Coastal Series 1

Coastal Series 1

Acrylic 91 x 80cm

This imaginary painting was on the go before I started my rock pool series , it actually initiated my close-up rock pool paintings. The painting consists of many layers, some were retained and some obliterated.
I have been trying to get the feel of looking over the rocks and pools, towards the sea in the early morning light. The painting symbolizes new beginnings.

Below I have shown stage 1 and 2 of my painting process.

Tiny Abstract

This tiny painting measures 8 x 8cm! I created this for a communal project, one of about 16 that will be framed together. I used watercolour, acrylic ink and thin tissue paper collage. I have never tried to create such a small abstract painting before, it has been a real challenge!

Rock Pool 1

Rock Pool 1
Acrylic 90 x 60 cm

The sea and the coastline become deep-rooted in one's psyche when living on a peninsula at the tip of Africa. The Atlantic and Indian oceans merge along our southern coastline, when we look south, there is nothing but sea between here and Antarctica.

I love to spend time gazing into rock pools, there is a whole microcosm of life being played out before me. The sounds and smells of the sea, the brilliant colours and shapes of the stones, shells and shell-fish with tiny fish darting about appeals to all my senses. I was struck one day, looking down, directly into the pool, by the amazing abstract-like quality of the shapes and colours and I have tried to recreate this in my painting.

Arum

Arum
Acrylic 45 x 120cm

Arum lilies grow wild in profusion here in the Western Cape during the later part of the winter. I love the winter here in Cape Town and this Arum seems to represent this special time of the year.
I mixed up some muted grays and browns, not having any subject in mind, I just played with the paint using large brushes. I am fascinated how the shades of paint mix on the canvas - I wet the canvas with medium and painted into this wet surface. Over the weeks that this painting lived in my studio, an Arum lily poked its head out and then the leaves appeared.

This is my first posting after a long break. I sometimes need to go "into" myself where my thoughts need to be consolidated. I have been trying to analyze how I can sometimes create powerfully emotive images and at other times I feel as if I am in a creative vacuum, unable to paint. I have come to realize that when I am fired up with feeling, I can paint in an emotive way, but when I am bumbling happily along, my muse dries up! The trouble is, who wants to live on an emotional roller-coaster? No wonder some artists turn to drink or drugs! I have been trying to find my own way of accessing my quieter inner self over these last few months.

Garden Roses

Garden Roses
Acrylic 49 x 59cm

This is one of the demonstration paintings that I started in my acrylic workshop and then completed in my studio. I had picked a few roses from my garden and placed them in a vase, but this is really painted from my imagination and memory.

The painting surface is a piece of 100% cotton seed-cloth. I cover a board with a thin piece of plastic so that the painting does not stick to the board. I then wrap the cloth around a board and prime it with two coats of gesso and a coat of acrylic medium. I love to work on a hard surface, so I can scratch and scrub into the paint, without worrying about denting the canvas. I sometimes work with liquid paint and this can pool on a stretched canvas. I have now carefully remove it from the board and will have it stretched on a stretcher.

Dance 3

Dance 3, Mixed Media

30 x 25cm

I have quite a few small canvasses stacked away in my studio, I usually find them too small to work on and so they remain in the back of my cupboard. I love to play with watercolour and collage but I dislike having to put the image behind glass. I decided to experiment with watercolour on the blank canvas, wondering if the pigment would just sink into the canvas and dry very pale. I used tissue paper to collage some shapes on which to play and this dancer seemed to appear, she has very fat legs! I left some of the watercolour and painted over some of the areas with acrylic and then sealed the image with a coat of diluted soft gel. I now wish I had worked on a larger canvas, maybe I will use this painting as a spring-board for a larger image.

The Surge

The Surge

92cm x 92cm

Acrylic

This is an imaginary landscape that has been painted in many thick and thin layers of acrylic. I love to put down an opaque layer and then glaze over it with medium tinted slightly with colour. I then tend to destroy some of this with a new opaque and tint layer. This painting has taken months to complete!

I am fascinated by water, its movement, its sheer power and the amazing colours that are reflected as the light passes through the tumbling mass of frothy liquid.

Hello!

I started painting again two weeks ago! I am still very involved with Iain's rehabilitation which could take another few months. I am quite an early bird and used to read when getting up early. I am now painting at 6am and can spend a few hours in my studio before seeing to other commitments at 9am. This is a magical way to start the day! I feel such a connection with my paint and do my best painting at that time. I don't know why it has taken me so long to discover this! I feel as the day progresses, I still try to paint in between other chores, but struggle to get my mind back into that wonderful "space".

Acrylic 92 x 61cm

This painting was hanging on my wall unfinished, in mostly reds and blacks. I completely oblitereated the painting with white and purple and a bird of prey emerged. I see a series emerging! I seem to have a need to paint about feelings of freedom and power.

African Vineyards

Cape Town is surrounded by vineyards. I love the vine, the way it grows all crooked and gnarled with leaves that turn to a reddish-orange profusion of colour in autumn. While living in the Northern Hemisphere in 2006 and 2007, I used to dream of the vineyards when thinking about Cape Town, they seem to embody and symbolise how I feel about the Cape.

This is one of the “Red paintings” I have been working on. Our vineyards are usually planted on the side of a hill, facing towards the south-easterly wind. We are experiencing days of extremely hot, humid weather and this has influenced me to paint this landscape in these hot colours.

Vineyards at Groot Constantia

A vine in winter devoid of leaves

Deadlines!

Brooke, me and one of my paintings!

I have just returned from the UK after spending 7 days with my granddaughter, daughter and husband. I so enjoyed getting to know Brooke and felt quite a jolt when her little face lit up whenever I walked into the room. I spent as much time feeding, changing, cuddling, entertaining and playing with this sweet little girl without completely taking over! Ohhhh, it is so tough to be living half way across the world!

On my return, I realised the clock is ticking, my next show is in seven days and three paintings are waiting to be finished. I hate deadlines, I am painting like mad and will probably not finish these paintings in time. This is not how I like to paint. These paintings have been on the go for the last three months and still have a distance to go.

It got me thinking about how some situations like this can cut off the connection with creativity.

How often do we think as we view our canvas or paper, armed with a loaded brush,
“Hopefully this will be my masterpiece”?

This thought can destroy the essence of creativity and has to be left at the doorway of the studio if one wants to be experimental in any way. If you have the thought that this painting has to work, you have spent good money on this canvas and you need a good painting for the next show, you are not going to take any risks and try out something new.

It’s almost as if you need to give yourself permission to spend your very valuable painting time just playing with the paint. I think of the days spent painting those layers of paint that are now mostly obliterated with subsequent layers, a little voice niggles away at me,
“Am I wasting my time and paint here?”

The one thing I have to keep telling myself is that eventually the painting will feel complete. I have to develop patience and allow the image to emerge and forget the deadlines!

Freedom

Freedom

Acrylic, 122 x 88 cm

This painting was originally posted under the name “flight”. I have been working on this canvas on and off for the last few months, I have even hung it at a recent exhibition and then worked on it again after the show. Do you ever do this?

I have turned the canvas horizontally, it looks better this way. My eagle represents strength and determination. She has the ability to move freely from one dimension to another, to soar above mundane daily life with absolute freedom.

I love to turn my paintings around and hang them up for a while in this new view of the work, it is like having four different paintings! Contemplating my paintings in progress plays an enormous part of my painting process, I spend ages looking at them in order for the paintings to direct me and tell me where to go next. I usually work on three or four at a time and so my studio can become very cramped with canvasses standing about. I dream of having a studio the size of a church hall!

In order to hang them all up without banging a million nails into the wall, we put up picture rails in my small studio and have hung chains from which I can hang the paintings. I screw a nail into the middle of each stretcher bar and then tie a loop of string so I can hook up the painting in whichever way I fancy. I can move these chains according to the size of the paintings and can hang two or more on the same chain.

What do you do with your paintings while working on them?

A Chance Encounter with a Stranger

Detail from a Chagall etching

Don’t you wish that life could always potter along on an even keel? Sometimes events descend on us that can really knock us sideways, just like a kick in the stomach. You can suddenly feel you are on a roller coaster that dips you into the depths of despair.

All of us go through times like these. As time passes, the ups and downs may become less pronounced and we may hit a plateau where we may float along with a welcome bit of peace and tranquillity.

A few years ago, during one such extraordinarily distressing time, I was on sales duty at a local exhibition. I had also been feeling dissatisfied with my paintings, they seemed to say very little about how I felt and who I am. Deep inside me I had questions about where my art was taking me.

An elderly man came in with his hiking boots and old gnarled stick. This exhibition hall is on the side of the mountain and we frequently get hikers stopping by. He spent ages, carefully looking at each painting. He called me over and said,
“These artists are very proficient in what they do, their technique is excellent but there doesn’t seem to be much soul in many of the paintings.”
I was immediately intrigued and questioned him further. He said,

“Artists are usually quite sensitive people and everyday life can be turbulent, life is a journey, it can be a difficult journey. An artist should use the power of that turbulence in their paintings. I am not saying they should paint dark and negative paintings, I am saying they should somehow portray the difficulties of life and how those difficulties have been overcome”.

I am trying to remember is his exact words, they were so relevant to me, they almost took my breath away.

We spoke for about 45 minutes – he spoke to my very soul without probably realizing it, he came and told me where I could go with my paintings and also a little bit about healing my soul. As he was about to leave, I asked him his name. He smiled in a gentle way and said, “Virgil” and went on his way.

I felt that I had been visited by some sort of vision. This dear, sweet man set me thinking about a new direction, a new path on which to travel.

Painting on Black Gesso

I decided to work on three different shaped canvases, a rectangle, a square and a long skinny one (since I had these in stock). A pot of black gesso has been sitting in my cupboard just looking at me – I bought it ages ago but have never used it. (Do you have a cupboard full of stuff you haven’t used?) I decided to experiment with applying a black coat to most of the canvas, leaving some white shapes to play around with. I see Mary Ann of Blue Sky Dreaming is also working with black gesso at the moment! I then applied a transparent glaze of Alizarine Crimson and Quinacridone Gold over the white areas and really loved how the shapes hung softly in the darkness. I wanted to see if I applied white acrylic ink, spraying with water to loose the hard edges, I might be able to get a similar effect.
When I looked at the three works, I became a little uneasy about what was appearing, the strong darks with the reds stirred up strange feelings in me, they were disturbing! I wanted to cover the paintings with white and yellow. (Every time I turn on the TV, there are dire warnings of a global economic meltdown and I am worried about the implications for various members of my family – I think I am painting these fears).

I get to a mid point in the painting, when I become impatient and I have to tell myself, “Don’t rush it, take your time, let it evolve”. I can have days when I become quite frustrated with what I have done, the paintings don’t look as if they have moved on at all. The next day, the paintings may evolve and I can perhaps see where they are leading me.

The painting at the top of my posting was about the doorways that open up to us, (in landscape mode) but I prefer it turned upright – the genetic connection theme has appeared again. We have a really nasty genetic thing in my family of which I am a carrier – this keeps coming out in my paintings. I don't have photo's of this one at the beginning, only of the square one that still needs a bit of work, so will post it next week. I still have to do a few clear glazes and might paint some more, so this painting might change again!

New Beginnings

With the coming of a new year, thoughts of new beginnings start bubbling, just under the surface.
I often feel just like these baby doves when contemplating a new pristine canvas. These two babies sat on the edge of their nest in our garden for two days before taking off into the great unknown.

Taking that first step using an intuitive painting process is a bit like taking that same giant leap. I have no idea how my completed painting will look, I just have to begin and get swept along in the process.

Where do you start if you are an intuitive or abstract painter? Where do the ideas come from? Shaun McNiff, in “Trust the Process” describes creation as a process of emanation,

“Nothing will happen unless we start working and allow the practices of our particular discipline to mix with streams of ideas and experiences that are constantly moving through daily life”.

I want to put this sentence up in my studio to remind me that I just have to start painting and something will come of it.

I find that I need to get into a certain frame of mind in order to paint. I have a little ritual of going into my studio and pottering about, sometimes reorganising my paints and brushes, filling up my various water containers and putting on my relaxation music to block out extraneous noise. This type of music tends to put me in a meditative frame of mind. I have a collection of this “New Age” music from my midwifery days, when I ran antenatal classes. I used this music to teach the prospective mums relaxation and visualization techniques.

I like to warm up, painting on something that is already in progress rather than going straight to the blank canvas, so I tend to have a few paintings on the go at various stages of completion. Paint that I am using on one painting is usually used to create those first brush-strokes on the new canvas.

I am really interested to hear what you do to get yourself in a creative frame of mind.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and a wonderfully creative 2009.

Vine Leaves

I added a few more washes and turned my vine painting on its side. I quite like the contrasting effect of watercolour with the oil bars.

An important aspect of intuitive painting is the ability to tap into your subconscious mind, bring information to the surface and be able to use it in a creative way. I have read that dreams are a window to this area of the mind. I have great difficulty remembering my dreams if I don’t try and consciously bring them to the surface as soon as I wake up. Intuitive painting is all about revealing yourself absolutely, honestly, warts and all. This way of working gives you transparency and coming to terms with this gives you incredible freedom. “This is me”, like me or not and these are my paintings which you may like or not.
I great way to tap into the subconscious, is to make a, “Life collage”. A few years ago, while attending Margie Johnson’s watercolour lessons, she had us make this type of collage. She had laid out a pile of magazines, put on a lovely classical piece of music and asked us to spend 10 minutes tearing out images. We had to empty our minds and not think about what we were doing, not showing any preferences for the images. We then took a large piece of paper and had to paste down the torn pieces quickly, without any thoughts of composition or preference. All the collages were put up on the wall and we were asked to really look at our own piece for five minutes and then make a few comments to the group. My collage absolutely astounded me! I had created this without conscious thought. I couldn’t believe how much of myself was revealed there, it was really scary!
Every torn piece of magazine held a huge amount of relevance for me. It is a great resource for ideas for future paintings.

I love these kind of creative exercises! Do any of you have any good ones to share?

Lost in Translation

My dear friend, Kim, asked if I ever use photos as a memory aid after a painting session outdoors. I used to do this when I first started Plein Air painting, but found I often mucked the whole thing up in the process! I find that when a painting is in its final stages, it needs me to do the problem-solving thing – I stare at it for ages, from quite a distance and in different lights (dawn light is great) and I allow the painting to speak to me. Ideas of contrasting light and dark, warm and cool, hard and soft edges come to me and I go with them and complete the painting in this way.

I find painting outdoors a most meditative and healing practice. It so fits in with my need to paint intuitively. We find calm and peaceful locations, where all the worries and anxieties of the world seem to slip away for a few hours. There is a feeling, an atmosphere about a real location that is “Lost in translation” when using a photograph. I just breathe in the visual, auditory and sensory stimuli of the location and then I am thrown into the process, trying to visualize that feeling on the canvas or paper. Since I made the transition from rendering a purely figurative image to allowing the senses free expression, I feel this amazing sense of freedom.

Kim asked about dust and dirt adhering to the canvas, when acrylics outdoors. I quite enjoy texture and so am quite happy to add a bit of sand and grass to the mix! It gives the painting a sense of authenticity, a little bit of the location forever locked into the painting! You have to wait to do those lovely clear glazes back in your studio, Kim!

On Monday, I sat under a canopy of vine leaves swaying in the breeze, with the light shining through the leaves, making them translucent. I left with an unfinished watercolour, due to the antics of the baboons. In my studio, I decided to try out some of my newly acquired oil bars on the painting, thinking it is such fun just to experiment and see what happens. The contrast between the watercolour and oil bar is intense, highlighting the transparency of the watercolour. I might continue and add another wash to the piece.

Our dear friend Suki recently lost her mother and I would like her to know that even though some of us live very far away, we are thinking about her and are there for her on the www.

Legacy

I few years ago, I attended two workshops conducted by a well-known South African artist, Judith Mason. Our project for the second workshop was to create an oil painting, called legacy. Our painting had to show something about our lives at the time, so that our grandchildren may in years to come, have a glimpse into the year 2004.
Initially I placed a large tree with huge roots predominantly in the painting. My newly deceased dog also was centrally placed, with images of my significant others being reflected in shards of a broken mirror. This painting is about the changes that occurred in my life at the time of the workshop. Both my children decided to live permanently in the UK, my lovable, faithful dog died and we moved out of our large family home into something more suitable for two people. On the fourth day of the workshop, I became so choked up with emotion, I couldn’t complete the painting. Looking back, I was not used to painting such emotive subjects; I painted boring landscapes and still life’s that were devoid of any special meaning to me. I wanted to destroy the painting, but couldn’t throw away the images of my loved ones so I merely cut that part of the painting from the stretcher and kept the piece of canvas in the cupboard of my studio.
Recently, I have taken a more intuitive and personal approach to my painting. I retrieved what was left of the painting and decided to complete it. I moved the image of my dog to the right side with him looking over us as he always did. I painted a self-portrait in the centre shard, since this painting is really about me; and painted an image of our family home over the roots of the existing tree. The sky above the house turns from sunny to menacing, shards of a broken mirror fall to the left of me, completing the circular composition. It is strange to try and remember how I felt at that time and how my life is so different now. It has been extremely therapeutic completing this painting!

A Painting Sold!

Let the Winds of the Heavens Dance between You

I am so thrilled! I sold my Kahlil Gibran painting at the Kirstenbosch exhibition to a lady from Finland! This was one of the paintings that was rejected at a recent selection day - I have dabbed on it since, I added a shawl on the woman's shoulder, which makes a strong triangular shape and played down the face of her partner. I had varnished the painting and had to go out and buy a varnish remover so I could make some changes!

Exhibition at Kirstenbosch

I am participating in a group exhibition at a gallery in our National Botanical Gardens. The thatched exhibition hall is well lit and can fit about 220 paintings.

This photo is a view of the gallery with the back of Table Mountain behind.
We spent the whole of Friday hanging the paintings, each artist gets a space where he/she hangs their own paintings and then we hang a mixture of everyone’s work in the front veranda of the hall. There is always a wonderful buzz and a sense of expectation on the hanging day. The artists all come out of the woodwork and we have quite a social day together.

At midday on Saturday, we held an Opening party, with a good deal of food and drink. My family and friends are great supporters of mine and always enjoy the day. My anxiety levels were sky-high before the Opening, when will I ever get used to this? I think it relates to my putting up new experimental work. I have moved away from painting what might sell, I now try to paint just for myself. When you hang paintings up for a public viewing, you can’t help but wonder what people are going to think, you are bareing your very soul. My poor elderly parents look quite bemused at what I am producing, they think I have a screw loose! My work looked very different from all the other paintings; I am used to blending in and being one of the crowd. They kind of stand out; this is incredibly scary, a bit like running around in your underwear in public!

Me with my 80-year-old Dad at the opening!

Creativity and Self-discipline

You must be wondering how I can link the above two concepts? I have found that if I am to live my life creatively, I have to have some sort of self-discipline. In order to work on my creative projects every day, I have to organise my time and show up in the studio, even if I am not feeling particularly creative.
Although I love painting with a passion, I can be very easily distracted, since having no immediate boss to take note of how much time I spend at the coal-face, a million other things can come between me and my work.
I need to plan my day carefully if I am to get a good bit of painting done. The other distractions come from phone-calls with friends and a husband who also works from home and is a great one for taking a break and having chats over regular cups of tea.

Below are two interesting quotes:-

“Self-discipline without talent can often achieve astounding results, whereas talent without self-discipline inevitably dooms itself to failure”.
Sydney Harris (newspaper columnist)

“I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent. Curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance combined with self criticism have brought me my ideas”.
Albert Einstein

I am participating in an exhibition at Kirstenbosch, our National Botanical Gardens, from Saturday for a week, so wish me luck!
Due to the current economic climate, I am not sure if the sales will be any good. A painting is a luxury purchase and everyone is being careful in these uncertain times.

I have a lovely new concept for my art journal, I now print out all the wonderful comments left on my blog and paste them in my journal next to the relevant entry.