Sea Pinks

Over the last week or two my small art journal, where I work out ideas, has been inundated with bright greens or greenish yellows. There’s a lot of hot pink, sometimes on the horizon line or cliff edge, or scattered in the landscape.

Sandra was looking at my art journal, went off for a few minutes, and came back to show me Sea Pink (Thrift) on to coast of Wales – and they flower in Ireland too. And there’s the answer…much of what I paint is based on memories of the landscape. Mum’s birth mother Angela was Irish; somewhere in my DNA the memory exists of the Sea Pinks flowering in the landscape.

That might sound far fetched, but think about this. People with Scottish ancestry often feel an affinity with the bagpipes even if they don’t know they have Scottish heritage. They’ll say it is like they know the music from the first time they hear it. Why? Because it’s wired into their ancestral memory, or however you want to describe it. Of course there are examples from all over the world, from all cultures.

Have I been to Ireland and seen the Sea Pinks in flower? No. Does my soul, my shared ancestral memories, know them? I think so. I’d love to know if Angela liked them.

It’s all about texture

When I was at The Learning Connection my tutor, in the 4th year, commented that my work was “all about the edges”. Peter was absolutely right, and the edges of the work are still critical to me. In the last couple of years I’ve become increasingly interested in the idea of texture, while keeping the work very flat. When I was a scrapbooker, and scrapbook tutor, I could never get into lumpy things on my pages…

Pen Kirk and I are working on our next exhibition, titled Shattered Landscapes which opens late October. We’re showing our own work, and joint collaborative works. I’ve been working on a few pieces this afternoon and I’ve been quite focused on creating a sense of texture.

It might be masts!

Lately my art has taken a distinct change in direction. I worked my way very quickly through two art journals, using water soluble pencil, paint and collage. At one point I even said to my good friend, and fellow artist, PenKirk https://www.facebook.com/halfpennynz that I needed to “step away from the journal”! I didn’t of course, I just kept creating.

About three quarters of the way through the first journal I realised the shape I was trying to create, over and over, was the island at Waverley Beach. It’s very different today; time, tide and climate change have destroyed most of it.

Dad used to fish off the far side of the island. My friends and I would climb up the side and dive into the waves. Then, dripping wet, we’d clamber back up the papa rock and do it all over again. Looking back, I realise we could easily have been hurt because papa rock gets very slippery when it’s wet. We didn’t get hurt, but we did have a lot of fun.

I’ve been doing a lot more mark making, using water soluble media. There’s a shape that keeps appearing and I’m not sure what it is yet. I seem to be using a lot of blue, deep green and white. I’m starting to wonder if the lines are masts. If it turns out they are masts, I’ve no idea where the imagery is coming from.

At The Learning Connexion I did a lot of mark making, particularly in my 4th year, and still do in my art journals, but over recent years haven’t done as much in art pieces. I’m not sure what’s made the difference, perhaps some of the artists I’ve watched on YouTube including Jackie Schomburg https://www.youtube.com/@jackieschomburgart/about, but I’ve gone full circle and am doing a lot of mark making and drawing.

Where’s all this leading? Goodness knows, but I’m enjoying the process and trust there will be an “aha! So that’s what I’ve been trying to get out of my head “ moment.

This is one of the pieces I did before I got to the final shape of the island at Waverley Beach.

This is an example of where I’ve started with water soluble pencil and a wandering line.

Playing with mark making. The strong vertical line on the right is the start of the more mast-like lines.

This is the very recent piece that has me thinking sea and mast … maybe! If it is, I don’t know where the mast comes from in my memory, but I guarantee it will be a memory.

Consistency

I’ve been thinking about consistency; consistency in going to the gym and in other personal habits. I’m working in a kraft journal and trying out some ideas. What I’m starting to notice is – despite some new colours / materials and the intention to work differently – there are marks and colour combinations which always come out.

Black, white, blue, green, turquoise, with a touch of hot pink, orange or fluorescent yellow. The colours of the sea, which I have always loved. But also the colours of the Hokitika Gorge, which I love.

Cruciform shapes, ovals that are higher on one side with one end cut off, loose squares or oblongs that connect to a line across or up the page. I know where some of it comes from – the cruciform shapes and squares or oblongs relate to memories of the Patea Cool Stores and Freezing Works. The ovals I have no idea about, but when I get scissors and paper in my hand for collage, there they are!

#cjs20 day 23

The artist for day 23 of #cjs20 was John DuVal, a painter who specialises in watercolour. He captured the light and the feel, more than the details, and that appeals to me. Initially I wasn’t going to try it, even though I do landscape painting. Tony asked why not and I didn’t have a good reason! I’m pleased I did because actually his approach suits me.

I visited Pukakaiki, on the West Coast of the South Island,  in December with Alan and was fascinated by the rock formations. This small watercolour is based on one of the photos I took.

Gelli print landscapes

I’ve got the urge to start stitching again, so I’ve been reading the Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn books, including Stitchscapes. Looking at their sketchbook pages reminded me how much I enjoy creating abstracted landscapes so this afternoon I got out my Gelli Plate and some of the favourite Atelier paints. I taped my Gelli plate onto a piece of copier paper so I could line up multiple pulls and got to work. I’ve done 9 prints on good paper, and 4 on copier paper that are just from cleaning the plate – these often turn out really well because of all the tiny bits of colour that get picked up.

Most of the prints have 4 or 5 full or partial layers of paint, and all have the sun in them using Atelier’s Rich Gold series 4. This is a lovely metallic to use – it’s not as harsh as some metallics. Alongside my trusty old paints I’ve been trying out some new ones that I got sent as part of a sample kit; Liquitex heavy body Green Gold and Quinacridone Magenta. They are both really nice to use – they’re single pigment transparent colours and flow so well. I can see me moving to Liquitex from Atelier if I ever use up my paint stash!

These prints may stay as they are or I may try adding a little stitching to some of them, just to see how it feels.

Progress shots

For once I am remembering to take rough ‘n ready photos as I work through the many, often ugly duckling, stages of a mixed media painting. The photos are quick, crooked and poorly lit, but are enough to show the process I work through, and are in order.

Signatures for a swap

I’ve just finished my entries for the International Signature Swap 2013 organised by Erika Husselmann. It was such fun last year that I couldn’t resist doing it again. The rules have changed a bit from previous years, you can find all the details on the Art Swappers website. I’ve used Hahnemuhle 140gsm drawing paper, and started by adding a few layers of Golden acrylics with by Gelli Plate. Once that was dry and I had spent some time looking at them, I worked back into them with more paint, and Derwent Art Bars. I love the idea of the Art Bars but, in practice, I find I remove what I’ve done more times that I leave it on. I really to prefer adding extra marks with paint or pen. So, here’s what I created last night:

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Looking at the landscape

I am still adjusting to all the time I have now that Mum has died. Six months on I find the evening has vanished and, all too often, I have achieved nothing. Yet when she was alive, I juggled it all, and found art time. I think I’m still catching up on rest, and learning to live with the gap in our lives.

So one of the things I am slowly doing is going back to some of the things that have been good in my art in the past – like exploring the landscape to see just how far from a ‘real’ landscape you can get before it no longer says landscape. I’d be been using my Gelli Plate, foam stamps with words on them, and a bunch of bubble wrap, to get messy landscapey layers. What I love is that with printing you get bits of paint left over and they come out in a layer later on, adding more colors and texture.

 

2012 as a blogger

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 6,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 11 years to get that many views. In 2012, there were 57 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 559 posts. There were 129 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 190 MB. That’s about 2 pictures per week. The busiest day of the year was June 10th with 177 views. The most popular post that day was New home office / art room.

These are the posts that got the most views in 2012.

• 1 Full moon 6 COMMENTS August 2008
• 2 NZ Art Guild Challenge – ‘where the wild things are’ 3 COMMENTS January 2010
• 3 Crusade 61: end of an era 9 COMMENTS April 2012
• 4 Crusade No. 60: Honor what you love 7 COMMENTS February 2012
• 5 Crusade No 59: turn to-do into ta-da! 5 COMMENTS January 2012

Visitors came from 98 countries in all! Most visitors came from The United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom were not far behind.

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