Three of my large paintings — a landscape, a seascape, and a sheepscape — are now available at Skyeworks Gallery in Portree. Pop upstairs and you’ll see them.
A Landscape, a Seascape & a Sheepscape
What Photos Don’t Show Us About a Painting
Which of these four photos shows ‘the truth’ of this painting?
Top left: Taken in my studio out of direct light (most of my photos are taken like this).
Top right: Photo edited with ‘auto-adjust’ (subtle differences).
Bottom left: Taken in my studio in direct sunlight.
Bottom right: Taken in my studio with part of it in direct sunlight through the window
I think they’re all ‘true’ because what you see in a painting depends on the light. The more light there is, the more you’ll see down through the layers of colour; the less light there is, the less you see. That’s one of the joys of an original painting, what you see does change as the light changes through the day. One photo simply can’t convey it all.
My Little Secret About Painting Ram Horns
I’ve had a few comments from February’s project participants about not being able to paint horns like I do. Let me let you into a little secret: in my studio I have a pencil drawing of a horn the in-house art critic did for me several years ago as a ‘cheatsheet’ for the shading because I kept getting myself muddled and stressed.
It’s a bit cryptic, reduced to four elements — outline line, white highlight, shaded shadow, and twisted-form zigzag . It reminds me of the essentials, without the distraction of colour, pattern, or ridges, or position of ears. It’s been in the corner, within view though not consciously seen every day. Encouragement and reassurance, a reminder and incentive. It’s taken me ages to feel I can do horns to a level that consistently pleases me, but I feel I’ve got there now, probably.
If you scroll through my sheep paintings you’ll see how horns pop up now and again, but not often. That’s changed over the last few months, even going to this extreme:
Just Off My Easel: “Two’s Company”
The in-house art critic said “Three” was a tad cryptic for a painting title, so “Two’s Company” it is.
A couple of detail photos to give a sense of the layers and mark-making:
New Sheep Painting: TLC (Tractor, Lamb, Collie)
Whilst sitting in my studio sharing his thoughts on my new sheep painting and other works-in-progress, the in-house art critic came up with the title: TLC (Tractor, Lamb and Collie).
When I started, there wasn’t a tractor in the composition (though it has appeared in a couple of other recent paintings). But at a certain point it drove into this painting-in-progress.
And then, because the crofter of the red tractor needed somewhere to go for lunch, a crofthouse appeared.
And because she’s a multi-tasker, there’s laundry on the line too.
Move the Moon or the Reflection?
I tried painting my way through a Category Four headache today, but looking at the results I definitely lost the plot. That moon is not sitting on top of its reflection. Oops.
Here’s a photo showing today’s starting and ending points:
So do I move the reflection (by repainting sea blues) or move the Moon (which will entail repainting the sky as it’s layered colour not solid)? Or, as the in-house critic’s suggested, enlarge the Moon to the left (which means just repainting the Moon).
On My Easel: The Two Sheep Without a Name
Strictly speaking, just off my easel rather than still on, lying on a shelf to dry out of “I’ll just tweak it” reach, is this new sheep painting that still needs a title. Any suggestions? (It’s 70x60cm in case you’re wondering.)
Here it is as it was when I downed brushes yesterday, along with another work-in-progress that’s texture-paste sheep added to a seascape that had gone awry and needed a drastic change (I put them together like this so I would see both on re-entering my studio):
And here it is when the first round was finished, with fluid paint running down still-wet texture paste.
Apologies, there are no other in-between photos as I forgot to take any! Needless to say, there were several layers of paint between the start and finish.
Sheep (Paintings) Herded South
A flock of my small sheep paintings and I are headed south for the weekend, to the SECC in Glasgow for the Country Living Christmas Fair (Thursday to Saturday). The painting that would have filled the row top right the in-house art critic liked so much it’s staying in my studio for now, and two festive red backgrounds have gone to Skyeworks. Which is your favourite?
Three other little ones, on A5 sized boards rather than canvas, are on their way to Patchings Art Centre near Nottingham for another festive exhibition. (My camera has blown out the colours somewhat, unfortunately) These were mostly done with acrylic inks, which on the absorbent boards gave watercolour-like results. I had great trouble stopping, not doing yet another little tweak on a cloud. Ultimately the need to get them in the post was what stopped me.
FREE TICKETS: I have 30 free tickets to give away for the Country Living Christmas Fair in Glasgow at the weekend. I haven’t checked how many are still left, but head to the online ticket office and try the promo code CLGLA012.
On My Easel & Just Off It
Waiting for it to get light enough to go into my studio (which has natural light only) I resized some progress photos of a sheep painting I’m working on and put them together in this animated sequence . The in-house art critic says it’s got a “Van Gogh Moon”; my thought is “Van Gogh-twisted tartan sky”. Quite where it will end up I don’t know yet, but I suspect not too far off where it is at the moment. First thing I’ll do is re-establish the faces, then decide where or what or if.
Fresh off my easel is the “Passing Places” painting below, which is rather more serene .
And, no, there’s no intended symbolism between the two paintings about the emotional turmoil large family gatherings that tend to occur in this part of the year can bring.
Changing Pace to Beat Creative Tiredness (or “painting little sheep again”)
Someone asking “how long did that take to paint?” often leads me into talking about contemplation time, when I’m not actively standing brush in hand but am thinking about a painting. Both require “brain-space”, being able to focus without too many stray thoughts jabbing in. It also requires freshness, space to breathe (metaphorically and literally). It can become mind-numbing if you forget to include “excitement” and “challenge” in the ingredients. You think you’re doing it to the same standard but more likely there’s a little slippage each time until you’re a self-disappointing distance from where you think you are.
I see it in my small sheep paintings, the ones I try to paint when I “need” more flock members compared to the ones when I “want” more flock members. They end up sitting about in a huddle on a shelf until I feel my fingers itch to paint little sheep again because then they’ll be that measure of “better” that satisfies me. That’s why, at times, my flock of little sheep paintings becomes quite small (this photo was taken of what’s at Skyeworks Gallery on Monday):
Over the spring/summer I painted a handful with a full moon (and that idea came from a commission for a large painting that was to include the moon). I enjoyed working dark-to-light and will probably do some more (perhaps Harvest Moon, given the time of year):
The last little sheep to come off my easel was about three weeks ago and will feature on this year’s Christmas card (no, you can’t see a photo yet) and the one waiting patiently that’s the closest to being finished has got glitter on it (just because I felt like it), not that you can really see it in the photo.
I’m heading into my studio this morning feeling like painting little sheep again. But last week I was in Edinburgh painting figures on one of Alan McGowan‘s workshops. No drippy paint, no splashes, all controlled layers and glazes. A creative break, recharge, boost, shift of gears and all those other mantras. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, learnt new things and re-established other knowledge, and now have headspace and the desire to paint some new little flock members. A change of pace back to something familiar, but now different again because I’ve had a break.
PS: The last time I did one of Alan’s inspiring workshops, it resulted in a tree painting dominated by ultramarine, a colour I almost never use. See North Shore.