Little Amy

Spent the afternoon in the delightful company of my little grand-daughter Amy:

"Amy, newborn  study#1", pencil in sketchbook, A4.

At only a few hours old she is holding her finger up over her nose just like my own mother used to do

"Amy, newborn study#2", pencil in sketchbook, A4.

It seems that any mark I make, in whatever medium, is always too harsh for a newborn.

"Amy, newborn study#3", charcoal on paper, 59x42cm.

I like the idea of Amy's face the only element with colour in a neutral surrounding  .

"Amy, newborn study#4", acrylics on paper, 59x42cm.

Nanna Jacqui's arm should be less straight but curved round more to continue the encirclulation.

The big questions for me to answer are:

i) How am I going to translate all this information into a decent painting?

ii) Can I do a decent painting?

iii) Do I know what a decent painting is?

Much to ponder.



29 May 2013

Subconscious Musing: acrylics on sugar-paper, 59x86cm.



Dougarie Point

DOUGARIE POINT, MACHRIE BAY: I like to visit this corner of Arran every time I visit. It is quite wild and has a small beach that I like to sit at, eat my lunch perhaps, and do a little daydreaming. I can watch Grey Seals in the water and Peregrine Falcons zipping around the cliff-faces. This little sketch was done in an A5 sketchpad with Neocolours and I can vouch for the intensity of the water because it was a beautiful sunny afternoon with a cloudless sky.
This sketch was also done in an A5 sketchbook and was an attempt to express in colour the waves crashing into a small gully instead of merely rendering the scene realistically.

Shastas End

Acrylics on paper, 43x59cm.
Painted all day without getting anywhere near what I was looking for or how I was feeling. Made numerous attempts ranging from the figurative to the pure imaginative but always felt let down. My inspiration finally came as I surveyed the garden with many of my perenials at their end and looking well past the time when I should cut them to the ground. These Shatas in particular are long past their best and desperately need to be cut down, but something about them has prvented me from doing this. The dark reddish brown seed heads teetering on the end of long stems against a dark background look the epitome of autumn in preparation of winter. This gets to my core today. This says how I feel.

Windsurfing

Oils on paper, 30x25cm. Took a trip down to the coast at Troon on Saturday, got out my little fold-away chair, and sat for an hour or so sketching these guys fly up and down the surf with these fantastic kites that pulled them along at great speed on their surfboards. The boards have two loops which they stick their feet through to hold on and they skite across the waves sometimes flying up 5metres into the air. On occassions they land flat back on the water and carry on, but mostly they crash into the sea and have to start again. These guys are hardy because, although it is a bright warm sunny day the water is absolutely freezing! Just as well they have these black all-in-one thermal suits on otherwise they would be like blocks of ice in no time!
In this little painting I was trying to capture the fleeting movements of the kite as it whooshes past, and maybe a little of the thrill these blokes obviously get and my enjoyment of the action. I've made this surfer very cavalier by holding the ropes with only one hand and waving to the onlookers to show just how cool he is!
I could do that (if I wasn't such a wimp when it comes to activities on, and in, the icy waters!!!).

Salsa Night

Acrylics on paper, 59x43cm.
This came from an amalgum of two pencil sketches I made whilst at an introductory salsa dance night many years ago. Nothing came of it that time probably because we were still thinking in terms of Cha Cha Cha, Rhumba, and other Latin American, along with Modern Ballroom of our regular dance club which all have a very different basis of rythm and movement. But that was then, and this is now. The dance club we went to at that time has long since disbanded but we still need to get out of an evening and shake those hips and move those feet. Salsa is the only dance class currently available to us in EK so two weeks ago we went along to see how it would be and where it would take us. Although the music is not 100% to my liking it is still fun to dance and I'm glad to say we enjoyed it very much! So this sketchy painting came with the beat and the action still in my head demanding to be put down on paper for me to relive the enjoyment of the night and what better place to turn to than my sketchbook for inspiration.