stolen photos!

This is a painting by Keith Vaughan I found in the Tate Gallery last week. The rhythms of repeating shapes are great - how the blue drape continues the downward motion started from the raised leg of the seated figure. The drape then echoes the curves of the figure lying and the figure in the background creating a pyramid composition. He also seems to have created a visual device in the foreground that mirrors the negative space made by the raised leg of the lying figure.

Push and Pull

Following on from a drawing I did last week I ve decided to use it as a basis for some experimental work. I am trying to use colour as the force that defines the form through its interaction with its neighbour, creating a push and pull of energies. So far the painting is existing as such...

New Skies

Apologies for my infrequency at updating this however I am in the middle of a solo show at the Rendezvous Gallery in Aberdeen, which is proving to be successful spurring me onwards to paint. Some times when the paintings start to stack up before a show doubt creeps in.

So, I have just finished two more sky scapes, the aim being to capture the excitement of light breaking through the atmosphere. The sky scapes form a body of paintings that are simply made for enjoyment-mine in the making and hopefully in the viewers eye. These two paintings are quite heavily painted as I try and experiment with marks, glazes and scraping back revealing areas.

Looking into the sky

Contrary to the obvious, although I have not been writing any blogs I have been quite busy painting. The first area of interest is the sky, well the ever changing light conditions and all those bizarre happenings that streak across our field of vision when looking toward the heaven for answers. In itself this is interesting - looking up...questions...when really these paintings are about providing answers to those visual occurrences.

looking in through my eyes!

Paradoxically I stood there staring at it and found that It felt as though I was looking inside my head,heart...consciousness. I had this tremble in my soul first when I was in my early 20s,long ago and at the same time I remember it all clearly. The painting then was by De Kooning, it was his retrospective at the Tate(even before the Tate Modern existed). Each room dedicated to different decades, the paintings of the late 70s were my culprits. I think they were painted from a visual source,a view perhaps then abstracted as the paint seemed to embody an energy of a moment.

So back to it then, if you find yourself in Edinburgh for this August go to the Talbot Rice Gallery. There are some beautiful paintings by the late Craigie Aitchison that slow the world down to arrangements of colours delicately painted yet possessing a force that cannot be ignored. There is a painting entitled 'holy island', If you want to feel what colour can do then please stand in front of this painting and just breathe.

Island get away

I have just returned from a visit to the Isle of Lewis which proved most relaxing-escaping from city living but also most inspiring as I tried to make sense of the changing light and those allusive clouds. During one of our drives round the island we happened across a gallery and painter, that of Willie Fulton. A Glasgow born artist who has resided in Harris for 30 years with his wife and painter Moira. After a tour of his studio and discussing practices we agreed on a painting swap, so now a lovely piece of the Isles hang upon my wall.

Following my stint on the islands I popped into Edinburgh's Modern Art Gallery and low and behold some fantastic little paintings by S J Peploe of the islands, if you are in the capital please go see they are little gems.

A treasure

On a recent pilgrimage to the holiest of all places-The National Gallery in London I found a fantastic painting that I had not seen before by Monet. Unlike his large water lilly paintings this is a small more personal experience. Standing before it one realises that questions of surface and illusion are being explored as the viewer goes between realities. Does one focus on the floating lilly's or the sky in the illusionary distance?

As you can see my photograph was taken in secret so apologies for the quality. It's one of my habits, stressing out security by standing too close to paintings. I usually get followed around by them, especially in Berlin where however I still managed to take some photos.