Summer 03: 28/01/2023

This week I painted the second of twelve final pieces for Sellisternian and the first of a summer themed trio. You can catch up on last week's work here, the overall idea for Sellisternian here and my practice for this process here.

So this painting is the second of our three summer pieces and I'll be using the same colours and mostly the same forms as I did in the first. Think of the first painting as a sheet of fabric and this piece as the act of gathering it up and beginning to form it in to new objects and ideas. I want to communicate my experience of making art, taking experiences and sensations and inspiration and pulling them inwards, muddling them up and moulding them in to something of my own.

With that in mind I start with a gorgeous Imperial sheet of Fabriano Artistico 300gsm, hot pressed watercolour paper, taped to an A1 canvas board. A graphite transfer of my digital sketch, details added in black Polychromos and away we go!

Let's get lining! The honeycomb pattern stencil was brought back out to add ripples of pattern crossing from background to skin to surface of the dress. I added some larger hexagons breaking away from the tighter honeycomb pattern that could be breaking away from the mass or moving to join it. The arms also received a few little freehand ornamental shapes in blue liner, a nod to the next painting in the series. Apart from that I used various colours of liners to establish the foliage much as I did in the first summer painting as I was already pleased with how my choices had played out there.

The honeycomb pattern is such an important part of this composition and I love the result but me and my ADHD were really in the trenches to get it done! I actually did the lining and acrylic ink for that pattern in one sitting because I knew that if I walked away it would be a struggle to get back in the zone. So I blasted some metal music, promised myself a coffee when it was finished and here we are, applause please and thank you! I had to remember that the hexagons on the dress and limbs were filled in muted purple and the hexagons in the background had muted turquoise between them and special attention had to be paid to the places where the honeycomb crossed over between figure and background.

The rest of the ink layer was nice and simple, following the same rules as in the first summer painting and then I was ready for watercolour.

After hunching over that honeycomb pattern for so long it was lovely to work in juicy washes of Potter's Pink! Colours were deployed much as they were in the first painting but I wanted a deeper brown for the hair and the wrapping on the bouquet. I got it by using the deep yellow mix used on the 'sunny' elements and it was neutralised nicely by the muted purple acrylic ink in the lower layer. Importantly, Cerulean washes seamlessly over the background and the fabric of the dress and it's the difference in pattern of the acrylic ink layer that differentiates them.

I added the same details as in the previous painting, such as orange pencil in the sunshiney areas of colour, including the jewellery, and a may green scribble along the stems. I deepened the touch of red at the fingertips, something I often do to emphasize the sensitive nature of forms like these hands which are grasping at the flowers. My final splatters of gold gouache were especially directed at the arms where they show nicely against the pale skin. And finito!

As I mentioned last week, summer is a season I can struggle with. Too hot, too bright, too powerful a reminder of climate change for me! But the foliage is so beautiful and varied in summer and I love being able to go on a walk in the evening when the light is softer and the day's tasks are already done. So this painting is based around gathering those big blooms in to an oversized bouquet. It's a bit too much to handle and the figure is visibly overwhelmed but something hopefully beautiful is forming. The honeycomb pattern is here again, spreading from the background and on to the surface of the dress and the many arms drawing the flowers in. It also appears on the jewellery elements which seems fitting as summer forms and images are so prevalent across all forms of art and crafts.

I'm pleased with this week's work and once again feel that it has nicely set me up for the next painting. A summer finale!

Next week's painting will have a hefty element of landscape in it and that was on my mind when working in my landscape sketchbook. I was looking at photos I took around the Borders last summer (probably while sweating a lot) and especially enjoyed looking at the late summer, crossing in to autumn. Like ghosts of some early changing trees were haunting the ones still in their full summer greenery. Hopefully I can work towards capturing that feeling as I develop my landscape paintings.

The weather this week has been fine for walks but still no good for loitering with a sketchbook so I just doodled from memory in my Royal Talens sketchbook which I am now christening Doodlebook. I love drawing in felt tip pen, I've been buying big packs of WH Smith pens since I was a kid and sliding them around on smooth paper is very relaxing. I have a pot of pastel pencils in my bedroom, where Doodlebook lives, and that's plenty for adding bits of colour.

We had a collage session at Galashiels Studio Club on Thursday that reminded me how fun collage is and that I definitely want to do more of my Mosaic pieces later in the year. I'm not posting things I make at Studio Club here because I want it to just be a chill break from my main practise. A lot of bits from it are going in an ongoing sketchbook though and will be uploaded when that sketchbook is full. Next week we'll hopefully be doing some still life which is another thing I want to do more of, at some point, later in the year, etc etc.

I grabbed this second-handy copy of the Taschen The World of Ornament and it is so nice to dip in and out of for inspiration. As you've probably noticed, I am absolutely not a minimalist and I love soaking up these busy, dense designs from across history and the globe. They're accompanied by explanations, labels and interesting insights, very nice. It's also small and heavy enough to be used in self defence if someone breaks in to steal my priceless artwork.

It's Friday night as I type this up and I'm looking forward to hopefully completing the summer trio in the coming week. If the next update is ready I'll link it here for you, if it's not linked then you're early so thanks and have a great week!