Night Paintings

Partly inspired by Roger Hilton and his Night Letters, I have started a new sketchbook of night paintings as a way of getting some of the thoughts that go through my head late at night, down on paper. I have set up my watercolours and sketchbook next to my bed and doing small paintings before I go to sleep. At the moment they seem to be just abstract meanderings because I don't want to over think things, here are paintings 1 to 7.

Winter

Midwinter spring is its own season
Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown,
Suspended in time, between pole and tropic.
When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire,
The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches,
In windless cold that is the heart's heat,
Reflecting in a watery mirror


T S Eliot
Four Quartets (Little Gidding)

Table of Thoughts

Not a very productive week this week, for some reason I couldn't concentrate. I had planned on doing some outdoor photography with my new camera but it has rained constantly since Wednesday, and unfortunately I was busy on the lovely frosty mornings at the beginning of the week. Here are some photographs of work in progress and my table of thoughts.

Melanie Miller

I came across the work of  Melanie Miller a couple of years ago via the Millennium Gallery in St Ives. The recent change in the weather has made me think about these quiet paintings of discarded objects and detritus, not considered important or deserving of scrutiny. Working within the tradition of still life, objects which include flowers, insects, birds small toys and found discarded ephemera, are painted life size in oil on gessoed panels.

Recently, and this is what attracts me to her work, she has began to acknowledge how important the context of where she paints, is as important as, what she paints, the where being Eel pie Island a small Island in the middle of the river Thames accessed only by a footbridge. I don't know why her paintings make me think of winter but for some reason they do, maybe it's the stillness of them. You can see more of her work here, and here.

First Photos

I had a new camera for Christmas and it is taking a bit of time to get used to it, I have to write steps down otherwise I keep forgetting how to do things. Here are some of my first attempts, funny thing is because I can mess around with the focusing I just want to make everything blurred, it's a bit addictive because everything looks so pretty.

Experiments.

I have been experimenting with gouache this week, I have not used it before mainly because every time I went to buy some I thought it was quite expensive. I just wanted to get a general feel for it so started with trying it out straight from the tube, then watered down, and then flat areas of colour onto paper and canvas. I also have a new camera and am still working my way through the manual!! Some of my photographs have been a bit of  a disaster, will post my first attempts later on in the week.

Waterside Open, Call for Entries

The Waterside Open 2012 is a national exhibiting opportunity and entries are invited from Artists/ Makers working in any medium, except live art. This includes, painting, print, photography, digital media, sculpture, textiles, craft, furniture design and installation. This is a great opportunity to get your work out to a wider audience as there will be a group exhibition for prize winners in 2013. For more information visit the Waterside Arts Centre website.

Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a creative New Year.