Working while being sociable: some drawings.

A slight drawback of being an artist who is married is that art is, essentially, a solitary occupation during which one retreats into an inner world of right brain activity, oblivious to time and the world around one. Mealtimes and appointments come and go unnoticed. This is fine on days when one's partner is at work, but unfortunately when the muse is dancing attendance, it does not always coincide with those times. So what does one do in order to remain relatively sociable, but still allow the creative flow?

For me a solution has been to mostly do my big oils in the studio during the week, and if I am still on a roll over the weekend, I work on small oils or charcoal drawings at the dining room table, so that Max and I can be companionable, but still get on with our various creative pursuits at the same time. (He will generally be found doing his photography or writing during these times, or recently, sorting through old slides to scan.) This Easter weekend has been a case in point, and so far, between movies, meals with the kids and an Easter egg hunt, I have managed to almost finish a few small paintings, as well as these 5 little charcoal drawings... the paintings will follow when complete.

two small works in very different styles

Tree of Life: oil, conte and collage on canvas 250x300mm

The obsession with baobab trees and lost children continues :)

Rainy Day - Galata Bridge: oil on board 250x250mm

I am having a love affair ... don't worry my husband knows about it... I am crazy about the City of Istanbul!

I am reading everything I can find to feed the passion (look for Orhan Pamuk if you want to read some great Turkish literature that truly captures the essence of the place) and have been going through my photos converting some into moody black and white shots. These will be the basis for a new series of small works. This one was done with thin glazes on board as the technique allows for a monochrome look but with a buildup of subtle colours.

Sometimes it is harder to name a work than to paint it!

.... this is a case in point.... the social conscience type works are easy for me because I already know the emotion or message I want them to convey, but I find ones like this seem so difficult ... the descriptive names seem a bit lame... trees, forest, waterfall. Moods might be a bit twee... serenity, the awesomness of nature etc... so, any suggestions?

sentinals.  mixed media on canvas. 1200x900mm

(PS. thanks to my facebook friends who came up with some good suggestions, I particularly liked Esme Goosen's idea and have called it "sentinals")

now its trees AND african children!

I suppose it is a natural progression, the trees and the lost generation of African Children seem to now find themselves together on the same canvasses! I am also loving the combination of printing, painting and drawing, with some collage thrown in for good measure. My studio looks like a tip because I have been on such a roll with these!

tree 4
acrylic on canvas
250x300mm

trees too
acrylic and leather on canvas
500x400mm

The tree on the right and the leaves on the printed tree are leather.

Africa's Children, the Lost Generation
mixed media on canvas
400x500

Africa's Children, the forgotten ones
Mixed media on canvas
600x500mm

Children of Africa.
mixed media on canvas
600x500mm

three trees
mixed media on canvas
1200x1000
SOLD

to the woods.....

I have a friend, Esme Goosen, who is a wonderful artist, and also very generous with her time and ideas. She recently introduced me to the joys of acrylics. (I'll tell you more about that when she has sent me a photo of one of her paintings, there's a story behind it!)


Up until now I have been having a passionate affair with oils, and what I love about them is the slow drying time, which allows for lots of blending and manipulation of the paint as the paintings evolve. But I am finding that acrylics have joys of their own, and this new direction coincides with a growing desire to do some printing. I did some lino cuts of trees, and printed them with acrylic onto canvas. It was a natural progression from some of the directions I have been going in with the other work, running paint, metal foils etc. Then the games began, blending colours and playing with adding transparent layers of washes over each other.

Here are the results:

a pair of trees

2 x 150x150mm

treeptych

3x 150x200mm

timberrrr!

900x800mm

seasons

450x350mm framed

treasure tree 1 and 2

2 x 600x900mm

fiesta tree 1 and 2

2 x 125x175mm

SOLD

happy tree 1 and 2

2 x 300x300mm framed

seasons 1, 2 3 and 4

4 x 100x150mm framed