So, the wet and windy summer is over here in Edinburgh, and we’ve now moved into a very windy autumn! Autumn is my favourite season with the leaves fluttering down in their beautiful brown, bronze and orange tones., and when it’s dry I love crunching the crispy leaves underfoot.
I’ve had a lovely long summer break while my family were over from New Zealand. I haven’t taken such a long break from my art before, so I did worry a bit at the beginning as to whether it would be a struggle to get back into painting when the time came, However, by the end of the break my head was swimming with ideas to take forward, and I couldn’t wait to get started. First I reorganised my studio space. It was good to take a fresh look at all of my art materials and hundreds of collage papers, and to get them sorted into some sort of order!
I also seem to have accumulated lots of pots that I couldn’t throw away 'because they’d be perfect for storing things in'. My favourite are the measuring pots that are given with dry pet food to make sure they’re getting the right amount. They have a nice wide bottom so don’t tumble over when filled with pencils! I combined the contents where I could, coloured pencils with graphites etc. So, now with fewer pots I’ve gained a little more surface area to work on. But, I still couldn’t throw the pots out, so over time no doubt they’ll wheedle their way into becoming filled again. In fact, I treated myself to a tin of Caran d’Ache water soluble wax pastels! They are lovely and rich and squidgy, and they came in a tin making them feel extra special too! They’re still in their tin, and I go in and out as I use them, but I think that method will quickly wear off as it's a bit fiddly to take them out, and I snapped one, so probably a good idea to be decanted into a pot!
I think the love of tins comes from childhood days when everything came in a tin, I particularly loved my little round tin of toothpaste. It was compressed pink powder, and to use it I would wet my toothbrush and dab it onto the powder. I can still feel the sensation of the gritty pink paste on my teeth!
So, with a tidy studio I’ve been working away on a variety of board sizes, the largest being 100cm x 100cm. It’s way out of my comfort zone, but I thought, why not, I’ll give it a go. I’m happy to say (maybe I shouldn’t say it!) that it’s going well, and I’m really enjoying the freedom it gives for huge sweeps of the brush and mark making. I’ve had to step up the collage papers sizes, and also retrain myself to mix up larger batches of paint as I soon realised my small batches were covering not a lot of board!
I’m really enjoying continuing with my tideline work, but a surprise appeared while working on my latest series - a horizon! That was the one thing I struggled with the most when moving from semi-abstract to abstract work, I was compelled to get a horizon in somewhere. My solution to change this was my trusty collage papers which I used to break up that pesky line!
I never really know what a painting will look like when finished as I work intuitively. The perception of what I'm aiming for is there, and I know the colour palette, so I just refer to my sketches and notes along the way. I like working this way as there are lots of surprises (not always good!). In the end, they really just find their own way, and I help them along. This new horizon I quite like, so I’ll see where it leads me.
I’m delivering two new pieces this week to St Columba’s Hospice in Edinburgh for their annual exhibition, together with some unframed mounted work which they are offering for the first time in browsers.
I love making studies for the browsers, the Fabriano Pittura paper I use has such a lovely texture. I put the studies into acid free mounts and use the archival method to mount the paper, this means that the studies can easily be removed from the mount if the buyer prefers it unmounted.
This year I’m helping out with the hang, so really looking forward to that too. It’s a great exhibition to be part of, the events team are such a lovely, friendly bunch, and 50% of all sales go straight to St Columba’s to help with the vital work they provide for the community.
Likewise, Macmillans Annual Show is fast approaching. It’s again a great exhibition to be part of, and held in the building at St John’s in Edinburgh’s West End (with amazing close-up views of the castle), so I’ll also be delivering work to them very soon.
There are more exciting Winter Gallery Exhibitions coming up, so I thought I’d do a ‘short and sweet’ blog post in November just to give the dates and venues.
In the meantime I’m off to clean my favourite brush! I don’t use a pot of water for brushes while painting, I find that even after wiping them with paper to reuse there’s still quite a bit of water retention, especially with the finer bristles, this dilutes the acrylic which I’m not keen on. So I just use my brushes, lay them down, then use again for the same colour (or a similar colour, in which case a nice mix with appear). At the end of a painting session I clean them all thoroughly, by hand with a bar of Imperial Leather soap (Mild white variety!). However, I missed a brush yesterday, it had rolled behind my mark making box, and now it’s hard and clogged, and it’s my favourite brush. I’m soaking it at the moment in hot water to soften, hopefully I can then ply the bristles apart with my fingers. I could replace it, but it was in the bargain bucket for £3 at my local art shop, and I’m quite fond of it!
Thanks for reading, keep warm and cozy, and for those in the Southern Hemisphere - enjoy your warmer spring days.
Janette
St Columba's Art Exhibition
26th & 27th October 2024
10am - 4pm
No. 17 Boswall Road, Edinburgh
View & buy online - 26th October - 1st November 2024
Macmillan Art Show
30th November & 1st December 2024
View & buy online – 30th November - 8th December 2024
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