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.

Xmas preparations begin!

I have been very busy this past week or so! I started the new triptych (next post?) but I have also been busy preparing for xmas and other events coming soon.

I did a large batch of apricot-pineapple jam with almonds. I have been making this jam for xmas presents since 1983, I think. Actually, I only started adding in the almonds for excitement about 15 years ago. I have to source more paraffin though, as I used the last I had on these non-mason jars. I will make up the cranberry-clementine with brazil nut jam when I can get hold of cranberries.

I also made some puddings, a few people get them as gifts too.

Another event is coming up, so I have set out to make another gift book. This is a picture of all the prepared pieces; I started sewing the signatures to the leather cover last night, so expect to be finished that before the weekend is out.

Dream Drawings - Part 1 c 1984/85

I was working on transferring my old slides to newer media and am still interested in these dream drawings. At the time I remember I was very frustrated with my drawing skills which seemed to be deteriorating in the environment of York University, Toronto, where I was doing my Degree in Fine Art (at least that is where the blame fell!). My mentor & drawing professor, sculptor Hugh LeRoy, suggested that I draw with my left hand and channel my subconscious. I enjoyed taking his advice as I was developing my interest in dreams and the psyche. I did these charcoal drawings on standard white 26" x 40" drawing paper.

I remember this as an alarming dream, as the dog bit my hand off when I went to pet it!

Song.

Greed.

Offering.

Refusal.

The Gift. (I later did a painting based on this drawing.)

 I don't actually know if these drawings still exist or not! They may have ended up in a portfolio that escaped the second Great Purge of 1993 and simply be up in my attic, or they may have met their doom back then...

Tree Kids - painting finished!

I finished the triptych sometime before Hallowe'en. I had been thinking it would be difficult to take down, but hadn't a bother last night. Today I will roll it up and who knows when it will see the light of day again! I really enjoyed the time spent doing this painting, and have stayed with my initial title "Tree Kids". It is mixed media on paper, approx 220 cm x 267 cm triptych, 2013.

Here is a detail of a wellie on the tree.

And a detail of the face of the adult "kid".

A detail of limbs and leaves!

Tree and sky detail.

My signature on the bottom right corner of the triptych.

And just to give a sense of scale, me with the finished painting.

Lanzarote - greenery?

Lanzarote gets virtually no rainfall and the volcano erupted only 300 years ago, so the landscape is very barren and moon-like. What a difference from green, wet, lush Ireland! We did see lots of cloud cover there and I am positive we heard thunder one night, but no rain to be seen. Palm trees and cacti thrive on the dryness and they are the main greenery to be seen on the island.

This is the poolside view from La Florida apartments, where we stayed. What looks like a figure, and what look like trees are in fact cacti! What my eye could see behind, a row of mean, white, marching frog soldiers...that's the apartment complex next door. :)

A walk along the Avenida de las Playas, by the ocean in the evening and palm trees lit by a crescent moon (well, photo is blurry, but it is the atmosphere that is important!).

When I saw these palms in the grounds of a tennis court, I thought they were a piece of artwork as they looked like they were made of concrete. The trunks are painted! The grass was real too, and probably this was the most grass in one place that I saw!

There were a few places where I saw beautiful purple flowering bougainvillea. It must be a very hardy plant, but I was surprised to realise I had no pictures of it! My little apartment had its own cactus garden on the balcony/porch.

The sunset proves there is at least one other type of tree besides palm on the island!

Lanzarote - South Island Tour

The entrance sign to Timanfaya National Park was (of course) designed by Cesar Manrique. I like this image which gives you an idea that you are now landing on the moon...

The one way roads through the park are only the width of the tour bus, so even though people are not allowed to walk on the fragile lava fields, you get a very close view of the landscape.

There is so much variety in the way the lava has cooled. There were also some pretty hairy moments overlooking craters (I had my eyes closed and a tight grip on the arm of my seat, so no photos of craters!).

The bus tour took us past the salt flats - Las Salinas de Janubio - and the guide explained the process of collecting and drying sea salt.

In my last post I spoke of Los Hervideros (The Boiling Pots) and the viewing points designed by Cesar Manrique. Here is another view of the volcanic coastline there.

The lagoon at El Golfo is a beautiful green, separated from the ocean by a sandbar (and for preservation, a man-made wall). The green is caused by both olivine stone, which is plentiful in Lanzarote, and bacteria in the water.

We also had a stop at a local vineyard. I had been wondering about these horseshoe shaped walls all over the island (I was reminded of the abundant stone walls in the west of Ireland and thought it was a way of dealing with volcanic material). Apparently the walls are built as windbreakers but the farmer has to dig down below the volcanic ash to reach the soil to grow the grapevines! It is intensive labour but an interesting way of growing things in this year-round warm climate!

Lanzarote - Cesar Manrique

I spent Oct 7 - 14 on Lanzarote, based in Puerto del Carmen, in the Canary Islands. Oh bliss! Everywhere on Lanzarote is the imprint of native artist-architect-environmentalist Cesar Manrique [1919-1992]. In the airport arrivals hall one is first greeted with the island's logo, designed by Manrique:

Aside from swimming with the fishes in the warm Atlantic, I did a few excursions including a South Island Tour to explore the volcano Timinfaya. The "fiery mountain" erupted 300 years ago for 6 years and completely devastated the island. Timinfaya National Park is a protected area so that the volcanic environment is seen and enjoyed in its purest possible form. Manrique also designed the logo for Timinfaya National Park which is seen on loads of tourist items. This is a metal piece on the wall of the restaurant on the volcano which he also designed.

This is the restaurant oven which uses the heat from the mountain depths (400 metres below) to cook food! It was hot in that room, but it smelled really good...

The tour bus traveled on a one-way route through Timinfaya with stunning (and often terrifying) views of craters, lava flows and volcanic debris. Outside of the national park, the tour continued to Las Salinas de Janubio (salt flats), El Golfo and Los Hervideros. The viewing points for Los Hervideros ("Boiling Pots") were designed by Manrique and are completely sympathetic with the landscape.

The boiling may refer to the ocean when the volcano erupted as the water certainly would have gotten very hot!

Or it may refer to the bubbling and crashing of the water against the shoreline and within hollow lava tubes.

Regardless of the origin of the name, it is something to see!

Still working away!

I am happily working away on my triptych, tentatively called "Tree Kids". I thought I would post a couple of details to give a better view of the texture in the painting. The figures are almost life size. This is a closeup of the figure based on K.

This picture gives an idea of the leaves in the tree, and the Chinese paper that I glued on before I started painting.

Tree Kids - in progress

I am happily working away on my triptych painting, which I have started referring to as "Tree Kids" though I don't know if this title will remain when finished.

I have lightened up the blue sky, added some more Chinese paper leaves and changed the horizon to a higher slope (the scene is based on a place in Prague -- a lovely park with freaky trees on Petrin Hill. Of course, I have reddened my tree as I saw it in my mind's eye.

Fauvism

My daughter and husband were both away recently (James giving bronze casting demonstrations at a museum in West Cork, Elise at a sleepover) which gave me a chance to make a start on my triptych.

It has progressed since the above picture was taken and I realise the freaky tree (based on a tree in a park in Prague) is having a "fauvish" effect on me. I am almost positive it is going to turn red by time I am finished with it! My daughter has been asking me what I meant, and good old google helped me explain Fauvism.

In my head I could see red trees, and finally found the painting my brain was referring to: André Derain's "The Turning Road, L'Estaque" from 1906. I first became familiar with Derain's work while on my first art school visit to New York back in 1980 (I think). I would have to admit, his work has been quietly influential on my work! Here is another Derain: "The Effect of Sun on the Water, London".

 "Les Fauves" translates as "wild beasts" and the main proponents of Fauvism are Henri Matisse and André Derain. There were of course other artists in that movement which lasted about ten years at the turn of the last century. Matisse did several versions of "The Dance" but this is the one I prefer.

Working away...

Before my husband, James, went to West Cork for a few days to give some bronze casting demonstrations, he helped me put up some of that paper that I got during the summer. Three pieces make a nice size triptych. I was very happy and looking forward to doing some work while he was gone!

So this is in progress! Planning to do some more work on it today.

Moments - more paintings!

I recently finished two more paintings in the "Moments" series. This is "Climbing", acrylic on raw canvas, approx 92 cm x 51 cm.

And this is "Snowman", acrylic on raw canvas, approx 58 cm x 72 cm.

That finishes the works on canvas in this series for me, now I am looking forward to doing some big drawings/paintings on that roll of kraft paper I got given to me in the summer. Before starting that, however, I needed to clear space in the studio and reconfigure the plastic drop sheets -- ready, steady, go!