Looking at a Helen Booth artist

I decided yesterday to call the series of landscape shaped Daily paintings done from the 7/2/15 , Distilled landscapes, to try and differentiate between the square Dailies and the landscape ones.
The other name I considered was, filtered landscapes.

So, that sent me researching other artist's that paint, what I would call, distilled landscapes ( see my Pinterest board, Distilled landscapes )

Top of the shop were Tania Rutland, Sonia Stanyard, Richard Whadcock and Helen Booth.

So, looking at Helen Booth's work. These are two of my favourites.

So, for me Helen Booth's work is...... Powerful.....strong....breathtaking......still...about tones.....abstract....blending.....atmospheric. She draws and paints in different sizes and has lovely names for series of works eg ..... Sanctuary, essence, sequence series, synopse...

I painted over this one from yesterday. In a way these paintings that I have done today look simple, but they aren't. I am maybe not showing the true layers.

I painted the one below to fit inbetween the two random ones from yesterday

 These are the three together. Gentle, still, pale, muted colours.

 More Distilled landscapes

 Three together.

I felt that I had had a good paint today. We will see if I think that later or tomorrow.

Stillness

Ok so following on from looking at Tania Rutland....... I want to try more abstract, still pieces, unrelated to the ones just gone before. More about a distilled, abstracted landscape. I did try this yesterday but the piece still had a figurative element.

Reviewing the landscaped Dailies.
I have done 14 of them now.... They are all up on the Art lounge wall...
Number 1 started as a very literal piece, cold, mabe snowy painting ( 7/2/15 ) They went through their own journey and ended up with the 20/2/15 which was pinkish, had not so much tonal change.
The last 7 became more and more blended as I moved through the paint.
All of these had a figurative element.

When I set off on these, I  had imagined that I could see one line of work all round a gallery wall.
Now, maybe I see that there could be interruptions to that line, to allow the viewer's eye to pause, have a break and see perhaps pieces of 2 pr 3 paintings to be seen as pieces in their own right.Try it.

Amazing through that I am nearly at the end of the 11 th month of the Daily paintings. I have, in the main, loved it, but am also ready for the next project, whatever that will be. Well, I think that I will continue to produce a Daily work but smaller, maybe explore starting an etsy shop and concentrate on trying to sell more work.I have said I will exhibit as an invited guest artist at our local Woodend studios. I had a studio there for many years when it was less well known . Chris Cyprus is one of the main artist's there and he has gone from strength to strength, now selling his art all over the world.


Chris Cyprus allotment work.

Below is one of Chris Cyprus pieces I love.

This is the reworked piece from yesterday. No way are these half hour paintings now. I am returning again and again, reworking them and then reworking the one before too.

Below is Daily painting 22/2/15 ( I think ) I left it last night.... It is hard to paint without sufficient light and I thought I would add some lights and darks today because , I thought,  it was bland maybe. But I like it today. Ok , sign it off but be aware I might not like it next week. Still finding it impossible to do a abstract, some kind of figurative element is creeping in............greys georgeous....... It doesn't go with the one before.... Ok.......do an individual one ...........

Below is Daily painting 23/2/15 ( I think ) it is about greens along with a lot of other things

Two more Daily paintings........I liked working on the dark background. Maybe have to return to these two.......unsure.

Shades of Richard Whadcock...... Must try in oils before I am out of these landscape shaped pieces. Got masses of new oil paints yesterday..... It's much harder to blend in acrylics , she says, acrylics are almost flatter than oils..... But you have got to wait until the oils is dry before working on top ....... Develop patience and work on 10 at a time  !

They still feel like they have a figurative content..... Work on it.......  Continue too work in greys......love it !

Tried to see what one would look like in a frame ...... Ok actually.

Research other artists; Research ......

Distilled landscapes

Stillness

Subdued colours

Grey landscapes

Grey browns

Small landscapes

Yum........love the research too....

Tania Rutland

Love Tania Rutland's work. I can feel shades of her work coming through in mine ( don't tell her though , she might be insulted ! ) Theses are two of my favourites.
Chasing shadows. Oil. 769x 770 mm ( around 30 inches sq. )

Walking the chalk, oil, 236sq. ( around 10 ins sq.)

What I like to do when looking another artist is not to look at the words but just to get a feeling of the work by looking at the images. Ok it's not ideal because most of the art I see these days is on the 

net..... He ho

Tania Rutland's work is ........

Haunting and atmospheric

she uses tones esquisitely,often the works are high key.There's a suggestion of landscape, open to 

interpretation, quite a lot of verticals and some horizontals.she uses a massively limited palate mainly surrounding greys and neutrals and she feels like she gets lost in the work. If I look at hers and at RIchard Whadcock, hers feel more feminine in comparison.

So, below, I am showing you that, for me the way to match up the paintings is to keep the last  painting 

at the side of the work.I don't want to match exactly, like a jigsaw, just enough jot to jar if they are displayed butted up.

Ok, so Daily Painting 17/2/15 looks more like a Victorian watercolour than anything influenced by Tania Rutland.... That's ok though.

So, to try and overcome the priming delay, I have put down one layer of primer and then a few layers of paint instead. Enjoyed that much more, just layer ing the colour. These are no way half hour paintings, they need time to ferment, cook ,distill. So defo been influenced here by Tania Rutland.

Below is Daily painting 19/2/15.I was trying to be abstracted - he ho.Trying to control my creative process is a recipe for disaster..... I have just got to make suggestions !

 This is the Art lounge ( my back room really ) with the  Dailies on.

Hmmmmm, I am supposed to be looking at more of an abstract image , rather than the ones with a little bit of a figurative content. Try again.....

Below is Daily painting 19/2/15. This was one where I layered all kinds of different colours on them to avoid having to prime...loved it ....today

Daly painting 20/2/15 below........ Gonna try and leave these now , what I mean is just try to look at gry abstracts. Can well see some smaller ones of these mounted though .....

Sydney Long

Ok, so the paintings over the last couple of days made me slightly think of Sydney Long's work. When I looked up his work really it was just a couple that I thought reminded me of mine.....

Sydney Long
Born around 1870 - 1955 ish
Australian
Landscapes, figures with feeling, spirit of Australia
Biggish watercolours
Lovely colours
Often uses the Wedgewoody blue with ochre/ siennaish colours.
Often nudges the shapes toArt Noveau shapes.

How georgeous is this one ?

Watercolour called dawn, 65x 43 cm 1918.

I know that the figures give a sense of scale to the trees but they are not relevant to me....

Stands the test of time

Try again tomorrow..... When the bloody primer's dry !

Phew life got in the way of painting back on track

So, again behind with the Daily paintings. It's not working for me at the moment, it feels like I am moving out of the Daily paintings and yet I still have two months to go , around 50 paintings. It's the priming that causing the delays, the irritation when I have a half hour to paint, there are no boards ready. And , the boards cut at B and Q are slightly different sizes .... Oh dear !

So, this is Daily painting 10/2/15

It was too hard to try and match the painting before and didn't feel in the spirit of the Dailies. Try and see the positives. Try and do individual paintings that can be linked somehow further down the line. I need a long wall. Mmmmmmm

Below was the last one with the others.

Next Daily painting.The simpler the painting, often , the harder the process. I had to let this dry a few times so the spirit of half hour paintings is out the window. Just relax and go with it but try not to get so behind again, it puts a pressure on that I haven't had through this project.

This is the latest with the others. It doesn't quits tie in with the one before .... But......for me, that's ok, I didn't want just one landscape, rather a series of stills of the landscape..... Land stills ......

Below is the Daily painting 12/2/15 - it's evening now so the colours on the photo aren't really true. Probably need to take them again tomorrow. Loved the paintings today, but lots of drying time so try again. They have to work individually, then as a whole. Big ask that really. Worth a try though.

The last three together. Love em ....... We will see what tomorrow brings but oh dear, back to the priming again.......

So, I have tried six together on the Art lounge wall. Maybe need to try them on the Emmaus wall or 

maybe borrow a studio wall.

Mmmmm

Had a massive paint. Loved it.

Loved the three together. The last one took some time though, lots and lots of layers. Looks quite simple though doesn't it ? Interesting !

One long painting

Monday
I am a little behind with the a Dailies. Too much priming means not as much painting......AND.........I want to try a painting that butted up to another painting ........ BUT .........I need to do them in layers and that means not half hour paintings because the layers have to dry. We will see.

These are photos from yesterday's walk. I had taken them on my phone and rather than transfer them electronically, with my ipad, I took a physical photo of my phone. It made for a blurred, grainy image. Much better to paint from.....

This was the first one. I do have problems with painting from an image. I feel restricted and controlled by the photo. Try just looking at it for a minute........anyway, I did it, I liked it, I can see I 

have put more colour into the landscape. That's ok. I had to let the layers dry. Frustrating !

This was the second, made from memory, aware of the first one.what do I want from these paintings ?

To move in and out of focus

To move in and out of realism / abstract

To move in and out of light and dark tone

To introduce pockets of colour

To move in and out of colour

To move in and out of seasons

For them to stand up on their own too

Can't wait.

These below were the first two together. Loved them !

This below was the third painting. I felt happy with the abstract qualities. I made it in one sitting, without letting the layers dry. Loved it ! 

This was the first three together. Loved them !

Ok ..... So I can see these paintings right round a gallery space, at eye height. Someone must have done that before. Research !

You know, each day I come into the studio , there is a slight ( sometimes major ) anxiety that the muse has gone. That I won't be able to paint. That the drive to paint has deserted me. Get over yourself. 

Right so looking at those three paintings

The words that come to mind when I look at them are ; bleak,dark,tonal austire,quiet,still. Researching artists threw up the following  George Innes ( below )

Fred Ingrams ( below )

John Twatchman ( below ) love them.

Nicholas Herbert ( below ) love them

Richard Whadcock ( below ) love them

Can't wait ...... Haven't got any boards but May try paper .......mmmm