Why Museums?

Why museums? Lots of reasons, not least that I have loads of photographs from The British Museum and The Louvre from when I was there in November. At that point I was thinking a lot about backgrounds and composition as well as wanting to learn more about how different people have imaginatively portrayed the human figure.

These are all things I want to explore and experiment with during the hundred days, along with thinking more about colur and mark making. Other advantages are that there are plenty of museums within easy travel distance for me to get new reference material (particularly looking forward to The Burrell Collection) and that there is a very wide range of possible subject matter, allowing me to explore a sorts of colour combinations and compositions.

However, there are limitations - working only from photographs, not controlling the light or the arrangement of objects. In some ways though these are freedoms - building a database of photos to work from is time consuming but can be done when otherwise tired and means that getting started in the studio is fairly painless. Not having control over the subject matter's arrangement or lighting means I have to concentrate more on composition and colour.

But the main reason is that I just really like being in museums. The only other type of place I maybe like as much (apart from the studio) are bookshops. Take me to a beautiful, awe inspiring landscape and I'm pretty bored. Take me to a museum, and I could be there for days - looking at the exhibits, drawing the exhibits, watching the people, having a glass of something and cake . . . they are like a little world apart, parallel to normal life, each one different and yet the same as all the others. Heaven!

Painting The Queen

As soon as I knew I was going to have a solo show I asked Moira Buchanan to be the star of the show.

She was the first person ever to be pose for me, back in the days when I didn't know what I doing and needed at least three hours at a time. Since then I have moved into a studio downstairs from hers, making it awfully easy for me to say "There is this idea I've had, would you mind . . . ?". To her ever lasting credit she has been incredibly patient, being willing to lie on the floor with coins in her eyes, have butterflies pinned to her hair and to wear a paper crown, to list just the successful paintings.

This particular painting was an idea I had after I finished The Fool, as I felt every fool needed someone to serve. I also very much wanted a portrait that felt very Moira, with a sense of her mischievousnous. So I was giving myself a bit of a challenge but thankfully everything worked. So much so, in many ways this is the turning point painting of the exhibition, the portrait that made sense of all the rest, to the point I went back and repainted several of them, including The Fool.

So thank you, Moira!

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.

JSS in Civita Residency

As you may have gathered by now, I'm off to Italy.

This is for a residency for two weeks with The Jerusalem Studio School , or JSS for short. They have been going there every summer for quite a while as Israel Hershberg who runs the school felt that his students needed more access to some of the masterpieces of western art - an awful lot of which hang out in Italy. For the last few years the school has settled on Civita Castellana , a town an hour or so north of Rome and not far from the road to Florence. Naples, Sienna, Bologna, Arrezo, San Seplochro and Urbino are also all on the excursion list - the two planned trips when I am there are Florence and Bologna.

This is the first year there has been residents - and the first year Terrano Studio Center has been open. So its quite an honour for me - especially as one of my co-residents is the amazing David Kassan who has been busy wetting my appetite over the last few weeks with his postings on facebook.

Also there will be students and teachers of the masterclass and also there are the students of the affiliate group run by Sharon Sandberg who is an american painter of lovely, calm still lifes. So, plenty folks - all of whom are representational painters. I'm guessing most will be oil painters like myself and most will be concentrating on landscape (also like myself!). This will be a first for me - even in life drawing there tends to be few oil painters - and I am really looking forward to talking to everyone else and seeing how they work. Lets just hope I don't spend so much time gassing I don't actually do any painting!

The Little Mermaid and The Frick

Also recently finished (maybe) is this one, which has also gone through many stages since it was begun back in Vytlacil. She is based on photographs I took of what appeared to be a model shoot at the Staten Island Ferry terminal. There was something about the light that was just magical as well, of course, of all the effort that had clearly been put into her clothes, make-up and so on.

Later that day I visited the Frick, which I heartily recommend for anyone interested in paintings of people. They have an amazing collection of first class paintings that span from Holbein's Thomas Cromwell to fine Degas , hitting various high points along the way. Almost all of the paintings are not only by great painters but are among the best of their works - the Raeburn's , for example, are top notch, which is quite impressive. Having such great works in close proximity makes it very easy to compare and contrast and try to have deep thoughts. There isn't the scope of the Metropolitan, especially as almost all paintings are portraits. This is, of course, also a strength.

So, after seeing all these three-quarter length portraits I wanted to have a go myself - and this is the result. She started out much darker but seemed to become more mermaid-like as she progressed. I had gone on the ferry as I was missing the water (having grown up by the seaside and having a view of the Kelvin from my front window) and every time I started painting it took me back to the pleasure of the ride, the mystery of the sea and rivers, and the unfathomableness of what goes on behind another person's eyes.

Amsterdam Trip

Lots of you will know that I recently went to Amsterdam for a few days - the first time I had been abroad in ages. We did lots of wandering about and I visited the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, both amazing places, despite the Rijksmuseum being mainly closed. Although there were only about 5 rooms open, I still managed to spend at least 3 hours in the place - a large part of this sitting looking at Rembrandt's The Jewish Bride.

There was a portrait of Rembrandt by his pal Jan Lievens linked here which makes him handsomer and squarer jawed than he tends to make himself - although he is a little pop eyed, and does still have the silly hair. Mind you, I have silly hair myself, so I know how hard it can be to control . . .

Also, there was a special exhibition comparing early Degas self portraits with early Rembrandt's. This was truly fascinating - both the paintings and the etchings. Sitting there looking at them I feel I learnt more than I could have from several hours of lectures or teaching. Not least that size is a very important consideration. But most of all it was the treatment of the light and background space. The little painting called Small Beauty, which I entered into the RGI, was painted the weekend I got back!