Research, paintings, new studies and musings

After finishing "tidal traces" in June I've mostly been busy with visitors at the gallery so haven't had much creative time over Summer. However in July I managed to spend a couple of weeks gathering new research, developing some existing ideas and creating a couple of new summery paintings.

Most of my days out researching were spent close to home, pottering around South Ronaldsay admiring the patchwork fields, expansive skies and hazy horizon due East.

 

I also spent a lovely, sunny afternoon up at Marwick (on the west mainland of Orkney) at the end of August, soaking in the sunshine, sparkling seas, open skies and expansive horizon due West. As I'm stuck indoors during the day for most of the Summer months I really cherish the days I manage to get out to sketch and think in the sunshine.

After my week exploring I spent some time back in my studio working through ideas and created a couple of new drawings and paintings. For a bit of fun I photographed this pair outside the gallery on a bonny morning. All different locations within Orkney but they share expansive, blue skies.

For the past couple of weeks I have been working on smaller woven studies for a "bigger idea" which has been floating around my head for a few months, hoping they'll provide some answers I need to bring the idea to life.

I posted the above photograph and accompanying text on our Gallery Facebook page a couple of weeks ago and received the comment "Like an artist making a sketch before their final work," to which I replied that it's exactly the same process, just a different medium.

I know the comment was said with absolutely zero offense intended (as I receive similar comments regularly) but I find it interesting that when I decide to communicate my ideas through tapestry rather than painting that it's somehow no longer considered artwork or I'm no longer an artist when I use both mediums with the same purpose.

I always say it's not the medium which dictates whether something is art or design (or neither!) it's how the medium is being used. In my case (and my late mother's) I use handwoven tapestry as a fine art medium to create one-off works of art; I do not use it to create pre-planned, repeatable designs. I think of my tapestry work as painting with threads instead of oil paints.

Art tangent aside, I have now finished my studies and feel they have provided the clarity I needed to approach the final artwork. Hurray, all systems go! 

tidal traces

I thought I had finished all the admin that comes with finishing a new artwork until I realised I hadn't posted about it here. Better late than never.

Tidal traces *SOLD*

Handwoven tapestry

Size: 71 x 23cm (approx.)

Materials: cotton, linen, rayon and wool; woven on 8 warps per inch on cotton warp.

"Tidal traces" is an exploration of the cyclical ebb and flow of the tide, based on a painted sketch of the shoreline at the Sand O' Wright beach in Hoxa. Traced edges left behind on the shore are both evidence of a wave, like a fingerprint, and physical markers of the passing of time.

(detail)

(detail)

For display the tapestry hangs from a slim, wooden batten (attached with velcro) so it can hang delicately from the wall using picture hooks. I didn't feel this piece needed framing and allowing it to hang freely from a batten felt more in keeping with the artwork's concepts of movement and flow. Cotton webbing tape has also been sewn along the edges on the reverse side for a clean finish. 

 

 

 

We've had an incredibly poor summer so far in Orkney so trying to find decent lighting or take any outdoor photos of this tapestry without too much wind or rain has been a real struggle. I genuinely only managed to achieve one photograph at the beach without the tapestry flapping like a sail!

 

The weather, however, has finally improved so I'm hoping to get some time outdoors for summer sketching. I've been working on oil paintings and developing ideas in my sketchbook in the studio for the last couple of weeks but I'm definitely feeling the itch to get outside with my camera and sketchbook.

 

ebb and flowing up the shoreline

I thought it was about time for an update. Here's what I've been working on over May/June:

 

 

Unsurprisingly, it's another shoreline inspired piece!

As is always the case, by the time we reach the end of May I get very little time to do any creative work as the gallery becomes busier with visitors but I've generally tried to make a bit of progress each week, even if it's just an hour first thing in the morning. Thankfully this tapestry is nowhere near as complicated as what I was working on this time last year!

The finishing line is in sight as I move into dry sand. All shall be revealed soon...

ripple tapestries

Following on from my tapestries last December and oil paintings in January/February, I continued exploring light, reflections and patterns of Orkney shorelines. In particular I've been fascinated with backwash, when the seas draws back after a wave has dispersed.

The following tapestries are explorations of line, capturing the fluidity of water pulling back over the sand and the rhythm of dispersed wave fragments. Research came from a few beaches around Orkney: Dingieshowe and Skaill beaches on the Orkney mainland and Sand O' Wright beach in Hoxa, South Ronaldsay. 

"receding ripples"

handwoven tapestry, set in a painted, wooden box frame.

size: 17cm square (inc. frame)

materials: cotton, linen, rayon and wool; woven on 8 warps per inch.

 

(detail)

"reverse flow"

handwoven tapestry, set in a painted, wooden box frame.

size: 22.5 x 12cm (inc. frame)

materials: cotton, linen, rayon and wool; woven on 8 warps per inch.

 

(detail)

As is becoming habit I took my work outdoors to photograph. I particularly enjoy taking my tapestries artworks outdoors to photograph as their low relief, textural surfaces really come to life in natural, moving light.

"reflect and retreat"

handwoven tapestry, set in a painted, wooden box frame.

size: 33.5cm square (inc. frame) 

materials: cotton, linen, rayon and wool; woven on 8 warps per inch.

(detail)

The larger artwork of the three, "reflect and retreat", uses a combination of textural effects - single and double weft and knots - to really play with low relief surface. It also moves the ripple concept further, relating how sand ripples, created by water and air moving over the sand, reflect the gentle, undulating forms of the Orkney landscape. Ripples drawn from landscape silhouttes are layered with backwash ripples and sea froth fragments to play with this idea of interconnectedness. Colours, lines, forms and patterns echo one another, contributing to the natural rhythm and flow of Orkney's shorelines. 

 

new paintings

In the latter half of last year I had a quiet itch to return to oil painting but kept encountering a mental block with it. I couldn't tell if it was because the right inspiration hadn't presented itself yet, I wasn't in the right headspace or if it more nerve related as it had been quite a while since I last created a body of paintings (as opposed to sketchbook work leading to tapestries.)

Finally by December/January the mental block had shifted and I created the following artwork driven by light: how it's reflected and the colours, patterns and mood it creates.

 "echoed in the sand" *SOLD*

size: 35cm square (inc. frame)

oil on canvas, set in a painted, wooden box frame

"the cloud and the chapel"

size: 68.5 x 38cm (inc. frame)

oil on canvas, set in a painted, wooden box frame 

(The grassy mound at the Sand o'Wright beach in Hoxa is known locally as the "chapel", reportedly a pre-Reformation chapel established by a disciple of St. Columba circa 7th century.)

"echoed light"

size: 68.5 x 38cm (inc. frame)

oil on canvas, set in a painted, wooden box frame

It felt really good to make my own canvases again; it's a comforting, familiar process which reminds me of my art school days as a painting student. I find handmade/handstretched canvases are so much nicer to work on than shop bought canvases which can feel disconcertingly plastic. I enjoy the feeling of working on the raw canvas, having control of how I stretch and prime it. I also enjoy having control of the exact dimensions of the frame rather than having to make my compositions conform to standardised sizing. Basically I like having full control of the process, I'm fussy!

"Winter shimmer, Skaill I & II"

size: 53 x 23cm each

Oil on canvas board in painted, wooden box frames

*SOLD*

  "midsummer light, Quoyloo"

size: 72.5 x 34.5cm (inc. frame)

oil on ply, set in a painted, wooden box frame

(I had started this painting last summer but it got abandoned, so it was good to return and complete it, reminding myself of long, summer evenings during the short, winter days.)

A satisying row of oil paintings.

"Embers of light, Stenness"

size: 72 x 104cm

ink and chalk pastel on paper.

And lastly, my large ink painting "embers of light." This is a heavy brute of a piece because of the size of the glass! It took a while for me to decide on a suitable frame but I am really happy with my choice of this gold edged, dark grey frame. I'm generally not a gold-edged artwork kind of person, usually finding it a bit too "blingy", however I think it works really well with this painting. It pulls out the golden light, which I feel is important as the artwork is about that final glow of light at the end of a calm, winter's day.