Mallotus villosus

 Mallotus villosus

12 x 36 - oils

Mallotus villosus.  I've used the latin genus as the name for this painting.  He (as he's fairly thin and small, I'm presuming its a male) is a showy fellow and deserved a more regal name I thought, especially as he sacrificed his life in the name of art. 

I finally managed to get some odorless thinners for the oils I'm using and do some more work on the giant capelin.  Usually turps don't bother me, but they have lately and with the weather cold and damp, having good ventilation wasn't an option while painting.

It seems the older I get, the more things turn against me in terms of scents and foods.  But hopefully, this problem is taken care of for now.  I don't mind the smell of oil paints themselves, in fact I notice very little smell from them.

So on to the fish painting.  I've layered more colours to try to achieve that luminescence that fish have in places as light catches scale or wetness. The subtlety of colour in something as simple as a capelin is quite amazing, as is the detail.  I like the progress so far and still have some work to do on the mouth and the fin, then I'm hoping I can call it done and let it dry.

Final pelican update

I'm calling this pelican finished even if there are a couple of tweaks left to do.  I think there will always be a couple of tweaks left to do on some pieces.  The final brush stroke is always difficult to predict at times and often what I mentally call the last stroke is the stroke that overworks a section and sends me into despair about my ability as an artist.

The tweaks on this piece won't be enough to push it over the edge, so it remains safe.  I rather like having this fellow gazing at me accusingly in the studio.  However, if someone would like to give him a good home, he will be available for sale in my Etsy store soon, so keep an eye out for him.  I know he'd love to come and stay with you too.

Working larger

As a change from some of the tight work and printing that I've been doing lately, I felt the need to start something large in oils.  This is what's currently on my easel.  Its 12" x 36" and of a capelin.  Yes, yet another fish...

The scale of paintings in the 21st century are much smaller than those in the 17th or 18th centuries which often were 6 or 7 feet long and perhaps 3 or 4 feet wide.  The size of houses and available wall space make it more difficult to hang very large pieces and pricing would be prohibitive for the artist and the buyer.

There are good and bad aspects of working larger.  Its very freeing in many ways and allows me to slap on paint that I would normally used in a more controlled way.  The sheer act of using larger brushes prevents me from focusing on detail. Standing back from the piece is crucial to make it become believeable.  When you're on top of something large that you're working on, you don't see easily what isn't working, so moving back 8 or 10 feet at frequent intervals helps me make sure that what I'm painting isn't skewed.

When working on a larger scale, the painting becomes very abstract, as it is just values and colours and I sometimes forget just what I am painting, hence the importance of stepping back often from it.  In this case, instead of filling a larger canvas with images and background, I choose to simply make the focus a single object on a larger scale.

Scaling up an initial drawing can be done several ways.  I choose to use a projector to enlarge to this scale, simply to save time.  And before someone wades in on the 'is a projector cheating' argument; no, it isn't.  I see it as a tool to help save me time, not draw for me.

Of course more paint is used on a larger canvas and the canvas itself more expensive, but it shouldn't deter anyone from trying something larger. Sales and use of student grade paints can overcome economics if you really want to try larger scale pieces.

It will take more time to paint a larger canvas and if you're one for instant gratification, then large paintings won't be your idea of fun.  Errors in your initial drawing will become magnified on a larger scale and what you could get away with on a small canvas won't stand up to scrutiny on a large one.

12 x 36 isn't that large, but suits my purposes for today.  I have much larger canvases sitting and waiting for the right piece to go on them.  However I do like the long horizontal or vertical formats that this size canvas enables.

How large are your paintings?  How large would you like to go?

Country life

I've spent a lot of my adult life living on working and hobby farms of various sorts.  It was always a childhood dream to be on a farm which turned into reality, with good and bad aspects. 

The romantic notion of living happily in the country with hens wandering  through neat rows of cabbages, the sun shining and everyone living off the land is just that, romantic.  The idyllic life that those not living in the country see, has a behind the scenes view that is based in hard physical work, disappointment, hardship and reality.  Of course there are pleasures and joy and contentment but they are always tempered by the reality of their opposites.

However, it doesn't stop me from being drawn to the traditional way of country life and to the houses and barns that represent it.  Probably because they are so familiar to me and seeing them or drawing them brings back memories.

This is a sketch that I did this morning or an abandoned farmhouse and barn in France.  I was having coffee and too lazy to go to the studio to get paper and pen so used an old felt tip pen and the back of a mail flyer to sketch this.  The coffee and the pen gave out around the same time, but this scene may be redone in pen and ink at a later date.

Shadows

Ideas and images catch my eye when I least expect them.

The other morning very early, I was ironing a shirt for work and as I turned to leave the room the shadows on the door caught my eye.  The trees outside the window were softened by movement, almost rippling in the light.

I always find shadows interesting and seem to have a number of photos of them from various sources and times of day.  They turn the ordinary into something extraordinary for me.  Perhaps there is a painting in there somewhere waiting to come out.

Closer to the drawer

Its been a busy week for me with not a lot of progress on the pelican and the feathers on the body are giving me grief.  Well, that's not completely true.  I'm just not in the mood to work in detail on the feathers of the body right now.  I have washes of colour in and they need some form to them.  I hope to come to grips with this within the next couple of days, otherwise the bird is at risk of going into 'the drawer'. 

You know the one.  Its where paintings and drawings go that aren't finished, you don't like how they are going, or you think that if you don't see them for awhile, you'll be able to revive them at a later date.

So this is the little update of the bird just in case he disappears from site for awhile.

Meanwhile a little strawberry leaf printed on black paper to cheer  me.  The shape and smell of strawberry leaves is wonderful and they're a beneficial herbal medicine too.  But right now, the leaf is a harbinger of fruit still to come.  If it ever does in this miserable cold wet spring/early summer we're having.  Poor plants are out there shivering and tonight on the news a farmer on the west coast of the province estimates a $10,000 loss of strawberries when late frost zapped a lot of the flowers on his plants last night.  It seems the cold doesn't want to let go this year.

Capelin study

This is a graphite study of a capelin, drawn from life .  These little fish were a staple of Newfoundland food fishery and become synonymous with summer here when they come to the beaches to spawn.  Unfortunately, like fisheries all over the world, overfishing and changing climate as well as pollution affect fish habitat.  As a result, spawning times are later and fish numbers greatly reduced when they do reach the beaches.

I find these fish very appealing, not to eat - I find them too strong tasting for my liking - but the colours in them are perfect for painting and the shapes so interesting to draw. 

Capelin will be a featured in my grant project as they reflect the culture of the province as well as the fishery.

More pelican

Here's another update on the pelican.  He (or she) has that wonderful baleful look, just perfectly summing up its feelings regarding the disaster in the Gulf.

I watched the news this evening and the sight of oil covered birds, water and beaches is quite sickening and still oil gushing out into the ocean.  It makes me consider my gyotaku project and how it will become a marker of sorts for species in the future, should the Atlantic become the victim of a similar disaster. I hope that never comes to be.  I hope that safeguards are in place and that clean ups can at least begin to repair some of the damage already done before it gets even worse.

Until humans decrease their need for fossil fuels, companies will still mine the earth and incidents like this will happen.  You and I are also responsible for the Gulf disaster.

Fish five ways

 TerraSkin

I've been drawing fish and printing fish and thinking about fish.  I may soon grow gills!


In my experimenting with some collographs and relief prints I used a piece of 1/8" foam to 'sketch' my image on, then indented the lines that would remain uncoloured.  I inked the foam piece and used it on a sheet of TerraSkin that I had in my art stash.  The print worked well on the TerraSkin surface and perhaps the foam texture helped the ink adhere better.  Drying time even with water based inks is longer on TerraSkin as the paper doesn't absorb any moisture, similar to how Yupo behaves.

 Ink stained paper

I also used a piece of Somerset printing paper, a piece of handmade ACEO paper from India, ink stained paper, and a sheet of plain paper that was my initial test piece.

 Handmade Indian paper

 Somerset paper

I printed an edition of six pieces using the same foam plate but found that the pressure from the baren degrades the plate and it needs to be washed and re-incised again between prints to get a clear image. However, its useful for quick ideas and if there aren't linoblocks handy.  Its also easier on my hand and more like drawing than carving.

 Plain paper, test sheet

I tried a different plate on Somerset printing paper, but the paper was too damp and blurred the image a little.  Lesson learned.  I shall try again.

Japanese Chiri paper

These prints are about 6.5 x 8" and the small edition will be available to purchase on Etsy.

Pelican update

The cheque for my grant arrived today which turns it into reality and means that I have to get down to business.  Part of that business is buying supplies to enable me to produce more gyotaku.

I've been quietly working away in the background on Japanese paper that I invested in awhile back and my store of fresh and frozen fish.  I've since bought more paper and will be purchasing even more.  I need enough to experiment with different types of paper and to have enough to wet mount the ones that I want to keep.

I will also purchase a cross section of printmaking inks to see which work best for the technique.  I've been using water based so far and they're fine but not high quality.  I'll invest in some oil and water based ones to see which produce the best prints for me.

While I know I will be spending money on supplies, the quantity that adds up in a little 'faux shopping' online is somewhat scary.  However, I'm sure I'll get over it quickly enough...

Meanwhile, some more watercolour brings me back down to earth with the pelican.  He's starting to take on a stronger shape now and colours creeping in to provide form.

Pelicans and giclees

 I've made a little more progress with the pelican, adding some washes and building the layers up on the beak.

Pelicans are such strange birds, almost prehistoric looking.  The length of the beak is extreme especially from this angle. They look so ungainly on land but fly and dive with such ease.  I'll just have to go somewhere warmer and watch them for awhile I think.  Its tragic to think how they are affected so badly by the oil pollution in the Gulf.  Poor things.

Meanwhile, I've put the new giclees that are available on my giclee and card page here on my blog and in my Etsy shop.  I have Koi Pool and Masai Portrait available in 11 x 14 and 16 x 20 giclees.  I'm quite pleased with the quality of the images and do hope they go to good homes.  Its always difficult for me to part with art, even reproductions.  Like animals, I always want to know they're going to good homes.

Unseen opportunities

I planned on so many things tonight, but time or technology chose to distract me into other areas.

So instead of stressing over it, I will share an image of Middle Cove taken today on my drive home.  There are road works on the main road that I travel on to get to and from work, so I thought I'd outsmart that and take a back route.  Well, so did everyone else, so I wasn't much further ahead.  Seeing as I was was in the neighbourhood I figured I'd drive over to Middle Cove and see what the ocean had for me.

This was it.  Fog was drifting in across the hills and ocean, creating a fantasy world. It seems that sometime delays and changes open up new opportunities that we would have otherwise missed.

World Ocean Day

Today is World Ocean Day and of course, the world's attention turns to the Gulf of Mexico and the disastrous oil spill there and how it affects vegetation, animals, birds, and people.  Its effects are far reaching and for other parts of the world who explore for oil, such as Newfoundland, its a 'there but for the grace of God' scenario.  

Newfoundland has vast oil reserves offshore that are being pumped as I write this.  Disasters have occured in the name of oil, mostly human loss of life due to machines failing.  There hasn't been an oil spill to date, but there could be and it could have equally devastating effects on the ocean, coast and way of life in this region.

Mankind puts a large footprint on the earth and destroys many things in the name of progress, most of which can not be replaced or made better.  While thinking of this, and reading about the Gulf disaster, the first bird that always springs to mind for warmer places is the pelican and it is one of the poor sea and shore birds that become victims of oil pollution.

I am starting a watercolour portrait of a pelican.  Perhaps it will ease my mind or bring home to me more closely the impact that ocean pollution plays in the world.  It is a perfect symbol for World Ocean Day in 2010.  The initial line drawing is here, darkened to show the lines more clearly.  I will start some washes later or tomorrow.  Its on 200lb Arches paper and measures 11 x 17.5 inches.

Grape leaves and ghosts

 

 I am still playing with leaf prints and colour and paper.  This print in white ink on black reminds me of ghostly images - the souls of plants captured fleetingly before they disappear back into the earth.  Something as simple as colour can change an image so much.

I have three grape vines in the greenhouse that produce wonderful grapes every year.  Grapes would never grow outside in Newfoundland.  The season is too short and too cool, but in the greenhouse they thrive.  White Interlaken grapes and a Pinot Noir vine have taken over and need cutting back every year or they'd fill the space easily.   The grape leaves and vines are multipurpose aside from the fruit they produce.  The leaves are used to create dolmades and now printing.  The vine cuttings I use to create charcoal sticks.

 

 

 My garden gives me so much and asks so little in return. 

Printing nature

As some who read my blog may know, I am a herbalist as well as an artist.   Although my medicinal herb garden isn't as big as it once, there are still many of the more common and useful herbs in it that I use regularly.  Comfrey is one of them.

Comfrey grows to about 4 feet high, and has large leaves with visible white hairs on them, especially on young leaves, like peach fuzz. Comfrey grows like a weed and it is hard to get rid of once it has taken hold. It has drooping flowers, in colors ranging from purple to pink to blue to white. You can pick the leaves in spring and summer, they are best before the comfrey flowers. The flowers come in late spring and summer. And the roots are usually collected in fall and winter.

With the comfrey in the garden in full growth now, I picked some of the young leaves for relief printing.  Comfrey leaves and quite sturdy and hairy but that doesn't affect the print that you get with them.  I left the leaves to wilt a little overnight before printing.

Using 12 x 16 inch Okawara paper and a water based block printer ink, I inked the leaf on the reverse side, then turned it onto my print surface.  I burnished it using a baren and the resulting prints look almost like surreal trees.

I played around with some tiny prints using a hand made Indian paper, as well as used newsprint as above for some test prints.  There are lots of ideas in my head for more print options for plants and especially herbs as I have a garden full of them. A few grape leaves from the greenhouse work well too.

Why the initial image won't show as horizontal, I don't know.  Blogger has its moments I guess, so you have to use your imagination.  I will conquer it and this print will be available for sale on Etsy soon.

Ideas and walks

I have ideas spinning around in my head at the most inopportune moments and I usually try to jot them down in some form so they're not forgotten.   Sometimes an idea takes on a will of its own and insists on being put into a form that ensures it stays in my mind.

I have a vision of a fish skeleton in my head.  I don't know the final form it will take or what media but it has to be done.  I don't know why, but it does.

Now finding or creating a fish skeleton isn't as easy as you'd think.  But to spare you the gory details, lets just say I'm working on one with some help from Mother Nature. (keep fingers crossed).  Meanwhile a rough sketch of a skeletonized fish is what  I've worked out today in charcoal.  With more thumbnail sketches and some time, I'm sure I'll come up with something that matches the vision in my head.

Finally today was warm and sunny and after so much rain and cool temperatures it seemed like a different world.  I did my little tour of the property and the barn as usual and thought I'd share a few images with you.  I find it fascinating that no matter how many times I take the same route around the property, I always find new things to photograph.

The broiler chicks are two weeks old now and growing almost before my eyes. They're starting to feather out and loose their down, but still need heat lamps to keep warm.  They've dug little nests in the sawdust under the lamps and bask in the heat.

Sometimes nature doesn't always succeed.  This junco nest was under a garden chair that was waiting to be thrown out.  The three chicks in the nest had hatched but died.  This nest was built right on the ground even though it had some protection from the elements.  With the cold and rain, I don't know if that was a factor or if the parents got scared off somehow.  Unfortunate that it is, I still marvel at the beauty of the structure and of the little hatchlings.

On the far side of the meadow beside the house a little brook wanders through.  Its mostly runoff from the  land and is usually only full of water after a lot of rain.  I have to go through the trees to find it and its always like finding a surprise in the woods.

Finally, I've added some photographic prints for sale in my Giclees and Prints page.  You can find the link to the page on the top of this page.  These were a couple of black and white photographs that I took in the barn.  The barn is my treasure trove of old and dusty and new and alive.

Endangered art

"The applied arts are a cornerstone of our heritage "

I am a realist and don't dabble in abstraction much. However, it sometimes it becomes part of me, part of what has gone before.  I've been reading about various forms of Japanese art to wrap my brain around gyotaku and help me understand the culture of art there.  This little piece is my hurried attempt at suminagashi late at night.

Suminagashi is a Japanese form of marblizing paper and translates literally as 'ink floating'.  Its a very simple technique that has been taken to a high level of expertise and beauty in patterns.  Marbled paper isn't seen as often today as it was years ago and the number of artists who create it or mentor others into the technique are few.

Several art forms are endangered, suminagashi is one of them.  Gyotaku is reviving slowly and advancing in the Western world.  It seems that the current society of instant gratification needs do not want to spend the time to learn skills that have time attached to the end result.  Engraving and printmaking are in danger of being over ridden by machines that can produce similar results. 

This quote, from HH magazine, even though around watchmaking - another endangered art form - really applies to all forms of art that involve specific techniques that are produced by hand.

Speaking at a study day organised by the Société Suisse de Chronométrie (SSC) on the theme "Watchmaking and its Artists," Estelle Fallet, curator at the Musée de l’Horlogerie et de l’Émaillerie in Geneva, insisted on the vital importance of the craftsman’s hand in the watchmaking segment. "The applied arts are one of the cornerstones of our cultural heritage. They are heir to a multitude of expertises that have been developed and painstakingly transmitted throughout the centuries. Their history is a nurturing source of inspiration which enables them to embrace contemporary artistic currents. They add to a heritage which they also safeguard, through restoration work. Synonymous with perfection, these arts are a combination of gestures drawn from tradition and new technologies that are a prolongation of the human hand. They transform an ordinary object into a masterpiece. Materials are ennobled at their touch.

Investment pain

 I've been up to my ears in work and prints and marketing and haven't had a lot of time to do much drawing or painting.

Today I picked up the proofs for three new giclees that I will have available next week.  The pieces that will be printed are Masai Portrait, Koi Pool and Frozen Door to Dawn.  I will have more details on how to purchase them within the next few days.

Then I'll officially be in the poor house for awhile, as besides the giclees I've had additional printing done for a trial run I was lucky enough to have approved by the Historic Sites Association in Newfoundland for their Heritage Shops.  Its a small order to see how reproductions of a couple of  my watercolours sell locally. Purity Kisses and Merry Christmas Hares will be available as 8 x 10 images and single greeting cards in select Heritage shops later this summer.  Keep your fingers crossed! 

I've also had to throw more cash at packaging materials:  backing boards, cellophane sleeves, labels, etc., etc.  I bite the bullet and keep telling myself its an investment in inventory but there's always a twinge of pain involved in parting with larger sums of money in a short time frame.

The high point of investing money in art supplies is my grant from NLAC and the knowledge that I have sufficient funds in it to allow me to purchase lots of yummy new Japanese papers to experiment gyotaku with as well as inks and my prime subject - fish!  That will be one spending spree that I won't have to fret about too much.

More gyotaku experiments

Inbetween other pieces, I'm starting to experiment with fish prints.  The fishing season isn't in full swing yet, so finding whole fish is a challenge.  I come across the occasional fish and snatch it up.  Freezing doesn't seem to adversely affect the texture of the fish and prints remain the same.

This rainbow trout has done yeoman's duty before it went off the the compost pile.  Yes, some are eaten after printing, but many are too well used to do that.  I look at them as another art tool, albeit an expensive one at times.

I've put in an order for some Japanese papers and am looking forward to getting them and having some time to try out more.  There are a mind boggling number of Japanese papers, not all of them suitable for gyotaku or capable of withstanding additional manipulation.

Then the question of mounting the final pieces is taking me down different avenues of exploration.  Aside from traditional framing, I hadn't really considered other options and there are a number of them.  Its opening a whole new world of supports, techniques and processes.

Just a fish you say.....think again.

Mikaela's Rock WIP

 
Awhile back I virtually renewed an old acquaintance on Facebook and was struck by an image he had as his avatar.  So struck that I asked if I could use it for a portrait.

Terry Rielly is a much loved children's entertainer in the province as well as a serious musician, writing music and lyrics for a more adult audience. 

This image is about a special rock of a child called Mikaela who lugged this heavy stone from the beach to Terry's house.  Terry is now the guardian of the rock until Mikaela returns to collect it.

This is the beginning of a watercolour measuring 11.5 x 17.5 on 200lb paper.  This is the initial line drawing and the first washes to breathe life into it.