Tag Archives: experimenting

like a stonechat on a furze bush

I got up quite late but I was unusually fired up once I got going. Maybe it was coffee, or perhaps a sugar hit from all the Christmas chocolate

Things started off fairly sedately with lots of greys and blues and muted tones on the huge new canvas


After working for about 2 hours I went inside for a break. The range had got lovely and hot and the spud I’d put in was crispy and delicious. Got cleaned up and thought that was it for the day. Then had more coffee and chocolate and decided to go back out for a bit

Worked on the big piece some more. Then all of a sudden decided to go all out in red and pink on the 2 canvases that had been on the wall earlier, AND the little muted ones on the opposite wall AND several others






A stonechat is a small bird with a black head that makes the sound of 2 stones knocked together. They flit about madly from the top of furze (gorse) bushes, which are yellow and spike.  My surge of energy felt a bit like a transmutation (?) – like in the old tales when a person is magically changed from person to hare to bird

The header image is the railing in the bedroom – perhaps the initial spark for all the stripes – who knows where it all comes from!

is the photo the work?

Painting what you see. Seeing what you’ve painted. Photographing what you’ve painted of what you’ve seen. Editing the photo. Posting the photo online. Painting the edited photo of what you’ve painted of what you’ve seen. Posting that

Which bit is the artwork?


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

can’t see the woods for trees

Richard Diebenkorn apparently aimed for ‘tension under the calm’
He also had a ‘rule’ on his wall that advised himself to ‘tolerate chaos’

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In progress. 120cm x 200cm

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‘Where am I going’ Oil and mixed media on jute – unstretched size 100cm x 160cm

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‘Can you hear the wind’ Diptych 80 x 200cm

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‘Winter trees’ 100cm sq