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.

new winter work

You'd be forgiven for thinking I had dropped off the face of the planet judging by my lack of activity on the gallery's social media over the last couple of months, but I've been quietly working away gathering new ideas.

By the end of the Summer I had come to the end of my last body of research and desperately needed to spend time outdoors gathering new inspiration - thinking, walking, sketching and taking photographs. October in Orkney was dominated by wet, windy weather which I didn't find particularly inspiring however there were many calm, beautiful days in November which more than made up for the dull ones and the increasing shorter hours of daylight.

Ripples, reflections and low, golden light from these still days feature heavily in my research at the moment and have resulted in two smaller handwoven tapestries in the past month. Both are for sale and can be found on the gallery's website.

 

"winter twilight, Skaill" *SOLD*
Handwoven tapestry by Jo Thomson
Size: 25.5cm square (including painted wooden box frame.)
Materials: cotton, linen, rayon and wool; woven on 10 warps per inch.
 

This tapestry was inspired by late afternoons up at the Bay of Skaill (at Skara Brae) watching the sun cast a shimmering, warm glow across the shore before the sun set.

I often find there's an assumption that Orkney must have cool toned light in winter due to its northern location but this is not the case at all. There is so much warmth in our winter light: dusky, warm toned oranges which move into softer, duskier pinks further into winter.

 

 (detail)

 

(detail)

 

 

"wave memory, Skaill"

Handwoven tapestry by Jo Thomson
Size: 25.5cm square  (including painted wooden box frame)
Materials: cotton, linen, rayon and wool; woven on 10 warps per inch
 

Tidal cycles are a constant source of inspiration for me and "Wave memory" is a study of sea froth left behind on the shore at Skaill, below Skara Brae. Traced wave edges are like fingerprints: each ripple, froth or outline is similar yet unique each day. They reveal evidence of waves which have dispersed on the shore and the quality of the weather and tide that particular day.

As "wave memory" was a simpler piece to create it's priced lower accordingly. Both tapestries were woven on 10 warps per inch - slightly finer than my usual 8 warps per inch for a bit more detail and fluidity in line.

 

 

The shiny blue thread used in both tapestries (a viscose rayon) really shimmers and catches the light. It is difficult to convey in a photograph though! I also used a mixture of single and doubled weft in both artworks (and also knots in "winter twilight") which subtly play with depth in different light.

 

 

I had a surprising amount of bother deciding how I wanted to treat the wooden frames for these tapestries as I generally like to treat them as an extension to the artwork, pulling out a colour or tone in the artwork so the frame feels connected to it. After much deliberation I settled on painting the frames a dark, sandy toned grey with a bright blue wash rubbed into the wood grain which echoes the texture of the tapestries and highlights the shiny blue thread running through both artworks. From a distance the blue isn't obvious but I feel it's a lovely detail on closer inspection.

 

 "winter twilight" at Skaill beach

 

"wave memory" at Skaill beach

 

If possible I enjoy photographing my artwork within the landscape which inspired it, so last Tuesday I took the tapestries out on an adventure to Skaill beach to photograph in the twilight. Sadly it was fairly overcast so I didn't quite get the golden orange/pink light I had hoped for, but it was still beautiful and always satisfying to see my artworks connect with their inspiration source.

 

Skaill beach, 12th November 2023.

Inganess ebb studies

I don't always feel the need to create studies, for painting or tapestry, but occasionally I feel they're needed if there are techniques I want to explore or any uncertainties I want to address before beginning the final artwork. There were many things I felt unsure about with "Inganess ebb" (as mentioned in my previous post I avoided starting this piece for a good two years) so my best way to push through the uncertainty was to make full use of studies.

As a happy surprise, not only have my studies been useful, they've also ended up as interesting, exploratory artworks in their own right. Now that I no longer need them for reference I'm happy to set them free into the world, rather just shoving them away in a sketchbook.

 "sky ripples, II" Inganess study

handwoven tapestry

size: 18cm square (inc. limewaxed box frame)

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

 (detail)

"Sky ripples, II" is (unsurprisingly) my second sky study for "Inganess ebb." The rippled effect is much more subtle than in the first study, which I shared back in April (see here) and I also slightly changed how I wove it. This one is closer to what I ended up doing in my final tapestry. 

"Inganess hues", study *SOLD*

handwoven tapestry

size: 17.5 x 22.5cm (inc. limewaxed box frame)

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

 

(detail)

"Inganess hues" is an overall colour study for "Inganess ebb." It helped to figure out the overall "feel" for the final tapestry, how I wanted to use textures and also confirmed that I needed to purchase a few new shades of green to achieve the effect I wanted for the seaweed ebb area. 

Even though the purpose of "Inganess hues" (and studies in general) was to give me a feel for my colour palette, my choices generally do change slightly as I work on the final artwork. For this reason I often warp up a separate narrow strip on the loom next to the large tapestry, usually 2 inches (5cm) wide, which allows me space to test colour gradations or blends to see how they look before committing to it on the final artwork.

The following two studies are a result of this paint palette strip and I absolutely love how they have turned out now that they're framed, especially photographed against the larger "Inganess ebb" tapestry. 

"sea", colour study *SOLD*

handwoven tapestry

size: approx. 21 x 7cm (inc. limewaxed box frame)

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

"sky", colour study

handwoven tapestry

size: approx. 22 x 7cm (inc. limewaxed box frame)

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

Now it's back to the drawing board. I've come to the end of my last body of research so I desperately need time outdoors to walk, think and draw and then time in my studio to think, draw, paint and develop! I've also coincidentally come to the end of my last sketchbook. A new sketchbook always feels fresh with possibilities so let's hope I put my new one to good use over the coming months.