A Mixed Bag!

(Nicosia Evening with Church Spires, oil on board, 122 x 61cm)

I'm adding a very bright painting, to try to banish my winter blues! January is always my worst month, and I'm telling myself that now we are into February, it won't be long until until the first signs of Spring. As I am spiritually still in Nicosia, this seemed the best painting to post today.

I'm just recovering from the worst Flu I have ever had. It was probably caused by the 5 hour arctic wait at Gatwick airport on my return from Cyprus, but I get incredibly frustrated when I can't paint. Finally I am out of bed, my new stretchers arrived, and I can stretch my canvas and start work again. All kinds of colourful threads, landscape imagery, and cityscapes (washing blowing in the breezes) are fermenting in my mind, and I feel that this new work may be a step towards something different.

My bad news was that I didn't get the Cove Park residency. The rejection email was very nice, as she explained that 280 artists applied, and only 4 residencies were available. Again, it depends if your work fits what they want, and previous participants seemed to be quite experimental. She said they had liked my work a lot, which was nice as they don't usually bother to make any comments, and I can always try again next year. The email even thanked me for doing the very lengthy (and technical) digital application. I am very disappointed as the landscape setting was ideal for me, and I could see myself making huge developments if I'd had a month there to explore my ideas quietly, away from my daily constant distractions. I long for at least a month of uninterrupted work! I'm still waiting to hear about my other two residency applications, but hope is fading. It's become obvious that when you first spot the email reply in the long list of daily emails, if it doesn't have an attachment, then it's likely the answer is negative!

This week I also heard that the Mark Rothko Centre at Daugavpils, Latvia (where I did my residency in September), is going to open in April. When we were there, we had a tour around the enormous, golden building, still full of builders and wires, and smelling of new plaster. It will be a big Opening, and I am considering going. I also heard via Facebook that our work is now in the Mark Rothko Centre - GREAT NEWS! One of my ex tutors from Art School is exhibiting at the Centre in April, and will also be at the opening. I really want to go, but my main hesitations are that it is a long journey from Riga airport to Daugavpils, it will be a lot of expense for 3 days, and it doesn't seem as if many of my fellow resident artists are going.

Just Another Hill

Limited time recently hasn't allowed me to finish describing the residency. Instead I am going to add a few photos of places I saw in Latvia (mostly from the first Sunday, when we had an all-day trip into the landscape, and forests), and try to catch up very soon. Edges of the residency catch on me daily, and still inform my work.

Highlights, for me, were that day trip, when we went to visit a bread museum, lakes, forests, and had a picnic by the river. We also did a wonderful walk in the country, strolling through a museum of old houses, passing fields of sunflowers and gardens full of Cactus Dahlias (a favourite flower). I watched our guides picking mushrooms in an endless forest, with at least seven varieties and colours of mushrooms within a three square metre area. It all fed into the work I made in the studio. Also memorable was the night we went to the Theatre and saw a lively, colourful and very beautiful production based on a novel by Emile Zola. The singing and dancing, and stage sets are something I will never forget!

My life has become a case of constant juggling. I have applied to show work in a large office space where artists can showcase their work. I submitted four oils, including my second, large version of 'Flying into Riga Airport,' and a description of why I would like to show my work in this particular place - great space, great exposure, (and also it frees up space at home for me to paint more canvases, though I didn't add this part.)  Also I applied for the Crash Open Salon 2012, at the Charlie Dutton gallery in London. I submitted four recent paintings, and should hear by the first week of December. I felt confident about the paintings, but you never know how the selectors want to set the tone of the exhibition, so in the end one's work may not fit.

I have been stretching canvases, and working with great energy on seven paintings. And I changed my website design, which necessitated completely resizing all my images - a huge and ongoing task. It is so important to have a good website, and this is the best design I have used so far. Artists have to do a lot more self-promotional jobs than ever before!

(photos: Devil's Lake;  Mushroom picking in the forest; a house in the museum of houses; a recent painting, 'Just Another Hill,' acrylic on canvas, 45 x 45cm)

Mark Rothko Plein Air Residency Exhibition

We set up our exhibition at the Daugavpils Museum of Regional Studies and Art (Daugavpils, Latvia) on Tuesday, 25th September (in commemoration of Mark Rothko's birthday). 15 artists took part. I painted 4 canvases but 3 were hung due to a lack of space. I was very pleased that they hung my largest canvas, (pictured with me here). Entitled 'Flying into Riga Airport,' it was all about my excitement as the aircraft tilted on its approach to the airport, and I was suspended above dark forested areas, estuaries, a wide river (the Dauga) and various colourful houses. The swing of the dark shapes interested me, and I worked hard to get that green exactly right. It had to be a very particular green, as I had been impressed by the green painted houses, and the same shade of green was on the Latvian money notes!  One of the Directors came into the studio and found I had a 5 Lat note next to my palette, which made him smile.
Shortly before the end of our studio time, I tried to enliven this green curve by adding another shade that was entirely wrong (too dense), and spent the next day wiping it off with rags soaked in turpentine! My hands were green for some days afterwards, but eventually I was able to re-work the green and it ended up better than it had been. A huge sigh of relief - it was, of the 4 paintings, the one that was a new direction for me, and I was determined to be able to show it! It was also the one chosen for the catalogue.
Unlike most of my fellow artists, who came equipped with laptops, I was unable to update my blog day by day. I will over the next week describe the experience of being on a painting residency, and what I gained from it. For now, I'm including a few photos of this largest painting.

All 4 paintings extended my vision.  I worked on 3 over a course of 4 days, as studio time was very intensive and I was pulled into multi-layered, unfolding arenas. Then on day 5 I had an idea for a 4th painting, about flying over Latvia, and to my surprise I was able to finish this one on our last day of studio time. We had 7 days altogether.

('Flying into Riga Airport,' oil and acrylic on canvas, 100 x 140cm)
It was an amazing experience, and I wish it had been longer. It is the first time, since college, that I have had such a large studio space, and it allowed me to expand and reassess my ideas.
More tomorrow!