Of Seaside Piers...

Here's one of the paintings I'm submitting for this year's SSA (Society of Scottish Artists), which is also being held at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh.

 

Rainclouds over Llandudno Pier, (Mixed, 29 x 24)

It's another drawing of a pier.  I just love piers - something to do with childhood visits to the south of England, but also to do with the contrast of the man-made structures marching into the restlessness of the sea, and that the piers are strong and yet fragile, created as something frivolous and joyful, and yet with something very sad about them.

One of the large paintings in my London show is this one, Pier at Sunset.

Pier at Sunset (Oil on linen 32 x 32)

My show a couple of years ago at the House for an Art Lover had many images of Eastbourne Pier, done in a variety of media including flag-like prints in bright procion dye on cotton tablecloths.

Eastbourne Pier: Night, Day, Dawn and Dusk.  Screenprint and procion dye on cotton (35 x 35)

One of my favourite piers has to be at Southwold.  Instead of the usual slot machines and one-armed bandits, it has a pier with lots of really quirky silly steam-punk machines in 'The Under the Pier Show.

This collection of unique, hand-built nonsense includes 'Wack a Banker' so you can get your revenge, 'Pet or Meat' which gives a comprehensive description of the difference between the two, a leaky under-sea submarine which squirts you with water, a dog-walking machine and a frisking machine with giant hands.

I'm also fond of the one at Morecambe, with its bird sculptures.

If you've got any favourite piers, then let me know!

Back in the studio...

Whilst final preparations continue in London for my February solo show, work continues in the studio on the next project.  

Today I am doing something a little different - drawings and mixed media work on paper for a very exciting show that is coming up in the spring.  Here's one in progress on my board in the studio.

As you can see, I'm working from a photograph that I took on site, and I'm using acrylics, inks, pastels and chalks on a nice rough buff-coloured handmade paper with a lovely unusual tooth, almost like a textile.  It's nice to work out of a ground that's not white, as it gives a nice ready-made mid-tone.  

To apply the paint, as well as brushes I use a flexible plastic spatula, which gives marks with a lovely volume, and a long stick to apply the coloured inks.  Using a stick allows for a more expressive, loose style of mark-making, but anything is fair game - a roller, sponge, edge of a piece of card.  This is especially useful for grasses and foreground, as it gives the feeling of the growth and the grasses moving.  

I also like using the stick/ink technique for architecture, such as in my pictures of seaside piers or bridges,  as it makes the lines of the structure feel less 'precious' and more organic.  You become less caught up in the exact delineation of every last detail, and become more focussed on expressing the feeling of the presence of the building or structure.

Eastbourne Pier (Mixed, 30 x 24)

Exploring a subject through mixed media is a good way of thinking through how you might want to express a subject in oils, and how you might achieve a variety of qualities of mark and texture.

You'll have to wait a bit longer to hear what the project coming up in the spring is - plenty of things happening before that!!