Messages in the Breeze, Summer Solstice

Begining of a new piece.

Hello patient blog readers, as usual my poor blog is a little quiet these days, although I am not.

This is the beginning of a new commissioned piece which I have just finished. Virtually all  my pieces start off this way, lots of layers of torn paper.

A while back I did a canvas called messages in the breeze, it was inspired by the old folklaw tales of dandelion seeds being carriers of messages for those loved ones we have lost. This is a new take on the idea, still including the dandelion seeds but using a moonlit sky. The photos show the canvas at various stages.

 And finally..... finished, Messages in the Breeze, Summer solstice.

A moonlight Adventure

I have been making lots of moonlight pieces recently.
This one is on a large MDF panel. It gives a lovely firm surface  to collage onto. I am often asked how I combine the paper and paint layers so here is a little WIP photo, although I'm not sure it makes it any clearer. I tend to work quite organically, often only having a vague idea of where I am going. Pieces introduce themselves slowly.

Sometimes not knowing exactly where the adventure will take you is a little scary, however as the great explorer Christopher Columbus said,
 'you can't cross the ocean without losing sight of the land'.

moonlight Adventure

Seagull dance

Been very busy recently working in lots of bits and pieces. The seagull dance was finished this week and is now at Skyeworks Gallery in Portree.
The summer is as skye is...one day sparkling sun the next mist and drizzle. Seagull dance is definately one of those sparkle sunshine days. Earlier in the week Paramount movies were on the island filming the new Transformers movie. Those days were unfortunately not the best. I believe they intended to ride stunt horses along the ridge...the rain and drizzle must have made shooting anything a wee bit tricky! I stopped and took a photo but most of the action seemed to be in the catering trailer out the rain!

Eagle bowl

Long time ago my followers may remember my mermaid bowl...

                                                                                                                                                     

mermaid bowl

                            


Well i hadn't done a collaged bowl for some time and I wanted to try something new. So here we have my eagle bowl! Made with torn paper and acrylic paint on a papermache substrate. I made it to hang on the wall rather than sit as the bowl shape collects the light and it reflects the gold on the sea eagles feathers. Skye is the home to a couple of eagle species, Sea eagles inhabit the cliffs surrounding Portree bay where little boat trips go out on eagle spotting trips. I've been on several, one in particular saw the eagle fly right down over our boat, a magical experience!

The idea began in my sketchbook

then was painted in black gesso

Then I added the paper fragments

Beneath the surface...

The world is a very different place...

All is not what it seems.

Mixed media on canvas.

A summer evening, pieces of skye

 At last I can begin to show you my new collage paintings made for my pieces of Skye Exhibition in Skyeworks Gallery on the Isle of Skye which opened last week
.It has been so difficult keeping what I have been up to, Feedback be it good or bad is a great barometer, When you spend hours with a piece of work you often fail to be objective about it, Often I need someone to say " that bit's wrong, or that bit is great!" However I made the decision to keep everything under wraps until the opening day,

This piece uses  the colours of a highland dusky evening and is one of a pair I made using these deep blues and golden green tones.

I took some photos last August on a beautiful evening and I loved the way the deep blue hues combined with the whispy white meadowsweet. The air was heady with the scent of wild flowers. I wanted to capture that moment of a still summer evening.
I know many of you like to see my process so here is a little WIP interlude. You can see the paper layers and texture being built up in the sky with moulding paste.

Then paint is splattered over the texture with a trusty old toothbrush!

My other evening piece is ...

As you can see the inspiration from the meadowsweet and evening blue hues is more obvious here.

Unusually this piece is collaged onto a wood cradle, I covered the sides too, wrapping round the paper fragments, time consuming but I think it gives a better effect.

My Exhibition, more sneak peek photos!

Less than a week to go until my solo exhibition at Skyeworks Gallery ( Click here for details)

Below some of my work has arrived at the gallery already in preparation for Mondays opening.

If you zoom you may notiecesome smaller framed pieces...my new mosaic pieces which I will share next week.

Until then only a few more detail taster photos to give you a little peep at what else is in store next week. ( All of these are just close up detail shots, no big reveals just yet! )

The detail close ups do reveal a little about how I work, using small torn paper fragments and paint.

Building up layers....

Creating texture....

Splattering paint and inks over the layers.

Adding flower accents and sparkling gold and copper leaf.

All photos are detail shots, full photographs of my new pieces will be on my blog from next week. including all my new textile pieces which I have not revealed yet!

The path to brothers point

As you may know already I really don't like the cold. Much of my summer is spent outside photographing and drawing so that in the cold months of winter I can spend my days inside making. I think perhaps I would be better suited to hibernation, but alas that does not seem to be possible, so at the moment I am filling my dark days using many of the summer photographs as inspiration.

This is one such snapshot of summer, finished  a few weeks back.

It is a beautiful area of coastline on Skye which I paint regularly

.

It is quiet and peaceful, just the odd bleating sheep to break the silence.

I began by painting in the scene roughly with watered down acrylic paint.

I then covered the paint layer with paper fragments. I used pieces of old ordinance survey map as well as foils and hand made papers. ( you can also see my inspiration photo stuck into my scrapbook.)

I applied black gesso in my usual way.

 I decided to lighten the sky and sea and add moulding script to add more texture.

The foreground was filled with cow parsley and grasses using liquid pearls paint and gold leaf. You may notice the tea mug..... earl grey is what makes me function. ;)

Brothers point, mixed media on canvas)