Park painting and some ancient history

Here are some photos of my large painting in progress. I'm not sure whether it's finished or not!

I'm so used to working on a small scale that I found it quite difficult to be consistent with this, every time I had a painting session, it seemed to come out in a different style, some parts very stylised, some parts painted loosely, some more realistic...

But by co-incidence, the first Tactile Arts members show of the year has the theme of 'Birds'. So I've put this painting in (in this possibly finished state!) along with some smaller works. The opening is next Friday 5th April, do come along if you're in Darwin!!

The painting reminds me of one - much larger - that I did at Uni back in the mid 80's. So here is the ancient history! ...I'd had a friend from my hometown to stay for the weekend, and when they left I couldn't face going to the studio, couldn't see the point of painting, I was feeling homesick and sorry for myself. So I did what I do, I went for a walk and took my sketchbook, and did some charcoal drawings in a tiny park - a square of grass surrounded by flower beds with rose bushes, a couple of bench seats, the whole thing fenced with iron railings. The drawings I did were quick, slight, but they were the start of a series of paintings.

When I read this back it doesn't sound like a significant event! But for me it was some kind of turning point, the feelings I was struggling with went into the paintings which were for me about leaving home symbolised by the relationship between mother and daughter.
(The paintings are long gone, but I might beable to copy a photo to show you another time!)

The park in my new painting is huge compared to that little city square, it has formal gardens and fountains, a community veggie garden, playgrounds, grassy areas, huge trees, a skate park... plenty of inspiration for a whole series of paintings!

I hope you're having a relaxing Easter. I had a long list of jobs to tackle in the garden, the house and arting, but have a bit of a cold, so I've been indulging in sleeping in and relaxing and my list of jobs will have to wait for another time!!

Making a start

Out of all the artforms I practise, painting is the 'holy grail'!

Recently I've been frustrated with my studio set up - the table where I paint is also our dinner table so I've had to completely pack up after every painting session. In the holidays I had a tidy up - a little desk that had been a dumping ground for half finished projects could be a work table, a place to have my paints laid out all the time ready to go. An easel I'd got just to display work at the craft fair could be set up with a decent sized canvas. Two weeks ago I got the whole thing organised - the canvas waiting. The intention there to do some serious painting!

Last Thursday morning before work I quickly laid some colour onto the canvas, adoodle of lines, anything so that I wouldn't have to sit in front of the blank canvas on Friday!

Friday morning I blocked in some ideas based on a walk down at the park.

Now that I've put in the tree and the geese, the woman in the foreground is too small, so I've painted her out. It's curious (worrying!) that the underpainting colour and mark making is much more interesting than what I've put on top. It's got too tight too early...I need bigger brushes...it's scary and invigorating to work on something this size (20x30 inch) after many tiny 4x4 and 5x7 canvases.

It's not really anything yet - and likely to be painted over several times before it is - but at least I've made a start!!

If you're in Darwin there is still time to see a lovely exhibition of paintings by Ray Hayes at DVAA, finishing this weekend,, you can see some photos at the DVAA blog.

Garden painting

From Feb to April this year I worked my way through The Artists Way by Julia Cameron. I did it half-heartedly, not expecting to dig up any demons from the past (to explain my laziness, lack of time, lack of drive) - but also hoping for some flashes of insight into what I might do with my life.

One of the things that did come up - was that I want to do some BIG paintings, it's a really long time since I've worked on anything bigger than 12 x 12 inch in paint or lino. (since before I had kids so at least 13 years). By co-incidence Sue from one of the blogs I love to read Mouse notebook has also been dipping into the artists way and had big paintings on her list too!

A month or so ago I started on a canvas 20x20 inch - huge for me! Here are some in progress shots.


And here it is now, I think finished.

My work tends to be about whatever is going on in my life, so of course it's about gardening.