How I start a Painting; A Painting in Progress

'The Sound of the Waterfall Woke Me,' acrylic on canvas, 80 x 60 - STAGE ONE.

One of my ongoing themes is Waterfalls. I am painting this theme using several processes and with a focus on colour.  I have always liked tall vertical canvas shapes (as well as long horizontals) which allow you to explore the possibilities of conveying a sense of movement through colour and shapes. With this particular canvas I began with the 'drips' of water running down the canvas and a neutral, dark brown background. I built shapes in to the rivulets all the time thinking about sounds of water and water falling across rocks. 

My composition was also based on the unexpected sight of the waterfalls running down the mountains in Beigou, China, when I arrived sleepily early one morning in August 2016. I set myself a task: to combine verticals, shapes, movement and mark making with the starting point of this memory.

STAGE TWO

The painting, (stage two above) threw up lots of questions about how to accommodate these disparate shapes and colours into an image with both space and movement. I have to think about what kind of space I want and where my priorities lie; do I want abstraction and how much, or am I going to include landscape forms? I realised as I painted today that I want a layering of abstraction and calligraphy with a suggestion of place, though place is not so important as the image working correctly in its own terms. I had to add some yellow-green at the top, to open out the top of the canvas and give an illusion of 'sky,' and spatially it does help. I also set back some of the calligraphic marks, erased some, and simplified some of the edges of the painting. However, it is still bothering me and will need quite a bit more work to sort both the space and the composition which I feel does not yet gel. Parts may need lightening or erasing; I may need to take out parts I like in order to create that marriage of colour, calligraphy and abstraction. 

Some parts in stage one may even need to be re-established in stage two - which is why it is good to have photos of previous stages! (I'm thinking especially of the crimson colour on the middle right side of the painting which seems to be necessary now.)

Questions which are on my mind: how far do I want to flatten the space and simplify certain abstract elements? Do I need to darken or lighten colours? Do I need to focus so much on the illustrational, rock-like elements or are they just holding up the composition? (Though some darks seem to be needed). Could I express the idea of the waterfall in a simpler way?

I chose to post a painting that I'm having problems with because often we tend to see only finished work which makes the artist's job looks as if there was no wrestling with the image when the truth is that no artist finds resolution easy. Also, I wanted to show how a painting at a difficult stage with suggestions of how it might proceed. Many of my artist friends also take their paintings through several stages and my best work often comes out of the 'mess' and doubts.  

To be continued!

An Guide to Acrylic Paint and some Acrylic Paintings in Progress

Some of the brands I use

As mentioned last time, I'm going to write about the acrylic paint I use and why I favour certain types. 

I often alternate between acrylic and oil paint and for speed I'll start with acrylic to get some ideas and textures onto canvas as the seed of an idea. I actually prefer oil paint, for the sheer physicality of the material, but recently I've used acrylic paint more because I've been able to explore fluidity, layering and the kind of approach I've been using in my ink on rice paper series. The thing I like best about acrylic paint is that it dries really fast so I can keep working on a painting all day. Oil paint can take days to dry before I can continue, depending on how thickly the paint has been applied.

So far I've used five brands. 

I started with Liquitex which is a good paint - I prefer the 'heavy body' because I can use a painting knife with it and also it can be thinned with water or acrylic mediums - and gives good intensity of colour. However, sometimes it can feel a bit 'plastic.' I often use it as a foundation to paint in oils on top of, though I have paintings which use only this brand.

I also use certain earth colours from the Windsor and Newton 'Galeria' range because generally earth colours are fairly permanent and this is a cheaper range. However, the consistency is not the best and I would only recommend it to extend your stock of paint and not for sole use. It mixes nicely with other brands though.

Most recently, I have begun to use a paint I bought in Nicosia (available in the UK too) which is Daler Rowney Cryla heavy body acrylic. It is a professional quality and it has a great intensity of colour, you can use it with a knife and also thinned like watercolour. If you paint with it on watercolour paper, you can keep layering over and over and simply erase inadequate areas with white - I posted a few small works on paper recently which used this acrylic on paper. Here is one which was worked with thick and thin acrylic paint, with erasures as part of the image. Some white areas in the sky section were the result of painting over darks I did not want.

'Night Roads,' acrylic on rough watercolour paper

Two other brands I have tried are the Vallejo  and Sennelier. 

Vallejo so far has been satisfactory though I have only tried one quite transparent colour so I would need to try more colours to get a fair idea. The intensity of colour was good. 

I think perhaps the best acrylic I have tried so far has been the Sennelier range though they are quite expensive. I've always found that with paint you get what you pay for and this range is the nearest to oil paint I have found; non-plastic in feel, and really rich colour-wise. Sennelier brings back memories of Paris last December when during my participation in the Salon des Beaux Arts exhibition (Louvre) I found by chance the Sennelier shop not far from the Louvre! The range of materials in the shop was incredible and I have posted photos in my Paris Louvre post, December 2018.

Another acrylic paint brand I have yet to try but friends constantly recommend is the Golden heavy body acrylic paint. I know artists who only use this and certainly if you have allergies to oil paint and turpentine this would be a good substitute.

Generally, there are 'heavy body' acrylics which are stiffer and more like oil paint and 'flow' acrylics which can be used for watercolour effects.

'Black Road', acrylic on canvas, 60 x 50 cm

So now on to some examples being worked with acrylic. The two canvases I am posting were begun yesterday. 

I began both by painting a wash of colour on to each canvas.  'The Black Road,' had a layer of varied, golden-lime. I wanted to be able to play with calligraphy on top of this, like using the off-white of rice paper with ink drawing on top, while keeping areas of flat space. With much of my work it's a case of putting things down and seeing what happens. I want to explore abstract elements of colour and mark making and pattern yet also allude to my love of moving through landscape.  This one is being considered with the usual doubts and dis-satisfactions because I'm not happy with the area on the right (upper part) and I wanted the flat, yellow-lime to have more texture. Also, one of the things I love about ink on rice paper is the way you can create particular areas of darks and lights and I feel this needs more. My husband, of course, tells me to leave it alone, but most times I follow my instinct. It just seems to need more 'weight' though what that is has yet to be discovered. (Update on this work and the one below is in a post of May 8th 2019.)

'Sun Fan and Sea,' acrylic on canvas, 60 x 50 cm

This second painting was painted over a pale turquoise colour with some variations of soft brown. I like to set a 'trap' for my image, and a visual memory of recently taking off from Cyprus in the dark and seeing just a few ripples of the sea between the clouds was part of the inspiration. At the same time, an image of the sun as a fan kept popping in to my mind! I have no idea how this one will proceed but I'm not happy with the composition because, for me, it is just too predictable, and also the paint does not have the layering and contrast of dark and light that I am seeking. I like to push beyond whatever seductive qualities an early version might have.

It may be in the end that I work both of these with oil paint, or eradicate them quite severely - but in the meantime I will make some small sketches to see if I can work out further elements. Since sorting paintings on to shelving in my studio-in-progress, I have found older work to finish, and work I thought needed finishing but is in fact ok. It takes time for one's vision to truly 'see' the work which is why I don't mind going back to old work, and I never feel that a painting can not be retrieved. Doubt and Revision are an artist's companions.

 I'm also starting some new, vertical 'waterfall' series canvases which will be worked with oil paint once I get in to my studio which is half-way ready. Next time I will write about my favourite oil paints and how this medium influences my painting approach.

The Importance of a Studio for Artists to Paint

'Safe Passage,' Work in Progress, 93 x 78 cm, acrylic on canvas

There have been times in my life (notably during my 14 years in Cyprus) when I had a studio, and times when, as recently, I've been working in my large living room-kitchen area. While I was still able to get work done, even large scale canvases, it is simply not the same as having your art reference around you and a space where you can leave things set up permanently and can walk straight in to a particular 'mind set.'

'Night Roads,' acrylic on rough watercolour paper, small

 At the moment I'm totally re-organising my flat and making my mother's bedroom into a studio. Some great shelving units are helping me to archive and organise canvases, and freeing up floor space. The process of going through older work and evaluating newer work has been extremely positive because I can see work that really needs tweaking and can set these aside to repaint. It's always good to see that you can spot inadequacies that you couldn't see at the time! I've also found that being able to put my personal art references on the wall - these could be anything; newspaper cuttings, photos, postcards of work I admire, drawings, paintings on paper, rough biro drawings on scrap paper - is very useful because it keeps ideas flowing and relevant.

'Early Light,' acrylic on watercolour paper, small

Setting up my studio has also helped me see ways forward because while stacking paintings on shelves, certain elements shout out as relevant and certain elements appear to be 'red herrings' or simply a mess and unfocused. Artistically, it really allows an over-view of the work in general. When I was in my studio in China during my Fellowship (2016 - please check my website for details), I found that being able to lay my ink paintings all around me on the floor and put my canvases across the walls allowed for a great cross-pollination of ideas. Mainly this is because a lot of my work is 'process driven' and I like to play with different elements to weld an image together.

'Landscape,' acrylic on rough watercolour paper

My studio is not large, compared to some studios, but I think it is the whole psychological idea of being able to close a door and get in to The Zone that is the best part of it!

Posted this time; a work in progress (from my waterfalls theme), and some of many recent small works on paper. Some may form the basis of new themes.

Next time I will be posting photos of my studio, and also writing a 'Personal Guide to Painting Materials,' with descriptions about why I prefer certain paints. 

Future posts will include Part Two of my working process with examples of how my ideas emerge from different sources and from the materials.