Looking Back

This last year has been one of experimentation and re-evaluation. It’s an interesting process to allow yourself to do this for such a lengthy period. One fraught with doubts and fears but liberating at the same time. There have been many eureka moments as I have pushed paint to the maximum and explored theory and new ideas to the full. From a more abstract expressionist approach to a finer distilled and thoughtful handling of paint. My intention, to find a place that gives me the greater freedom to explore the inner/narrative ideas, of the personification of landscape and life. Where there has been doubt it is usually when my approach has changed so radically but yet there’s an inner buzz that reassures me when I know it still hits the spot. Questions as to why come forth. A year on I know now that each and every approach is valid, landscape and myself being the centre. like the weather and the accompanying ideas there are many variables, ethereal and changing.

The piece below is one of these eureka moments of having captured something different. It’s a thoughtful piece and perhaps a defining one from this period of flux.

Looking Back

Oil on Board 40x40cm

Amorphous Thoughts.

It is nature, not to describe or portray but to discover. Horizon lies come and go, appearing and disappearing as distance becomes momentarily tangible and land masses float.

Simple terms; Coast, Sky, Cloud, Light, Ground, Air. Seeking the core of each becomes primal, almost. Thoughts of space, about space, beyond space sends you on a journey of discovery. Sea becomes Land, Light becomes mass. Expanding the realms. Sounds need air to be heard.

Cultivate

“Awake!, arise! the hour is late!
Angels are knocking at thy door!
They are in haste and cannot wait,
And once departed come no more.
Awake! arise! the athlete’s arm
Loses its strength by too much rest:
The fallow land, the untilled farm
Produces only weeds at best. ”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Seize the day! This last month has been a turning point for me, new ideas and renewed energy have led to a very active and productive month in the studio. Painterly decisions made, brave steps forward throwing off those lurking, invisible shackles. Several large paintings are on the go for forthcoming exhibitions and open competitions. Fallow periods are useful: research, drawing, travelling, thinking but its the action of painting that brings it all to life, where sense is made and to cultivate the painterly decisions which are then intuitively made when in the throws. Like when seeing the first appearance of the snowdrops and aconites I breathe a sigh of relief to know that time is of the essence and more importantly yours to cultivate.

With this newly found light today I have added three new works on paper to my online shop.

Putting a marker down

I write this on a Tay grey sodden mid January morning, it is beautiful. An eerie quietness fills the spaces. I walked this morning, meandering along the deer paths of my local wood. Heavy air, the drip, drip, drip of the over burdened Scots Pines. Light gently persuading, biding it’s own time. The wood is small, but with such variety that it feels much larger. It has everything, even in winter, including those hopeful sight lines to the fallow fields beyond. Like the boundaries of the wood January marks the end of a year but the start of many things, including new hope, new ideas and new adventures.

I have added six paintings to my website which are now available. If you see anything that resonates please get in touch.

Old Friend • Oil on Board • 

The desire to do something better

“...if any artist can ever be happy, I suppose it’s the same with composers and writers and sculptors. One never really feels one’s done what one could have done- you always feel, I could have done better. And of course, if you ever really feel ‘I’ve done it’, you’d become complacent, and there’d be nothing left to aim for. And it’s just this desire to do something better all of the time that keeps me going on’ ”

— Sheila Fell

Quiet Sunday

Beginning, middle and end. It starts with a thought, a line, an idea takes seed. Inspired by each and everything encountered. Last night I watched a film, the imagery was truly magical, yesterday I had a conversation about pea green boats and magic carpets. Perhaps this makes my work not just about landscape, but more.