Preview-Preview

Yesterday I gathered all my new paintings together for a friend to look at....as it was she had car-trouble and unfortunately couldnt make it down...  crest-fallen but not defeated, I took these photos of the paintings before I disbanded them back to the workshop for framing etc.  It was the first time I saw them all together in one room in lieu of my solo show coming up in May.  Thought I would share them with you!

Framed

mitre cutter

It seems like ages now that I have been framing my paintings ready for my solo show in May this year.  My natural happy state is in my studio painting or planning a painting but preferably in the midst of a large colour- saturated composition that is demanding my full attention.  So I have to pull myself out of the paint screaming and kicking to focus on the framing and presentation that comes with exhibitions.  About 10 or more years ago I invested in some framing equipment so since then I have done all my own framing.   I was inspired to create my standard frame to date, from seeing a photograph of a  1913 Matisse exhibition where he had over-seen the framing and had chosen a simple limed-white frame instead of

Matisse's paintings from Morocco 1913

the ornate Baroque frames that I used to associate his work with.
  I try and keep as contemporary and simple as possible and I have kept the same frame more or less since I started making my own  ie a clean-edged slightly built up frame in limed wood or charcoal stained wood. 

paintings ready for show 2007

However this year I going to minimize the frame even more, by using a floating frame, ie a box frame with a slight gap between the canvas and the frame so that the canvas is emphasized rather than the frame. 

Baton-frame on The Invitation painting

Recent Paintings in workshop to be framed

I have been inspired to do this by a gallery owner in Amsterdam who is dealing with my work at the moment and who had a customer who wanted a very simple black baton around a painting she purchased.  I liked the way the simple frame intensified my colours even more and also highlighted the 2-Dimensional qualities of my work which under-pins my philosophy on painting.

Recent Paintings 2015 waiting for May

  So I have set my framing skills a task and it has been a learning curve, (polite way of saying I have been tearing my hair out) and very time-consuming but its all part of the process of producing paintings, so I am happy to do it.  But looking forward to a few weeks ahead when I can concentrate on some new painting ideas!!

 new floating frame Mount Usher Gardens from Tapestry collection 2011

Insights

At the moment I am working a canvas which is destined for my next solo show in May next year, this being the largest canvas in the collection of paintings that I will be exhibiting.  I used here a raw sienna  ground (see below) which creates a warm yellow earth base on which to lay on my colours.  I spent a while trying to create a particular green-blue jade colour , based around phthalo blue, which will work so well with the cadmium red light that I plan to use here, its early days yet, so anything might happen, who knows,  but all I know, is that by looking at  great art like The Annunciation by Jacques Yverni d.1435-38 this can only help my cause.      

                                                   I am constantly filtering out visual information, often abstracting out the colour or form of a thing, without any historical or literal reference, and storing this information in my visual memory bank which has no filing system what so ever, therefore is quite difficult to access verbally, as I have usually forgotten to look at any written information.  So this is not a promising start to a written blog on what has inspired me recently, but bear with me, because I will slowly piece together enough reference material to get my message across.  So I was in Dublin doing some Christmas shopping with some time left over and in desperate need of some visual solace,  and needing to meditate at the alter of heavenly painting, so the NGI just up the road from the busy shopping thorough-fare of Dublin,  helped to restore my faith.   Escaping the hectic, throng of  Christmas shoppers and darting into the sanctuary of the Gallery I then made my way to my two favorite paintings which happen to be hung conveniently next to each other.

The Annunciation Jacques Yverni French d.1435

The Virgin Mary Antoniazzo Romano d. 1508

The annunciation by Jacques Yverni French d.1435, and The Virgin Mary Invoking God to Heal the Hand of Pope Leo 1 by Antoniazzo Romano d.1508 there did it!! And the images here are not the best colour representation, which slightly defeats my object, in my attempt to share with you their deliciousness. The Annunciation is maybe 6 or so feet wide and 5 or so feet in length, a large alter piece depicting the Virgin Mary receiving Angel Gabriel’s good tidings; a tall lily is cast between them, and the virgin’s left hand is gently resting on an open text reading ‘My soul does magnify the Lord’.  this large painting beautifully iridescent with its overall ground of gold leaf which imbues it with a sunny radiance of warmth and well being.  This painting is nearly 600 years old, so I wonder whether the ethereal duck egg blue and greens of the angels wings and the faded indigo -prussian blue of the architectural elements were originally that colour, but who cares it is

exactly why I stand in front of it for so long and never get enough of that incredible up-lifting light infused cool greens and blues, that has the effect of the wings floating upwards and the building soaring heaven-wards.   The cadmium red of the alter cloth is just divine… there are no words…the pattern delicately and reverently painted here is so honest its heart-rending and the way it crosses the turned down edge without a thought to conventional perspective – because at the time this was painted, that dreadful dictate of a constriction had not yet been set in stone!- is to me one of the reasons why this painting is food for the soul.  Its neighbour The Virgin Mary Invoking God to Heal the Hand of Pope Leo I by Antoniazzo Romano is utterly divine, it transcends onto another plane of beauty, every touch of the artist's brush is a prayer, the Virgin's face is so open and perfect and again her regal robes of a simple classic cadmium red dress is paired perfectly with her dark cloak of warm black with a rich forest-green lining all edged delicately with gold filigree. Magnificant!!

Gilded lily!

vase and cover Sevres porcelain 1770

On a recent visit to London, I happened to drop by the Wallace Museum.   It houses the finest collection of Sevres porcelain in the world and to say it was a feast for the eyes is an understatement.  The cabinets grouped the display into various stages of the French porcelain factory’s history from its early days, then its subsequent move to Sevres,  through the exuberance of the 18^th century Rococo period with the patronage of Louis XV and his mistress Madame de Pompadour finially to the Revolutionary period.  Some of the pieces were just jaw-droppingly audacious- outrageous pairings of turquoise and candy pink- gilded and decorated to the point of disintegration.  My pulse was racing and my brain was trying to take on board how human beings could produce such craftsmanship and attention to detail, in the days of no mechanization and technology as we know it. It was so exciting for me to know that the human spirit could go that far in celebrating an art form, exploring and expanding its language to its extremities and back again, and  producing such visual perfection. Truly a visual celebration of a time past, and one which I wholly recommend, well worth visiting again and again.

And if you have any more time  to spare after all that... continue looking around because the museum’s collection of Italian majolica ware dating from the second half of the fifteen century to the late sixteenth century is another veritable  feast for the eyes.  The wine cooler dated 1574 is over 2 foot long and that wide again!  The incredible thing about ceramics is that when they are in perfect condition, like they all are in this collection, then they look exactly like they would have looked 500  odd years ago, aren’t we lucky!!!

Italian Maiolica Wine Cooler 1574 

beachcombing

This summer I have been looking at an intriguing book of the history of the swimming costume, I found the 1920’s particularly interesting, and it got me thinking of how to incorporate the figure in a seaside setting into one of my compositions, not easy I am thinking.    

sketch book ideas

    

bathing belle oil on board

                     Recently I spent the morning at my  local beach,

visual diary

and have been working on my sketch books.
 I have now put the idea into the back of my mind to slowly churn over as a possible painting, and will work on some working drawings in my studio soon.  I painted this little oil to start the process going.  But I am now working on a flower painting at the moment, which is taking all my time up, working from life is always so demanding .. takes over everything.

favourite things

I have been eyeing up these snapdragons growing on the low stone wall directly outside my studio for days now.    There is something very painterly in a bunch of flowers that are the same species but in an assortment of colours; mixed tulips also look great together in a flower bed or equally in a vase, preferably with me on the other end, paint-brush in hand.
So this morning once the rain cleared I gathered up a bunch  and arranged them into one of my favourite vases.  I must have painted this vase many times, as it was 35 years ago when I was with my boyfriend (now husband) when we saw this little blue and white tankard vase through an antique shop window on one of Sheffield's back streets back in my college days.

Daffodils 2012

Fushia and Dahlias 2007

Sweet william 2011 61x46cm 

Dahlias 2006

Charity shops and painting

studio with new painting

 So today I have spent the third day in the studio on this composition, initially its a slow process working out how to start the painting and then I take each stage as it evolves and change and modulate my original plans to fit with each new development.

setting up my flowers for painting

  I make  working sketches that are short-hand visual aids for patterns,

etc this one is inspired by some beautiful dress material of my daughters, I must add it was inspired not copied as the original bears no resemblance whatsoever.  The vase was from a charity shop, as soon as I saw it I knew it would translate into paint,  and the copper tray was from a lovely interiors shop Ryle and Company that has now moved to Glencormac, Kilmacanogue. I have done 6 hours in the studio since this morning and my head hurts and I am painted out, must escape and get some fresh air!!

All painted out!!