Too many things happening at the same time. Plumber in the house getting new bathroom organised. I didn't realise how much chaos that would cause. Landing is taken over. I have bits of my life across 4 rooms. I'm flying to Belgium at 7pm. Good to escape the construction work. But travel is always stressful for me. So it's not the ideal solution. A haven of peace in the middle of it all - a visit to Eddie, my hairdresser. And working with minimum supplies.
I cut up two of the experiments from earlier, and when I put them together again, I had four very abstract landscapes. Let's see where these will take me next.
Value studies in ink. I have zoomed in on one of the photos I took near Ballinskelligs in February. I'm still very specific about the location I'm painting, but by zooming in, it becomes both specific and universal, which is what I am trying to express in my art at the moment. How to capture a whole world in a small painting?
Pencils4Tea 10 April. Graphite pencil and Stabilo Woodies have become my tools of choice for these sessions, as I'm working in a sketchbook and the poses are short (the time of a song), so I have no time for waiting for watercolour to dry.
I have been stuck with this bottle of India ink that I couldn't open. Then I read Nina Khashchina's blog and I ran hot water from the tap on top of the plastic lid, and it worked! So I had to celebrate and use that ink (it's getting old!). When things looked boring, I cut them up and did some collage (well, paper-clipping - watercolour paper doesn't glue well). Then I played with Neocolor and Dermatograph lines. I'm loving this little dance - not knowing where I'm going but having fun. And I wish I had had a drone when I was in Cill Rialaig. I could have looked at the land from a different point of view. But it was too windy most of the time. And I would have disturbed the sheep.
Sometimes, I just have to abandon a thread, even if it looked promising for a while. Once the enthusiasm disappears and procrastination takes its place, it's a sure sign that I need to do something different. It doesn't mean that I won't come back to the original thread at some point, but for now, I need to follow the nudge that's pushing me in another direction. So, after exploring ideas of a strong energy, which then peetered out after a few days, I painted tulips for a week in my sketchbook. Now, I feel the need to paint again. I'm thinking land, sky, sea again. Let's see where it goes.
We've had glorious sunshine in this first week of April. It's not exactly warm, but such lovely light. A great excuse to go sketching in the Botanic Gardens with Dublin Sketchers.
I loved observing the great variety of trees and vegetation, and the family groups enjoying the good weather.
I have been avoiding painting all week. I have sketched plenty. But I couldn't get myself into the right frame of mind. I don't really know why. I am not quite sure what to do next, maybe. Or I have too many options. So, after painting my last batch of tulips while chatting with Shelley, I decided to throw myself into a view from Cill Rialaig that popped up on my iPad. Now I'm excited again. Something to pursue and explore! And a reminder that a wide format makes me happy.
The tulips are still in great shape. But my enthusiasm for drawing them is not! Although the one done in ink is the only one where I measured the proportions so I could fit the vase in. For the one in colour, I kept piling on colour in the hope it would fix it. I didn't.
Lots of fun at Pencils 4 Tea on 3 April. I even got to pose! Which was a lot harder than it sounds. I felt like I blinked a lot more than other people. Next time I will put eye drops in before the session starts. And I will bring the laptop closer to me.
