On The Easel - May 2012

This Portrait of Ella is a specific portrait commision based on a two photos - one a very stylised photograph that my client liked and another that was taken of her niece.  The portrait painted in oils is in its final stages now.  I wish to make it more photographic and have started to introduce some glazes on top of the original grisaille.

Also on the easel this month is the final painting for my Erwartung Series previously featured in this blog.

I have been hampered by a recent move of my office and studio.  I now have more natural light to work in and the option of painting on a patio alongside my studio.  The patio is like an atrium and therefore has plenty of light but not direct.

May/June will see the start of a new portrait commision of a bulldog and further work on my limited editions.

On The Easel - February 2012

Scene 3 Erwartung Series

The Erwartung Series started in October is nearing completion with just the last and final Scene to complete.  The painting featured here (actually just 'off the easel') is Scene 3, in which the woman encounters what she believes to be a figure dancing in the moonlight.

The text for Erwartung was written by Marie Pappenheim, a young medical student, in response to a commision from Schoenberg.  A clearly disturbing work which has been linked to the psychoanalytical case studies of Freud - those of  'Anna O' and 'Dora' - both studies on female hysteria, and Josef Breuer´s 'Studien uber Hysterie' of 1895.

It is fascinating that the text of Erwartung and 'Dora' both include dreams (hallucinations) about the forest - a place of anxiety and mystery.  The woman in Erwartung upon entering the forest sings "An oppressive air attacks me...Like a storm that waits." Within Scene three and in particular Scene 4 the text clearly mentions bright yellow mushrooms 'rising out of the grass like eyes on stalks' which in Freudian symbology are distinctly phallic, although mine are more like bright eyeballs!

What drew me to the work was the haunting music of Schoenberg, the forest at night, the mystery of the lover, the amnesia and hallucinations, and a path on the road to more expressive and creative art.

On The Easel - January 2012

The Junior School Field

New for this year I intend to share information regarding current projects, exhibitions and work still WET on the easel.

I have several works on the go at present including my Erwartung Series, the Memories Series of oil paintings and a portrait commision in oils.

I started the Memories Series quite some time ago but have decided that they must be finished and I have been busy adding various glazes to build up the colours from the initial grisailles.  The first in the series is entitled 'The final hour' and is an imaginary image of my father's final hour before he died - recalling his words and thoughts at that time - the image has seven faces and has taken some time to complete and is now in its final stages.

The image pictured here is the second in the Memories Series and recalls my childhood memories - this one from the Junior School in Writtle, Nr. Chelmsford.  I remember sitting playing with my friends at the edge of the playing field, which was previously a farmers field - some cabbages were left in situ - and I can still clearly see images in my mind of friends collecting and playing with snails and butterflies.

In the background is the farm and to the left Widford Church.  This is an image straight from my head and not at all accurate in terms of the landscape.  The feelings and the joy of this period in my life is something that I wanted to share in this painting. The painting is still in an unfinished state and I hope to have it completed shortly.

Meeting Mr Lowry Part 2

The Lake, (1937)

In 1939 it was very difficult for art critics to judge just how good Lowry was because his originality and style could not be compared with that of say Paris.  He belonged to no school and his concern was to translate his vision of the industrial landscapes he saw around him every day into paint. 

His more popular landscapes such as "The Pond", (1950), in which one sees a thriving industrial landscape with families out walking together and children playing in the street, portray a very different world to his darker more lonely side, one within which he released very painful emotions.  I for one love these paintings, in particular: "The Lake", (1937) (shown here) painted just after his father died. This is one of his 'black' paintings with gravestones in the foreground, telegraph posts doubling as crosses, death and decay against a backdrop of factory smoke choking the city in which he lived.  Note too the total lack of human life - this was indeed a deep contrast - a time when Lowry felt completely alone.  "Blitzed Site", "An Island", and "River Scene" all from 1942 also represent this releasing of emotions into a very personal view of his world.

 On my recent visit to the Lowry Centre, Salford, I was also surprised to see so many portraits.  There were among these portraits some very disturbing images such as "Head of a Man (with Red Eyes)", (1938) and "Father and Two Sons", (1950).

By 1945 some critics were calling Lowry a master and a poet, whilst others found him naive and primitive.  One particular critic, Michael Ayrton from the Spectator, wrote "...I am inclined to think that some part of Lowry's convention rises out of his inability to draw the human figure."  Lowry had the last laugh on this when his paintings achieved at auction much higher prices than Mr Ayrtons- at one such auction well after Lowry's death a portrait by Ayrton fetched 5,500 pounds against Lowry's "Head of a Boy" which went for 159,000 pounds.

Whether you love or hate Lowry, I challenge you to look deeper into his work as there is something for everyone.  If you are an artist, are you releasing the same level of inner emotions into your canvases?

Meeting Mr Lowry, Part 1

I first met Mr Lowry in about 1986 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London....by meeting I mean I first saw one of his pictures there!

During my first ever trip to Manchester last month, I stayed in Salford Quays and had the great pleasure of meeting him once again - this time in all his grandeur in The Lowry Centre - a purpose built gallery and arts centre.  It was a memorable visit and one that I shall never forget.  I particularly loved his more haunting images - those of 'Bargoed' his largest canvas (63" x 50"), 'Blitzed Site' (1942), 'Seascape' (1952) and 'Father and Two Sons' (1950). 

 As an avid reader of books, I could not resist the urge to devour Shelley Rohde´s book on Lowry which gets to the very heart of the man, unravelling some (but not all!!) of his eccentric and mysterious character.

Of his now famous industrial scenes, he once said '...my ambition was not to become an artist.  My ambition was to put the industrial scene on the map because nobody had done it...And I thought it a great shame.  But I did not expect to keep on working at it all my life as I have done."

For nearly 30 years - from 1910 to 1939 he painted on without recognition or understanding.  "I´m not an artist," he once said "I`m just a man who paints"

Have you ever met the real Mr Lowry?

Drawing: The Bigger Message

"...When you are drawing, you are always one or two marks ahead.  You're always thinking, 'after what I'm doing here I'll go there, and there.'  It's like chess or something.  In drawing I've always thought economy of means was a great quality - not always in painting, but always in drawing.  It's breathtaking in Rembrandt, Picasso and Van Gogh.  To achieve that is hard work, but stimulating: finding how to reduce everything you're looking at to just lines - lines that contain volume in between them..."
"...I thought one of the saddest things ever was the abandonment of drawing in art schools...When it was given up I kept arguing with people.  They said we don't need it anymore.  But I said that giving up drawing is leaving everything to photography, which isn't going to be that interesting.  At one meeting I went to, they said, 'Oh, I see it's back to the life room, is it Hockney?' I said, 'No, forward to the life room!'
David Hockney in conversations with Martin Gayford


Extracts from one of the most fascinating art books I have read in a long while: "A Bigger Message Conversations with David Hockney" by Martin Gayford.  A must for Hockney fans like me and those trying to look far beyond their normal range of vision, far beyond their current boundaries.

Expressionist Inspiration from Schoenberg

The music and theme of Erwartung (Expectation), a one act monodrama for soprano and large orchestra composed by Arnold Schoenberg is the inspiration for my current series of paintings.

The music written in 1906 and based on a libretto by Marie Pappenheim, is highly expressionistic and represents Schoenberg's "free atonal" period between 1908 and 1921. The drama takes place between twilight and dawn in and around a forest.  A woman is searching for her lover who it transpires she has murdered.  In Scene 1, the subject of the painting shown here, the woman overcomes her fears and enters the forest on a path.  Painted in acrylics on canvas, the larger square format is new to me (120cm x 120cm).  I am planning to complete the next two scenes in the same format with the final scene possibly in a much larger rectangular format.  I very much look forward to launching and exhibiting the whole new series soon.

For those who wish to hear the music, the Naxos Series of Classical CDs includes a great performance of Erwartung with Robert Craft conducting and the wonderful Berlin born Anja Silja as soprano.  Another exciting piece of expressionist music by Schoenberg is his Five Pieces for Orchestra also from 1909.  Is this another possible series - we'll see!