At the moment, I’m kinda stuck between several things.
Work on this large canvas (in oils) is taking way longer than I initially anticipated and it’s frustrating. I just hope its worth it once finished. The soft pastel version was much easier to produce.

I have also just completed all the submission artwork, including a somewhat taxing essay for the current course assessment. The assessment event itself happens in November and I get results mid-December.

And I’m starting a new job soon😊😁

New paper, new challenges. 

I have been thinking a lot about *Cézanne, especially because I will be going to the exhibition at Tate Modern in October.  To try something different, I had a go at producing a quick study based very loosely on his ‘The Bibémus Quarry’ painting. My version is with earth pigments, charcoal and some soft pastels on the Fabriano Pittura paper.  I’m not sure I like this paper yet, the ‘line’ texture on the surface kinda irritates me.  Anyway, we’ll see if it grows on me or not.  

Cézanne’s original painting was done around about 1895 in oils 65x80cm:

Sadly for me, I can no longer get single sheets of the Giant Atlantis 400gsm paper delivered – unless I buy 10 sheets and at just over £135 (plus delivery) I don’t think I’ll be doing that for a while. Needless to say I’m trying other papers I have to hand today. This time, I used a Fabriano Unica 250gsm paper – yep I know ideally it should be used for printmaking. Don’t judge!

I gave it a good work out, doing an up-scaled version of something I did earlier this year, on the request of my tutor. I don’t make a habit of ‘duplicating’ work I’ve done before so this was very interesting for me. I used almost the same materials. The paper kinda held up but it was close to disintegrating by the time I’d finished.

Materials:
Refined (with a muller) and semi-raw earth pigments, Liquitex acrylic ink and D-R system 3 white acrylic on Fabriano Unica 250gsm paper.
Pigments used:
Perranuthnoe Ochre, Fremington Grey, Gorran Haven Grey, Bideford Black, Geevor Red, Meeth White, Peppercombe Red from the Devon coastline (I think).

Reflection

I am now quite interested in the idea of making a much larger work – I have canvasses that are large – around A1 and some a bit bigger but I’m thinking of going even larger than that, which is one of the reasons why I’m disappointed with Atlantis’ new restrictions on how to buy their 400gsm watercolour paper, which is really strong.

I didn’t think it would be satisfying for me to try and recreate one of the older pigment paintings – as the first one had come about very much by accident, I wasn’t working to a plan. With the second attempt, I was aware of the paper having limitations and this tended to stop me from experimenting as much as I would have done on a stronger paper. I like working on paper, as opposed to canvas or other solid types of support but perhaps I might find something else that is much more suitable, so I’m going to do some digging about.

Sometimes an image or emotion (or both in this case) lingers in my head and until it’s come out onto the paper or canvas, I can’t really concentrate on much else.

I’ve had this idea to do a portrait of my friend in Turkey for a long time but was nervous to tackle it, in case I couldn’t capture him properly. He has very strong, striking features, which does make it easier I suppose but I have been following him on YouTube for a long time and there is much more to him than just how he looks. It’s trying to get that essence across that I was nervous about.

Anyway last weekend I managed to make it happen. It is a soft pastel portrait and I’m pleased with how it turned out. I know he is! And that’s all that matters at the end of the day.

I loosely based this new piece on my own reference photo. I was trying to capture emotion and a sense of the power of the sea in this painting. I used magenta and red, with paynes grey and white … oil paint this time. It’s about A2 (50x37cm actual painting; paper is 60x41cm)

I love using glossy photo paper to paint on, usually with inks and alcohol. However, I decided to see how it would react using oils and chose one of my own reference photos as the source:

I follow Pete Ward on IG and recently ordered some of his own hand foraged/processed and packaged earth pigments from the Cornwall area where he lives. I chose Peppercombe Red, Fremington Grey and Fremington Yellow Ochre. Pete very kindly added Fremington Burnt Umber at no extra cost .. so I could play☺️

I decided to do some very basic quick tests. I don’t have Gum Arabic, so just used water to make the watercolour paint and then did a strip where I dropped some isopropyl alcohol onto it. I also used Pebeo Binder and finally Galleria structure gel, which is not dry in the photos, so I’m keen to see what it looks like dry. Here are some pics of the experiments

I ground the yellow ochre pigment a little onto my glass mixing plate with the back of a spoon, which did make it quite fine but to be honest I prefer it in the state I received it. The grittiness makes it a more primordial experience!

I did a very small study on Atlantis 400gsm paper adding some white and black acrylic.

I love the natural texture and colours. I will be doing more work with these pigments on canvas.