Purwell fields

 Oil on board: 51.5 x 41 cm.
This is the start of a new adventure in which I am extending ideas gathered in the autumn of 2010. The stripes created by the combine harvester overlaid by the tracks left by a tractor create a compelling design. A sense of distance or depth is achieved but at the same time the painted surface demands attention and so the picture is visually ambiguous. I am particularly pleased with the colour and especially the use of grey.

In the grounds of Anglesey Abbey, a National Trust property in Cambridgeshire, there is a delightful hanging sculpture that resembles a Marimba strung between trees. I first saw it in the early Spring and was very taken by the dappled shadows and the sharp light piercing the lattice of branches.
It is a complex picture of dancing light and shade and really needs to be redone . Nevertheless, I am happy enough with this as a first step towards what promises to be a long and enjoyable journey.

This is a gouache. It marks the beginning of a new direction in my work. I am enjoying the freedom of this medium because it is so much more forgiving than "pure" watercolour. I can repair almost anything and make alterations till I feel happy with the outcome. I have an idea to print a facsimile of a sketchbook. This seems to be consuming most of my time these days. It is a most fulfilling project.

I am drawing again. The English countryside is so beautiful and the changing seasons offer endless inspiration.

Drawing again

I was given some flowers. They are swathed in shimmery grey organza and the whole effect is not unlike a glass "basket". The organza simultaneously contains and frames the flowers in a random manner and they are 'presented' in a way that makes them rather special. I was immediately inspired to draw and paint the flowers so I took a number of photographs while they were still fresh. I hope to do several more drawings and a couple of paintings. I only hope I can "hold my vision" and my energy levels for long enough to follow through to  the completion of my project.

I have done several of these mixed media pieces and am feeling increasingly at home with the pictorial ideas. I love the crinkly collage and the shadows around the edges where the paper lifts off the surface of the picture. I have also started experimenting with pencil line and scraps of cloth.

Working into the prints

 Here are two more mixed media pieces that are the result of working into the landscape prints. The underlying image is the same in all of them. The structure is also the same. I am still playing with the idea that I culled from a photograph by Vuillard. In the photograph we see Madame Vuillard, drying her hands on an apron, standing in a bare room, possibly a kitchen or passage to such a domestic room. She is framed by a doorway and this is flanked on one side by a wall covered with floral wallpaper. The rectangle of wallpaper "reads" as a totally abstract and very flat surface but, simultaneous to this, Vuillard's mother is standing in a very believable interior space. The juxtaposition is intriguing.

I want to see what happens when I juxtapose a landscape with flanking strips of abstract painting that relate to the landscape insofar as they are derived from close-up observation of the land itself.

I have decided to use a glue gun to stick the collage into place when all is ready and sufficiently dry. This is because I think that the crumpled paper and the shadows that are evident when the pieces are pinned into place are lost when I glue more thoroughly. I don't know why I have not thought of this before because I have often noted how much less interesting the image seems when it has been carefully glued.