Back to the Future Day

Just back from Cornwall, in time for Back to the Future Day, the day which Marty McFly travelled to in 2015.

In the spirit of the day, thought you'd like to see my mini with a Delorean, when we took part in the Dash o' the Oirish rally along the Causeway Coast a couple of months ago.

Here we are at the Bushmills car park at the start of the rally.

Is that a flux capacitor?

Off we go!  It was my 16th rally, so I was familiar with the scenic route.  No need for a map!

On the road from Bushmills towards Portrush.

Coming down towards Dunluce Castle.  Portrush is in the distance.

White Rocks Beach from the road, with the sun setting over Ireland.

They insisted on driving the route with the doors open, even round corners.

But had to close them for going through the tunnel onto the racetrack....

Difficult to take a photo when you're kissing the apex.  The Delorean was a bit faster than I was.

Luckily, we survived.

Now, we then went on the second half of the rally.  

But we had a bit of an incident going two and a half times round a roundabout, almost crashed into another mini, and then two minis went off in different directions, leaving a dilemma for the other minis behind.  I panicked and took a group to Portstewart, via a church car park, because that's the usual route.  After all futilely driving round the car park, we headed for Portstewart main street, and confidently paraded along.  I thought it was odd that the usual crowds weren't lining the route to cheer us.  

Then, we met another group parading in the opposite direction down the street.  Ho w did that happen...?  So we did a U-turn.  So did some of the others following me.  

Some of the group on the opposite side of the road also did a U-turn, thinking it was them that were wrong.  

Portstewart main street was thus brought to a halt by hoards of U-turning minis.  People stood and stared.

At this point during the chaos, I saw another mini leaving Portstewart, and as I thought it looked as though it knew where it was going, I made an executive decision to follow it, and ran away from the U-turning carnage.

Randomly, we eventually bumped into someone we knew in a housing estate, and they directed out out on the Coleraine road to a remote church hall.

Meanwhile, in the church hall, sat a lonely Paddy Hopkirk, legendary rally driver and winner of the Monte Carlo rally, patiently waiting for his audience of triumphant mini drivers who had completed the course.  He had a celebratory cake to cut and everything.  Paddy Hopkirk once nearly reversed over me in a field in Birmingham, so we go way back.

Unfortunately, the rest of the rally were still careering round the Causeway Coast, looking vainly for the finish.

Sorry everyone....

Northern Ireland

Just back from my annual trip to Northern Ireland, to gather material for my forthcoming solo show in London in February next year.

As usual, the weather was wonderfully mixed - rainy one minute, glorious sun the next.  It made for some spectacular contrasts and amazing clouds in the sky.

Here's the coast at Rinagree, between Portstewart and Portrush.

The view across to Inishowen in Ireland.

From the Cliff Walk, Portstewart.

Walking down to the Giant's Causeway.

White Park Bay.

After a heavy shower of rain, the whole of the sea between Ballintoy and Rathlin Island suddenly lit up as a long, low rainbow.

The sight was so amazing and intense, that cars stop at the side of the road to look.  It looks very soft and unimpressive in photos, but in real life it was earily strange and beautiful, and very bright.  The sight of it dominated the landscape.

More tomorrow.

Painting a Painting

I thought you might like to see a little of the nitty-gritty of actually painting a painting, so I have taken a series of photos of the painting that I did yesterday.

Here's the original photograph that I was working from, of the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland.

Here's the canvas.  It's primed Belgian linen, 32" x 48", and has had a yellow ground put on it.  I've drawn in the rough shapes of the composition in thin brown paint.

Putting in the sky, using a large metal palette knife and small watercolour brush....

Using the palette knife to apply the large marks of paint for the sea.

 

Using turps and a small watercolour brush to put detail in between the large gestural marks.

 

 

Marking in the dark areas of the foreground.

 

Using the end of an old paintbrush as a scribe to draw into the paint surface, revealing the coloured underpaint.

 

Putting in the flowers.  This is the tricky bit, and involves industrial quantities of paint and quick movements to keep the colours clean.

 

Inscribing into the paint.

Finished painting!

Off to Northern Ireland

I'm off on my annual trip to the Causeway Coast this week.

I'm hoping for good weather at the Giant's Causeway again this year!  It can be very very changeable, but I haven't been let down yet, and always get a blink or two of sun between the rain showers....

It will be interesting to see the newly opened Visitors Centre at the Giant's Causeway, whose vast excavations were ongoing when I visited last year.  

I've been going to Northern Ireland for a few years now, and have seen a lot of changes.  You used to be able to pop along to the Causeway, park your car on the verge and walk down to see the stones.  Here's the stones...

And here's the new Visitor's Centre....

 The Giant's Causeway is being turned into a huge 'Experience' by the National Trust, with a vast multi-lingual interactive interpretation centre, and a park and ride facility at Bushmills (certainly no parking on the verge any more - there are fancy car parks paved with little hexagonal blocks now, but you've got to get there early).  

It's all meant to 'enhance your visiting experience', but I think it makes the whole thing more crowded and more processed, and actually takes away from the experience of exploring something natural for yourself.  

Anyhow, I'll see it for myself this week.

Headland, Causeway Coast

Here's another little painting from my London show with an interesting story behind it.  This is 'Headland, Causeway Coast', painted at the Giant's Causeway.

I went very early in the morning, when there was still a lot of early mist, and spent a long time walking along the paths by the shore, and then back along the cliff path, which forms part of the Ulster Way, to get a different angle.

I sat for a long time in a very secluded spot looking down over the bay and watching the light change, taking a series of photographs.  It was very quiet and completely undisturbed, and away from the normal tourist trail.  There were lots of harbells and wild frlowers, and it was very peaceful.

Or so I thought - because who should come around the corner but two Dutch geocachers (hullo Wim and Marianne!).  Geocachers are an online community who follow clues given on the web to real physical places where small caches of treasure are hidden in the ground.  And it turned out I was sitting right on one of them.  What were the chances of that?

Anyway, Wim and Marianne were lovely, although it probably gave them a bit of a shock.   I don't think 'red-head with camera' was in any of their clues....

Over the years that I've been visiting the Giant's Causeway, it's become much busier and more difficult to park.  Now they have a park and ride at Bushmills, which you have to use unless you go really early and can get into the car parks beside the old visitors centre.  They're building a huge new visitor's centre, which, according to the artist's impression, looks obtrusively massive, and houses all sorts of 'interpretation centres'.  How much interpreting do rocks need?

I plan to go back this August as usual, so we'll see what changes there have been....

Catalogues arriving soon!

The catalogues for my solo show will be arriving any day now - very exciting!

Montbretia in August, Rinagree (Oil on linen, 32 x 48)

If you'd like one, or an invitation to the preview on Thursday 23rd February, let me know.  Send your postal address to judith@jibridgland.com

This is one of the paintings that will be in it - it's a big juicy oil of the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland, looking out over the cliffs and the stormy sea towards the western isles of Scotland.

For more details on the show, please go to Duncan R Miller Fine Arts