Give myself a good talking to

So, not picked up a paint brush since yesterday's Art group ! That's a while for me. Had to walk to the Art group cos of the snow ( took me an hour ) and thought no-one else would come but there were 8 of us ! We were looking at the work of Rebecca Crowell using a dark under painting........like I had been doing at home.......


These were the latest two Dailies .......big reaction to the snow !

Well what will today bring ? Reluctant to go in the studio ..... too cold and dark ......will have to sort out the heating and lighting in there before next year ....... My Art lounge is inviting ......... But studio isn't at the moment.....

Have arranged for the Art group to hVe a shared lunch at mine next Wednesday . I want them to critique the Dailies on display to see if that spurs me on.

What can I do this morning to help the Daily painting cause ? ( I have an Art and a Craft group this afternoon but already done the prep work for it ) we are doing small textile pieces for cards or the front of note lets.

Tidy up

Go in the studio for starters

Prime some boards

Enjoy my morning , without angst ing

Remember I don' t have to make any big decisions with the Dailies

Review the graphite ones .... Sold a couple ....so someone at least likes them ...... they are still undeveloped......

Blocked !

So, put up a display of the six neutral , textured paintings and ugh , they looked awful together. Rethink but unfortunately then became completely blocked with the work. Oh dear ! So much about painting is done in your head ( or is that just me ? )

So, almost a week on, I have painted feeble paintings this week that need to be, ' tossed! ' ... Well tossed metaphorically. I mean painted over.

I have been avoiding the studio like the plague, procrastinating and finding many other things to do. Does it sound familiar ? Well actually, not usually for me...

So, how to counter a , ' block.' 

Tidy up in the studio. Good idea.... It has got overrun with paintings piled up and stacked randomly.

Take the display down , catalogue it and put it away....remember that I liked those paintings 

individually, I just didn't like them together.

Change your pallettes.

Return to graphite ( err think about that one )

Make a frame to try individual paintings in, to test their validity

Have a group crit to try and help me over the block

Prime some boards so that I am ready if I go on a roll

Often painting feels like perhaps surfing does, you are just trying to catch a wave ( roll ) Sometimes it just doesn't happen . You just have to keep trying ( she says )

I am in that studio today for all day .... All I have to do at the end of the day is have four Daily

paintings completed ! Four half hour paintings ..... That 's all !

Look out of my kitchen window .......georgeous......white......flat sky (full of snow ) ....big tone changes but nothing in between .....

Here was my first one , painted over a dark under painting. In comparison to the real thing above, mine is browner, above is bluer. I love the light when it's snowed ..... Have really found the dark January light hard to deal with generally. Long, long nights, sometime the day just doensn't get light enough all day.....

Anyway, when you are painting you are looking for a sense of, ' rightness.'When you get that, stop ! You might later then change your mind but that's your choice. The relationship between the artist and their painting is sometimes a fickle one. You like them one day but don't like them the next. He ho.

This one feels fussy.It took me much longer than the half hour allocated. Try again ! Stay in the studio !

Walk out of the back gate into the woods.Through the woods onto the hills. Georgeous day in paint and snow ! Enjoyed the paint , even if I paint over them tomorrow.

The final four today on the black studio wall.

Christian Hetzal and Rebecca Crowell

Looking further into neutral paintings.......first looking at Christian Hetzal, German artist. These are two favourite paintings of his.

What do I feel about how he works ......
He feels like he gets lost in his work and looks for texture and possibly a lack of colour...
He puts dark over light and vica versa , then scratches back into the paint revealing the colour underneath
He builds up texture with paint and maybe texture paste or gel


He often uses neutrals / greys
His work feels masculine
He feels influenced by Abstract Expressionists
He often leaves a dark edge on a pale painting
He sometimes uses drips
His paintings are bigger than my 52 cm sq ... Maybe 4 together

Before I paint today, I need to look at Rebecca Crowell so I am not imitating Christian Hetzal........

So Rebecca Crowell... American artist....does workshops in Ireland too....uses cold wax ( defo not going there ) ...texture....distilled paintings with a lot of depth.....scraping....placing, always placing carefully ( that 's what it feels like to me ) lots of layers and layers of emotion too ... Her images take you in and gradually reveal themselves.....feminine .... Possibly.

I massively connect with them ! Lots to read and look at on line about her ...will do that today ... But now to the paint.....

I covered four boards in a mixture of burnt sienna ( ugh !!! ) and a ugh opaque green. Loved the mix 

of the two though......... Kind of a warm caramel browny colour.

Covered the primer colour with a lighter one and scraped into it using an odd piece of wood. Also pressed in a towel for texture.

Loved the four I painted this morning. 

Put some more layers on the above one. This was it finished ( the light was different so it may look a completely different colour )

CONCLUSIONS

Loved the neutrals

Didn't want to put the regular marks that Christian Hetzal uses

Put the texture on by , among other things, pressing a towel into the wet paint !

Loved the printing on and printing off that I normally use 

Mine were more blended .... what a surprise ..... 

Mine were lighter in content than Rebecca Crowell..... I don't feel that she would be making half hour paintings .... Hers feel more considered and placed

Keep going with the neutrals to make a display .... Use a different colour underneath

Slowing up

Definitely overworked last week preparing the display for Emmaus and getting back to the groups after Christmas. Got out of my normal routine and really that meant that there wasn't a lot of time left for the Dailies and I have got behind . Try and catch up today.

It feels like I am loosing the muse , the motivation to paint the Dailies. Well , often as I come to the end stages of any project, I loose a little interest , what' s going to help me get my motivation ?.Well;

Going into the studio
Prepare some boards ( I went and got the last big number , 40 boards cut at B and Q on Wednesday, 40 boards )
Don't overthink it .... Just paint
Get off the graphite/ tonal work ..... It keeps me down
Try and enjoy it..... I am so lucky to do this
Make a display for another part of the house
Go light, neutral
Switch the sad light on
Return to the reasons I started the Dailies
Change to figures/ abstracts
Read all my blog to reflect on the experience
Let stuff happen...... Don't try and control everything.......


See if any of these help.........report later

Painted four boards with old, dark paint as a primer.

Worked back into them when the dark paint was mainly dry with a few patches not fully dried out.

Techniques I used...... Lots of tonking.......scrapings of graphite pressed into the paint........mixing pale neutral colours of greys........using pencil marks.........spraying the work with clear water ..... Using gesso mixed in with the acrylic to take the shine away.........using card to put the paint down and to take the paint back off too.......printing on ( painting a colour on card and printing it onto the work ) ....scratching the top layer of paint off to reveal the underneath colour ... the usual really .....

Thought I would work on neutral pieces maybe for a lounge wall painted in soft coffee. Not making the decision yet though.

These four Daily paintings displayed on the charcoal wall.Lets see what they look like on the soft coffee wall.

Loved some of the textures and marks on the paper that I used to take the excess paint off ( tonking )

Loved this morning. Don't know what all the angst was earlier.What next ? Look some more at neutrals. When I think about neutral paintings I like them large..... Do they really work on the 52 cm sq ? That's the challenge. I like Christian Hertzel's work, but it definitely feels testosterone. I like Rebecca Crowell, lots of texture, but placed almost, the opposite of mine really. Research neutral paintings........

Display of greyscales at Emmaus

Put up a display of the graphites at Emmaus Mossley. Lovely to get back to the Art Group and enjoyed the morning in graphite. I liked the smaller ones in the white mounts. I loved the idea now that I can put up work on display using the bulldog clips and don't have to frame it..... But mounting the work is tedious...... Doesn't it massively make a difference though Art Group ?

 The Art group 's work. Very diverse.... Which I like. I had taken some of my printed photos in .

Next week for the Art Group we are looking at tones in acrylic ( using a brown , black mix ) Also looking at embellished and reworked prints.. Yum...

Need to get back to the Daily paintings.....

Back to normal after Christmas

For some reason, I have gone back to graphite .... He ho. I enjoyed it . It's hard to get the darks though. I was intending to mount up some prints to put up a display at Emmaus but I did 6 yesterday but it's so tedious that maybe I will just put up a mixture of Daily paintings and framed work alongside the mounted prints.

This was the 52 cm sq graphite on primed board. Try with gold on.....

This is a small one I mounted up yesterday. I like it.

Again a small one mounted up yesterday.i liked this one too.

New Year

Well, no clear plans to date. Feel in a massive slump , don't know why I am even bothering doing the Daily paintings ! Get over myself....... Did a painting today using the golden orange I mixed. It was ok ! Oh dear......but did tidy my paints and worked on a bit of a display for the Upcycling products. Try again tomorrow .....

Well this one feels peaceful, calm, gentle, blended. Felt right - what more can I ask ?

Lots of new colours for Christmas. Lucky me.I love the acrylics .....they are sooo versatile.

What do I think ? These paintings are gentle, reflective, blended, bright actually. Do I like them ? They are ok. Am I repeating myself ? Maybe...... But does Art always have to be a steep learning curve ? Or can it be a gentle meander through the..... Subject, the paint, the process, the colours........Yes of course it can.Keep going ...