Tuesday 29 March 2011

Black, White and Mixed Metals



Isabel Knew a Spell





























The Red King in his Labyrinth





























Two new small paintings on canvas board. I love the matte black of blackboard paint
as a ground!  I also love red oil stick, as it has a density and archaic sort of feel that encourages boldness.
The metallic lines are made with contour paste or relief markers used for glass painting.
These come in tubes with narrow nozzle tips making them irresistible as drawing implements!
etsy link
etsy link

Thursday 17 March 2011

Chamber Lullaby, March 16th













































































New small 8 x 10" on canvas board. 

Prepared with blackboard black for a dark flat matte ground.

Then gold relief liner/contour paste (for glass painting) improv. lines, 

and finally knife-painted oils.






etsy link



Saturday 12 March 2011

March 11th 2011: New Spring abstract (with details)





























"Madeleine de Demandolx"

oil on canvas board, 

18 x 14 in
























































































Wednesday 9 March 2011

Mornings with Malakoff and l'Ondée, New paintings, early March














Mornings with Malakoff
oil on canvas board, 16 x 12 inches




One of my all time favourite old roses is Tour de Malakoff.

I love the name too, and the particular flora-drama described of petals of a rich
reddish purple fading to pale papery lilac!  These recent works are full of the
sense of anticipation about Spring. 
Come on, Spring!!














































l'Ondee
oil on canvas board, 20 x 16


I've been reading up on classic older perfumes, and I love finding out about
their histories, meanings and evocative descriptions.  Although I should say I have no sense memory of the perfume itself, 
at least as far as I know,  the poetry of the description is very inspiring.   "Apres l'Ondee" (Jacques Guerlain, 1906)
("after the heavy rainshower" doesn't evoke the same poetic mood as the original French, does it? ) inspired the titling of this new  painting.  I wanted to keep a sense of fragility and ambiguity, as in Nerval,  a dreamlike feeling that draws you in rather than defining itself too clearly.  
In this aspect, this transitional state between landscape and portrait,  the painting owes a debt to and is a conscious tribute to the great contemporary Russian painter
Andrey Aranyshev.