Her embrace - ink vs watercolour

Played with ink to explore what came out of the Seeing More Clearly mini-workshop. I do love Pilot's Ina Ho colour, which they don't make anymore and they have nothing that comes close to its colour and range of values and variations as you dilute it. Worked on A2 heavy cartridge paper, with lots of water. When I tried a similar approach in watercolour, I realised that the water was sinking into the paper a lot more, with a result that the paper got damaged when I tried to make marks with a stick. It seems that the ink pulls the water up to the surface more. It's a shame that fountain pen ink in general is not lightfast. Though I have never done a test. I really want to get some similar effects in watercolour! I did get some nice effects with a deep yellow, Bloodstone Genuine and Grey of Grey. Am I going down another rabbit hole? I do jump around, but I'm genuinely interested in where this will go. So it's worth setting other things aside for a little bit in order to play with this idea.

Two paths meet

The shapes in one of the photos I had put in my Seeing More Clearly concertina book were calling out to me. And also the realisation that I want to introduce the actual shapes from the landscape into my more abstract paintings. I'm not sure why (yet), but it's important to me to recreate those roads and mountains, while at the same time hiding their exact locations. It's like they are my own personal haven. I want to share their beauty with the world. But I also want to keep them secret! So I have started with a thumbnail. An actual small-sized thumbnail. Not sure yet how I will merge this with my loose wild watercolour application. But that's another day's work.

Small thumbnails

It's a long time since I've done small thumbnails. I was checking out some colour combinations. Neither piece is completely satisfying, but the one with Grey of Grey and Bloodstone Genuine (and a Hansa Yellow Deep or Gamboge, not sure which_ does appeal to me the most. I'll park it for now, but will come back to the idea at some stage. 

Everyday joys

I have been in avoidance mode in the last few weeks (it's about 2 months actually! - I don't really know why, nothing in particular, maybe an accumulation of distractions and stresses, maybe I'm more tired than I would care to admit? I also have a stye that's stubbornly troubling my vision!). I can't seem to continue on the path I was on. So I'm trying other things. Rather than confront the problem straight on, I'm looking at other nudges, other things that have been catching my attention lately. The reality is that I live in the city, in the suburbs of Dublin. And I do love my life here. And I do notice all the beautiful little things that we spend most of our lives ignoring, like the song of a blackbird in the afternoon, the Spring light and shadows from the trees, the big bubbly clouds in the sky. None of it as dramatic as the Atlantic crashing on the West coast, but I'm appreciating these little daily joys all the same. And if I look at the photos on my phone, there's plenty that catches my eye, so why not try and paint some of it.

So, I started with cherry blossoms on cheap cartridge paper, buckling lots with the amount of water I use in my watercolours. It doesn't look quite so buckled in reality. Moved to heavy cartridge paper, more cherry blossoms from down the road on our afternoon walk. Third one is an attempt at shadows on the footpath. Didn't work out. But I really enjoyed painting the first two pieces, finding ways to express the pinkness of a cherry blossom at its peak!

Mark making

I repurposed that ethereal yellow and pink experiment I did last week. Adding elements from the landscape, but not tryint to make it into a "picture". My intention is to crop this and see where it goes. The trick with cropping is not to start with something I like too much. This one is in danger of falling into that category. And the one done in black in grey is probably too pretty too. I need to crop them before I think too much!!

Both are inspired by my walks on the Bolus peninsula during my residency at Cill Rialaig last year. Funny how it's just now that I'm coming back to that landscape!

 

Exploring the landscape - a word for heavy drizzle?

Another feeling from the mountains behind Allihies. Different light. Not quite winter anymore. But not spring yet. And the feeling of heavy drizzle. Cropped and collaged some of the crops, or added some oil pastel (with varying degrees of success - but I do like the vermillion colour, something to remember, as it's not an obvious colour for an Irish landscape). No real strong shapes here, but some nice soft colours.

A few closer shots. Interesting that the crops I chose don't match these shots.

It's all about Process

Working on cheap cartridge paper (I have a lot of it under my desk) is a good way to let go of expectation, even when working in watercolours and lots of mark-making tools (pastels, soft and oil, graphite and a weird white gouache amongst other things). It doesn't look like much, but that will make it easier to cut it up! I think I went a bit crazy with the soft pastels, but once you start with them, it's hard to stop!

 

Plunging, Holding

Exploring the water and rocks about 50 meters down the road from the previous paintings. The big slabs of rocks plunge into the water, and it feels like they're holding the water in an embrace. I haven't fully identified what my feelings are with this one, or what the energy is. This version is on cartridge paper, A2. The paper is a lot thinner than I expected. Not ideal with my vigorous way of painting and drawing. I did tear the paper. And I have painted something similar, but in a very different way, a few months ago. So this might take a while before I can figure this one out.

Testing Testing

The day is getting dark already. I need more light for watercolour. That's a good excuse to try out my new Arrtx markers. I tried them on brown paper. I think dark grey paper would be better. Need to ask a few people how they use these markers - maybe just for highlights? I don't seem to have enough darks?

Crop and collage?

I get too attached. Even on-location scribbles that I was planning to cut up and collage. In the end, I liked some of them too much. So ended up cutting and collaging printouts of these pieces. And even then, minimum collage. I need to do a lot more on-location painting so I am not precious about them. Still, it's a record of shapes and lines that I love, and they will be a good starting point, or an anchor when I'm lost and don't know what to do next.

Gouache squares

A fun session with Uma Kelkar on Vivify. Playing with gouache and a cut-up card, and also a painting knife, from photos, with no time to agonise over choices. I'm loving the idea of just one colour, and playing with values. I never thought I would say that. I wonder if I will pick up the courage to use gouache to sketch on location? Maybe if I just bring 3 tubes, nothing else. One colour, white, one dark. It does dry quickly, which would be a bonus in winter in Ireland.

Impressions of the landscape - quick ink studies

I was exploring headlands before I headed over to Beara, but now my head is full of images from the peninsula. It has headlands of course, but I think my heart is going in a different direction right now.  And I have to listen to my heart! Unless this is a form of procrastination? But if I don't record all these nudges that come to me, they will disappear and never come back. On the other hand, I might never get to finish a painting! I was also inspired by the session with Uma and Co. on Vivify, where we were doing thumbnails with ink and an awkward mark-making tool. I used a cut-up bit of watercolour paper. It held up quite well despite repeatedly dipping in very diluted ink.

Worked from photos for the first pass with diluted ink, then added darker ink afterwards, without the original photo, because I had skipped around and couldn't find them again.

Worked on quarter-sheet cold press paper.