Blairgowrie 12x17.5cm acrylic on canvas
Friday 20x25.5cm acrylic on canvas board
Tootgarook 12x17.5cm acrylic on canvas
As is evident, I have been painting outside again. My studio is like an ice box at present and completely uninspiring. I have cut and arranged my leaves ready for sewing...ice box. It is difficult to want to sit and sew on the floor of an ice box. While it was still winter when I painted these, the days were windless and sunny. I packed my paints, canvas, cameras and a toy trolley full of spades, rakes and dump trucks, then Charlie and I headed for the beach. For this reason I have deliberately painted small. Although Charlie could spend hours digging a hole six times his three year old self, even he has limits. And I wanted this to be fun, something we could do together.
I have also decided all of my plein air paintings, more or less, look exactly the same. Flat, controlled, motionless, rather like my life I fear. The more astute of you may have detected a variation in style of the above paintings? As I have mentioned previously Australian Impressionism/ Heidelberg School is one of my favoured styles of painting. I have stared for hours and hours in admiration at the swift and deliberate marks made by brush and knife that on close inspection are a blur of colour, but when viewed from a distance merge in to a leaf, or a fold in a ladies skirt. While sitting on the beach, enjoying the windless sunny weather, I have been trying to channel something of a more spontaneous spirit. I have been thinking of non-representational colour and I have been thinking about something I heard Arthur Boyd say once. That the colour of the sky is reflected in the land. I am not sure I am achieving any of these things at present. The grand plan of course is to eventually paint on a much larger scale, around 50cm square, which is quite a bit more canvas to cover and will require larger brushes. The hope is that scaling up will allow for something unexpected to happen.
I am excited by the prospect of painting outside on a larger scale (until the actual day arrives and I find my studio much warmer than I previously thought). Until then I will continue my outdoor studies on the relative safety of a smaller scale.
Hi Siobhan, Lovely to see your plein air paintings, I think it's the most enjoyable place to make art - outdoors where you can feel the place as well as see it. Your comments on inspiration and loosening up had me wondering if you have read the book 'Drawing closer to nature' by Peter London? Amongst other things he writes about making art that captures feelings, thought it may be of interest. Cheers, Nicola.
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