Solstice in't Woods

Happy Solstice!

This acrylic painting is of the winter sun rising through beech woodland by Jumbles Reservoir, Lancashire. It was a beautiful fairytale scene, to which some have implied my painting adds a certain 'Grimm' factor to...! However, read it as you wish; it was meant to be magical.

I love the effect of light through trees; it's something I'm slightly obsessed by and often try to capture in photos as well as paintings. I took the two photos on Sunday when we were at a Solstice BBQ in some woods north of Lancaster. I climbed up a stalkers' ladder to take the shot of the Scots Pines.

Ahead of the storm

We've just returned from four days dodging 'mini' storms on the beautiful Isle of Mull, before narrowly missing being stranded by the current hurricane force winds (also known as Hurricane Bawbag). I had many opportunities to paint my favourite colour. Blae is a Scots word, sorely lacking in English (well, for an art teacher it would be useful!), and it means slate blue/grey. The colour of storm clouds or a heavy sea.
I don't think I could ever tire of Scotland's west coast,* I'm spellbound by the colours, light and wildlife. On this trip I managed to paint outside once in a rare spell of calm, the rest of the time I peered through the tiny windows of our blackhouse or painted from memory.

Each morning I went down to the shore at Haunn with Ashby, where he occupied himself with the important task of fighting kelp and limpets. On Monday morning I came across an otter only 2 or 3 meters away, holding a large sea urchin. The strength of the wind was such it didn't notice me for a few precious seconds. It didn't notice Ashby at all, nor he it - just shows you can indeed see wildlife with a dog in tow particularly if the dog is glaikit enough. The sea eagles of Mull are not fussed by dogs, either, unless the dog in question is small enough to form a tasty lunch. After scanning the skies each day we finally saw two sea eagles yesterday morning, they flew right above us as we headed for the ferry. Pure white tails and a 2 metre wingspan - there's no way you could mistake them for anything else.

We stayed in a beautifully restored blackhouse at Haunn (meaning harbour), on Treshnish Point. See www.treshnish.co.uk/ I wholeheartedly recommend a stay there, certainly for lovers of wildlife. I'd been there before with my family 20 years ago, but nowadays there is electricity and running water! The farm has won all sorts of environmental accolades. In the last sketch, of Treshnish Point, you can see some little black blobs. They're the herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle, who sheltered in a line from the howling winds.

* On second thoughts, yes, I can tire of the west coast in certain circumstances - I remember once abandoning a fully cooked dinner on the fire and spending all night hungry in the tent rather than face the midges any longer. And this was on the beach where the midges are usually less bad.

Lake Alaotra poster for the Ako Project

This latest poster in the Ako series will hopefully be going to press shortly...that is assuming another species hasn't gone extinct in the meantime and needs to be edited out. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the finished illustration of the habitat and wildlife of Lake Alaotra shows two Madagascar pochards where originally there was going to be an Alaotran grebe. The grebe was declared officially extinct early in the summer, whereas the pochard is 'merely' critically endangered (through habitat loss). On the other hand, Durrell's Vontsira, the animal that looks a bit like an otter, or as Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust describe it; 'a scruffy ferret' was first seen only in 2004 and scientifically named in 2010 - the first new species of meat eating mammal discovered in 24 years. It will be interesting to see how long this species survives.

Dogs dogs glorious dogs

I love dogs and I love painting dogs! It's very theraputic to occasionally paint extremely cute things like labrador puppies, and strangely satisfying to paint and then exhibit something that would almost certainly get you a 'Fail' in a fine art degree.
These acrylic paintings (10" x 10") are now for sale in Bellwood & Wright Fine Arts, Lancaster.

Pastel life drawing and Reverse Picasso

When I overcome my dislike of their dry dusty feeling, I find that pastels are a great medium, especially if you love bright colours. I often find that the less I blend colours the better the drawing works. I tried to use the pastels tonally without caring so much about the precise colour. My brain usually stops focussing properly after about 3 or 4 hours, at which point I like to draw other people with superior concentration spans finishing their paintings; the sketch shows Milan Ivanic painting a portrait. The following day I saw the Abstruse Goose cartoon.

Cute lemur family and misanthropic rant

Finished painting the gentle lemur family into my latest Ako Project poster today (Lac Aloatra, in north central Madagascar) It feels like it's going slowly but I've not had so much time to work in my studio recently, compared to over the summer which was when I was meant to be painting it. It was held up because a key advisor in Madagascar was pursuing an armed gang of tortoise smugglers. The gang were caught eventually. This sounds pretty funny but rare species smuggling is a massive problem in Madagascar, and all over the world. As long as people want to eat lemurs, sharks fin, tortoises, or make medicine from bear bile or tiger bone, etc etc, the trade will continue, and it's all just so unnecessary. This needless cruelty and destruction is what makes me personally so angry; similar to humans choosing to eat animals produced by battery farming methods, or fish taken from the rapidly emptying oceans. I'm afraid I've become a truly embittered misanthrope. You can, however, just look at the cute lemur picture.

My lightswitches are black

...but I spent a productive hour drawing a self portrait. I wanted to see whether the exercise I plan to set my class on Tuesday is actually possible in the time they have. Take a coloured pastel and smudge it all over the page, draw a head with charcoal, remove highlights with a putty rubber. Make lots of mess and revel in it. No hand washing allowed (well they can if they like, but there's no point). I remember someone once challenging me to eat a sugary doughnut without licking my lips, it's the same sort of thing. Fight against the urge to make everything neat and clean. Some people find that more difficult than others!

ps. If I appear somewhat peaky in this photo it is possibly linked with the fact I was at my friends most excellent wedding reception last night.

Cockroaches in Kendal

Just been told my painting 'Rocky & Ruth, Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches' has been accepted for Open Up North, an exhibition at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal.
This painting has come a long way.

In 2006 I spent just over 3 months in Madagascar, volunteering on various arty projects for NGO Azafady, and the Botanical Gardens in the capital city, Antananarivo. My biggest project involved creating and painting models of large scale extinct species, a kind of diorama, for kids. My studio was a little school house next to the Azafady headquarters in Fort Dauphin. I made friends with some of the staff, especially Lala, an amazing conservationist and wildlife expert. Lala was an invaluable source of information. For example, he could identify Bad scorpions and Good ones (mocking me for panicking after discovering the latter on my pillow). He waded through swamps with me looking for bull frogs, explained afterwards why it was a particularly bad idea to go for a wee in the rainforest (leaping heat seeking leeches), took me and a couple of friends out on a pirogue looking for crocodiles, in vain, until we got out and saw a large one that had been lurking underneath our leaky vessel...

Anyway, it was Lala who after hearing me complain that I missed my cat, presented me with two giant hissing cockroaches in a shoebox. I kept Ruth and Rocky, fed them banana, and sketched them. They didn't really offer much in the way of cuteness value, but Rocky at least made hissing noises if you touched him. Unfortunately, he escaped after only a week and I realised that actually, I only like giant cockroaches if I know exactly where they are. Rocky turned up eventually, clinging to the underside of the chair in my room. Having decided enough was enough, I tried to remove him, but didn't realise just how strong a cockroach can be... it really took some effort to prise him off. I'm fairly ashamed to say I then lobbed him in the bushes.

When I left Fort Dauphin, I smuggled out the old bit of hardboard I'd been using as a palette. Obtaining the paint for use in my various projects had been a bit of an ordeal. I had some colours flown out with gap year volunteers, but the rest was Malagasy, hand mixed out of noxious substances up a dodgy looking alleyway in Tana. Having little Malagasy or French, I struggled to explain precise colour preferences, and seemed to end up with an awful lot of brown. Over the weeks, my palette became quite interesting, with crazed blobs of colour. The day before I left I painted one last coat of my 'favourite' homemade brown paint, and chucked a handful of sandy soil onto it. By this point it almost certainly constituted a bio hazard. However, it arrived home safely, and I then painted a portrait of Rocky and Ruth onto it, so that I can remember my 'little' pet cockroaches forever.

Rocky and Ruth will be on display at the Open Up North exhibition venues from Sat 1st Oct- Mon 10th Nov.

Lune Valley

Went out walking and drawing yesterday with my friend Owen and obligatory pack of dogs along the Lune from Halton. We sat above the flooded river, wearing sunglasses, raincoats, and wellies (and in my case, suncream). But strong sunlight and heavy rain at the same time does make everything look bright, sparkly and dramatic, and the clouds were exceptionally good. I drew this using watercolour pencils and I used the raindrops to smudge it a bit. We both ignored the most obvious things in the view; a massively flooded river, and 4 large and irritating dogs.

Springtime in Eskdale

This is the painting I mentioned in my last blog entry, 'Springtime in Eskdale' by James McIntosh Patrick. Image courtesy of Liverpool Museums.

Life drawing - September

These are the two pieces that I'm most happy with from last Saturday's life drawing. I'm really working on not overworking paintings at the moment! and here I think I managed to retain some element of spontaneity. I've always preferred sketches to finished drawings, and drawing to painting, yet I love colour so much. So I suppose drawing in paint is my best option.

Today I visited the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. It's really good and I want to go back for longer next time as I only had an hour. I was so happy to find a McIntosh Patrick painting that I hadn't seen before, of Eskdale. James McIntosh Patrick, born in Dundee in 1907, was one of the best known and loved Scottish landscape painters of the last century. His paintings are perhaps nostalgic, but I think they are also timeless, they capture a sense of place so fundamentally.
When I was wee I thought of the print my Granny had above her mantlepiece as you might a favourite story; you know so precisely how it goes but nevertheless can always find something new.

I think it's finished!

I've been having a lot of fun painting this off and on over the summer, but I have a feeling that it's finished. Deciding when something is finished has never been one of my strong points, often, things are finished about half an hour before I stop messing around. This painting combines areas of high detail with areas which are quite roughly painted, and which certainly could be worked into some more, but I think I prefer it the way it is.
I'm not done with the Australian bush theme, however; there's a few more in my head waiting to be painted.

Brown Hare watercolour sketch

Hares are brilliant to draw, big gangly things with googly crazed eyes. Years ago a hare used to visit my parents garden. We called it Hector. He'd let you get so close to him you could literally step on him. I think he was very old, and possibly senile - certainly didn't act in a way likely to prolong his existence.
Where I live now is great for hares. If you walk through the flat fields on the Fylde Coast in late winter you're likely to see 50 or more.

Sofa Dwellers

Not so much to report about these drawings, other than just how great ink is, both for drawing, and making your hands/house/dog black.

Some summer colour

Felt like we could all do with some cheering up, so here's some paintings of nice bright things...I am fairly proud of the fact I've succeeded in creating a back garden of flowers which actually clash.

The last two paintings are of bright purple aubergines, and a giant tomato. I bought them at a market in Vienna because I thought they were amazing. Haven't seen aubergines like this in the UK.

Orange bricks, grey sky: summer view of Galgate

The new windows have been installed at the studio, and we're enjoying being able to see out properly. This watercolour sketch shows a view of the Silk Mill, orange bricks and standard issue slate grey summer sky. Wouldn't look nearly so authentic with a blue sky.

The other painting is a detail from the large scale acrylic I'm working on, showing Australian eucalyptus bush. The red birds are Crimson Rosellas.

New website for Ellel Artists' Studios

So (finally) Ellel Artists' Studios has a website: http://www.ellelartists.org/

You'll see on the website that we are holding our first Open Studio weekend on the 3rd and 4th of September. It would be lovely to see you.

We will soon be getting new windows installed in the studio, to replace the ancient cracking and crumbling ones. The old ones look amazing but I can't say we will miss them, last winter the water froze solid in the kettle a few times! I took this photo of a summer storm cloud through the old windows last week.

Bush

These pictures are of eucalypt forest in Australia, or bush - a totally underwhelming term for the reality of this plant lovers paradise. I found the colours, shapes, smells and textures unfamiliar and beautiful. Particularly the smell of the eucalyptus oil, I wish my paintings could capture that.

I'm thinking/planning a new painting, which will be large, tall and thin, based on these forests. I painted the watercolour from the balcony of my boyfriends' uncle and aunts' house, they live near Woy Woy on the Central Coast, which is basically unbroken forest and gorgeous coast a couple of hours north of Sydney. The second drawing was done recently, from memory and photos; recollecting particular trees and plants. The way that plants in Australia are adapted to fire is amazing. I particularly want to try and capture the feel of the peeling bark. We saw a lot of trees which had been burned, the most impressive were in the Blue Mountains. Enormous trees which are smooth white or silver grey underneath, with ribbons of cinnamon coloured bark hanging down. Even the photos make you want to reach out and touch them.

Recent life drawings

The three drawings were made with charcoal and a putty rubber taking 5 mins (pink paper), 10 mins (blue) and 15 mins (yellow). I covered the paper in charcoal, drew in the main lines, then drew in the highlights using a putty rubber. The older and mankier the putty rubber is, the better; accrued dog hair and dirt gives added strength to it, allowing you to make sharper lines.

I spent about 2 hours on the painting, although I think I overworked it a bit. The 'brief' I set myself was to go back to basics and paint with just three colours, using it tonally rather than realistically. I cheated a bit and used two blues, (in order to get a nicer green), however, I like the colours a lot. I'm less sure about the finished picture, I took it home and stuck it on the mantlepiece for a while and realised it looks like an illustration for a Mills and Boons novel. Woops.

Challenging 'challenging' art

A quote by artist John Keane in the June edition of the A-N Magazine:

"...Who is going to challenge the hegemony of 'challenging art'? I long for the day when a commissioned artist, out of sheer perverse bravado, might fill the lofty and intimidating Turbine Hall of Tate Modern with delicately crafted watercolours...'

Me too! Why is contemporary art only considered worthwhile when it is 'challenging'? Why is figurative art still looked down upon, undervalued - art which is based upon hard work and skill developed over years of practice and study? Why are artists who make a living by selling their work considered of less artistic merit than conceptual artists?

Jonathon Jones recently discussed this in his article 'Painted into a corner'. Worth pondering upon, especially if you are stuck at home feeling bitter with a cold and unable to actually paint!

A gleeful fiddle player

The last couple of days I've been working on an illustration for a book cover - 'Joy Till Death' by Zsolt Staník. It's about the residents of a retirement home, some of whom form a band. This pen drawing shows Bert, a fiddle player, and I have been attempting to convey what was described to me rather awesomely as 'ecstatic, devilish, glee-type joy.' I love drawing expressions as I find if I am drawing someone smiling, it makes me smile - especially as I often use a mirror to try and work out the facial expression.

Life drawings

Some recent drawings in charcoal and pastel.

Splatter Happy - Abstract paintings by Silverdale Art Group

I was really impressed by the beautiful paintings produced at this afternoons workshop with Silverdale Art Group. The group was so enthusiastic - it's very rare to have an art class silent with concentration, and I always know the class has gone well when you have to wipe down the furniture afterwards! (Although, fortunately, the playgroup meet in the same venue so they can take the blame).

I also received the nicest feedback I think I've ever had: '2 hours of pure joy'

Thank you!

New sign/logo for Ellel Artists' Studios

I've been having way too much fun this afternoon playing with ink spatters in Illustrator, designing a logo and sign for the studio. While I was away in Australia some charming child (well, I hope it was a kid) broke off my little handpainted palette sign. The new sign will be hung up high, out of reach.