Category Archives: Donegal

an extra layer


Just reworked these 2 with a few more marks and a layer of creamy coloured transparent oil and wax mixture

They are each 80cm x 100cm and are part of the ‘Oceans – a tipping point?’ series from last week

I think they are much better for the extra later.  What do you think?

Here they are as they were before:


panoramic

I am really enjoying working on a much larger scale on unstretched canvas stapled directly to my wooden studio painting wall.

The top one shown here, (Martello Tower), is at my maximum size possible, fitting snugly into the full depth of my studio extension and completely covering the wooden panel cladding that is fixed over the planks.( The photo shows the painting cropped of its blue surround, which allows for it to be stretched to an approximate final size of 150cm x 275 cm.)   The unstretched canvas is 120cm x 290cm ( about 4′ x 9’6″)

Here is the primed unstretched canvas, followed by the first stage of underpainting:

The other two paintings are each 115 cm x 160cm  ‘Out walking one evening in November, Cruit’ and ‘Once they danced at the crossroads – ruined gables, Cruit’

brushes for a change

This large painting on unstretched canvas, stapled directly to the painting wall, is unusual for me. I’m not using cold wax medium, but instead oil with a liquid siccative added.  This is a much wetter medium, so I am using brushes for a change instead of my usual squeegees, scrapers and rollers.


The painting was to a certain extent inspired by views like this, of Mount Errigal and the Aghlas, across the small strip of sea that separates Cruit Island from the mainland. 

This painting is to me a natural step onwards from these three, on pre-stretched box canvas, made over the last few days


colour and boundaries

I’m having some fun with process, using old unsuccessful painted canvasses to re-work, amend or completely paint over

These 2 canvases, each 80cm sq, were initially very different abstract paintings, but both had quite a lot of structure and quite large areas with earth and ochre colours. I have kept some of the initial areas but built up additional structures and much more detail

Here are the two separately:

And here is another, larger canvas. This one is 80 x 120cm and has much more tentative amendments – might not be quite finished yet

What a week

And I just mean in my studio!

I have been reworking some old canvases and completely repainting some too

These 2 above are each 80cm sq


Here they are with another one the same size and a 65cm one on the end


Here’s a bigger reworked piece

120cm plus it’s frame also painted over



Here’s a fuller view of my favourites (today anyway) – with a sort of invasion of pink


This one and the last one below are a bit odd, and maybe not totally successful. But they were an important challenge for me in terms of structure, form and process. Each 80 cm plus frame

donegal clouds

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Last piece of coarse jute off the roll
120cm x 190cm

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May sky

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Using a brush to block in the shapes

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Maybe done

Footnote: I was given a fabulous book on #RichardDiebenkorn for my 60th birthday. I am enthralled by his famous shifts from abstraction to figuration and back again, and am particularly drawn to his paintings with human and animal forms ambiguously appearing within his landscapes.
The curvaceous shapes in these clouds seemed to appear initially by their own volition, but of course I then exaggerated them. Maybe also with Matisse in mind. And someone said maybe a nod to Magritte too! Haha! Good company 🙂