Its our wedding anniversary at the weekend and we’re celebrating with an ‘open house’ event. There will be tea and buns, a glass or so of wine, and LOADS OF PAINTINGS
Tag Archives: big paintings
Strokes and structure
Here are 2 of my recent large works
The top one is ‘Evening walk, Cruit’
110 x 160cm
The bottom one is ‘Ruined gables, facing West’ , 120 x 160cm
They were both painted during the same short period of a few weeks, about 4 or 5 months ago, in Winter.
They were both inspired by, and had their starting point in an evening walk at sunset, with the Western light, on the tracks around our home on Cruit
They are both unusual for me as they were mostly painted using brushes. And also the paint mixture was more liquid and had a higher proportion of oil, so the surface us more glossy than usual
Both have some strong diagonal marks as central structures to the composition.
The top piece is more balanced, with a fairly traditional compositional structure, with the mountain and horizon quite central.
The lower piece has a distorted, unbalanced structure, with a weird sloping section to the horizon on the left, and strong diagonal marks ambiguously reaching down from the pyramidal forms into the foreground
The brush marks were applied very quickly in both works. And there are dribbles and splashes
The colours in the top piece are warm and strong, but mostly complimentary and /or harmonious. Whereas the colour in the lower piece are strong and sometimes clashing, even bilious.
For me the results are very different. The top painting is comfortable, even comforting. The lower piece is unsettling, maybe anxious making.
I have never analyzed my work like this before. I almost never write any sort of artist statement. I would be very interested to hear what other people might think. About these paintings. Or about me writing about my own work. No holds barred! Please be honest. A diogue would be great. Thanks
Go large for 2016
Restretching an old linen painting other way up
It’s huge! (120cm x 200cm – about 4′ x 6’6″)
Priming it with gesso on 2 easels in my studio
First few layers on New Years Day
A blue grey base coat. Then taped. Then turquoise above, 2 greens below. Some yellow powder pigment dusted over the bottom half. Random diagonal marks with the squeegee edge. Removed tape. More tomorrow.
Good start to 2016 🙂