, all thirty paintings! The gallery owner seemed to feel the artist could have been using up his paints and was being economical! I suspect more was going on in the back of the artist's mind than simply being thrifty! I have decided just to keep with the theme until hopefully I come to an end of it, after all how many moorland paintings can I paint using the same colours! Have any of you experience a similar thing happen to you when painting?

I have changed this painting since I took this photo as I wasn't sure about the band of viridian green above the horizon, it brought a moody quality to the painting though. I liked placing it beside the pinky bluff colour. Not sure if it works. I will post some more paintings soon. Have a lovely painting week my friends.

Tender is the Night

2012-01-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

'Tender is the night' is an oil painting on linen canvas 34 x 45cm. Very evocative of the kind of dramatic winter lighting at this time of the year. We saw some incredible skies at dusk today when returning from our walk. More storms and gales are forecast and there is word of snow too! Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year!

Night of Storms

2011-12-27T18:14:00.001-08:00

There have been some wild storms during the Christmas holiday. The trees were bending in the wind around my garden. It looked as if the power might go out at one point but fortunately everything was ok. We had a lovely christmas day in spite of the weather. My oil painting is a value study depicting the dark evening storm that raged across our coastline. It is 24 x 18 inches using portland grays, chromatic black and zinc white which is a translucent white used for atmospheric painting and glazing effects. I am working on two square sized canvases one a large 60 x 60cm and the other 40 x 40cm. I quite like the way the large painting is going yet the smaller canvas is giving me so much trouble! I keep changing it, the sky, then the beach, then the sky again. It is such a restless creation! I hope it comes together soon. I might just post it here and show you the latest stage. Happy holidays to you all.

Ruskin

2011-12-05T02:33:00.000-08:00

In his book 'The Elements of drawing' Ruskin writes you can learn everything when drawing and painting a stone! While at first I thought this a rather dull exercise to do. Yet once started I became fascinated. I used neutral tint watercolour paint and a fine pointed paint brush for this exercise. Rhonda Carpenter fellow artist has a very interesting blog. On Sunday she wrote about how important and challenging it is to under take new creative subjects - to do something new and different. Reading her post had me thinking about how much I resisted starting the Ruskin exercise yet once started I found the landscape of the wee stone quite incredible. I have posted the drawing of the stone here a while ago and here is the painted version. I think we could all be brave this week and go forth and create something we would not normally think of drawing or painting! Wrap up warm and happy creative time!

Learning from the Masters

2011-10-18T14:48:00.001-07:00

Leonardo's Tree

Rembrandt's Trees
Study of a Stone

My pencil drawing of a stone from by my pond was an exercise Ruskin suggests in his book 'The Elements of Drawing'. The idea is to achieve a sense of the roundness of the stone. I used a variety of pencils from F - 9b. I also bought some blending tools which are excellent for smoothing and lifting out pencil marks. While it looks a simple study it took me many hours using very fine pencil work. I would never have thought I would have found a flat stone so interesting!

The idea of copying the Masters is to introduce me to seeing how they made pen and pencil marks. It is a very interesting exercise and helps me to observe better. For the Leonardo tree I used grey blue stonehenge paper as Leonardo had used blue paper for his Tree. His pen marks were very intricate and it was fascinating to study his work. I used Staedtler pigment liner which comes in a pack from 0.05mm to 0.8mm. I used all the pens to gain a better understanding of the lines they would make. For the Rembrandt copy I used arches cold pressed paper, the pens as before and sepia ink from W&N this was applied with a small synthetic brush which has a nice spring to it and is good enough for detail work. I used a porcelain saucer to water down the sepia washes. All works are 9x14 inches.

Field Study

2011-10-10T04:48:00.000-07:00

Sea shell
Ash Tree

I am studying online with Deborah Paris the artist and tutor once again. This time the course is on 'Field sketching for landscape artists'. Deborah is a fine teacher bringing the old traditional world of drawing and painting into the modern world.

I am enjoying the challenge of drawing the trees and leaves in my garden for the first assignment. It was raining most of the weekend so I decided to draw a sea shell. It took quite a few hours to do! The tiny intricate world of the seashell was fascinating to discover. I used graphite pencil F to 9B and cream Stonehenge handmade paper. Both are oon size 15 x 11 inch sheets of paper cut to size. The Ash tree which is in my front garden was drawn with graphite on fine quality Hahnemuhle nostalgie cartridge paper.

2011-08-31T16:02:00.000-07:00

sketching

2011-07-21T03:47:00.000-07:00

Using old black and white photos that are inspiring me to practise some more at my portraits. The last two days had me seeking a sensitive portrait of a woman of a time gone by. The photo references were very poor and in the profile I didn't keep to the image as I realised very quickly that a profile is very difficult and that I should be doing some more measurements and being aware more of how a profile looks. Yet I wanted to simply let the drawing flow so I have left the profile as a statement only. The light sketching with the 2b pencil this time on cream pastel paper size A3. In the other portrait of a lady I decided to concentrate on the features a little more. I found another reference book on noses, ears, eyes etc which I must read. I hope Ulrike isn't reading this today as she is always telling me to read my art books and not to simply gaze at the pretty pictures! I am pleased with the portrait and it does look a little like the woman in the photo but I can see the differences and that is an important step forward the fact I am observing! As I mentioned to Keith Tilley in my response to his comment in yesterday's post after I had finished this portrait I realised I could do with reaching for the white pastels and a deeper cream paper!

Good news

2011-07-17T16:06:00.001-07:00

I just received word via the email from a fellow artist friend that I have sold one of the above paintings on the preview night for the second exhibition I was painting for. Some you have seen before here on the blog. I wanted to show you the collection together. I have no idea which one sold but I am very happy as you can imagine!

Evening Wester Ross

2011-06-17T05:45:00.000-07:00

Gradually built up in layers of fine glazes the painting depicts an evening on the Wester Ross coastline in the highlands. The painting is 25x35cm oil on linen canvas. I have decided the painting is now finished, it is not an easy subject it comes to life in the brighter daylight hours yet seems to grow quiet and not glow so brightly in the early evening. The warm glaze of burnt orange light seems to diminish in the evening. Not an easy time of day to paint as the values in the sky and darker areas of the land are very close in value. The painting keeps being put aside in the studio into a corner almost forgotten but I have decided last night to bring it out and I quite like this quiet painting as to me it does reflect the lighting and the mood of that isolated coastline. It often casts an eerie light at times. I was tempted to call the painting 'mysterious land'!

Seashore

2011-05-29T02:48:00.000-07:00

I have been working a little more on my 'shore' painting as I wanted to try adding some blue to the sky. It was really because I wanted there to be some blue in the sky, I know the creamy sky of before suited it well as an abstract landscape. I am also working on a large painting but am painting on a board which tends to soak up all the paint and is very different to working on linen. I wanted to use the board and I am hoping that the painting will be ok in the end! My inspiration has dried up completely lately which is a bit difficult as I have summer exhibitions that I am painting for. I have been out each day for walks in forests and along the rugged north east coastline too. Hopefully the inspiration will return, without it painting is moves along almost without a soul. I have also been creating a scrap book with my sold works to record some of them as I don't have photos of them all. I am also using poetry to be a companion to the photo on each page. More on that later. 'Seashore' is 10 x 14 inches oil on linen. By the way I am having alot of trouble trying to comment on my blogging friends sites so be patient I am still watching your progress and enjoying your blogs a great deal. I am hoping to be able to comment again soon. Today I have denied access to making a comment on everyone's blog!

The Morning Light

2011-05-20T02:55:00.000-07:00

I am posting my acrylic painting for Maggie to see. http://maggielathamart.blogspot.com She is experimenting with acrylic paints. She is known for her very beautiful fresh watercolour tonal paintings. In this small painting which is 10 x 14 inches on linen canvas I have built up the painting using fine glazes of paint. Using a glazing medium by W&N to increase the flow. The linen canvas took the paint well though there was a little beading to begin with as the canvas was primed with a non acrylic base. However as I carried on building up the glazes they took to the canvas well. I used gold and silver in the painting to create some mystery within the moorland painting. The camera failed to capture the turquoise green blue I had in the foreground water area.

Thoughts on a morning walk

2011-05-15T18:30:00.001-07:00

My thoughts arise and fade in solitude
the verse that would invent them fades away
like moonlight in the heaven of spreading day
how beautiful they were how firm they stood
flecking the starry sky like woven pearl.
Shelley. 1800

I am often amazed at the beauty of poetry from the past, I found this poem tonight by Shelley. The painting is from last winter of a walk I took in a rural landscape with hope of blues skies to soon arrive. Walking is often a time for quiet reflection.

sea Inlet

2011-05-06T04:50:00.001-07:00

I had to take the photo of this outside because of the turquoise yet it has resulted in a lot of the sky colour being a bit bleached out. The fore ground is also a warmer brown. Unfortunately you can't see it but there are some marks in the fore ground (sorry Rhonda you still can't walk into the painting!)I found some dried flower heads and some nice old broom branches to pull some of the reeds into the painting. It is another small painting 10 x 14 inches oil on linen. Colours used Varsari Shale, turquoise old holland, Varsari bluff, unbleached titanium, warm burnt rose lake, Davy's grey, cold grey, portland grey medium. Maggie's flake white replacement. It is less abstract than the last 'Shore' painting.

The Shore

2011-05-04T06:34:00.001-07:00

I was working until late last night and then first thing this morning until finally I feel I have broken through and painted something I feel happy with. I know the last posts had plenty of texture and drama yet I wasn't happy looking at them on my studio wall, something didn't feel right. So working with my favourite earth colours Davy's grey by Old Holland for the seaweed areas, Gold Green deep OH, Hansa Yellow Deep Gamblin for the beach area, Chromatic Black Gamblin and Transparent oxide yellow. For the sky I used mostly unbleached Titanium Dioxide OH and Replacement Flake White (Maggie!) Gamblin. This is a small painting 10 x 14 inches. oil on linen canvas. Some brush and knife painting. Feels like I have returned home within my painting world.

Cladach Mor

2011-04-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

I was wondering what your thoughts are about this wilderness painting. I know Jan was saying that often looking at an image on the screen gives us a better idea of how it looks as there is some distance from the painting in reality. Thank you.

View across the moors

2011-03-02T09:11:00.000-08:00

While studying the art of painting is very important and is why I continue to take courses in painting I still feel my heart is very much in getting down to the wild places and painting in oils. I finally made it to mt studio room three nights ago and just painted at night which is never a good idea due to colours looking too strange and garish in the cold morning light. I then carried on during the next two days in short periods some spent simply sitting and looking at the work in progress. OK first of all that is naples yellow and it is not that bright and strange looking in reality, I just took the photo outside in the garden yet I am still not getting a natural looking painting in the photographic form. I am using some new colours of which I will explain more about later. I am away to Deeside tomorrow so need to prepare, I am delivering new works to a gallery down there. The painting you see here is 14 x 10 inches and is a great size to work on to experiment and to not worry so much if a large canvas doesn't work out! It is painted on a linen canvas which is a joy to work on. I am so very happy to be back on the oils again. I do have to say it may be a stage I need to work through, I still feel it hard to get the ideas down onto the canvas, this is a work from memory and the imagination places I have been on the Island Of Skye in Scotland. Big smiley face!

Morning Light Isle of Skye

2011-02-03T16:49:00.001-08:00

I am really happy, as my 'Morning Light' painting of Skye was viewed by a gallery and the owner will be exhibiting it and three others in Spring! He said it looked better in reality, the image here doesn't show the turquoise blue/ green in the water area. As you all probably know by now this is the kind of work that really inspires me so much. I guess we are paint what moves us deeply, my times over on the Scottish islands are incredibly special times the way the weather is constantly changing. Veils of light, that is what does it for me! Have you sat in a room as the daylight fades it is amazing how it almost disolves and I am sure there are veils of darkness that gradually move in, that is beautiful too. The amazing thing about a mist is that the light is just so bright, it is white light and there is moisture in the air.

Loriann asked fellow bloggers about their memory paintings, well here is my one! from a walk across the marshes on the Isle of Skye.

good news of sales

2011-01-20T16:57:00.001-08:00

I received some happy news today from one of the galleries. It is the first of the Journey through winter paintings to sell. It is 60 x 60 cm and one I almost over worked fortunately a friend said 'stop'! I also sold a few other oils which surprised me as the galleries had to close during their best selling time before Christmas due to terrific snow! I have also been invited to exhibit paintings in two group exhibitions one will take ten paintings in the summer down at my lovely Deeside area so I have plenty to keep me busy. More on that later. Isn't it wonderful that we have digital images of our sold friends so we can look on them even after they have left us to live in another home! It is very late here and I must settle down for the night all this excitement has made me wide awake!
Great news wee Loriann is home! peacefully resting, the op went well. Bless her!

Moorland Isle of Skye

2011-01-02T11:24:00.000-08:00

A small painting of 10 x 14 inches oil on linen. The isle of Skye is also known as the Misty Isle and you can see why, the atmospheric weather conditions are constantly changing.

I painted this painting without a medium! Old Holland and Michael Harding paints contain no fillers they are simply pigment with linseed oil. I have a few brushes out during the painting process usually for each colour used then a large brush or two for softly blending in. I did leave the land area transparent in pigment. The sky has more structure than usual with those white clouds giving more of a sky design. Do you notice the pinky beige colour in the sky and low on the horizon that is Vasai bluff which is a beautiful colour to use.

I painted this in a day and I believe for the size of work it may not need anymore added to it. Of course without the liquin medium this will take a long time to dry! However painting without the medium is wonderful as there are no fumes at all. I cleaned the brushes at the end of the day using walnut oil!

I found a great site that lists how long each oil pigment takes to dry, I could actually plan a faster drying painting in the future. Flake white is very fast to dry yet is not something I have used before, it was available in my art shop but I always avoided it because of the lead. I was wondering if any of you have used Flake white before.

I would like to wish you all a Very Happy New Year and may it be very inspirational to you all!

Baruas Moor and

2010-12-22T09:17:00.000-08:00

'Little Moorland' Lewis

'Barvas Moor' Lewis Staying on the theme of moorlands I am exploring the beautiful moorlands of the Isle of Lewis.

The paintings are quite small and it is worth painting on a small canvas now and again. I always seem to learn more on a small scale and there is more to think about regarding planning. It can always take detail too in a different way to the usual size of 18 x 24 inches that I usually work in.

'Little Moorland' is 12 x 16 inches and 'Barvas Moor' is just 10 x 12 inches. I am not sure whether to continue working on them yet the simple fresh statement of them in earthy colours seems to be enough for me at least. I love the quiet simplicity of the moors and feel very drawn to keep painting them.

Wishing you all a warm and peaceful Christmas.

Faerie Glen

2010-12-15T08:27:00.001-08:00

Oil on linen 18 x 24 inches. This painting depicts my love of the magical places on the Isle of Skye. The Faerie Glen near Uig is indeed a lovely place very removed from it all and the eerie yet beautiful morning light filters through the atmospheric weather conditions on those distant hills on this lovely island. I used the following colours.

Indian yellow red shade

Cold grey

Warm grey light

Golden green deep

Italian brown pink lake

Olive green dark

Raw umber

Titanium white.

I kept the landscape area purely in transparent pigments to create luminious depth. Using both transparent mixed with opaque for the sky. I worked from a pencil sketch of this area and then worked using ideas on colour mixing with the goal of creating atmosphere and mood. I used knife painting in areas to create a little texture but not overly. Mostly as an aid to get paint onto the canvas quickly while the inspiration was fresh in my mind. I had learnt a great deal from my other two paintings inspired by music. I am so keen to find that quiet block of time to get going with my next idea for a painting, as the moment there is a lot coming in to distract! But I plan on making a start tomorrow working on through until Friday and next week. It is so nice to meet up with friends for lunch and catch up on news and share gifts for the festive season. During these dark days now especially as the snow has left us the warmth of friendship keeps us company. I would like to thank my blogging friends for all their support, a big thank you to you all!

introducing the artist Ulrike Miesen-Schurmann

2010-11-05T04:38:00.000-07:00

I would like you to meet the artist Ulrike who has a blog carpe-mundum.blogspot.com
She is my pen pal and we share a lot of art news together. This is her portrait of her dear husband Louis, you would not believe that she does not paint portraits very often as this is a wee gem. Do check out her blog she does a daily blog entry.

writing about an exhibition

2010-10-10T01:31:00.000-07:00

I delivered the six paintings for the group winter show at a highland gallery last week. The owner said she would put up my CV that she still had from the last show there. But I said that I wanted to write a bit about the collection of paintings that are named 'Journey through Winter'. She said that sounded great and could I email her the up date. As usual I am struggling to know what to write. My CV is quite long anyway and it is a general one about painting atmospheric sea and landscapes. I want to shorten and also mention why the collection is about my 'Journey through winter' which is about me first coming to settle in Scotland back in 1978 and the winters that to me were incredibly powerful and beautiful, all that stillness and remoteness really captured my creative soul. I was wondering if you think it is a good idea to write about what lies behind the paintings when exhibiting or maybe it is best to simply leave the works to speak for themselves.

mysterious land

2010-08-13T17:43:00.000-07:00

The weather is incredible at the moment, not just because it rains all the time but because some incredible low eerie light can be seen far off in the north at twilight. I keep looking at that sky and it is something to see how the mists and the veils of soft fragile colour in palest pink and grey blue are merging with the darkness it looked as another world or a mysterious land that would only appear now and then when the mists would lift. I do miss our light nights here in the north of Scotland when in July it hardly got dark at all at night maybe for three hours only. But I liked that, standing at 1am looking out to my garden and wishing I could just walk out and keep going right up into the fields and the woods. It felt strange though wandering about at 3am when suddenly it got so light that Angus my cat insisited on us finally going into the garden and exploring down towards the woodlands not far from the garden gate. The stream or burn as they call it here in Scotland was so shiny from the rays of light that it seemed it was the middle of the day instead of the night!

Clearing morning

2010-07-23T04:42:00.000-07:00

Another work from the imagination. This is one of the walks I used to take with my friend Spot the dog. We lived in a wild remote place in the highlands of Scotland, at times it felt like the landscape was stronger than me. As I paint my life back in the early 1980's is coming to life, It is flowing out. I have no plan of how my painting will look when I start work. I do mix my sky colours out first, I know that I want to create a winter landscape and then once I start painting I mix colours I feel will work together. All I have learnt in painting techniques comes out naturally. I am using a palette knife, soft feathery brushes to soft out and a limited palette of a few colours only. Thank you for looking. Caroline

mixed media

2010-07-13T07:53:00.000-07:00

'Little Earth' 10 x 14 inches.

detail, layers and bare canvas.

It can take such a time for the thick oil paint to dry, so I decided to get on and use artist's acrylic paints on a 10 x 14 inch canvas. It is hard to photograph this and I am not sure why, I finally took a photo out in the garden in the sunlight! There is shimmering white gold and cobalt blue in the painting but it doesn't show up that clearly. I think this is a great medium to really freely express yourself and to see how the medium works in glazing and alla prima techniques. Beauty is that it dries so quickly. I worked so fast using water, glazing medium lots of paint then as it was drying I push some white and blue through and it softened very well. The title is 'Little Earth' it is summer time out on the hills and the weather is coming in, it obscures and also allows clarity for the soft colours to come through.

summer Solstice

2010-06-24T11:57:00.000-07:00

This painting has been slowly growing over the last few months then finally in the seaside studio on the summer Solstice as the warm early evening light flooded the studio I finished the painting. I have named it summer Solstice and will be exhibiting it in my winter showcase exhibition at the gallery 'Touched by Scotland' I wonder if it will remind us all of that wonderful evening full of beautiful indian yellow hues. It is 12 x 16inches but I would love to do this on a really large canvas one day!

Atlantic Light showcase

2010-05-17T05:59:00.000-07:00

'La Mer'

'Sunset Song'

'Breaking the silence'

Milton Gallery near Aberdeen are going to showcase five of my Atlantic light paintings in June. I showed them last year and they were received well in a contemporary gallery near to where I live in Moray, the gallery assistant said people had said they felt peaceful viewing them. I am not sure how sellable they are, I know that is sad to say, we create art yet we also need to sell our paintings. I feel they need a modern home to set them off. I was asked if I could paint one to a very large size but I am not sure if they would suit a very big format. They are 18 x 24 inches and painted on linen canvas in oils. I am in two minds as to whether I will show three of them and then show two less abstract ones one being 'between heaven and earth' . It is so hard to choose the paintings I would like to exhibit! They are framed in the ivory frame.

aingeal

2010-04-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

'aingeal' the gaelic for Messenger or angel of the elements. The oil painting is 30 x 20 inches and it was quite a learning curve for me by using glazing and then a glaze of transparent zinc white for the misty areas above the evening sky. I like the perspective of the clouds there is a feeling of depth. It is a dramatic subject of the dark days of winter finally leaving us yet the rich warm colours remind us that the winter time has it's own rich beauty in the elements.

Between Heaven and Earth oil on linen

2010-03-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

I am at my happiest when working on my abstract seascapes I just love working so freely allowing colour and mood to be the focus of these works. I used some rose brown lake with a little indian yellow in the bright areas and those areas are purely transparent so they can shine the most. The kingfisher blue may possibly be too much and it does tend to hold the eye on the left of the painting. This area did have a transparent layer of purple lake just to knock back the intensity without it taking away the vibrancy.

I also put an ivory frame around the painting.