More Paintings: each needing the final touches

The black one in the centre is called 'Living Alone' and it's a technical nightmare to photograph it, although I quite like the effect it has produced here, and might use the (mistaken) light effects in the final painting. Actually it's all black with some subtly coloured glazes giving the shapes which you can probably see; and there are white broken lines and black glazed lines reaching down onto the hill where there's a line of reflection. Tucked in the distant hills is a collection of white buildings.

Age Will Not Weary

It's always difficult to know which pieces of my work, if any, I should submit to the local annual Art Club exhibition. This painting is iconic for the locality, depicting the War Memorial and its beautiful surroundings in an abstract/ stylised way. The seagull shape has the words of the English poet, Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) signed in silver along its wing and it flies under a silver sky. There is rain/snow/mist in the air and distant hikers heading for the Memorial. Anyone who has walked along the coastal path by Stonehaven will understand the painting although it doesn't literally depict a particular scene.

"Age will not weary, nor the years condemn..."

The painting is unframed (because the picture goes right around the edges), it's thick with texture, uninhibited in brushstrokes and unconventional compared to the neat specimens all around. But it's unfettered art and I'm grateful to the art club for giving me the chance to show it to a wide audience.

Two Paintings, very different

This week I've been working on two pictures, completely different from each other in style, genre and materials. Nothing new there, it's the way I like to do things.

The top picture is an abstract that reminds me of the view as I look across toward the east from one of the beautiful country roads around Marykirk or Edzell. It is painted in Heavy Body Acrylic paint and could've been influenced by the warm weather we've had recently; if we feel it warm here in the North East, I guess it's particularly sweltering on those yellow fields.

The beach scene is an oil painting and it isn't quite finished yet. The beach on the right needs to be toned-down a little. In complete contrast to the 'Sweltering Mearns' painting, this one conveys the joy of finding a quiet, fresh and sandy patch of beach that's dry and relatively warm, with a few rocks and foliage to use as a home base and picnic spot.

Let me know which one you prefer. I'll soon be displaying them on Affordable British Art

For Ever and Ever

This is one of my paintings on show at SABAB presents: Art@Cowden. It is painted in oil on an acrylic background and is 36 inches wide by 14 inches tall (92cms x 36cms) Its title is

'For Ever and Ever'

SABAB exhibition

When a gallery adds 50% to one's very reasonable and affordable prices, one wishes to own the right accomodation in the right place to be able to set up one's own...
South Aberdeenshire Abstracts is my answer. We are a group of 12 who paint (and sculpt) the kind of work that doesn't particularly sit comfortably beside neat representational pictures so we are holding dedicated exhibitions of our own. Our first major show opens on Saturday (sneak preview on Friday afternoon for those who can't do a weekend) at the fabulous Cowden Studio at Drumlithie, just a few miles south from Stonehaven.

And this is the view from the door.

Solo Exhibition

This morning Rod took me and 18 of my paintings to Balmedie where they are now hanging in a grand exhibition in their own right. It opens on Wednesday 5th May at 10am.

Here are some photos. The lighting isn't quite right yet but I'm pleased with the way the paintings look on the walls.

Preparing for a Solo

I've got a feel for the atmosphere... I've done the paperwork (I think), I've decided on which paintings to display, have sent off the list and I've made a poster that can be put around wherever it's possible to put posters...

I'm in the middle of making labels to attach to each painting so that they can be identified easily when I'm not with them. It will be interesting to let go of so many of  'my babies' all at once. And it will be hugely helpful in making space within my studio to focus on new work as well as being wonderful to see these favourites in the fabulous setting of the Tarts and Crafts Gallery & community cafe, which is so full of character and deserving of appreciative custom...

Good Friday

I've been quiet on here for a couple of weeks again but that's not due to laziness! Now that I'm the Publicity Officer for South Aberdeenshire Abstracts www.southaberdeenshireabstracts.org.uk/ I've been writing for them and sorting out images for their new website. I've also been been painting and doing some pastel work which I haven't yet photographed or finished; and I've created a few messes which may or may not come to fruition as masterpieces in an unspecified future.

Pictures in Situ

There's a problem with sending photos via Picasa, so I've uploaded these two photos to show them on here.

Rushed off my Easel

These last few weeks I've been too busy to keep up with the blog, not least because I'm currently designing a new website to show my work in a better light. 

Art is always a work in progress, really, which is why websites are appealing to creative people.

You can see my work in progress (i.e. making it a good website) at 

www.bern-ross.weebly.com

Although I'm still undecided about this painting: 

Urban Juxtaposition, 24" x 30"

... my confidence is growing because the feedback so far, from those who've seen it, has been that they love the picture and think I should pursue further ideas in that ilk.

This is a collage of photos from my Open Studio on 21st February which was a great success.

A Spot of Sunshine

I've started painting this because I need it on my wall somewhere. I love it already with the way it's drawing me in to its heat (white hot!) and throwing out a few ripples of molten sunshine.

Not far to go now with a few adjustments to the blending. I've painted it in oils: fabulously dense pigment.

I think we all need a spot of sun on our walls.

Sunshine and Open Studio

Photos on here have been sparse recently but too many grey days have not thwarted my creative endeavours, just changed the activities to suit the light. When painting, I use an ordinary high wattage, low energy (if that makes sense) light bulb plus a similar thing in a 'Daylight' bulb. The two together seem to make the right light.

I've created a focal point for the winter months and have started advertising a Special Open Studio event on Sunday 21st February, 10am - 6pm when people can drop in any time and see my work and hopefully buy something.

I've been preparing Giclee prints of some of my larger pictures so that they are smaller and can be framed in the conventional way to match customers' existing collections of pictures on their walls. I've got many pastel drawings/paintings (never know which to call them) and have even started doing some small canvas wall-plaques which are very lightweight and hang like a tapestry from a piece of bamboo.

Today we have brilliant sunshine, blue skies and blinding white snow underfoot, again! I might try taking some photos of my pictures but there could be too much light with glare and reflection. The challenges for an artist are never-ending.

Sketching ideas and resisting realism

I do love walking in the countryside and along the coast, and I take many photos along the way and sketch the feel of some of the places from memory and imagination afterwards - sometimes straight after, sometimes months afterwards. It's the feel of the place that is important in my paintings and I don't really want to create a pristine replica of what I saw and what everybody else can see (if only they'd walk too).

We were given a Digital Photo Frame for Christmas and it sits quietly in the lounge flicking through photos that are far more interesting than what's on telly. So here's an idea - and it can be adapted for use with an ordinary 'slide show' on a computer. Set the slides to change every ten seconds or maybe 15, whatever suits you, and sit with your smallest sketchpad and a soft pencil, making rapid drawings of the compositions that appeal to you or which most stand out.

If you have the slides on a continual repeat then you can return to any drawings that need a bit of a reminder about colour or composition. For the above painting (at the underpainting stage shown above) I had written notes on the drawing to remind myself of the sharp contrast between sky and trees, and the importance of the angles of the fence posts in the foreground.

You'll soon see the finished painting on Affordable British Art : I think it will be called 'Warm are the Still and Lucky Miles', after a poem by W.H Auden.

The rapid-fire drawings mean that you produce lots and it really loosens you up so that realism is outweighed by the feeling in the scene.

Skye Bridge, Expressionist Style

This picture gave me a lot of trouble and I have changed it now; but there are some elements that I have lost and which I need to restore! The trouble with having lots of ideas and working on them all at different times within a few days is that you begin to lose vision on the main aim in a piece of work. The focus in this one got lost (it looks better here than it does since I've worked on it) so now I know where I'm going with it and will hopefully put it right.
 

Life is Moving On

I've done several paintings and drawings since my last post but haven't had time to put them on the blog...

However, I've taken some photos and if - big IF - my computer machinery obliges then you'll soon see what I've been up to whilst the world outside froze.

Meanwhile, it would be most helpful if anyone reading this would click on the following link and sign a petition for an arts centre and green gardens in central Aberdeen, where rich businessmen with more money than artistic merit and sensitivity are bidding to build concrete money-making monstrosities that seem to take away all signs of greenery and mature trees. Please help! Online petition - Save the new Contemporary Art Centre in Union Terrace Gardens

All White Now

After redecorating my studio in white from top to bottom, it was a pleasure to go along to the local Carol Concert and see my Candle Wallhanging put to good use in the church.

The piece was 'the prize' in a free draw I ran during NEOS 09, my Open Studio event in September, and the young lad who won it decided to give it to the church. It matched their other Christmas decorations beautifully and was very tastefully hung as you can see. The concert was fabulous and we were made very welcome.

Now I am busy painting and drawing again and have put some pastel work for sale on my gallery. It isn't taking long to fill the white walls with colourful pictures!

Capturing an Atmosphere

I started this painting this morning and I'm happy with it already. Not that it's finished, of course it isn't; but this is definitely going to be a case where less is more.

Working upstairs in the cold, bundled up in layers of clothing and restricted in space to move around the easel (and use its flat-table facility) made me think about my dad.

The only space he could paint in, at one time in his life (there were worse, but this one I saw with my own eyes) was a dark garage in a row of six others. It was completely full of paintings - his life's work, as there was no room in the small house with us kids and an elderly aunt who he cared for as well - and his easel and stool were shoved up against the up-and-over door which had to be half-up to allow light in when he was painting. It didn't matter what the weather, snow, ice, rain, fog, he painted for as long as possible every day. Cyril Hamersma worked his socks off.

There will be a smattering of a bridge, cottages in the distance and who knows what before this painting is finished. But it's starting to feel right already.

Happy Accidents

Bursting to paint but with practicalities holding me back, I've been making some small pastel studies from the photos I've taken in Skye.

Whilst waiting for the fixative to dry I went upstairs to print something on the computer and thought I'd bring down with me this troublesome picture which "isn't really me", although it would be if it was much bigger and more dramatic... What could I do with it? The plan was to take a photo and ask a good friend for impartial advice.

My pastels were still scattered on the floor so it felt right to try something which I'd earlier tried using a dark piece of cloth .... Nothing to lose as I could always wash it off again.

The result completely transformed the picture, giving it an atmosphere and moodiness that it deserves. Instead of washing it off, I've sprayed it with fixative to preserve it. The weird thing is that - so far anyway - the fixative has turned the blue to violet.

Here is a sample from it. There's more to be done to the picture before it's finished but it has definitely turned a corner and the purple is - well - a happy accident!

Emotional Work

Let there be no doubt about it: the true artist paints from the heart and with deep, genuine passion. Funny thing to say? Maybe, but after an enforced break from my creative life, caused by travel and other lovely things, the urge to paint returned to me with a vengeance.

It’s an artist’s job to experiment. What’s the use of churning out numerous similar pictures? If I wanted to work on a production line I’d do that (and get a proper job’s wage too) but I cannot, I follow my heart, my instincts, and paint what I need to paint.

This means that everything I create is unique, often vastly different from what I made last week; it’s individual, thought-out, personal, and born of an idea from a stage of living. What matters to the recipient of each painting is the emotional connection they make with it. What does it make you think of? There is something in that painting that appeals to you, that matters to you, that makes you feel right.

Experiment

Remember I told you about an experiment I was trying?
I'd seen a demo by a very experienced watercolour painter who was hailing the beauty of acrylics. I'd been aghast to watch her use exactly the same methods with this medium (acrylics) as for her usual watercolours! So I decided to try it myself. I painted some flower shapes on the white-primed canvas, with a (yellow-stained) rubber solution.

Then, when it was dry, I painted the background with an assortment of rich crimsons and cadmiums - this bit I enjoyed!

Then I rubbed away the rubber solution to reveal the flower shapes, but didn't like the three blobs below so began to put some marks where I felt there might be rocks ...

I didn't get much further than this when I decided it really wasn't 'me' and certainly wasn't the direction I
wanted my painting to take.

So this one is put down to experience and won't be visited again.