Quiet landscape .2

So today I am trying some smaller pieces in the Quiet landscape series, 12 inches square and 2 inches deep, kind of boxes. I like them...but first recapping the two paintings from this week...

I wanted paintings that were interchangeable in the display...because I want to finish some with my usual frame on the back and try some in actual frames, which is so hard for me. I prefer the paintings without frames ...but some galleries want them framed, so I can only try.

What do I want in paint ? Grey, green, pink, abstract landscape. Not much then ! And , of course, a little more dark tone and I want to collect the poem lines ( sometimes I do catch the stream of conciousness words that come whilst I am painting....I write them down as they come to me...they seem like lines of poetry ! )

First stages...putting down the paint, waiting for something to appear in the painting. I paint flat usually with all the premixed paints around.

The garden and woods are stiped today !

Generally paint flat, occasionally tipping it up or put it on the easel. The painting is 52 cm sq.

' I like the combination of chaos and calm that the landscape prescribes each day,' acrylic on board, 52 cm sq.

Words that come to mind...

The mixes on the brush make their own colours

Ochreness

Every time I go into the studio , I have this performance anxiety ! I think...' I hope I can paint today ! 'I like wet in wet painting...less control

I like the combination of chaos and calm that the landscape prescribes each day...

I like the contrast of transparent paint and opaque paint.. They make each other look good.

Collecting the landscape

Swathes of green

A memory, a moment

Newspaper grey ( love the colour of the newspaper...it brings it's own association

The wood in the sky

Of course there's always trees

I love how the marks make themselves

Echoes of. A bigger landscapes

Love the landscape, love the paint, love the random marks that the landscape makes

Put the painting into the display of, ' quiet landscapes,' 

This was the second of the week...May paint over ( should say that at the he end of each post because it always applies....looking forward to a painting day tomorrow but have lots of backs and strings to put on the finished work.....he ho

A Quiet Landscape

Enjoying the paint. Loving the Quiet landscapes although they have gone a little pink or rosy ! Researched pink landscapes a little with out much major success. But I didn't have much success researching quiet landscapes...I found a few artists ( see my Pinterest boards ) but had to search really...nothing that spoke to me in terms of Art or poetry....interesting ( well to me anyway ) but compared to , for example, tonalist paintings , where I appreciate lots of Art.

I have been interested in almost , ' refreshing, ' old sketches...I did quite a lot this shape that went straight accross the board. I like the format and still am trying to get it to work in an actual decent frame for the galleries. Try again !

This is a sketch ( what's a sketch ? ) placed on board. I think of these as sketches even though I do work back into them. Perhaps it's because they are on paper. Unsure. It's just a label...but often these labels are confusing...sketch...study...work on paper...mmmm

Below is the current display of sketches at Emmaus Mossley. I have displayed my work and the work of the Art group at Emmaus Mossley for years, giving a voluntary donation to Emmaus for any sold. But now, I want to concentrate on working for galleries so I am planning to display and have some kind of event or Open studio at Emmaus once a year. I still will run the Art group and Upcycling group there. So big thank you to Emmaus Mossley for letting me do this and the display will be up until the beginning of a March.

The display is simply board painted white with the sketches pinned on. I like the format. I like the fact that I am looking at something other than a traditionally mounted and framed piece.

I was trying to bring in pinks, deliberately, working towards a display of 8 paintings together in the Art lounge ( back room ).... The greens in the landscape have altered so much this week, in anticipation of a next season. 

Acrylic on board, 52 cm sq. ' Anticipation of Spring. '

Mixing the greens has been just lovely this week. ' A quiet smile ' acrylic and ink on board, 52 cm sq.

Put the display up. It's a lot of paintings to put together but that's ok. I made a quiet sign out of card and mountcard ( print the right sized letters off the computer , cut them out of thin card and stick them to a piece of mountcard. Paint them )

When I look at this display ( the last one was actually a tonalist painting ) I do feel that they are ' quiet landscapes,' I wanted quiet, reflection, meditative, still, little abstract....and in the main that's what I got. Some were quieter than others...maybe the cooler in colour the painting was, the quieter it was also. I am sure I will return to a quiet landscape.......

Quiet landscapes

At different times you need different things from your art. Sometimes you need it to challenge you, sometimes you need it to be comfortable, reflective, give you space, give you no arguament....and maybe I needed to enjoy my art more than anything else this week....I am still looking at , ' Quiet paintings,' what do I mean by that ? Well quiet, not loud, reflective, calm....colours ? Well obviously the greys but I wanted to push the colour a little....have some more colour in them....but still keep them,' quiet,' so that was the little challenge this week.

Must research poetry and classical music about quiet landscapes....( have a Pinterest board collecting images of paintings thAt I feel are ,' quiet.' And I massively think that all the external research eg the music and the poetry helps the paintings and helps the deepening of the subject....

These were the ones I came up with but not overly pleased with them ....but as always maybe you have to paint so many crap paintings before the good stuff comes out !

' Spring came quietly,' acrylic on board 52 cm sq. Layers of transparent washes ( used the paint mixed with varnish ) and opaque mixes. Will have to live with this one....unsure yet...

' An empty quiet,' 52 cm sq, acrylic. There is a feeling of distance and haze in this one. Again , have to   live with it for a while.

' A quiet dark,'.....tried to bring in colour and darker tones....with limited success...maybe needs a little more , ' drama,' in the paint ! 

Massively trying to organise the cataloguing of my work....losing track of the paintings, where they are etc. Often I will think a painting is finished and record it ( usually on my Pinterest boards) then paint over it , so it doesn't exist any more....but I forget to go back into Pinterest to delete it !

Also this week had lots of paintings to put frames on the back for Hope gallery, Redbrick mill Batley, Yorkshire. Caroline Gillatt, the owner of the gallery came to the studio to pick out a new collection of my work for the gallery. 

Oil sketches for a Northern project

Seem to have naturally moved away from the greys. Have been looking at oils, particularly oil sketches. What to say....messy, smelly, get everywhere but luscious, rich and deep ! Ordered lots of mountcard offcuts off ebay and off I went. We have been looking at oils in the Art group and they have been really strong. So, researching urban or Northern artists that I like ...I like David Coulter, David Bez, Nathan Wild, Anna King.

We went round the town and took photos from the car...and my photography skills are pretty grim but it doesn't matter, in fact it helps , if the photograph isn't so good. I find it very restricting to paint from a photo....I think , for me, there is a deep seated sense of trying to accurately portray the photo which , of course, is not my art.

Some of the card I worked straight onto with the oil, some I primed with acrylic so the oils sat on top rather than soaked in.

This was a watercolour on canvas...I had ordered some canvases from Amazon that are specially formulated for watercolours. I quite liked the surface.12 inch sq.

Sketch with a couple of layers.

Again, this one had a couple of layers. Liked it better after the first layer.

Abstraction helped a little with the one.

Photo reference below for this one. The backs.

Over the bypass. ( I had primed the board with white acrylic )

Scraped off the pain and liked it better. Will work back into it.

Wiping the oil paint on ....loved it...and used pencil, that seemed to melt into the oil paint.

Loved using these techniques.

Photo reference of where I used to live.

I ordered mountcard offcuts...there are about 450 pieces of mountcard varying sizes for £8.99. 

The other photos were the Art group from Wednesday.