Went on a one-day course run by Tim Benson on portrait painting in oils at The Mall Gallery. Just loved his approach – 6 colours max. and one brush only…. as big as the canvas allows. Magic, just my kind of painting. Thoroughly enjoyed it and the return to oils. Tim quickly picked up on my painful lack of confidence and somehow forced me admit that what I had achieved was actually half good. He was so encouraging and his instructions, comments got straight to the point each time.
It was a deliberately challenging pose as you can see. But made me want to do more portraits. Then to my delight after I’d reTweeted one of Tim’s paintings he now follows me on Twitter. Me and 7000 others ! But Hey …..never mind.
My exhibition at The Freudian Sheep was launched yesterday. There were some interesting conversations which I enjoyed and found quite illuminating and validating. The work which seemed to resonate with most visitors was one which I had dashed off almost without conscious effort. However, it probably carried the most intense thought and relevance to the project. The emotional pull of the landscape. It was called Stanley’s Walk. I had tried to reflect and remember the sight of Stanley and my Dad, both in their late 80’s ambling across the Water Meadows against the wind, both wearing trilby hats and leaning on their walking sticks. They were gentle, intelligent souls determined not to give in to the struggles of growing old. They loved the water meadows. Dad delighted in Stanley’s tales of an entire life spent in Sudbury unlike his life, encompassing various UK moves plus three years in Africa, which must have similarly interested Stanley. I completed the small painting within about 20 minutes feeling slightly guilty that it had taken such a short time. Maybe that was why it succeeded? My feelings and thoughts had been crystallised within the quick brushstrokes. If I had added more to it perhaps I would have lost the meaning and it would have become diminished and soul less
Very excited about my exhibition at The Freudian Sheep which opens on Saturday 8th August and runs until 29th Aug. I’ve called it Landscape of Life Don’t remember spending such sustained time on one subject before. It was a good experience. Every painting developed it’s own back story. Learnt so much too, in the process both technically and about myself. The Sudbury Water Meadows, have become part of who I am. Having moved house and location so many times throughout my life, I don’t have a sense of ‘home’ but found that this place is as near as I’ll ever get to it.
This image is cropped from one of the paintings on the MA module on Landscape. The idea is to relate landscape to biography, emotions, life events. There’s good relevant evidence for this. Just as many authors subconsciously or intentionally rely heavily on biographic details , so artists embed facets of their own psyche into their work. I’ve enjoyed working on this theme and the frequent visits to The Water Meadows. The atmosphere of the place encompasses elements of things I’m trying to portray.
I’m now looking forward to the exhibition in August where I’m showing the results at The Freudian Sheep Gallery which promotes emerging artists and despite my age, I feel that I am at last , emerging. I’m starting to realise that I’ve always been an artist and that a lifetime of ‘doing art’ is only now joyfully coming to fruition. I want another 10 years at least to achieve my dreams.
Well it’s the last day of Suffolk Open Studios. A mixed experience. It forced me to be organised at least and tidy the studio space and gave me an opportunity to hang all my recent work on the walls in one go. This enabled me to see what has worked and what hasn’t. So quite useful. It’s also been lovely to meet like-minded people and friends who’ve kindly come to support my efforts. This is the image most people liked most. Interesting as this is the one my tutors at UCS also liked. An indication of where I ought to be heading perhaps ?
