Week 4 - That's a nice watercolour you have there...

Excited!
The watercolour I did this week for the Montana painting went really well - I am so pleased with it!
I have to start oil painting now!





And another productive day at the pottery studio - my 2nd set of braid tiles that I showed in week 2 are out from their first firing. That black slip looks interesting!



And finally - 2 cylindrical pots that I made for me - bigger one is to hold kitchen utensils, the smaller one is for the nail brush and sponge! These need some coloured slip on them - but they have to dry out a bit first. I will have to do that next week.

Thanks for looking!

Week 3 - Pottery

Pottery Day!

I haven't to the pottery studio (Kirkgate Studios and Workshops http://www.ksandw.org.uk/) since before Christmas.

My intention was to go and work for the morning - but I was having such a good time, I stayed all day!

The images are of a series of 'pottery paintings' that I am working on. Many of the potters in the studio focus on making vessels or 'pots' - but I am more drawn to making pictures in clay. No doubt this is due to my background in painting and printmaking.

Once they are glazed and fired - the colours are permanent and they are sort of indestructible. I am used to working on paper and canvas that is very fragile - this property intrigues me...they won't ever fade!!

The braid motif (or 'plait' as they say in the UK) is one that I've only started exploring recently.
I think it has to do with having long hair now...one of the most intuitive things you can do with clay is roll it out into long pieces...

I know most of the followers of this blog will not be familiar with pottery, so I will explain some terminology.

This first picture shows a group that were finished before Xmas and have had their first firing - called a biscuit firing.
I've use Croxton clay here (which is grey in its unfired form) and sort of a pale pinky off-white colour once it has been fired. The white in these images is from a liquid clay called 'slip' that you can apply before the biscuit firing. Slip comes in all sorts of colours - there is also dark brown splattered on there.

The small one is a test tile - so I have something to test the glazes on at the next stage.



These ones have not been fired yet - the dark grey is black slip - relatively new, I don't think anyone else has tried it yet. These are ready for biscuit firing.









These are the ones I did today - the need to dry for about a week before they are ready for the first firing.





Some more in progress!



My colleague at work - she was using traditional terra cotta clay.

Week 2 - Montana Painting Begins

Spent the morning trying to set up this blog - by 11am was fed up, so headed to the studio.

My parents have commissioned me to paint a large scale oil painting for their 'cabin' in Montana. The scale of the building is large so the canvas is large - 1m by 1m40 (56in x 40in) . Scary.
I was initially very excited but now it has dawned on me that I have not done a painting on this scale (in oil or watercolour) for a long time. Did I say it was a bit scary?

So first I decided to tackle that canvas and at least get something on it - the first job was to put the image on. We have been discussing this for some time - so we had our image picked out and had discussed painting style, etc. It is a very pretty mountain scene with Sailor Lake in the foreground. Quite traditional, but I think a nice image with a lot of potential. I've put that on the canvas with the help of a projector...sometimes technology is so great!

The second job was to work out the colour scheme - I want to vamp up the original colours (a la California Expressionism) so I followed the process I have used in the past : I did some preliminary watercolours before starting in with oil. This would also help me get to 'know' the composition, which would allow me to make decisions much more easily as I was painting.

To be honest, I am not that happy with the watercolours - but I guess it is better to be unhappy with a watecolour that took you an hour, than a painting you've already spent 20 hours on?

The first watercolour was was definitely over-worked. Sometimes you have to take things too far before you know how far too far is - if that makes any sense.
The second is better - I'm making some sense of how the trees are 'built' which is important as they run right across the middle of the canvas. I'm happier with the sky colour - a nice cerulean blue. The colours of the mountain in the background are still stumping me. The colours overall are not unified enough. So definitely need to do more work there.

Next step is to get some larger, and lightened printouts of my mountain image and keep going with the watercolours until I am happy - and then we can start in with the oil!

Watercolour 1


Watercolour 2


Mountain image I am working from:

Why 52 Wednesdays for Art?

Because I've been able to go to 4 days a week at the job.
Because it has officially been 10 yrs since Art was the main focus of my life.
Because I never seem to have enough time.
Because I miss it.
Because I feel happiest when I'm doing it.
Because I have loads of art projects that I want to do and never seem to get around to.

Up till now (hopefully) I have really struggled to get any sort of balance with my working life, home life and creative life - I am hoping that '52 Wednesdays for Art' gives me more balance and satisfaction in my life and in myself. I would like to share this journey with friend and family as the year goes by!

The other thing I really miss is an arts community - so perhaps via this blog I will reconnect with friends, artists and family - and perhaps meet new ones?

I would like to spend more time in the pottery studio and in my painting studio...drawing, painting, creating. Basically just reveling in TIME to be creative!

My first Wednesday for Art was spent at the Chicago Institute of Art (well it was actually a different day because I was stuck in Dublin Airport that day) but anyway - I spent the day looking at the Impressionist collection there doing a bit of 'research' for the large-scale painting that my parents have commissioned for their house in Montana.

Below I have included a few images of my the objects I finished before Christmas at the pottery studio.

More to follow!