Fever Afterimages

Though I haven't quite finished with my "Moments" series (there is at least one more related painting that I want to do) -- I have had ideas for another group of monoprints and a painting percolating for the past year! With this in mind, I started preparing canvas. The painting will be a free-hanging piece, unstretched. I am making use of end pieces of canvas, I have sewn 5 pieces together and made hanging loops. I wanted to pre-soak the canvas, so here it is hanging outside to dry. I plan to apply texture in the form of newsprint glued on, though it will be completely covered by paint not as per Maritime Alps and Tree Kids where the paint was translucent. 

As is my usual practice, ideas for new work generally show up on my greeting cards first. These were all created in 2013 for various occasions. I haven't yet decided on the composition or colouration for the painting, but I expect to have it worked out with the help of the monoprints and drawings, which I am starting this week.

 I am titling this body of work "Fever Afterimages". For once I am not tentative about the title!

Maritime Alps - finished!

By the end of last week I had finished "Maritime Alps" the triptych I have been working on. I think it is the last painting of the "Moments" series for now, as I have had some other work percolating in my head for at least a year, which is a definite departure from this series.

Maritime Alps, mixed media on kraft paper, approx 220 cm x 267 cm triptych, 2014.

Here are some details which show the drawing I did on top of the painting. The drawing is done with a black china marker. 

The signature is towards the bottom of the right panel. This is the first completed work of 2014.

To give a better idea of scale, here I am with the completed painting.

Maritime Alps - still in progress

Still working on my triptych, Maritime Alps. It is coming along nicely - here are some more details which show the progress. This is a detail of the figure on the left panel.

Below is a detail of the figure on the right panel'

This is a detail of the rocks on the right panel. I like Oscar Wilde showing up from the newsprint under the yellow paint (in the top third of this detail).

Maritime Alps - details

I am enjoying being back to work on the triptych I started before breaking for Christmas. I thought I would post a few in progress details. This is a closeup of an area of foreground rock with sea behind.

The background mountains and the top of the mother figure's head.

A detail of the mother figure reaching for her young son on the rocks.

And a detail of the other two climbing figures, where the view of the landscape is still apparent.

Of course, it has all changed (though not "utterly") as these are pictures from yesterday and I was up in the studio painting this morning! Happy days!

Doing and Making!

My colleague at the office is teaching a number of us how to crochet during lunches. For Christmas she most generously made and gave each of her students a beautiful bookmark (mine is centre, light green and pink). I have started on the next project, a small tote bag -- the rich green circles are my work. The items are laid out on the beautiful purple shawl one of my sisters made for me a number of years ago, and the sparkly purple earring was also made for me by the same sister. When making a Christmas stocking for my daughter I utilised the fine crochet work of my grandmother; originally this was trim for a set of pillow cases (which have long since disintegrated being made close to a hundred years ago!)

I made a list of all the people I wanted to make books for this year and started to work. I would not call this a production line, but while I was preparing paper for one book, I just did the tearing for the rest! I am making both leather and "eco" books (ready-made covers from recycled packaging cardboard!). I have two leather books completed.

And hurray! I have been back up in the studio painting my triptych friend "Maritime Alps" which has been so patient over the Christmas holiday period. This was the progress as of last week.

New Triptych - Maritime Alps

 I have been working on a new triptych, again taking up a large part of the north wall in my attic studio. I worked out the composition in white chalk on kraft paper and then started gluing newsprint on the rock and mountain areas to create some texture before I started painting. This is a detail of two of the climbing figures.

And here is a detail of the child figure at the far right of the triptych.

This is a detail of the reaching mother figure.

I started off painting with some blue, the water around the rocks and behind the figures leading to the mountains in the distance. The mountains in the distance are the Maritime Alps, the painting inspired by our visits to Antibes. While I was painting I was thinking of the work of Betty Goodwin, specifically her figures in water which I admired greatly in the 1980s and of Jean Charles Blais, whose work I first came across this summer at the Picasso Museum in Antibes.

I keep referring to the painting as Maritime Alps, so I am sure this name will stick. I like it - not just for the mountains in the background, but for the figures climbing the mountain of rocks. With the xmas season soon to be in full swing, I am not expecting to get a lot of work done on this in the coming weeks, but the painting will look at me every time I go up to the attic, so it will stay in my thoughts.