Getting ready

I've been sorting out art that I've done over the last six months, deciding what to frame for Burton Agnes courtyard.  We set up on the 29th April, so I need to get it sorted out. I'm going to the frames this afternoon, always exciting to get work framed.

I am also trying to get some beginnings done for my painting week at Cober Hill near Scarborough, as I am going on the Sunday after setting up at Burton Agnes, 1st May.  

We are having an open afternoon at Burton Agnes Courtyard Gallery on the Saturday, 30th April, so I need to have everything ready for Cober Hill by Thursday 28th, all packed and just waiting to be put in the car Sunday morning.

summer fields 15 x 15 inch

This piece was a 'beginning' I did at Neil Helyards the week before last.  He said to leave it as it is.  Still not sure, so I'm leaving it for now.

summer hedgerows. 16 x 16 inch

And this is the piece I intended to work on the one above.  I did another beginning but kept going.  It's inspired from a much smaller piece of work I did a few months ago.

Abstraction

I've been working on a very large painting this week, totally abstract.  This is a new thing for me.  I also decided to work it in oils - so a really big change as I haven't worked in oils for a long time other than the Markal oil bars.

I so enjoyed it and amazed myself.  The canvas is 30 x 30 inch, I've never worked on anything so large before, and I've never just started without any source material.  I just let the painting tell me what it needed and it was a lovely experience.

Hope Island

I'm not sure where the title came from either.   I want to work on it more.  The bottom left corner needs simplification and the right hand brown area needs the sharp edge altering.  Having said that I am really pleased with this first attempt and my husband really likes it too.

I've also painted four expressionist landscapes, none of them quite finished.  I begin staining papers for collage yesterday, getting ready for my Cober Hill sabbatical.  I want to take several prepped boards and do Still Life there.

I haven't done any stitching yet, but I am getting itchy to stitch.

abstract seascape

Yet another abstract seascape.

abstract seascape3, acrylic 12 x 18 inch

Another abstract

Following on from yesterday, I managed to get another abstract painting finished.  

On the down side,  I've been researching neck and shoulder pain on the Internet, and I think I may have 'frozen shoulder' which seems to be a trapped nerve.  The pain is no better, and if it's the same by Friday I will need to make an appointment to see the doctor.

abstract seascape 2, acrylic, 12 x 14 inch

This is a real nuisance because it is my left shoulder, and I am left-handed.  The pain is in my upper arm now, as well as my shoulder and neck, so working is rather painful, but I am using my right hand as well, so not totally incapacitated yet!

Playing with abstract texture

I  worked on a still life for a while today, and then on an abstract, shown below.  Shoulder still very painful, so I didn't work for long.

Abstract seascape, acrylic, 12 x 16 inch

Abstract collage

As a change from the Still Life painting, I did a few abstract collages yesterday.  I love preparing the collage papers, using brush, roller, spray, stamp, scraper - in fact anything to make a mark.  I then go over the dry papers with more mark making using pen, pencil, crayon.

I like to use either catering greaseproof paper or tissue paper.  I order the cheapest I can find on EBay, and they are usually very thin, without too much surface sizing.  They take the colour very well and are thin enough to almost disappear when they are collaged down.  Sometimes the greaseproof wrinkles with the moisture, but I like the added texture, so don't worry about it.  I use Matt Acrylic Gel medium to glue down the papers.

Abstract collage on board, 12 x 16

 I can hardly believe I am at the end of month two.  This is the 59th painting I have posted since Christmas.  Of course I have done many more, particularly during the Jane Davies online course.

This year I had decided to do less exhibitions (we did 6 last year!) and concentrate on painting EVERY day, and taking as many courses as I could afford, and fit in.

I have signed up for Jane's Sketchbook Challenge online course starting on the 25th March (now full), and I have also signed up for her online course '100 Drawings on Cheap Paper'  which focuses on different elements each week, creating quantity, letting go of inner judgement.  This course doesn't start until September.  I missed the one in January as it was full and I don't want to miss it again!  If the last course is anything to go by I will end up making 20-40 a week, rather than 10, which is all to the good, if very tiring.  I have marked it on the calendar and will try to keep the ten weeks relatively free!

I am also doing several real time textile based courses, and trying to maintain my textile blog lynneportermaterialmatters.blogspot.  This has suffered so far because I was fully stretched doing this blog and the Jane Davies online course.  I intend to fit in at least one and preferably two blog posts a week in the future on the textile blog, and I will set aside one morning and one afternoon to work on samples in my 'dry' studio, which is actually our spare bedroom.    See the textile blog for more on this.


This blog will of course continue daily.

Still Life, rework of first painting

I have taken a photograph of the first still life in the series, altered it in Photoshop Elements, printed it out onto watercolour paper, and then re-worked it.  The photograph has come out a little bright.

I find this is a quick way to experiment with a painting, and if I find I really like the result, I will then go on and actually paint it on board.

Still Life No.1 reworked, acrylic, 10 x 12

 I have also taken another photograph of yesterday's painting.  The colours are more accurate now but it is a little brighter than the photograph shows, but if I alter the brightness, the colours are not true.  I think it maybe because there is a lot of scumbling one colour over another.

Still Life, version 3

I am enjoying this series, or sequence of paintings, and will be doing more in March.

Still Life version three

This is the work I hoped to post yesterday.  I still want to work on it a little more.  The photograph has come out with the wrong colours, so I need to take the photograph again in better light.  I am very pleased with the composition, and want to do more in this style.

Still Life, version three.  Acrylic and Conte pencil, 12 x 16 inch

Playing catch up

Today I am playing catch up as I was away most of yesterday, so only a quick composition sketch in black and white acrylic.

Mono painting, cruciform composition 10 x 12 inch

Extreme composition, lesson 6, part three

Sadly, the last work in this great online course with Jane Davies.  I have enjoyed it so very much, and have learned a great deal, particularly mark making and layering with transparent papers.  I am already taking some of these elements into my work.

Part three was looking at modular work as part of working in a series.  That is, work which would be displayed together as a body of work.  Again we worked from a previous painting for our inspiration.

from lesson 2

Triptych modular pieces overall 34 x 9 inch

Extreme Composition, lesson 6, part 2

This part of the lesson was looking at Extreme formats, working in a series and using a painting from a previous lesson as our source and inspiration.  I choose a piece from lesson 4.  I should have done three pieces but ran out of time.

from lesson 4

Extreme format 24 x 8 inch

Extreme Composition, lesson 4, another one

And another sample from this online workshop

extreme composition, lesson 4

Extreme Composition class, lesson 4

Here is another sample from the Extreme Composition class with Jane Davies.

Extreme composition, lesson 4

Scottish abstract again

Another loose painting, based on a previous painting of Scottish cottages.  Worked on a collage base as yesterday's.

Scottish village, 10 x 12, acrylic

Extreme Composition, lesson 3 again

Another composition from the Jane Davies online workshop

colour field painting 12 x 10

Extreme Composition,lesson 3

Following on from previous posts, this piece is from the Jane Davies online workshop, Extreme Composition.  Lesson three was on colour field painting.

colour-field painting 12 x 12

Marc Rothko being a well-known colour-field painter.  This is where the colour IS the whole focus of the painting.

Extreme Composition, lesson one

I felt I should add a piece of work from lesson one, which was about line, and this is it.  I feel some tension in these lines.

Line, 10 x 12

Only a few more days to go to the end of the first month, it seems to have gone remarkably quickly.  I have managed, excepting for a few days last week, to keep to a studio routine of two hours morning and two hours in the afternoon, most days. , I haven't managed to work out where the textile work fits into this regime yet.

I work upstairs in a bedroom, when stitching or working on the embellisher.  Perhaps because the studio is 'in my eye' every time I go from the living room to the kitchen, and also the desktop computer is in the studio, so I go in frequently to use it and see work laying about.

Extreme composition, two

Another painting from the Extreme Composition workshop with Jane Davies.  This came in Lesson two, of six lessons as did the first piece.

Stack one, 10 x 12

Stacks are something I have played about with in the past.  I love to see actual pebbles stacked up, and a painting of them gives the same slightly insecure or apprehensive feeling.  This is good, it makes you look again.

Extreme composition

I have been taking part in an online workshop by Jane Davies, on Extreme Composition.  It's a very good workshop, and is making me work hard both mentally and physically.

I thought I would post an occasional painting from that workshop here as it does come under the heading of experimentation and development.

Extreme one 10 x 12

This painting came under the heading of 'two shapes and a line'.  Line is something I find difficult to add to a painting, merely because it is something I haven't really done before.  I think it does add to the painting, and needs to be experimented with more.

Abstract landscape

I decided to use up the remaining oil paint on the palette by doing an abstract landscape, working from a photograph of a painting I did a few years ago.

I wanted to have a smooth surface, with little texture, as I was looking for a pattern of tone and colour rather than realism.

The Wolds. Oil, 8 x 8 inch on board

I've removed the colour in Photoshop, to check on the tonal quality.  I feel it could have done with a brighter highlight on the lower sky area, and also the light area in the field could have been smaller but lighter. Having said that, I am pleased with the colours and the composition.