Breaking new ground

Detail of painted textures from sample piece

What has happened to Spring?! It was lovely and warm but now, here in the North East, it's freezing! Happily, I can keep out of the cold wind in my studio and enjoy making some art.

I've been working on two projects simultaneously over the last few weeks in different media. Below are my garden compositions in monotype that are nearing completion. These are worked in layers of coloured ink. The foreground layers of grasses and flowers should bring everything together and create an illusion of space with the early morning light falling softly over an idyllic garden scene.

If you read last month's post, you'll know that I've already created printed flower shapes to collage over the piece below. It also needs two more layers on the foreground grasses. I've tried to be a little less planned with the grasses and have cut the stencils more randomly to give more sense of their depth and shadows.

Progress on garden composition - two more layers of ink to go plus collaged flowers (as shown in my last post)

In the one below, I've still to print a large tree, foreground flowers and grasses. I will also add some shadows to the gateposts to make the light seem more real. Each layer needs time to dry so it takes time...

Progress on second garden composition - three more layers of ink to go

Whilst I'm waiting for ink to dry, my experiments with acrylic paint continue. I'm really enjoying learning something new and discovering the special properties of the paints and acrylic mediums. I approach the techniques with the skills that I've built up as a printmaker. I've used stencils, textures and a variety of mark-making methods and tools.

I still feel I'm at the very early stages and I know that I need to put in the hours to build up my proficiency. It's hard to set time aside from my "proper" pictures on which my livelihood depends but creative development is important if one isn't to stagnate. To that end, I've booked myself onto some short summer courses - all landscape with opportunities for painting out of doors. I'm so excited about this! Having taught art for many years, it's a real treat to be on the receiving end of some instruction!

New seascapes - acrylic paint on paper - 23cm square - £195 mounted £250 framed - email if interested - click to view larger

I divided a large sheet of paper into 6 squares and stretched them out properly on a board as I can't abide wavy paper! These little sea scapes and the two landscapes below are the result (one went by the wayside...)

Acrylic paintings on paper 23cm square - not for sale

I'm very intrigued with the textures below that have so much in common with my monotypes but have a 3D physicality that's different. I used what I know about collagraph printing (that's printing from a textured board) to make this surface. The painting process is very similar to inking up a collagraph. Really, I'm just making it up as I go along!

Detail of painted textures from sample piece

I would love to know your thoughts on these pieces if you want to comment below. Should I continue with acrylic painting? Is there anything you would like to see? Sign up in the footer below if you'd like to receive notifications of when new work is available along with new posts and videos.