Category: My Paintings

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Get Drastic, Not Desperate (in order to rescue a painting)

I’ve had quite a few rounds with a second version of Listening to Earthworms over the last few days — layering, glazing, blocking out with opaque, wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry — but never getting it working satisfactorily enough. Looking at it today I reminded myself: if it’s not working, don’t tweak but do something drastic. So I took a colour I don’t usually use, black, and ended up with a painting I like.

The change from the beginning to end of today’s session with this painting is shown in the two photos below. I used Golden’s High Flow acrylic, letting it run and encouraging it to spread by spraying water on it. Previous layers had some flow medium in it, which helps fluid paint spread too. Colours: carbon black, titanium white, quinacridone gold and a grey I’d mixed. Scroll down for four detail photos and one showing the texture in the bottom half of the painting, the first two slightly larger than life. I’ve called it “Rooted“.

Rooted painting
Before and After. Numbers relate to the detail photos below.

mbe-detail-rooted

Texture in a painting
Detail showing texture
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Painting in Progress: Listening to Earthworms I

This possibly the most abstract of my paintings since Seeing Red. It came out of the pondering of my tree paintings I’ve been doing, and a title that popped into my head: “Listening to Earthworms”. It’s now at the leave-it-alone-for-a-while-and-don’t-fiddle-with-it stage. I’ve got another canvas out to pursue some of the ideas that doing this has generated (such as silver birch tree trunks rather than oak browns, stronger contrasts between light and dark in the band of trees, more muted colour overall).

Painting in Progress: Listening to Earthworms I
76x76cm. Work in progress.
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3 Forest Studies using Quinacridone Gold

The starting point for these three studies was quinacridone gold, a transparent pigment. Spread thinly over white it’s got a rich inner glow. Used thickly it’s surprisingly dark, and mixed with titanium white you’ve got an opaque earthy-red gold. It’s been a while since I’ve used it, and wanted to get familiar with it again. Other colours I used include perelyne black, magenta, ultramarine blue, and burnt umber. Here are the studies side by side for easy comparison:

Forest Study in Quinacridone Gold Forest Study in Quinacridone Gold II by Scottish Artist Marion Boddy-Evans Forest Study in Quinacridone Gold by Skye-based Artist Marion Boddy-Evans
Forest Study in Quinacridone Gold
Letting the quinacridone gold do its thing. Working wet-on-wet using the edge of a palette knife to add dark and lights for tree trunks. Scratching into the paint for light lines. Only a little blue added as a top layer for sky at the top,
Forest Study in Quinacridone Gold II by Scottish Artist Marion Boddy-Evans
More blue in the sky, and redder browns at base, creating more of a band in the centre where the quinacridone gold dominates..
Forest Study in Quinacridone Gold by Skye-based Artist Marion Boddy-Evans
Encouraging the sky blue to run down by spraying on some water, increasing the white in the tree trunks. I think there’s a greater sense of depth in the golden glow, as if there’s a low sun shining through a woodland you can’t see through.
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3 Minch Studies

These three small studies of the colours of the Minch, looking cross towards Harris, were done on 300gsm rough watercolour paper, three sheets placed alongside one another on a large board on my easel. The differences between them aren’t dramatic, but rather they’re studies focusing on the effect of small things, changes made after the initial laying in of colours of possibilities I want to consider. Here they are side by side for easy comparison:

Minch Study, from Skye to Harris I, by Skye-based Artist Marion Boddy-Evans Minch Study, from Skye to Harris II, by Scottish Artist Marion Boddy-Evans Minch Study, from Skye to Harris III, by Scottish Artist Marion Boddy-Evans

I don’t have a favourite overall, there are pieces from each I will use in a larger painting at some point.

Minch Study, from Skye to Harris I, by Skye-based Artist Marion Boddy-Evans
Using the long edge of a palette knife to spread and mix still-wet sections of separate colour in the sea, with the thought that it could convey a sense of a moving swell. Sea gets darker overall into the distance.
Minch Study, from Skye to Harris II, by Scottish Artist Marion Boddy-Evans
Light blue on the horizon line and additional light blues over the dark blue sea in the distance. I think the light horizon line could’ve been thinner, or possibly an even-lighter line added. I feel the lighter blues in the distant sea enhance the feeling of depth.
Minch Study, from Skye to Harris III, by Scottish Artist Marion Boddy-Evans
Very dark horizon line, with blues gradually getting lighter towards the foreground. Knife-spread swells in the distance. Softer edges on the tops of the hills of Harris, suggesting moving clouds.
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Sold: Listening to Leaves Falling

The sale of “Listening to Leaves Falling” at Skyeworks to a family from Germany means I’ve only one large forest painting at the moment: Wodeland. (No, that’s not a typo, it’s related to the painting being dominated by blue.) Definitely time to translate another of various woodland images bouncing around my mind onto canvas and to finish Tartan trees. Maybe start with the latter so it’ll be ready for the Lochalsh Art Fair towards the end of August.

Listening to Leaves Falling forest painting Scotland
Listening to Leaves Falling
100x100cm
Acrylic on canvas
Sold
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Additions to My Painted Flock

My flock of little paintings at Skyeworks Gallery has grown a bit, with a few new sheep (this time with reds), plus a Highland cow and, because it’s been so hot, a shady tree (albeit in autumnal colours, shedding leaves).

Sizes: 5×5″ or 5×7″. Price: ?35. International shipping is about ?15. Contact Skyeworks Gallery by email skyeworksgallery@gmail.com, on Facebook or phone.

Small Paintings at Skyeworks Gallery Isle of Skye

Small Paintings at Skyeworks Gallery Isle of Skye
Small Paintings at Skyeworks Gallery Isle of Skye

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Painting in Progress: Grazing the Loch (Part 2)

So, at the end of another day’s painting, this is how Grazing the Loch looks (this was it yesterday). The weather’s got a bit windier, creating white horses on the sea and blowing in a bit of mist. Some daisies have also popped up in the grass. You can’t see it in the photos, but the cliff edge in the distance has some iridescent silver and gold on it, part of an underlayer; it shows if there’s side light. It’s now at the “Am I there yet?” stage, where I ponder it.

Work-in-Progress: Grazing the Loch Shore. Size: 120x60cm
Work-in-Progress: Grazing the Loch Shore.
Size: 120x60cm

Detail: Grazing the Loch Shore sheep painting

Detail: Grazing the Loch Shore sheep painting

Update: I showed it to the couple who commissioned it, and they love it. So now just to tidy up the edges and varnish it.

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Painting in Progress: Grazing the Loch

I’m waiting for the paint to dry on this before I have another round with it. My fingers are itching to fix the all-to-neat alignment of the shoreline and sheep heads, but first the paint needs to dry. I also need to decide whether to add a cloud in the sky to cast the shadow on the distant hilltop, or lighten it. Plus all the other additions, tweaks, adjustments, not-yet-put-in-ideas bouncing around my head. And deciding whether it’ll have daisies or buttercups in the foreground. Perhaps a few poppies for a splash of red? Are we there yet? Is it dry yet…?

Work-in-Progress: Grazing the Loch Shore
Work-in-Progress: Grazing the Loch Shore.
Size: 120x60cm
Commissioned painting

• Part 2: Are We There Yet?

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Two Mini Minches

I’ve been painting on a small scale again, on 7×5″ canvas (about 18x12cm). These two “mini Minch” seascapes are a memory of some of the wild weather I’ve watched blow across the view, where white horses churn up deep Prussian blue. Available from Skyeworks Gallery, ?35 each.

2 Mini Minch Paintings