Summer 04: 04/02/2023

This week I painted the third of twelve final pieces for Sellisternian and the last of the 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.

I was excited to finish the Summer Trio and see it all together. I would also be introducing a new element this week and was curious to see how it would sit alongside the other mixed media. As usual I start with my 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 let's get summer done!

You'll notice that the big yellow orb among the pencil lines, obscuring the face and dominating the composition. That's a layer of acrylic gesso toned with a bit of yellow ochre. This will be a landscape element which will be rendered in acrylic and a plain watercolour surface would soak up the paint, dulling the colour and drying it out a bit too fast. I would be doing the acrylic element early because it's a lot easier to wipe a stray blob of watercolour from an acrylic surface than the other way around.

The landscape element here went down nice and quickly, all the practice in my sketchbooks is paying off and I didn't get bogged down here like I would have a year ago. The rest of the painting will use the same colour palette as the previous two pieces but I want the landscape to look distinct so I just grabbed whatever acrylic paints I fancied for a lush summer scene. I did pop in some pink flowers though and some honeycomb pattern bushes to show the thread of influence. This honeycomb texture has now completely migrated form the background to the surface of the dress, though still crossing on to the skin in places.

The little tattoos are mostly eyes and stylised versions of the big flowers. I draw them at this stage so that they'll sit under the wash of watercolour skin tone. This is how real tattoos work, the ink sits under several layers of skin so the colours are always tinted by your own skin tone. That's why mock tattoos on films etc often look so fake, they're plonked on top of the skin like a sticker and not muted enough.

As I put in the ink layer you can now see that the sunny centres of the flowers have been replaced with the iris and pupils of eyes. In the previous two pieces it was the other way round with sunny orbs for eyes but, like the pattern on the dress, the portrait and floral elements have exchanged parts of themselves. I put a wash of water over the background and dropped in acrylic ink to flow out and give the feeling of clear sky, keeping the denser blue for the honeycomb pattern.

Back out with good old Potter's Pink, Cerulean etc applied in the same way as the previous two pieces. I had drawn in more of the yellow tips to the larger petals to make up for removing the sunny orange pollen centres so that it would still be a dominant colour. The muted green of the irises is a mix of Cerulean and Raw Sienna.

I especially enjoyed putting in the final highlights and touches of pencil this time. Two paintings in to the series I already knew where everything should go and that I would be happy with the result. I saved the little shine on the irises for last, just like I would in a traditional portrait. A splatter of gold gouache and we're done! Summer is over!

In this piece I wanted to show the next step after last week's painting. The figure has gathered in the surrounding elements and holds them up here as a final product (though I hate that word!), a summer landscape. The landscape is green and halcyon, more saturated and idyllic than the yellowing flowers and leaves it was made from. But both are beautiful in their own way and neither is more 'true' than the other. I created both and have experienced both and here they live together in one piece of myself.

This addition of an acrylic landscape element will feature in future seasons as well so I'm pleased that it went well here.

I'm not going to take new proper photos of these paintings until all twelve are done but for now here's a line up of the Summer Trio. I love the way that the figure and the environment merge over the course of the trio. This is especially seen in the migration of the honeycomb pattern from background to foreground and in to jewellery form. This will be the most heavily floral season and I hope that I've done them justice with these big, pillowy blooms that burst open in all directions.

Working on big paper and across three pieces has already been very liberating, giving me space to play out an idea and indulge in all the details that I want. Seeing this first trio all together is giving me the motivation to crack on with the remaining nine paintings so that I can see all four seasons play out.

Landscape sketchbook is still going well, still working from last year's photos. The Borders doesn't have the most dramatic landscape but I'm actually loving that, it gives me the freedom to to push texture and colour without the vista dictating to me. My eyes aren't captured by a bold mountain or instagram-esque lake so instead I'm drawn to how patches of trees crawl over the low horizon or lively masses of long grass.

I had a couple of sore days this week so Doodlebook came in handy, mostly with practise for beginning the Autumn Trio next week. So here's a sneak peek, lots of fruit and mushrooms!

Thursday meant it was time for another Galashiels Studio Club evening. We had a still life set up, lots of lovely wood and ceramic against a burnt orange crepe fabric. I put down my dark values in felt tip before placing colour with pencil and then dotting in some textures with fineliner, very relaxing. Studio members were using a range of mediums and working at different scales, picking out different elements of the still life that appealed to them. Seeing all these different approaches is just as useful as doing the still life itself.

This year I finally bought a book I've been eyeing for ages and I'm so glad that I did! This is the V&A Sourcebook of Pattern and Ornament. There are tons of samples sorted by subject matter and spanning history and style. It's so useful to flick to, say, pomegranates and shown the wide variety in how different artists, designers and craftspeople approach the image. Just like the range of approaches to still life at Studio Club, it's good to be reminded of how many possibilities are open to you every time you sit down to make art.

Next week it's back to the planning stage, this time for the Autumn Trio. Finishing the Summer Trio is a good confidence boost, I know that this process works and I can direct my energy to the creative side of the project. If next week's update is already up I'll link it below, otherwise thanks for reading this early and I hope you have a good week!