Hydrangea

It’s a white thing in a white thing in front of a white thing!

I have been painting these single object, still life flowers in between other stuff for a wee while now. It’s a great way to explore and develop simple painting without my usual self imposed constraints of trying to second guess what the viewer might judge as a correct painting. It’s a false idea that plays tricks on the mind that states “Don’t make mistakes!”. But I am learning to override the instinct to be right and getting better at putting into practise what I know, and have always known, that sometimes you have to destroy rightness  and play a more carefree game with texture, edge and randomness. The whole benefits from the small chaotic parts.

I’m basically saying I enjoyed slapping the paint on this one and I am moving in the correct direction for me.

Pink Roses

Back to painting my current favourite thing. Brushy, alla prima still life. Especially when the subject is as pretty as these.

Fiona’s Seascape (Red Chair)

Study no. 2 using the pochade box. This is the corner of the studio behind Sandy’s seat. The barber’s chair is a very interesting subject with the chrome, the red leather, all the angles…

Fiona’s seascape against the wall adds some colour, as does my big neck in the painting above.

Bogside, Irvine

Trying out another couple of demos based on the work of Joan Eardley.

This is Bogside, Irvine, painted for the Tuesday group (I think) (It was last week and I forget!). It is close enough to the colours of Eardley, but a bit too stylised and not rough or wild enough to capture the essence of the work.

Irvine Shore

Irvine Shore……..oil on board…10″x10″

A brush and palette knife mixture. Cobalt blue above, ceruleum below and a mix of greys in the clouds.

Joan Eardley exercise #2

Painting a copy is difficult because you are trying to mechanically emulate another’s spontaneous marks.

Painting “in the style of” another is equally difficult because the copyist has to fight with their own muscle memory marks and tried and tested signature picture making gestures to emulate someone else’s vision.

Anyway, it’s all learning!

Here is my third demo of the week to try and see the landscape through the eyes of Joan Eardley. One of Scotland’s greatest expressionist painters.

It is thinner than an Eardley, but I hope I capture the greys of her paintings and the wildness of her marks.

 

Joan Eardley exercise

A class demo for Tuesday group.  I was looking at the work of Joan Eardley and in particular, her time at Catterline.

An expressionist painter of the Scottish landscape circa 1957-1963.

Acrylic and oil pastel. There are touches of Eardley here and perhaps not enough of her greys. The emphasis is on gestural marks, layers and textures.