Getting lost in My North

Still lost in the My North series....phew...doing loads of small work didn't help. I have just got more unrecorded images , got lost in the cataloguing, or lack of. We looked at sepia ink in the Art group this morning so I am still in the ink.Mmmm. Trying to move out. These were yesterday's and today's.not critiquing them because I am not confident with my judgement. Need to completely stop, regroup, make some decisions about an exhibition plan, collect and catalogue the work , write the words down and generally organise. Actually, that sounds good !

Reworking of Grandma ......folded up the image to try and replicate the folds etc of the real photo....

Might well paint over this one

This does have an aspect of my Mum

And this one too

Today, I love the ones without features. I had put the features in but hadn't liked them so swept offer the face.

Don't know where I was with this one

Mmmm...included white acrylic.

Back to the drawing board with the whole project.

Day 1 .Nine a Day.

Getting a bit lost in this series. What to do ?....well,mi can
Review it all...
Do 9 a day for a week...I will be in a different place next week...
Write a plan ( terrifying !  )
Just do more ( most appealing )
Or do all of the above...

For my first image...I spent quite a time on this little one of my Grandma yesterday. I started off with sepia watercolour, then ink, varnish, repeat. But it still didn't , nor doesn't have a sense of, ' rightness, ' about it. Maybe I am trying too hard !

Right.No 1. Inks. Got lost in it and there was art...my sort of process....no thought...intuitive...

No 2. Got lost in it....and then there was art...the more cerebral input was to paint in a sillouette of my Grandma....liked it

No 3. Still On Grandma...played...painted Grandma's shape quickly, then sprayed it and scraped it. It reminds me of the weight of all women before her....Mmm...

No 4. It does remind me of time gone by....but that might be the associations that come with the sepia colour...it's the alchemy of mixing up the different inks, sepia, white ink and sumi. The ink may be taking over.

No 5 .Ran out of white ink. Oh no ! Have to go into white acrylic....

No 6. The white was heavy to work with in comparison to the ink.Wasn't sure of this but don't critique until the end of the week.....

I wanted a paler feel. Too much dark.Mmmm....layers. I layered the sepia ink, then painted in a sillouette with sepia ink....with white acrylic painted round the sillouette then spray with water, then panic and dab off the excess !

No 8 go with imagination and enjoy it...put the paint down and watch for a figure to come out. Looks a little sinister. I miss the white ink.

No 9. Play. Looks like a beach and industry ! ( maybe a series on beaches and industry ! )

How valid is intuitive painting ? Discuss.

Sepia My North

The tone of the Art lounge with the displays of black and white work looks serious. Although I liked them, I wanted to try and lift the mood and tone in the Art lounge, to include something more colourful or lighter in tone. Mmm. Fail then. I decided to try in sepia ink and this weeks Dailies have been in sepia and white acrylic ink ( both daler Rowney . ) I chose to work from images of my family in old photographs.

I have loads of old black and white and sepia photographs and negatives. I don't know who they are or where they were taken. So different to how we are now.

These three photographs are

1. My Mum and me, on holiday somewhere.

2. My Mums Mum, Annie. No idea how old she was in this photo.

3. My Mum as a young teenager.

No 1. 

No. 2. I liked the texture when I put the white ink over the sepia or vice versa.

No 3. Mmmm , same photo, all different images.Mmmm.

No 4. Mmmm

No 5. Mmm prefer when I haven't tried to get to he features.

No 6.

No 7.Mmmm.think it could have potential.

No 8. Used the ink as a wash, like watercolours. But it's harder to control than watercolours...doesn't reset and lift out the same.

No 9.

I have worked so hard on these but not as pleased with them as others. Try again !

Framing the My North images

It's a small post today .....but it's taken ages. Framing is crucial to any work and generally the better the framing, the better the piece looks overall. That said, I have been very disappointed with the last two I have had framed....very expensive and very high quality frames but I didn't wholly like them ...he ho, have taken the pieces out and reused the frames .....so, I am trying to take some time out of painting to look at frames.....

These are the backs of the 52 cm dailies painted in Johnstone's dove grey. The pieces of art are just blue tacked on the boards to see if they would look good. Love it really. I had wanted these pieces to look like old photographs and had slightly achieved that with the white border around the work. That only showed up with the use of a colour, ie the grey on the backboard. 

This was a long , thin photo frame I picked up at Emmaus. I thought this would look so good and it just doesn't . Will re paint it in the dark grey which I am becoming addicted to.

These frames are made with two sheets of glass so produce a glass border. I love them on the grey but didn't like them on the mushroom colour that the chimney breast was. These frames were £3.99 each from B and M.

I got presents from a friend's daughter. Love them. Don't know what half of them are....but I know I need to find out. 

Tried the pencils on a drawing of a very young Dave ( husband ) Couln't do him justice today ....try again !

Painted backboards in charcoal grey ( current obsession ) thought I would love them.....and I do like them but not as much as I thought I would ....

The one below is frame from Tesco. I could see a line of the really, so it was good to try them....I didn't think I would like them ...he ho. I think this frame was about £6 and they do them in white and black as well.

Back to the ink. love it ! Procrastinating over the drawing !

Framed three of the Mills and hills in rectangular frames. Loved them in the black frames. Like having the square piece in a rectangular frame.

Mills and hills

So, trying to do something to balance or extend the ,' My North,' pieces. I could have done them bigger but wanted them not to overshadow the my North ones and also wanted them to have a feel of old black and white photographs. Will continue to work on the framing and have catalogued them on My Pinterest boards. When I start off on something new or newish, I love that adrenalin rush.....but then sometimes the muse fizzles out and I abandon the work...or sometimes you kind of go on a roll. With these, I still have a nervous expectancy, not a full conviction so continue and have ordered some sepia ink to try that. Love the art !

This one has white ink added....loved it ! Loved the abstract qualities....Mmmmm

Back to the North

My North paintings have been going South just lately....because I love loads of them and have sold a few, I feel under pressure to live up to the ones that I have already made. Phew...the artist's struggle ! Have a word with yourself. What happens if you make a crap painting ? Nothing ! You can paint over it ! Get over myself !

So last nights and this morning I am back on my North. Painting and looking at different ways to frame them. Review the whole project.....what am I intending to do with them.....what do I want from them.....I have liked selling them just on paper, unframed, so much easier... They are only small ( 15 cm sq. ) and I can post them recorded delivery. I hadn't wanted to sell them at first, it was breaking up the series as a whole but I only started it to make some small, saleable pieces. Well, not really. I started it because of my Granddaughter. It made me realise that my kids didn't know anything about my childhood.Not because of any concious decision not to tell them, it just never came up.

So...I wanted to work towards a , ' My North,' installation of small work. That, I am still doing.
This morning's challenge was to turn this display of small nocturnes into a display of My Norths. I have painted these backboards in Johnstone's Dove grey so it's a cool grey. I like it. The backboards are the backs of Daily paintings, so waste not, want not.I like the presentation of these nocturnes but can see that the detail in the works is lost because you can't get close enough to see them becaus of the daybed. Therefore maybe try to dramatise the shapes and the tones, ' shapes of the North.' Try it
( well the last two were me trying it )

This was one of last nights....Nora Battye tights with mends in ....we played in the roads, there weren't any cars....the roads were wider then...I don't remember bright colours....we played hopscotch but not with major enthusiasm

All we wanted was to be older ! We so looked up to the older kids

There were loads of terraces but lots of rubble covered wasteland. Was that from the war ?

This was the one I thought most fitted the brief but need to do 10 before critiquing.

Will paint over this one !!,

Back to the paint....