Meeting of the Waters

These sketches were done a few weeks ago when the weather was positively balmy - sun shining like there was no tomorrow and dry as Scotsmans throat after two days on the wagon!

"Scots Pines on a Lonely Hillside", charcoal on paper, 40x30cm.

There I was sitting on my little fold-a-way aluminium chair with the ocassional passer-by giving me very strange looks as though I had just touched down from Pluto moments before, acres of open farmland on either side giving me no inspiration what-so-ever when this stand of lonesome pines called out "You gotta stop and draw us for pines-sake, there ain't nuthin' else for miles around!".

"Scots Pines, Contre-jour", Mixed media on paper, 30x40cm.

And so the history of 'daviddrawsandpaints' fills another day out in the wilds of Lanarkshire: Me, a wee chair, a bunch of Neocolour pastels and a blue felt pen., up a hill, near North Brackenridge Farm, chittering with cold (even tho' I still got them old long-johns on) but driven on by artistic vision. I don't do things by half.

But these sketches were only the pre-curser to the main event:

"The Meeting of the Waters", Neocolours on paper, 30x40cm.

Further on from North Brackenridge, down the glen a bit, is the subject of my loving dreams: where the Logan Water meets the River Nethan - two small burns joining together to make a beautiful flowing stream, under a canopy of trees, that runs all the way to the River Clyde and the sea.

This is where I met John Stewart and his twa dugs, but that is surely for another day.

Hope you are all well and enjoying your artmaking :o)



Water on the Brain

I can still hear the water running close beside me as I doze in the afternoon sun.

I dream of the water rising at it's source, soaking out of the peaty hills and gathering together to form small rivulets and conjoining together to make larger streams, then busy tumbling burns on their way to rivers like this, and onward, gathering like-minded fellows, to the Avon, to the Clyde, to the sea, to the oceans of the world:

"Glengarvel Water", Acrylics on canvas, 50x100cm.

Where the moisture is sucked out of the mighty floods and condensed into thunderous clouds that rush inland and burst again over the hills, and so the cycle repeats itself continously, endlessly, round and round, and round....

No wonder I fell asleep!





Me and the Gang

I know truly that painting is a lonely occupation and that unless you are partaking in a joint collaboration with one, or more artists, you is most definitely on yer own.

Or unless you have friends to keep you company in the long hours between sunrise and sunset (or vice-versa whenever you do your painting) to encourage and support you.

Here are some of mine from Subconscious that popped in to say hello during yesterday's morning Musings [sounds a bit like morning prayers, or meditation, which in a strange way it is]:

"20 February 2013", mixed media on sugar-paper, 59x86cm.

Thankfully these pals of mine are not real in a real, material sort of way, unlike my virtual friends on the internet who I believe (against all rationality) to be real people, otherwise we would all be tripping over one another in the narrow confines of my padded cell, studio.

What fun we had that morning with everyone listening to my hypotheses on Life and laughing at all my jokes.

Happy days.

The Sun Shines on the Righteous

What a fantastic yesterday - bright sunshine, if a little hazy, and a bit cool around the nether regions, (just as well I had my long-johns on!), out tramping the hills and glens and finding secret waterways to sit myself down besides and draw:

Glengavel Water, mixed media in sketchbook, 18x2x25cm.

Sitting on my little fold-away chair in the sun under the branches of a straggly tree the running water was sending me to sleep like  some old cat content to simply be alive.

But that's not why I was out here! I was here to draw, and half-a-mile down the road I spotted this huge buzzard hovering over the hillside:

"Cairnsaigh Hill", charcoal on paper, 30x40cm.

And a mile further on this big lump o' a hill sticking out of the otherwise flat landscape:

"Loudon Hill from the South", charcoal on paper, 30x40cm.

This great rock, with scrubby trees growing out from it's sides like some sort of garnish on a great plum pudding:

"Loudon Hill from the West", charcoal on paper, 30x40cm.

Just enough time to make these charcoal sketches then off home again as the sun dipped towards the horizon.

A happy days work methinks!



Soft Fruit

I bought these cherries, raspberries and brambles as a tasty treat for the birds to help them through this cold winter, and the oranges as a small helping of vitimin C for myself but, apart from the cherries, they were largley shunned  by our ungrateful local egg-laying avians!

"Soft Fruit", acrylics on paper, 43x59cm.

The exception, however, was this one hen blackbird which devoured all of the cherries to itself.

Now, instead of buying out-of-date cherry punnets at 29p I am having to fork out in-date punnets at £2 a throw.

But I do know she appreciates it and that makes me happy!



Saved

A few days ago I started this Musing with charcoal and acrylic paint when about half-way through the wheels came off!

Well, not literally speaking, of course, but figuratively - one side was going swimmingly well but the other side was descending into a quagmire of confusion. Can one person's mind be like that? All clarity, sweetness and light on the right and utter tripe on the left?

Even though I consider these Musings be be whatever they turn out to be I still have the desire to "make something of it"...to satisfy my need for compositional structure. I ended that session by blocking out the entire left-hand side with a very tasteful grey sludge and left it alone in the dark to sort itself out.

A few days later when I got back into the studio there it was still waiting for me, accusingly, on the easel. What to do?

Take it down and start again afresh or...a wee still voice of intuition was whispering in my right ear "c'mon David, all is not lost, there is still some work to be done here, don't give up, what you have is one side partially resolved and the other a mid-tone blank waiting for inspired musing!

And it comes in the form of the blackest black I can muster, a few deft strokes and what was unsatisfactory before is now just as it should be:

Subconscious Musing: "12 February 2013". Mixed media on sugar paper, 59x86cm.

Hurrah...I can now move on to a happy days painting :o)

My Sunny Valentine

"Nella sua giardino", acrylics on paper, 59x43cm.

My funny valentine
Sweet comic valentine
You make me smile with my heart
Your looks are laughable
Unphotographable
Yet you're my favourite work of art

Is your figure less than greek
Is your mouth a little weak
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?

But dont change a hair for me
Not if you care for me
Stay little valentine stay
Each day is valentines day.

[Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, 1937]