Wave making

St Kilda Painting acrylic on paper 72" x 28"

 

At last I am making some big versions of these powerful images.  I am loving the looseness of the mark making and the dramatic splashing of paint.  Then working into it in a more detailed way....

 

I have had a small Open Studio, by invitation.  The Secret Hills Art Café group came and I was thrilled with their interest and encouragement.  In the afternoon more friends turned up and ditto to the above.  Just what I needed to keep this work going.

 

A bit of a break now for the Season's Festivities but so looking forward to my return to this work.

Sea Voyage work developing

                                                                               St Kilda Stacs and waves with paint & ink interventions



I have been working on these images to make them more robust and wanting the experience of the wave movements to encompass these amazing Stacs which rise up out of the water.  The birds colonize them despite the high winds and thrashing rain!

Also I have had them printed onto canvas, on quite a small scale, to play around with......with the hope that something much bigger will emerge!!!

Back Again!

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                 Drawing and Waves - Work in Progress


The summer has been fantastic.  I have so enjoyed being outside in the sunshine and pondering upon how to make images of my Sea Voyage.
 
Hence the long gap in putting up posts.  But with the days getting cooler and outside tasks completed I can concentrate on this work. 

Whilst on my 'sea voyage' I became fascinated with the waves themselves.  Particularly looking down from my balcony and seeing how the ship created all sorts of movement and patterns as it powered itself through the water. The experience of being carried in the ship on the waves gave me a sense of other worldliness.  The life of the sea, its power and extraordinariness translates perfectly to the amazing lives of the St Kildans who lived on the rocky islands so far from the mainland.

 

                                                                          Drawing and Waves - more work in progress


So off to do some more drawings........

Sea Voyage to St Kilda

Approaching St Kilda 20 May 2013

 

 

St Kilda emerged out of the cloud and misty horizon at about 6 am.  I was on the bridge of the Quest for Adventure and the tears streamed down my cheeks.  To experience these islands appearing from such a huge seascape was utterly extraordinary and unforgettable. 

 

The clouds stayed low as we slowly sailed into Village Bay and anchored off the main island of Hirta.  Although it was windy and chilly we were able to go ashore on the tenders which was such good fortune as it is often too dangerous to land on these islands.

 

I walked up behind the village amongst the hundreds of cleits, stone and turf storage buildings. At the top of the stac, once the edge of a volcano, I had the fantastic panoramic view of the village below.  A sheer drop on the other side as I lay down to peep over the edge and saw nesting birds clinging to their ledges as they kept their eggs warm from the cold blustery wind.

 

The community that inhabited these islands until the 1930's were truly remarkable and having visited this place my admiration for them has multiplied.

 

Watch this space for images inspired by this wonderful visit to a Scottish jewel in the Atlantic. 

Flaxmill Installation

                                       Photographic image on Left    Plate with Pipe image on right

Ruth Gibson, a ceramacist, and myself have collaborated to make this installation at the Flaxmill Maltings in Shrewsbury.  www.flaxmill-maltings.co.uk

This interesting and exciting collaborative process has challenged their printing skills and created an installation that has genuinely combined their different mediums.

They have responded to the Apprentice building , where the children who worked in the Flaxmill lived.  One can only imagine how their lives must have been.  Ruth and Sheilagh have used images of their daughters, Jessie and Josie, to represent contemporary children contemplating the plight of the Flaxmill apprentices.

This work entitled ‘Neglect and Nurture’  uses images of the Apprentice house integrated with cutlery motifs as well as plates to explore the notion of ‘nurture’.  Firstly, in memory of the Flaxmill apprentices and secondly to respond to the  ‘restoration’ of the Flaxmill Maltings building that is presently underway.

The Flaxmill is having a major event this weekend:       11th and 12th May 10am - 4pm.

                                              'Revitalize'

                         Do come along and see this amazing building as well as loads of art.

Snowy April

                                                                           Blue Reindeer 4'x4' oil on canvas, tartan bags

This piece is still in progress. 

The Blue Reindeer represent 10 of the highest mountains in Scotland. The tartan bags will have tags of the names and height of these mountains. 

Inside the bags will be short extracts from 'The Living Mountain' by Nan Shepherd -  Canongate Press.  "Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the 'essential nature' of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us."  Introduction by Robert Macfarlane.    The material has been sponsored by Lochcarron Tartan.

 

The profound stories of landscape are incredibly rich and add a context to this body of work.

More light again

                                                             'And then the sheep came'  in progress 4'x4' canvas


The work, this month, has expanded into exploring images about the Highland Clearances.  This is the first exploratory  piece.  I am considering whether to keep all 16 sheep or reduce the number and have a split canvas.  Each sheep, however,  will be labeled with the name of a Clearance village.

So far I am exploring images about Culloden, Covenanaters and Clearances.  All major Scottish historical events and which I imagine are deeply felt within the Scottish psyche. 

I am mindful that this work is translated into painted images that have to be cohesive and stylistically compatible.  Working in oil paint gives the work the substantaillity that the content deserves and this is, for me , very important.

However, I am aware that the oilrigs images are contemporary, industrial and link to economic and political controversy.  As well as environmental concerns. How to translate and present these I think will be quite different from the images with historical content.

The dynamics of how this body of work is progressing is fascinating and continues to illuminate my practise.
I am feeling very strengthened by the momentum it has generated.

After the Snow

                                                                                   Covenanters iii     Oil on canvas


Preoccupied with snow and festivities!                                             But back to work now.

The blue empty chairs represent the Covenanters who were imprisoned in Dunnotar Castle, Kincardineshire, Scotland in the 17th century. 

This work explores the notion of Scottish identity. It wishes to honour those ordinary Scottish people who stood up for their religious freedom by not signing 'The Test' and were subsequently imprisoned by a tyrannical monarchy. 

This work of the dungeon walls, within which are placed the chair images considers those emotions, that we may experience, when visiting  historic places that evoke the words....

                    ............................'if only the walls could speak'.