How Using Collage Can Suggest Creative Possibilities For A Painter.

'B Went Missing in the Land,' ink, gesso, acrylic, papers on cardboard, 48 x 36 cm

Recently I've begun using collage as a way to extend my working approach. Grappling with different materials allows you to question why you use certain elements in your work and to see ways you can simplify, substitute or drop aspects of your practice which perhaps are no longer relevant.

While my main focus is landscape, and some of my works are more landscape referenced than others, I feel the call of colour and shape pushing me to drop certain landscape references. Questions hang in the air every time I work on canvas or collage and I like that side of creating because I see painting as opening one's eyes to potential. 

'They Passed Many Trees on Their Way to the Mountains,' collaged canvas, ink on canvas, 35 x 45 cm

The examples I'm posting today show different ways of working with varied materials. While they are only a step in the process, they have been really helpful to me with thoughts about reassessing edges, shapes and ways of making marks. They have helped generate a bolder approach.

'Land Rhythms,' canvas, newspaper, ink, gesso and acrylic on cardboard, 24 x 13 cm

Things I want to think about in these works are: how to simplify; how colour and marks can suggest a place without constantly illustrating 'trees' or 'houses,' etc (not that this is wrong, just that for me right now something else is calling). I want a sense of 'air' in the work yet to explore how colour can be an entity in its own right. Perhaps this might even lead to more sculptural work.

'Rain Dance on My Patio,' rice paper, ink, acrylic on cardboard, 50 x 50 cm

Some of these use a lot of layered paper, as the example above shows, and some combine canvas on cardboard with inks and acrylics. Each approach tripped me up, made me re-evaluate the way I think about the picture arena and what I want or don't want.

'Lemba Evening,' (series) painted canvas, rice paper, acrylic, gesso on cardboard

With some of the works it was not possible, due to the nature of the materials, to make too many changes. However, I feel that this is a good strand to follow while also painting on canvas because the combinations of materials really force you to focus and some of the 'accidents' suggest fresher directions.

'Untitled,' paper, ink, canvas on canvas, 30 x 30 cm

More to follow.

Painting About Light in Cyprus and the UK: An Artist's Thoughts.

'Fiona's Final Visit to Burrswood,' acrylic on canvas, 92 x 72 cm

I'm posting a few new pieces of work.

The above painting was inspired by my final visit to Burrswood on December 2nd. As I have mentioned in previous posts, this was one of my favourite places when I used to paint in situ, and I painted at this place over a 9 year period in all weathers. Now I tend to abstract from the experiences of seeing the light change, walking along many paths around lakes with distant vistas visible through the trees. Always at the end of my painting session I'd walk back out through the forest as the light faded.

During my last visit I left at dusk. There was a warm, colourful light behind the trees to the west and the plaintive sound of the birds followed me out through the forest. This painting is still being considered but my idea was to present myself in nature - naked, authentic to the spiritual experience - as the light faded. There's a suggestion of a chessboard on the distant hills because the random event of the closure of a place that had been open to the public for 70 years was very unexpected and seemed to echo the sometimes random events in people's lives.  I wanted to convey light and to evoke a place but there are parts of the painting I'd like to work on further.

'Cyprus Dusk,' acrylic on canvas, 22 x 30 cm

This is another from my Cyprus Evening series. They are really about an exploration of colour as a parallel for light. I've witnessed the fading evening light in Cyprus over 36 years. It's usually fleeting but there's a moment when objects - houses, Carob trees, paths - melt in to an all pervading colourful light, which saturates the land, with orange, yellow and pink, and this sense of time and light was my main focus.

'Spring Energies,' acrylic on panel, 25 x 18 cm

Finally, this was what I call a 'spin-off' painting which was made during working between other paintings. Spin-off paintings often emerge from an accumulation of ideas that seem to flow off the brush on to the support, usually when my mind is buzzing with expressive possibilities from previous works. I'd just stopped working on 2 other larger canvases and I looked out of my window to see the sun shining - a rare occurence this winter - and began to think of Spring. There's a time during early Spring when the light brightens and you can feel the energies in the breezes. My aim was to catch a sense of movement and light. 

An Artist's Ideas and Inspiration Going Forwards in to 2020

'Lemba Dusk,' acrylic on canvas, 30 x 22 cm

My first post of 2020! I'm going to write about some of my painting inspiration and potential 2020 exhibitions.

This has been my first chance to write because I've been busy submitting work for 3 opportunities so far this year; one in Germany, one in Bangkok, and one in the UK. These have been quite complex submissions and some have required several PDF documents, long descriptions of past projects and numerous image files. This is the life of an artist; juggling making the artwork along with seeking out opportunities and applying to them!

'Dusk Birdsong, Winter,' acrylic on canvas, 30 x 22 cm

Currently I'm applying to 3 more opportunities and one painting residency. There are numerous opportunities out there on the internet, or if you sign up to newsletters, and the main limits are how much work do you have, do you have time to paint something for a particular theme, and how much does it cost?  

I feel that certain opportunities here in the UK are very exclusive - they say they are also for unknown artists but when you see who is selected you realise that they already had some artists in mind, either known through various connections or whose father is a well known artist. A little research backed up my thoughts on this when I found that a so-called unknown artist who was picked for a group exhibition in London was already many months earlier being 'followed' on social media and commented on by the 'hosts.'  It is certainly not an equal playing field: although I've exhibited internationally for some years now I've never been able to get a certain local news/arts publication to write about my participation! So much depends on who you know and who they wish to promote!

So far this year I've not done as much work as I'd hoped but today I've begun stretching one of several canvases. I'm back to working with oil again, though some of the posted work is acrylic.

Summit,' oil and acrylic on canvas, 30 x 22 cm

The posted paintings:

1. 'Lemba Dusk' is about that magical moment in Cyprus when dusk dissolves recognisable forms into a haze of sunset colour. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been inspired by memories of coastal sunsets in Paphos and the way the land and sky become one colour!  I've watched these sunsets many times and this painting is about the small buildings, vegetation and various elements melting in to the warm colours of dusk.

2. 'Dusk Birdsong, Winter' is about the melancholy sound of winter birdsong. I've listened to it many times while I've walked back out through the forest at Burrswood when the sky to the west blazed with the last warm light and the shrill, plaintive notes of the birdsong seemed to hold an anxiety about whether the light would come back. I chose colours with references to light, and the pure colour touches are my idea of birdsong notes cutting through the fading light.

3. 'Summit' is a painting which was different to the other two in that I had no theme in mind. The summit refers to the accumulations of paint going upwards as I struggled to find a form for the paint but it could also be a landscape.

More to be posted soon.

Paint Ideas And Inspiration to Take Forwards In To The New Year

'Lemba Sunset,' oil and acrylic on canvas, 30 x 22 cm

As Christmas approaches I'm working on 9 small canvases because I know there isn't time to start my large canvases. 

The small paintings have been very positive because they allowed me to refresh some ideas. It's good practice to make a shift in your approach at times by changing the scale of your canvas or paper, to challenge your way of working. I usually work on medium to large canvases which sometimes means working slowly but with the small canvases I've been able to make changes very fast and to try out some other techniques. I've used each canvas to test some paint applications - thin acrylic layered, thick oil paint scraped and dragged, oil paint over marks of acrylic, knife painting, brush work, etc. These paintings opened up some other options.

The 2 orange paintings suggested, as I worked, the sunsets in Cyprus. At this time of day the sky can turn orange and this casts an orange glow across the land so sky and land become One! It's an unbelievable sight. As these small paintings developed I used elements from reality - dark shapes of Carob trees, small square buildings, paths - to build what turned out to be abstract compositions. They surprised me and I like to be surprised.

'Lemba Sunset,' (2) oil and acrylic on board, 21 x 31 cm

My focus is often the translation of landscape elements in to paint elements and I may take this series much larger in the new year.

'Rising Moon,' acrylic on canvas, 30 x 22 cm

I'm posting a few more of these small canvases as I reconsider my body of work for this year and think how I may go forwards in the new year.

'Fiona's Final Goodbye to Burrswood,' oil and acrylic on panel, 21 x 31 cm

Figures in landscape have been a theme since Art School and  I wanted to take some of the paint elements that emerged during working on the other small paintings in to an abstracted kind of landscape with a figure in it. There was no plan except to let the paint form suggestions and clues. The inspiration was my last visit to a place in Kent which I love and which has now closed to the public. The grounds are amazing and I've spent many happy days over the years painting there in all seasons which has created a deep connection with the land there. In this painting there's a figure but the exact colour has not replicated; it's actually more of a pink ochre and stands out more rather than appearing as an ochre coloured shape. (Unfortunately the restrictions of photography do not always allow an accurate reproduction of colour as I found when visiting a Howard Hodgkin exhibition some years ago. The paintings were quite different, and more amazing in technique, than the books and catalogues displayed.)

I added a vague chessboard in the distance (the chessboard of life) and was also seeking ways to represent nature but with paint marks. I can see this one being developed in to a large painting.

'Evening Poem,' acrylic on canvas, 22 x 30 cm

'Clearing in the Forest,' acrylic on canvas, 30 x 22 cm

I feel really positive about starting new work in January and exploring some of these ideas.

2nd Review of the 8th Beijing International Art Biennale 2019

'A New Dawn,' Freddy Coello, oil on canvas, 120 x 170 cm

The 8th Beijing International Art Biennale opened at the National Art Museum of China on 26th August 2019 and continued until September 23rd. This is the second part of my review of the Biennale, (as a participating artist), my first review was written on October 8th - please scroll down the page for this.

The theme of the Biennale was 'A Colourful World and a Shared Future.'  Much of the artwork was very large due to the minimum size of submitted work being restricted to 100 cm by 100 cm. To make an impact on the huge walls of the Museum the canvases needed to be large to very large. However, with sculptures and ceramics there was much more variety in size, some being quite small. 

As I mentioned in my previous review, there was a huge range of artwork on display, from paintings to sculptures, ceramics, prints and installations. I deeply regretted not having enough time to see everything! For this second review I have chosen a few more artists as examples to give a broad idea of this rich and diverse Biennale.

The painting above 'A New Dawn,' by Freddy Coello, an artist from Ecuador, was painted using one model in different poses. Freddy showed me photos of the model during one of our artist group chats in the foyer of the hotel. It is a very impressive and detailed painting with much attention given to the expressive poses of the model.

Yannis Koutsouradis, an artist from Greece who lives in Holland, writes about his colourful sculpture below:


My memories from the Greek islands are possibly the basis for the inspiration of this work together with reflections, recollections or angels of the Aegean Sea. They found themselves at home in Holland due to the Dutch nature or the endless water parties.
After realising that the ancient Greek sculpture had lost its colouration, I decided to research and apply "colours forever".
I was able to do that during the second period of my studies at the United kingdom. my professor Alan Gouk at the art school which is now called University of the Arts London, as well as my instructor in technique Tony Driver at the Royal College of Art has revealed to me the secrets of paint and colour enamelling on steel. Thus the materials of my work are made of these.
The work is of course realised in the Netherlands - my chosen land, in which I have celebrated recently 30 years of sharing with my native Greece.

Yannis Koutsouradis with his sculpture

Yannis Koutsouradis' sculpture, Para Thin' Alos, glass enamel on metal

Figurative painting was side by side with abstract. This large colourful abstract canvas is by Alon Kedem, an artist from Israel. It impressed me with its colours, different kinds of mark making and shapes.

'Green Light,' Alon Kedem, oil on canvas, 200 x 235 cm

One of the most inspiring aspects of the Beijing Biennale was seeing the different visions of the artists and how there are infinite ways of seeing the world and translating it with all kinds of materials. The breadth of artistic imagination is breath taking at the Biennale every time. It is also interesting to see artwork from so many countries outside one's own.

Stella Mimikou with her artwork

'Colourful Hands; Chain For the Future,' Stella Mimikou, 120 x 120 cm, acrylic

Stella Mimikou, another artist from Greece, was inspired by the lyrics of the Greek poetess Zoi Karelli and her words, 'With hands in extend and balance, an ideal divine line.' 

During my 4 days invitation to Beijing, I tried to meet as many of the over 200 invited artists as possible but there was simply not enough time due to various obligations - attending the Opening ceremony, various trips to the countryside and to see Beijing, and preparing my speech for the international symposium - but mealtimes in the beautiful restaurant gave a wonderful chance to meet up with old friends from previous Biennales and to exchange artist cards with new friends. Thankfully, social media allows for connection once an event is over and we are all back home!

'The Kiss,' Irami Bulimaivale, oil and ink on canvas, 155 x 125 cm

View of the Biennale

I liked the way the sculptures and ceramics were displayed around the huge rooms because they shared equal attention with the work on the walls and there was enough space to be able to walk around each sculpture to see it from all angles. The sculptures ranged from totally abstract to highly detailed and figurative. Again, there was a wide range of materials used.

'Burst,' by Naima Karim, oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm

The 8th Beijing International Art Biennale exhibited 640 artworks from 113 countries with 446 of the artworks being from outside China.  I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to exhibit with such renowned and talented artists and to have had a glimpse in to their creative visions.

An Artist's Thoughts on the Creative Process: Returning to Oil Paint

'Dawn Poem,' acrylic and oil paint on board, 45 x 30 cm

In a week or so I will finish my review of the Beijing International Art Biennale, once I have collated all the sizes of the artwork and names of the chosen artists, but for now I'm posting a few new and reworked paintings from the past 8 days.

A recent painting, posted on October 17th, shows some of my current interests and how I'm exploring the fluid qualities of acrylic paint because it allows me to parallel the approach of working with ink on rice paper. However, this week I decided to go back to using oil paint and to rework some older paintings. It's always good to break the 'pattern' of working for an extended period of time in one medium; it allows you to see things afresh and combine the best of several mediums, if you choose. It allows for new questions.

Much of my work focuses around questions such as: can I take this risk? does it have meaning and make sense in visual terms? does it have to make sense according to pre-determined rules? can I extend the boundaries of past ideas? am I being surprised by the elements; are they expressive of my inner world? I've written quite a few blog posts about these questions which have helped me to clarify aspects of my journey and I always hope they may be helpful to readers.

I love to work on top of old paintings because there's already substance and potential to excavate. I can 'live' the worlds emerging in the paint as fresh new colour begins a relationship with older paint. The first two of these four paintings relate to my recent insomnia and seeing the first light of dawn. The Dawn paintings are a bit more abstract, bringing thick paint qualities back in to my mind. While the first Dawn painting is more structured with colour, the example below is toying with an emptier, looser kind of space.

'Dawn Rising,' oil and acrylic on board, 60 x 40 cm

I tread in circles around a form of calligraphic mark making and colour, letting my imagination inform the various elements, and a series of paintings which tend to have horizon lines and are more landscape based, such as this one.

'Fiona's Place,' oil, oil bar, and acrylic on board, 45 x 65 cm

And paintings which almost seem to excavate their shapes and rhythms....

'Windswept Landscape,' oil and acrylic on board, 40 x 60 cm

(The colours in the above painting are not quite correct - there's a delicate red shape running through the lower quarter of the painting which just doesn't show up at the correct value and which really informs the sense of space in this work.)

I worked on the 4 paintings in the same session which is quite helpful as there's no pressure on any one painting. 

I'm going to leave these paintings as 'finished' because I feel that they have stopped 'speaking' to me of the need for further work, and I'm sitting today hoping my new stretchers may arrive so I can start new work.

Inspired by my Flight to China for the 8th Beijing International Art Biennale 2019

'Flight to China,' acrylic and ink on canvas, 110 x 70 cm

While I collate the set of photos for the second review of the 8th Beijing International Art Biennale, I'm posting a photo of a work in progress which was inspired by my recent long flight to Beijing.

I actually hate flying! But when I've had a few glasses of wine I'm able to marvel at the changing landscape below and often draw. This painting is a composite of my 4 flights to China since 2015 and it intertwines so many aspects of landscape and my love of landscape. Since I was a child I've felt the underlying energies of the land and this painting explores a sense of those energies, a feeling of movement, the movement from West to East, and approaches mark making and variations of colour in reference to my many ink paintings on rice paper,

The quality of mark making and the quick spread of ink, as you work on the highly absorbent rice paper, creates all kinds of unexpected effects and beautiful transitions. I wanted to see if I could take aspects of these qualities on to canvas using thin washes of colour. The photo does not really show the transitions of tonal values in the colours or the textures and thick versus thin paint. There are light veils of colour (coastal areas) and ink brush strokes made with a calligraphy brush. It is a painting which, as it is largish, needs to be seen in reality to experience all the detail and contrasts. I still see this as 'In Progress' because there are a few tiny areas I may still tweak, but I see it as a highly personal painting and the shapes and colours emerged from the painting as it developed; there was no planning or sketching in of areas.

I like my work to be a parallel for journeys and as I painted this I relived certain parts of that journey, remembering both the actual landscapes and also the intense feelings they created and my imaginings about what lay below. Most important for me is to be able to travel through my imagination as the paint sets cues on the canvas.

Stay tuned for the 2nd part of my reviews of the 8th Beijing International Art Biennale.