The Turn

As some of you will know by now, the date has been set for my solo show at Mansfield Park Gallery . It opens after the private viewing on the 26th of August and will be open for three weeks - if you want to come along to the opening, email me at jane@janegardiner.co.uk. The gallery is now much further up Hyndland Road, being next to Peckhams and near the junction with Clarence Drive - so lots of good eateries and bars nearby and in one of the parts of Glasgow I remember from when I was very very little.

In this wee bit of Hyndland not much has changed in the thirty or so years since - new openings in the area is rare, so I am very honoured to be the first solo show the gallery is holding in the new premises - when I was there the place looked smashing so I am very confidant that the owner make my work look it's best.

One of the works will be The Turn, pictured above, which is my biggest painting so far. It should be a good size for the window so hopefully the denizens of Hyndland shan't disrupt her dream of reason.

There is also a portrait of Donna, The Clown Princess, which I will show later on when I have a good photograph to show you - the above painting was photographed by the very talented Ian Marshall . All my paintings from now own will be photographed by him, unless I specifically mention I did it myself (in which case it is likely to be a wip or just a duff photograph!).

Civita Castellana

Just a few photographs from my balcny, which overlooked the main square of the town.

As you can see, the place is gorgeous, whatever the weather. Most of the buildings are a pale yellow/pink, which are in harmony with the sky pretty much all the time.

At night the lights have a strong yellow glow, to contrast with the deep blue of the night sky. Stunning.

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?

Recent Paintings by Jane Gardiner

My most recent paintings - properly photographed by Lighthouse Photographics.

Self Portrait at 38 - Winter

Reflection - Self Portrait

In The Louvre

University Blue

The Guard Chair

Photographing Paintings (Badly)

A little demonstration of how much photography of art work matters.

The first image I photographed yesterday, looked at it afterwards and decided to change the hairline on the left and the corner of my eye on the right a little bit - which I duly did, then re-photographed today. Nothing else changed.

Some of the difference in colour will be becasue the paint has "sunk" a little but most of it is the photography.

Why is this important? Because most artworks these days are seen by more people online than in real life. So much is therefore missed. Professional photography does make a big difference - but having just been in Paris I can see what is missed from the paintings in Google Art Project, for example. Don't get me wrong - Google Art Project (and the increased availability of images online) is a wonderful thing, better than books which fade or (to go back in time far enough) engravings after the original.

But I worry a little that work that reads well online and photographs easily will push out work that depends more on subtle contrasts. Possibly a needless worry, since everybody is struggling anyway. Also possibly a good thing - things must change, after all. But more open competitions are depending on online submission. This may be a good thing, allowing folks like me who don't live in London a better shot. We'll see.

Views From The Bus

An awful lot of my semi-awake time was spent on the bus - it was a minimum hours journey into the port authority bus station. Time I mainly spent reading (Fitzgerald's short stories) or dreaming. Occasionally I also did some drawing (pretty bad) and took some photographs (slightly better).

The view from New Jersey, just before the bus turned into the Lincoln Tunnel, is spectacular

At the weekend, the bus went across the George Washington Bridge, rather than through the tunnel. This gave a view at an angle down the island, but unfortunately it was raining pretty bad each time I made that journey, so the best I could manage was a shot of the bridge itself.

There are a few more photographs over at flickr

Leaving New York

Finally it was time to leave. (And before I have posted all the blog posts I have planned. Did not quite realize how busy I would be, or how bad the internet access. There will be quite a few new posts over the next few days, including shots of the open studio.)

The flight home was truly breathtaking, leaving Newark at dusk and reaching Ireland at around dawn. Unfortunately I am not nearly a good enough photographer to catch the amazing light effects in the sky, nor am I a good enough landscapist - even if I had the materials with me.

Tried my best, as you can see. Hard to make mountains look bad, though. And a truly beautiful and heart-warming sight they were, after all that flatness of New York. (To those that tried to argue with me that New York is not flat, Yes It Is. The Palisades are NOT high. Come to Scotland, and I'll show you.) From looking at the flight path provided in the plane, I'm pretty sure this must be Skye. Which is a not very big island, for non-scots. Oddly, staying in a (little bit) upstate New York has made me much keener to go and explore the countryside here - so, if nothing else, the trip has made me appreciate how many good things we are blessed with back here in Glasgow, and in Scotland.

(oh, and here is a little link to a great video - Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I came across it near the start of the residency, and as it shows some of my common haunts, it kept me from being too homesick during my stay.)

Vytlacil Campus Sculptures

There are a wealth of sculptures scattered in the grounds of Vytlacil Campus, so much so that you never quite know what you are going to stumble across next, or what is natural and what is created. The following are a few that are round the back of the house - the first is particularly friendly.

Others are a little more startling and have a very strong presence. The last one pictured blends with the life-drawing barn, shifting in mood with the light.

Remember we have an Open Studio event on the afternoon of the 24th of May, with bus leaving from the Manhattan campus on 57th St, so you can come and see them for yourself.