easel paintings

I found this curious object in a charity shop - it was 75p and so I promptly purchased it.This little easel is about 8" high, is constructed of stainless steel (I think) and what looks like teak wood for the board.  I was thinking rather serendipitously that the two mini-works which I have just made for the forthcoming HWAT artists' exhibition would look quite amusing when placed upon it...The displayed work in question is a very small painting, set on Arches paper, within an A5 antique white card mount... here is a larger than life size photograph of the painting...[winter, too, 2010, acrylic and indian ink on paper, 5cm x 8cm]All participating artists will be making new artworks to fit within the same size card mount. All artworks will be for sale at £25. Here is my second miniature offering for the HWAT show (all proceeds from the sales of these works will go to HWAT).[mist, again, 2010, acrylic and indian ink on paper, 5cm x 8cm]I quite liked creating landscape compositions at this diminutive size (it's all in the cropping), reducing the elements of land and sky to their most minimal - probably influenced by my recent sketches and drawings in some very small pocket sketchbooks... I also had some fun with the titles - winter too and mist again could suggest they are part of an ongoing series, yet another winter landscape not to be missed. on the other hand, within the wider genre of landscape painting, titles are merely descriptive indicators of the scene... and, of course, the above very small artworks are anything other than traditional easel paintings (missing the point, again)......I had some interesting conversations with some other artists around pricing and valuing our artwork... one for another post...

on green, purple, and blackbirds

I finished and finally framed the painting Edgescape: Fenn earlier this week... it will be exhibited in the HWAT showcase exhibition for the duration of April 2010.[Edgescape: fenn, mixed media on canvas, 90cm x 90xm, 2008-2010]I added a few more glazes over the lower section of the canvas to get a more of a yellowy-green, and the upper section is a purplish-reddish dark brown-violet. I got slightly obsessed with the subtle degree of merging and how it related to a simple lowland horizon - which also explains my term edgescapes as the series title for these large paintings...[fenn, detail of painting edge, with white wood frame]Fenn as a title (archaic spelling), I hope is quite self-explanatory, alluding to a marshy, often flooded lowland landscape - a landscape that, prior to the 17th century when much of the low-lying land was irrigated for agriculture, is what much of the East Anglian landscape would have been like. This painting (fenn) is more of an abstract, sensory response than a depiction of a landscape scene; partly landscape in the implied horizon line, but also as an organic surface greatly magnified. I can't do these large paintings quickly (I started this one in the early summer of 2008, a few weeks before it was needed for an exhibition) - it seems vital for these paintings to evolve over time...Note to self: the poet John Clare lived in (or perhaps just wandered through) the deepest part of the fens, a landscape that stirs up the metaphysical mind...For a morning respite from all things art-related, I pottered about in the garden, and soon spied this little fellow, a blackbird in the willow tree... a composition most pleasingly serendipitous in its contrast of colours (echoing fenn) - and the wriggling worm in the blackbird's beak is further echoed in the curls of the willow branch... he was waiting to make a safe return to the nest...The male blackbird was taking it in turns with his female mate to gather worms for their hungry offspring. They had decided to make their nest in a large, tangled pile of recently pruned clematis and so I was unable to get on with clearing the area - so I temporarily sectioned it off with some chicken wire fencing......I also spent a lovely afternoon out at the coast with an artist friend - both of us are avid beachcombers and find much creative inspiration there. I found all of these delicately purple-hued pebbles, which I placed on a green algae-covered piece of driftwood to photograph my hoard, which glowed more pink in the late afternoon sun...I also liked the contrasting textures in this dense, clumpy thicket of reddish-twigged bushes with the softer beige grey grasses - serving a purpose in reducing the impact of wind erosion on this exposed part of the coast...and these trees, in a nearby old wood, looked almost petrifed...I feel quite lucky to be less than thirty minutes from this stretch of the coast......

on vacant and empty landscapes

Thinking more about yesterday and the upcoming Art Auction, I thought perhaps I should see it as another platform for art - a lost leader of sorts - no monetary gain but good exposure... I will be putting in this work...Crag I, mixed media on panel, 30cm x 90cm, 2007Here is a close up of some textures...Crag was, in part, inspired by many trips to Covehithe... here's a photograph of the eroding cliffs, taken on December 31st 2007...Covehithe cliffs, SuffolkAll of which got me thinking about the many photographs I have of vacant and empty places, landscapes devoid of people or buildings... here are but a few, which again most definitely inspired my larger paintings...A train journey through the fens, probably near Peterborough, February 2006Salthouse beach, Norfolk, June 2009The North Sea, Dunwich, Suffolk, February 2007Field, Suffolk, June 2004Mist over lake, January 2009I really should read Bachelard again......