Paintings Unfinished
This painting is an evocation of walks up above Coldstream, in the summer. Nothing up there but hares, and the hawks. In this picture at the moment there are three hares. At the left hand corner there was the head of a flautist, but I took him out: I wanted a picture without people; he was out propertion; and this is a deep edge canvas (I continue round the edges) and painting the arms of a flautist in the third dimension like this looked ridiculous. It works with houses going round a corner, but not with the human body.
I have another painting of a flautist on the edge a wheatfield, but this is on a narrow edge canvas, which contains the picture within the rectangle.
Today I have been working further on this painting seen above, overlaying colour . It is good to leave it and go back to it, as the acrylic dries properly, so a new colour laid over the surface looks fresh. This used to frustrate me with gouache, the way the underlying colours bleed into each other.
When this painting, and others, are finished, I will put them up on this website, before they are exhibited at Berwick Watchtower in January.
A did the ground for this painting a long time ago (one colour overlaid over a colour beneath, patterned with clingfilm, which is manipulated and left to dry, so that when it is lifted there are striations and whorls in the ground through which the underneath colour shows). The canvas has been sitting perched up again the wall. Nagging me. I always knew what the subject was, the high bank on the edge of the Lees fields, where a mass of wild flowers grow in the summer. This week I started to throw paint at the canvas. I picked some dried grasses to see if I could use them as a base for printing, but this didn’t work at all, so I have been using paint very freely, scattering, using the edge of a pallette knife, gestural single brushstrokes, spattering. Overlaying this will probably be some stencilled words, some colours/flowers, and some delicately-painted insects, which I will then overlay with more freshly applied paint. We shall see. So far I like the freedom of the shapes, this looseness is something new for me, after many years of illustration.
There were at one time gong to be mirrors, with reflections of things that wouldn’t be reflected, I had an idea for a rider on horseback in armour, probably memories of Lady of Shalott. Anyway, too complex an idea – it didn’t seem to gel. Still, I am working on this idea of layers that lower layers can be seen through, and also using lettering, though I don’t know whether this will work on this particular painting.
Something about this image reminds me of Liddesdale. It seems to take place in some kind of moorland, with water in the background, I think the hare must hare strayed out of its habitat, although I have seen hares not too far away. The colours have been made gentle with an overlay of oil pastel. The two figures will be more detailed, especially the boy playing the flute, but the overall colouring should remain misty and silver pink like this (in the sky, on the water and in some of the foliage I have used pearlised paint, which I got from a craft shop – very seductive it is too). To the left I shall paint some darkish moths. The feeling of the painting I have got already though, so I don’t want to work it too much more.
This was a rather dark painting, which has been hanging on a hook in the Tardis for some time. This week I added the table edge, the gold old-fashioned easel and the fabric anenomes, and suddenly the picture is a tad less sombre. The owl is Marvin, I bought him at auction, he is called after the magician in “Parchment House”, which I wrote years ago. There were always owls, for years, at Stonegarthside, they were part of the magic of the place. The perspective is odd, because everything is painted from a different angle, but I like this. Poor Marvin, I left him in the window in the summer and half his feathers have got bleached. I am thinking of doing a (vry delicate) paint job on him, but will finish the picture first.
November 28, 2012 Posted by Cara Lockhart Smith | Uncategorized | barn owl, hare, paintings, scottish borders | Leave a comment
About
I’m Cara, and I live in Coldstream, in the Scottish Borders As well as writing and illustrating books for children I have recently been painting on canvas, in my octagonal studio (aka The Tardis) which inhabits a corner of the vegetable garden. My work for children has been published in several countries, and translated into different languages. My favourite form at the moment is the picture book, but I have also had published poetry, children’s novels, and illustrations for the work of other authors. I go out most days with my camera and create blog entries from the results. Some of the pictures I take will be used as background material for the picture book which I am working on at the moment. My son Matty set up this WordPress blog for me, and it has added a dimension to my life which surprises me. It is also interesting and inspiring to read the blogs of other people from different parts of the world, and to look at their sometimes fascinating pictures.
-
Recent Posts
Archives
- March 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- August 2020
- May 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- August 2012
Categories
Meta
-
Archives
- March 2021 (2)
- January 2021 (1)
- December 2020 (2)
- August 2020 (4)
- May 2020 (3)
- January 2020 (2)
- December 2019 (4)
- November 2019 (5)
- October 2019 (7)
- September 2019 (7)
- August 2019 (1)
- May 2019 (3)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS