Roll on 2014

The last time I was this excited about the year to come was back on New Year's Day, 2005, the day after I got engaged.

So, what has got me so excited?

Well, I have chosen a direction, an area, themes, which my paintings are going to explore in future. How long this future will last, who knows, but I suspect it may well be a lifetime.

At the moment I am working on the first few paintings after clarifying matters to myself so have nothing yet to show - and as I have decided to start slowly, not stray too far from my previous work while I gain experience and confidence, when they are done they may not seem like the beginning of something. But I have faith.

Which makes me sound terribly delusional. This is appropriate, as make-believe, the cross over between reality and fantasy, is the ground I wish to investigate. There are many threads to this, but one impetus was being in Rome. There are few really good paintings of women with character and often instead they are portrayed as the artist's fantasy (all those half naked Magdelenes clutching their hair to their bosums.) This got me thinking about how people (especially women) routinely role play and whether I could paint this.

Since then, I have been doing more delving and exploration (from reading old favourites like Alice In Wonderland, Sandman and Shakespeare and watching Disney movies, to infesting the University library and reading books with no pictures covering subjects including feminist theory, film history, comparative theology and the psychology of fashion.) There are more paths than I can follow but boy, the research is fun!

Ambitious, me? Well, what why not try something bigger? There are have been few times in my life I have been more certain something was a good idea (and yes, getting engaged was one of them) and, like marriage, at the moment I have no real idea how things are going to work out and realise there are likely to be bad bits.. But the plan is exciting and everyone I have got involved so far have been fascinated with plenty to contribute and basically it just feels right - there are so many artworks I love, things I own and people I adore that are related in one way or the other that it feels as if I am pulling all the different strands into one place.

So, this year the aim is to put together a body of work of which I am proud, dealing with how people present themselves.

Thinking Time

The last few months have been full of thinking and research - activities that so far haven't produced an image I can show.

But taking the time to plan a group of work has been very rewarding. I can see quite clearly now the themes of the paintings I will be doing for a bit and although this means I am restricting myself in many ways this feels natural. Several outside restrictions (bad shoulder meaning being unable to use an easel, not having a studio, not having decent light, not having good reference material etc) have now been resolved so for the first time what I make is up to me.

So I have decided to mainly work with people, particularly how they use their appearance to communicate. Still a very broad area - but one I am finding fascinating, especially as it is allowing me to look into how we transform ourselves. Watching Disney films (looking at how the idea of the princess has taken hold in our culture, among other themes) has suddenly become research. Reading Shakespeare, Alice In Wonderland and The Sandman series is data collection. Talking to people about their day dreams and playing dress up is work.

The first paintings are in progress, so expect more specific musings in future. Also, posts will be more regular and mainly on Sundays. Except for February, when there will be a drawing a day, hopefully as part of 28 drawings later .

Paused

Is this photograph too dark?

This morning on my laptop it seemed fine - but now, on a different computer, it looks far too dark. This sis a problem I have had before - and as I use my laptop for most image manipulation etc it is important for me to work out. For example, I find the image shown on the camera itself is often too small to judge, so I take the laptop too, download an image or two, and adjust from there.

The worry is that doing this makes all my images too dark - reference material, publicity shots (ha! as if!) as well as the photographs of the paintings that I take. Although I do try and get most of my work professionally photographed these days, there are always some that slip through the net . . . or there isn't the time before a competition deadline.

What do you guys think?

Skull Painting

Well, it is Halloween.

Painted for the fun of it and because I wanted to try a few things out. It is bigger than my more usual work at 36x41cm and is the first painting in which I really work with the possibilities of using medium and lead white. It will be going on show at The Glasgow Art Club award winners show (saturday 8th December, more details when I know them.)

Also I have been thinking about the stories we tell ourselves and how they affect our understanding of the world. And how the magical is always with us - if we look for it.

It seems to me that there are a limited number of symbols that are used again and again in these tales - roses, skulls, keys, tall towers, deep forests etc - and it is fun for me to imagine that all these people and things are still with us. (I know the idea is in Fables Graphic Novels ).

My journey to New York has inspired all this, resulting (so far) in The Little Mermaid and these Skulls - they are based on the skulls on display at The Evolution Store and very much remind me of the Baba Yaga tale.

Fred Hatt over at his Drawing Life blog has posted a very interesting piece about previous skeleton/skull paintings which really illustrates the flexibility these kind of symbols have.