Crop circles

One of my ink experiments had Mickey Mouse ears, so I cropped it. Found 4 interesting compositions in it. Always worth working on A2 paper so there's more of a chance of finding things that catch my eye.

working from the crop - first layer

Very much work in progress, on cold press paper. Liking how the pigments are behaving. And the energetic mark making. Now pondering what to do with my second layer.

Cutting and tearing to create

Last week, I had painted on heavyweight cartridge paper, and it buckled a lot. I wasn't crazy about the composition. So I tore it up. It's a process. It's good to let go of something. And creating something new from it. The hardest part for me is to glue extra elements onto the cropped piece. But I like where these two pieces have gone. One still very much a landscape, the other going towards the abstraction I'm interested in, where the landscape becomes flesh. The idea is still elusive, but I'm getting a glimpse of where this is going. 

Good job cropping

When I paint something on cartridge paper, I'm not precious about it. The focus is exploration and textures. I can then crop and look at composition as a separate phase.

Much happier with this square, where the focus is on the area of water where cool and warm colours are mixing. Original was A2, the square is about 25x25cm

Cropping and exploring - no colours

More cropping. What can I say, black and white doesn't excite me as much as colour.

 

Cropping and exploring

Remember that A2 piece on cartridge paper that I was reluctant to crop? Well I took the bull by the horns today and went for it!

Crop and collage 1. Love the marks and colours and shapes. Might need something with darker values somewhere, but it's got enough interest for now, to inspire me to get moving again.

2 is quite a vertical view, a slice of that big wide landscape on I could see from Bolus Head during my Cill Rialaig residency. I found it interesting to narrow the view so much.

3 is really all about the vegetation and wildness of February on that barren coast. It doesn't have as much in terms of composition, but I want to keep a record of those marks and colours. Maybe it's about the roots that appear where the road has been cut and the stones have collapsed. And the mountains on the other side, so far away, and yet so close.

Cropping

I cut up those ink blobs, trying to find shapes that appealed to me. But did not find much in the way of shapes to collage.

And two quotes that spoke to me recently, and that I copied into my studio book.

 

Cropped (and collaged?)

I cropped and collaged that large sheet of cartridge paper. The feeling of winter emerges. A dusting of snow. Some pieces didn't fit into a square.

4 crops

Cropping the image I painted on cartridge paper the other day. In a way, it's easier to do it electronically, but on the other hand, too many choices does not lead to a decision. Is any one of them better than the other? Or are they all one and the same?

 

Crops from previous pieces

While I was at it, I decided to crop a couple of pieces that I wasn't sure about. Also included here are crops of pieces I did on location in Allihies - as I didn't want to cut up the original, I printed them and cropped the printout. I'm trying not to be precious, but it's not easy! They're now safely glued in my studio book. They will be there when I need inspiration.

More crops

 More crops done, from those pieces that didn't look like much. I like these!

Cropping to generate new ideas

Yes, I find it hard to crop something I've drawn or painted. I like the big picture, and I want to incorporate everything into my paintings. But I know that's not possible. So I have cropped two of the four pieces I did yesterday, trying to focus on elements that pull me in. I'm not sure where this will lead me yet, as the time between Christmas and New Year can be full of distractions. Still, I show up in my studio and trust that the process will deliver something at some point.

How do I decide what to keep? It's hard to explain.Sometimes, it's just the shape of a curve, two colours side by side, a jagged line. It can be anything. I just feel a pull. I don't overthink it. These will be a starting point. That's all they need to be. Sometimes, they still look like a landscape. Sometimes, they're more like a jumble of body parts. That's ok too.