Contemporary Painting Studio Week 7 - Scaling up continued

Using my time on the train journey to 'Contemporary Painting Studio' at City Lit  to prepare my ' to-do' list  is proving to be  productive ( although my stitching project is feeling neglected) . It's a bit challenging to cut out and glue pictures in an airline style seat although I do find that the seat next to me is left vacant as long as possible...  

My lists are always over ambitious but I achieved quite a lot of it in this session:  painting over large scale newspaper collage,  reviewing potential compositions  and exploring large scale marks on pre-painted surfaces 

The first job  was hanging the newspaper collage from last week back up on the screen easel - much better behaved now it has some substance to it than the initial roll of paper . Then it was a case of  loading my palette with a large amount of white acrylic paint and climbing up the step ladder  and painting with a large brush -  very satisfying.  I did one coat before coffee and another afterwards  so that after lunch it was dry enough to take off the screen  and I could concentrate on my other tasks! 

After morning coffee we had a quick  review ( 2 mins each) of everyone's work - we did  this in the second session  and it was really interesting to see how peoples ideas have developed  or changed in the intervening weeks.  We were asked to think about approaches used   by  other people  that  we found  interesting and we might use   in our own work.

As I hadn't started on  collage at  the previous review, I picked up on different ways this technique was used: working into photocopies  with paint to simplify shapes  and restrict colour palette;  combining photocopies in collages  with layers of tissue paper, working into them with paint and drawing (then enlarging and repeating the process).

I also was aware of the importance of format - in a couple of cases  we discussed how changing the shape and proportions  could alter the impact  and focal point of the painting  and the difficulties of scaling up from a sketch - do you keep the same format or change it?

Although I'd made the decision not to work in oil paint (  thanks to Amanda's session on glazing I  could achieve a lot of the same effects with acrylics) , there was much to learn from the many accomplished artists there who do use oils , in some cases what wasn't working and why. There were some very interesting layered backgrounds being  painted over and scratched into to reveal the underlying paint  and a discussion  on how to lighten  areas  with glazes without using white ( can lose translucency ). I remember that lesson from 'starting oil painting' class.     

After lunch I  looked again at my collages and sketches to review the compositions, to select what might prove interesting developed  into a larger piece of work. In week 5, I'd  started to paint into a photo of a collage applied to a painted canvas( above). It was over done   and I  wasn't happy with how some of it was working so had printed off a black and white and a colour copy to play with.

On the black and white copy  I started off by cropping to create a square format then using white  thinned acrylic  blocked out the areas I didn't like  and reinstated the inner dark curve, extended the outer one  with dark greys and introduced some breakwaters!

On the colour copy I made similar changes but instead of cropping , I first  extended the top part of the image with greyish blue paint to create the square format. 

Having rolled up my  large newspaper collage for next week, I then used the screen as in previous weeks for taping up sketches/ collages , including mark-making trials  and set up  an A1 sized newspaper  painted collage ( masked off for square format ) on an easel.  

My order of large brushes from Jackson's hadn't yet arrived ( it has now!)  but I made do with what was available and had an interesting time  applying an initial colour wash and then experimenting with different colour mixes and marks.

I found some of the underlying colour lifted off (note to self: less water more medium need )  and the textured surface provided by the underlying newspaper collage  reacted very differently to  primed paper( brushmarks were not retained in the same way and the paint was more opaque)

 I used up my paint applying  drippy colour washes to yet another newspaper collage( where I'd simply pasted a whole sheet down ) from 'Ways into abstract painting'. I'm seeing ghostly hilltop villages and am looking forward to working into it exploring the found shapes. 

But I shouldn't get too distracted from my principal task  for this weeks class which is getting started on my large scale painting! 

On Being Mentored

2 weeks ago I was heading down to Eastbourne ( along with  thousands  of  of runners taking part in the Beachy Head Marathon/ 10K !)  for my mentoring session with Christine Chester at Studio 11.
I'd discussed  the possibility when I'd been there  for the excellent course with Alice Fox in June.
But after winning Fine Art Quilt Masters, booking onto the programme was the first thing I did when I got home , to help  me work out what to do next.

There was a lot of preparatory work:  a detailed questionnaire  on  ambitions, barriers to success , strengths and weaknesses, time available and  other relevant information;  'Pinterest' pinboards of an 'e-portfolio'   showcasing representative examples of my  work and of inspirations ( I did separate ones for art and textiles). This ' homework' in itself was a very useful process, to clarify  what was most important to me, what direction I wanted to pursue  and sadly what I was beginning to  acknowledge I had to let go in order to realise these.

In order to fit me in her  packed teaching schedule, we'd agreed that the tutorial session would be on the Saturday evening  after the 'Wild about Colour' course  had finished for the day before Strictly (  we're both fans, have to get priorities right!)

As I was free during the day, I  went to Worthing , about an hour by train,  to see the first exhibition by ' Curious Threads' , an interesting show in a lovely bright venue,  and then found some wonderfully weathered wooden breakwaters on the beach afterwards. A perfect day out ! 

I turned up at  Studio 11 as the class was packing up  to lay out the quilts I'd brought with me which along with the e-portfolio provided the basis of our initial discussions. 

Aside  from 'Birchington Breakwaters' and ' Eroding Margins' ( which I couldn't bring as they're currently on tour) , the pieces I like most  and represent the direction I wish to explore further are 'Red Flotsam' and 'Red Remnants'.  Red Flotsam in particular with its move towards abstraction ( I had help from the 'Quilt Doctors'!) , it's combination of direct painting  with acrylics and  monoprints  , repurposing an  old quilt  and the use of handstitch sum up all that I love best. 

I had a bit of an epiphany while doing the paper collage for Contemporary Painting Studio, that many of my textile pieces involve collaging fabrics. One of  Christine's suggestions was to  use this technique more as a design tool  for helping with abstraction and scaling up along with  mind-mapping to assist in developing more  abstract concepts.  

The mentoring programme  includes 2 days access to a print bench  and all materials and  equipment  so I  came prepared for monoprinting on acetate sheet using acrylics . I also brought my Gelli plate which I hadn't used since Rydal 2015 (  Christine also  had one available  but I didn't use it as it was the same size as mine) . Although I  have my painting easel in the 'kitchen studio' ,  I don't  have such good facilities  for wet work/printing as the conservatory in our previous house.

On the Sunday , the second session of ' Wild about Colour' was going on   so I was able to  watch  and hear  about what the participants were up to as well as getting on with some printing, mainly using blacks. It was useful to compare the acetate sheet with the Gelli Plate. Although you get very fine  subtle marks with the Gelli, particularly  in the 'ghost prints' of threads and feathers, and the build -up of paints and marks, its' much more of a  pain to clean and the size is limiting. 

  

On  the Monday , it was just me and Christine  and we spent the morning companionably , Christine making up dyes while I expanded over 5 print benches(!!!)  with monoprints  , colour matched with the red in 'Birchington Breakwaters'

I used the time profitably in a 'what if' session , observing marks made , exploring possibilities of  different fabrics and layering them, taking one idea and seeing how far I could push it.

In the afternoon  , we reviewed what I'd produced ( 65 monoprints!)  and talked about how I  could use them , making copies in paper  at quarter scale to work out compositions to generate ideas that could be scaled  up,  and the importance of  having bolder larger scale marks. 

  Appropriately ,I'd seen some giant scale mark-making on the beach that morning made by several large yellow earth-movers working on the sea defences! 

Most of the afternoon  however was spent in ' full and frank debate' about my work practices:   developing a professional approach , ideas about building a supportive network, reviewing and rebuilding my website as part of capitalising  on my 'brand' . This week I received  a detailed   summary and action plan based on our discussions and have a much clearer idea of  how to move forward. There will be a follow-up Skype discussion  about my progress in March. 

I enjoyed working with Christine very much. It was tough at times but  because I was prepared to be honest and open to ideas and a fresh approach I really benefited from the mentoring process. I appreciated Christine's insight  and felt privileged that she shared examples from her own experience and practice in response to my questions. Now it's up to me.

Contemporary Painting Studio Week 4

Last week in Contemporary Painting Studio, Amanda Knight  was the tutor in the morning and gave us a fascinating and informative whistlestop tour through  acrylic and oil mediums , particularly for glazing.   Most of the group paint in oils  so that is what she concentrated on  but she gave an interesting  demonstration of the luminosity of using glazes of transparent colour in acrylics  rather than mixing colours ( a bit like watercolour but more so! ) . She  mentioned the work of Mali Morris ( examples above)  who currently has an exhibition at the Fold Gallery -  definately one I hope to see before it closes, her work looks so joyful.  

 There  wasn't much time  left to do much before lunch - I'd made some B&W copies of my collages  and stuck them on a piece of paper and started to work into them with white, already looking interesting  as they are more integrated with the background.  In the afternoon we were choosing preliminary work and sketches  to  go in the display cases on the 3rd floor   so this with some of the original collages  is what went in.

I've got into using up leftover paint on  a sheet of paper, working with a credit card, I've now got quite a stash of  painted papers for backgrounds or to tear up for collage. This time I did an monoprint as well ( above) . I'd  spent my benchtime while at Studio 11 in Eastbourne doing monoprints on fabric ( 65 of them!) so I was still in the ' what if' zone. 

These are a taster of what I produced there  using acrylics and an acetate sheet ( above) and a Gelli plate (below) . I spent my coffee break photocopying some of the  better ones for  use in collage and after talking to Michelle Dow yesterday am going to do some more , varying the scale. 

 In preparation for tomorrow's class  I've been playing with images of some of  the sketches, paintings and collages in Photoshop

This is the top of the painting I did in week 2 ( above)    and with 'invert' filter below. I like how the newspaper text beneath the paint shows through

 Last Friday I  did some printing on fabric  and t-shirt transfer   sheets and today I bondawebbed the fabric ones onto pieces of old linen tablecloth ( I'll stitch into these for Journal Quilts) and conscious that  I've yet to do much painting (!), ironed  photo transfers onto primed  and painted canvas
(I had good success with this technique on Advanced Painting course last year)

 While waiting for the BT telephone engineer ( we've had no incoming calls since Saturday although outgoing and broadband were fine ) , I started to look through some of my art books for examples of collaged work .
The acrylic collage pieces by Anthony Whishaw struck a chord  - his work has often been my favourites at the RA Summer Exhibition ( which is why I requested his monograph as a Xmas present )

And coming full circle in this post, his  painting ' Espot' of transparent acrylic glazes !

UPDATE on 'The Big Draw  Selfie' , the animation has now been posted on the City Lit Blog . My drawing is  the glasses towards the end !

Rydal Inspiration - NWCQ Retreat 2014

 Just back from 5 days retreat with NWCQ group in the  Lake District staying at Rydal Hall. Once again a time for  creative reflection  in good company in a beautiful setting. The staff  there are so helpful and  it's wonderful not to have to think  about cooking ( it's 4.30 and my tummy is wondering where the traybakes are....). I  struggled a bit on the train with all the stuff I'd taken' just in case'. In the end,apart from pinning and tacking a large indigo piece onto wadding, I didn't do much stitching, concentrating on sketching and painting from my surroundings  and making a little book of stitched monoprints and drawings based on these. Preparing an informal talk about my experiences from the  workshop  with Dorothy Caldwell,  it was a luxury to have time to consider my personal repertoire of marks and put them into practice. I got the  group doing blind stitching ( much to the amusement of other guests heading to the bar!) and several decided to make their own collections of 100 objects.

 

Retail therapy was not forgotten - a trip to Keswick to the pencil museum shop yielded  discounted ex display tins of XL graphite and charcoal with another tin of Grasmere gingerbread acquired on the way back. 

 Rydal Falls had considerable more water going over it compared to last year  but the colours of the bracken on the hills was just as beautiful.

Based on   my sketches , I pulled out bits from my scrap bag to make up a journal quilt and another from acrylic monoprints too precious to cut up for my book! Now when I stitch these, they will remind me of my break, it's good to return to making JQ's that have a story

 Some pages from my book based on the patterns on bark and fast flowing water.