Flowers, fields, fells and felines!
People often ask, "How do you find your own artistic style?" I believe that style is a product of all the things you love - the subject matter, the colours, the techniques woven together through years of experience. People often recognise the distinctive style of my landscape monotypes. (Scroll down for a sneak peek of some new ones.) Alongside my printing, I've been using acrylic paint with collage for just over a year now and I think I'm beginning to find my own style.
For my painting, I'm circling in on the subjects, colours and techniques that are giving me the most joy. The subject matter is drawn from both animal and plant forms. At first, I thought I had to choose one subject but I realised I can use motifs from both as a way to give structure and form to these collage compositions. I paint both the background and the collage papers then start cutting and sticking to bring them together. I love the random placement of colour and pattern as you slice through the papers.
The loose theme is cats in gardens - both domestic and tigers! "The Tiger who came to Tea" (the well loved children's book by Judith Kerr) would have no problem inhabiting a garden! These compositions could tell little stories but I'll leave that to your imagination. My main focus has been on the colour relationships and how to get the different elements to "sing" together.
The simple floral shapes relate to my love of gardens and time spent drawing and painting in our allotment. I always feel that there is a technical problem in depicting colourful flowers. If one paints them on a white background, there is no context when, in life, we usually see them supported by rich and varied greens. On the other hand, if you paint a background, one has the rather tedious problem of painting around the shapes in order to keep the clear, bright colours. What I love about collage is you can plonk a floral shape onto the background, move it around and watch the magical colour interactions!
So this tiger now inhabits a world of giant poppies that pulse with colour against the turquoise and purples of the background. I'll be adding eyes and other details to give personality and focus. The palette of colours is quite limited to just Lemon, Magenta, Payne's Grey, White and Cyan (as described in my previous blog post)
Acrylic paint is a rather unforgiving medium feeling rather like painting with household emulsion! I've been innovating with various acrylic mixing media to create interesting surfaces that move away from the banality of the paint brush mark. By rubbing and scumbling, I'm getting more complex surfaces with varied colours that remind me of inking up a collagraph or etching.
In July, I went on a guided walking holiday in the central Lake DIstrict. My Dad used to lead our family on mountain walks in the Lakes and Scotland but it's been many years since I did something like that, my own family preferring lowland walks. It was a shock to the system, I can tell you as the level of fitness needed for a steep ascent is far greater than for a more level walk! I knew that, but it didn't really hit home until I was panting and falling behind the rest of the group, many of whom were much older than me!
These photographs were taken at the top of the Langdale Pikes. Pikes means peaks and we climbed three of the four. We were blessed with perfect walking conditions with sunshine and cloud which gave lovely brindled patterns on the landscape below and around us. It was very inspiring but I'm not yet sure what art projects will flow out of this experience. Much as I enjoyed the views, from an artistic point of view, I related more to the layers of misty hills seen on a wet day!
Finally, an update on my monotypes: Progress has been slow as I've been away and working on my paintings but I'm getting close to completion for five new pieces. Three are patchwork landscapes with my trademark patterned fields and winter trees. There's also a woodland and a waterfall. I hope to share these with you next month. Subscribers to my email list get first pick of new originals so sign up now if you're interested!
I'll be sharing the finished paintings and monotypes over the next couple of months. Sign up for my emails in the footer below to make sure you get notifications about new work and new blog posts.