Grey 7 . Looking at Turners working practice

One of the major pluses of doing the social media, particularly Facebook, is the critical feedback that you get from other artists. This week I have been referred to Turner's , ' Colour beginnings. ' I hadn't specifically heard of them before....they need major research. I was also tRyingt no think about Turner's working practices....I have an image in my mind that he worked on lots of paintings at the same time....but I can't find the image though. I often feel connected to Turner when I work and I do feel that he got lost in the paint ( as I do ) and then had a mastery to simply put a building or a boat on top of the paint which then makes you read the paint in a completely different way....might be interesting to separate out a boat / building of his and put it into another painting.Mmm...just a thought...

Anyway, what I love about being an artist is that you can research a subject just as much as you want to in order to fuel the muse, drop it when you want....we are not doing any study for any other reason ( like an exam ) than for it's own sake, so my research is random , interesting bits and pieces, that might help my aim of working like Turner for a week !

Turner was considered too bright in his day ( usually the paintings were more subdued )
His Dad did a lot of the prep for him ....made his stretches ( oh ...if only )
He liked to work on a white or off white surface ( he defo brought his watercolour skills to oils )
His stretchers were often 2 x 3 foot or 3x4 foot.
He completed 19,000 water colours , drawing and oils

So the idea was that I would create 9 at once and work on them together....Fail....made 6 boxes and then got fed up. Worked on them individually and then collectively.....

So these were the six after a few days woodworking and then painting ( dark primer )... The pieces were 12 inches square , on board.....

The pieces reflect the quiet contemplation I was after...these were the words...distilled landscapes...land stills...are they abstract enough b...getting too much clutter in them...edgy simplicity...brought the sky down.... Gently distilled...are the lights light enough and the darks dark enough ? ...I seem to go high key always when painting in grey....flat skies.....

I like working all a prima ( in one sitting) but just couldn't get them to work...

Because the surface is sooo small the painting needs to be pared down... The landscape element reduced / distilled

The tones are massively important to the atmosphere

Will pick out the titles for the works from the phrases that come to mind when I painted them.

At the end of the experiment I felt that it didn't suit me at all to try and paint more than one at a time...I was muddled and the paintings then became muddled too....I ended up seeing the six as one piece of work rather than 6 individual paintings.....they each needed their individual time....It was massively useful to try this

So, also this week , I have been thinking about mounting and framing pieces. I was trying to use old frames and have decoupaged old, discarded paintings on paper.....that seems to work so try a few more...love the art

I am trying to be in a period of reflection in my work. As an artist I am quick to paint but slow to do the marketing, selling, tidying, finishing off stuff......I am presently drawing up my, ' to do,' list....for next year........think I will do it in a separate post so that I can quickly refer to it throughout the year...........