Tag Archives: abstract

progress with paint and asking the obvious questions

image

Monolithic, powerful, virile?
How were the standing stones viewed 5k years ago?
What was their symbolism?

I am intrigued by how the walls were built and if and how the stones were cut
I am fascinated by the field patterns of miles of parrallel walls still repeated today
Fanning out inwards from the coastal cliffs of Mayo

I am bowled over by the intricate plans and scale drawings, in red, made by the archeologists of Ceide Fields
More questions than answers, my personal response has to be with paint

image

image

More paint layers this morning, powder pigment, solvent, scraping, rolling;
not done yet though

emerging

image

Some more texture and colour layers on the two new panels
each 110cm x 80cm

Very wild and windy today, had to keep leaving the srudio because the stove was smoking

image

image

Starting to bring out the shapes with small lines and dribbles and scratches revealed wirh orange peel solvent

image

image

Detail close up shots, one from each panel

day 5 last post big stones

image

image

This is the final post on these 2 big stones paintings. I changed the shape of one of the stones because it was too symmetrical.

image

image

The two square 80cm  canvases are moving along now with shapes revealing hesitantly

image

I sat for a bit in the clear upstairs space contemplating next moves accompanied by lovely shadows on the wall when the sun came out briefly

big stones day 4

a bit more of the same but slightly different

image

the 2 big stones paintings (100cm x 80cm) are nearly done I think

image

image

and 2 more 80cm square ones started

image

this purple one has the beginnings of a wall in dawn or dusk colours
I wonder what a neolithic community woyld have made of a flame filled sky?

mounting the stones

between clearing my studio rubbish ( well actually Malachy is doing that, thank you ♥) and actually painting, I have been thinking about how I am going to display all this new work. Many of the new Ceide Fields Stones series paintings are very textured and would benefit from NOT being distanced behind glass. So I think I am goung to mount them on panels. There are 15 that Ibwant to do this way, so I might need a mortgage!
The small 6 x 8″ maplike pieces are on paper and have rather irregular edges,mm so I think they will have to be behind glass, but I am hoping to work out a simple design that doesnt overwhelm them

Here are 4 of the ones that I definitely think should be on panels

image

image

image

image

baring my soul and sharing my process

going to take a risk here and share these works day by day, however bad they get

started this evening with 3 layers of oil and cold wax on 2 canvases each 100 x 80cm

first layer mostly lemon yellow and cadmium yellow with a bit of orange, second layer mostly alizarin red with some magenta, third layer a greenish grey ( paynes grey, lemon yellow, sap green and left over pallette scrapings with some white). All with about a third cold wax medium

I had to work on the table in the utility room because its too cold out in the studio, so it was a bit cramped

the wax was a bit stiff, so added a small bit of vegetable oil, hope that isnt a disaster, as I suppose it might not set properly!

image

image

ceide fields small textured works on paper

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

small, textured works on paper or multi media board in oil and wax
sizes between 16 x 12cm and 25 x 16cm
all made in November at Ballinglen Arts Foundation, County Mayo
inspired by a trip to the neolithic field walls at Ceide Fields on the North Mayo Coast

I would love to mount these together and show in a small museum, library or somewhere interested in these 5 thousand year old artifacts from a community who lived and farmed in a time before the wheel and before the metal plough

If anyone is interested, from anywhere in the world, please contact me  liz-doyle@live.com

cold wax workshop mayo

image

image

image

image

image

I am on a weeks workshop with artist Rebecca Crowell at Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ballycastle County Mayo

http://www.ballinglenartsfoundation.org/

My work this week is very influenced by a fantastic day trip we made out to Ceide Feilds

This is a huge extensive neolithic site, where a network of over 50 miles of buried stone boundary walls have been identified from a farming community living on this coastline over 5,000 years ago. The individual rocks from here and around another landmark, Benwee head, and the intriguing plan of the layout of the walls have found their way onto the surface of these paintings

http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/west/ceidefields/