Splash No. 1

 
This is the first of my series of water paintings that I intend to complete over the course of this year.  The final number has not been decided and I refuse to pressure myself.  They will simply happen.

This is painted on 10 x 14 canvas board in acrylics.  Mostly I am happy with it as I believe it gives a good impression of moving water and its impact on rocks.  A part of me thinks its a little too smooth or polished.

Getting the splash of the wave was challenging. I didn't want a mass of solid white and the intricacies of foam and water breaking up takes a fair bit of concentration to pull off in detail.  Here is a cropped version of water pouring over one of the rocks for those who like to see more detail.

Now to decide what the next water piece will be!

Winter pool

Winter Pools, detail, Vivien Blackburn

This is a small mixed media piece, 10 x 8 inches of a winter pool on a still blue skied day. Above and below are close ups.

It was done on Somerset paper, in a mix of watercolour, coloured pencil, gouache and ink. I like the variety of marks possible with mixed media - the transparencey and looseness of watercolour, the splattering with it; the hazing of coloured pencil over watercolour washes to create layers of colour that shine through each other, the calligraphic marks of pen - biro in this case - and the covering power of touches of gouache. The paper is quite creamy and I wanted some pure clear white in the reflection, so used the gouache to lighten it where necessary.



Back to work as I've got to produce another 4 in this series .....

River to the sea

 

The movement of water over rock carved out this little curved pool at the base of some high cliffs near Red Head.   A stream wound its way from miles uphill through barrens, woods and rock.  It hugged the rock, mixing with a trickle oozing from the rock face that joined it on its journey to the sea.

It picked up speed as the ground sloped downwards over time and water smoothed rock leaving little bubbles of are and creating bands of foam then darkening as the stony hollow deepened.  It  became more still ,as if deciding what to do and where to go.  It hesitated before taking the final plunge into the salty ocean, relinquishing its sweetness to the cycle that would go on forever.

Water in Newfoundland and Labrador is one of the least polluted in the world.  Its clarity always amazes me, whether in streams like this or at the ocean's edge where I can see to the bottom as long as light permits.  Not all rivers remain pristine as industry encroaches on wilderness, but with a land so full of ponds and lakes and wilderness, we have a better chance than most to access natural water that is still unpolluted.

 This pastel has more work left in it, but its heading in the right direction I believe.  This pool was found after travelling down a path that only mountain goats would go, that lead to the water and leave you at sea level literally.

Brittany sketches

I spent more than three glorious weeks in Brittany and became completely enamored of its tranquil beauty and its intimate scale. It is less dramatic than I'd imagined, less rugged than coastal Scotland and Ireland, less vertiginous than some of the places in Cornwall I remember, more temperate (there are palm trees and camellias and fig trees in the Golfe du Morbihan!), more feminine somehow, more French than I'd expected. May I please have another lifetime? I'd live in Quimper or on the Morbihan coast, I'd rear my children, I'd dine on the freshest oysters imaginable, and I'd paint every spare moment I could steal or borrow.
I'd originally planned to take acrylic paints and gessoboards to make rock and water studies on location. Due to my mother's precarious health, I had to travel as lightly as possible, knowing I might have to return home at any moment. Thus, these sketches, from which later paintings will ensue:
I have more of these sketches and will post them here soon. I am in the process of sharing all my sketches from Brittany on my blog Laurelines, so please drop by and have a look!

Rocks in Rockport

Continuing with the rocks theme - this is my drawing of a view which apparently is very popular with the people who draw and paint when they visit Rockport Massachusetts. So much so that I decided to call this drawing Motif #2 - given that Motif #1 was already taken! ;)

Rockport Motif #2
9" x 12", coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've managed to find exactly where I sat on Google's Street view and you can see what I saw below. Except they took the film on a cloudy day while I had a lovely blue sky and balmy weather in the mid September 2006.


View Larger Map

That path you can see below is where I sat - as you can see on the right as recounted in my this sketchbook blog post about my trip to Rockport - Sunday 17th September: Rocky Neck and Rockport, Massachusetts.

I found the trick with the rocks was to look for colour and striations in order to provide interest and form. That and work fast when it's late afternoon because the shadows change fast!

A rocky weekend

I hate to follow hot on the heels of Vivien's post on rocks, but they were squarely in my world all weekend.

Flatrock is named for - well - its flat rocks. they stretch like building blocks out into the sea with a beach of sorts of huge slabs of glacier-smoothed rock. Early on Sunday morning I got up before sunrise to catch the light on the ocean and take some photos and do a little sketching.

I wanted to get a sense of the layers of rocks and how they are formed. This will be a build up to a major drawing in detail of a section of these rock formations. I think that pencil will allow me to create the detail that I want in this piece and its availability for closer inspection is ever present.

On Sunday, I hiked the Manuels River trail downstream and found out that the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland was once a section of Africa - albeit 200 million years ago. This river trail is beautiful and the shallow pools are a magnet for young families and children to paddle in. Further down the trail the shallow river is littered with boulders as if a giant hand scattered them there - a paradise for geologists.

Sketching rocks in mixed media - stages

Rocks between Sennen Cove and Lands End finished, watercolour, biro and coloured pencil in the moleskine folio watercolour book, approximately 10x11 inches, Vivien Blackburn

Rocks between Sennen Cove and Lands End stage 2, watercolour added loosely, biro and watercolour, approximately 10x11 inches, Vivien Blackburn

Rocks between Sennen Cove and Lands End prelininary biro sketch, approximately 10x11 inches, Vivien Blackburn

Jeanette has issued a Paint/Sketch Rocks challenge on her blog and this was done in response.

Unfortunately it's from a photo, as Sennen Cove is 320 south and west of me right now so popping over wasn't an option - but I'd wanted to sketch the fantastic rocks there and thought this was my chance. I also like the figure perched precariously, though confidently, on the edge, giving the rocks scale and adding a little drama - well I don't 'do' heights so someone standing above that drop is drama to me!

I first sketched it freely in biro (Parker - they don't blob as much as some others) and then sloshed some watercolour on it quite loosely. Next I added some scribbles of coloured pencil and some more biro.

You can see a slide show of previous paintings/sketches of rocks here - they are something that fascinates me with their shapes, cracks, facets, crevices, ledges, colour changes and general complexity, not to mention trying to get the feeling of hardness, jaggedness or smoothness and their innate dangerousness.

This is the first time I've used the moleskine folio watercolour book, other than the try-out doodles in various media on the first page. I quite like it.

The 'aha' moment

Cliff edge, Pouch Cove
8 x 8 oils

You know how you struggle to do something for ages then suddenly the light goes on in your head and it becomes clear as to what you were doing wrong? This is the painting that did that for me.

I have been re-learning oils for probably the last six months. My strokes have been timid and I have been stingy with paint. This painting, of a cliff edge in Pouch Cove was started purely as a relaxation piece and a study in rocks, but seemed to flow. The water, the colours, the thickness of paint seemed to come together and point me in the right direction.

Maybe it was the fact that I didn't have a goal with this piece or a deadline that relaxed me enough toe xperiment and be bolder. I know I will never change my style, which does tend to be more subdued rather than bold, but I like to think that I can enhance it and push it to become more refined and natural.

Now can I do it large scale? Small is safe and easy, more or less. I want to have the same impact of water and land but on a large scale. I guess there's only one way to find out, isn't there?

Some glimpses at works in (slow) progress

I've never posted images of unfinished paintings and I have some qualms about doing it. I have my own concept of the 'skin' of a painting---and until I have achieved that skin, a cohesive visual and tactile surface, I don't show my work. 

Still, the paintings I'm working on now are telling ME what they want and they are taking their sweet time doing so!

 I keep regular studio hours every day. I'd anticipated being finished with these long ago. But this process has been fascinating--- and that is why I'm letting myself give you a midcourse report.

 Besides, I'm going to Santa Barbara, California tomorrow for a five-day business trip, so there'll be a pause in painting. And maybe that'll be a good thing, though it means more delay in finishing.

I've relearned two contradictory lessons:

Lesson one: Don't pick a painting subject that presents tasks you're not interested in! Here, it's the inclusion of strict geometry in objects. It's one thing to pick a subject for sketching that isn't intrinsically interesting to you--a sketch is not a big time commitment. In this case, I fell in love with the cloud reflections in a swimming pool in Texas, and the way a pair of butterfly chairs there, also reflected in the water, seemed to float in space.  I decided to paint the scene, without analyzing the pictoral problems inherent in it. I need to always keep in mind what it is that engages me as a painter--- illusionistic representation of objects and space is not it. Oops.

Lesson two: Be receptive to new experience and accept that the honing of paintings skills of all kinds is useful---and fun. So, I'm enjoying this self-imposed task---when I'm not throwing things at it;D. Here are the two things I'm working on, seen in the context of my studio.

I've enjoyed the Iceland rock and water paintings the most of all the water paintings I've done so far. To try to convey the energy and shapes of rushing water is thrilling, allowing for a level of abstraction that I find very challenging to define and produce.  The one on the left is the one I'm now working on. The one on the right is my favorite of this series so far, because it combines abstraction with energy and it has a good skin! The one on the left is less abstract. Not sure where it'll end up, but we'll find out!

Here's a detail of the pool painting. I am so eager to start my colorful, nongeometric, calligraphic koi paintings, but I want to finish these first. They're worth completing.

collage experiments

High Tide. Vivien Blackburn. Collage/mixed media in a little moleskine

Sometimes it's nice to 'play' as Jeanette is doing with her lovely fish - trying out something different, experimenting, getting away from what you normally do and discovering new ways of working, new marks to make, new visual language that can feed into more finished work.

These are some of the collages that I've been playing with in sketchbooks - the idea for first one was triggered by some lovely marbled wrapping paper that Lindsay had sent with something - it just needed to be used :>) It wouldn't be light fast enough to use in a 'finished' work but it's great for experimenting in sketchbooks. I also used fragments of brown paper and the brown tape you seal the backs of frames with, for the rocks. Then a mix of media for the rest including cp's and oil pastel.

I cut up and pieced the marbled paper to give the swirl and perspective of the waves and then scribbled and altered, covered or enhanced areas to try to get that swirl of waves crashing on sand and rocks.

Waves on smooth rocks. Vivien Blackburn. Collage, hand marbled paper and mixed media

The second one, Waves on Smooth Rocks, has been shown on my blog but I've reworked it so that it now looks rather different and I think reads much better. The paper in this one IS lightfast because it's some I made myself - yet another thing I want to try again when I can. I'm going to have a go at the shaving foam method that I've been told about.

Lino print on tracing paper (right hand page) worked into and continued onto opposite page, Vivien Blackburn, linoprint/mixed media

In the last one, the right hand page is one of the series of linoprints I've been working on. It was printed onto tracing paper - I was experimenting with various papers. Then it was worked into with coloured pencils, mainly Polychromos and Lyra, and the image extended onto the facing page,

This one makes me think of the mood in a Samuel Palmer painting, I don't know about you?

All of these have given me ideas for larger works and make me consider incorporating collage into finished work.

The Water Witch

Horrid Gulch

8 x 5 coloured pencil

I sketched this image of Horrid Gulch in Pouch Cove a couple of years ago. Its a cropped view from the top of a steep cliff overlooking the jagged rocks and sea some hundreds of feet below. I always find it a bit creepy going there. Not because of its history, but because I don't do heights well and hate being anywhere near the edge of a cliff. This is why I didn't do a sketch looking down over the cliff. Winter provides weather restrictions here in terms of accessing places and I know I won't be able to create some of the pieces that I want until spring or summer. The historical aspect of Newfoundland's association with the sea interests me and capturing moments of that history in art will be very satisfying.

Horrid Gulch was where the Water Witch went aground on November 25, 1875 in a storm with 25 people on board, Alfred Moores, a resident, performed a daring rescue which saved 11 people. He allowed himself to be lowered to the ship by a rope from an overhanging cliff so that he could carry the people to safety.

All true-born Newfoundlanders pray hearken unto me,
And hear your messmates tell you all the dangers of the sea;
You all remember Pouch Cove well, and the true sons so brave
Who saved the crew of the Water Witch so near a watery grave.

Some of the words and dates in this song are a little skewed, but the event is clear and true. The descendents of these rescuers still live in this small seaside town of Pouch Cove, where I once lived. The plaque commemorating their bravery stands near a section of the East Coast Trail and leads to the cliffs that overlook Horrid Gulch.

This map from Google Earth shows the gulch and cliffs along the ocean where the Water Witch came to rest. When the weather improves and snow goes so I can access the trail again, I will go there and take some more photos and do some sketching and painting. The view is wonderful from this point, looking out as far as the eye can see to the horizon, with whales below and a strong breeze blowing.


Excerpt from the Newfoundland Express December 3, 1875

Loss the the Schrs. "Hopewell and Waterwitch" and nineteen lives

Two most distressing marine disasters, involving the loss of nineteen lives, with long make memorable the storm of last Monday night. The early part of the evening was moderate enough and about four o'clock a craft called the Hopewell left here for Harbor main with eight souls on board and a quantity of provisions, Towards dark a gale sprung up with heavy snow-drift, and at eight o'clock it was at height of its fury. The Hopewell ran on Biscan Rock, near Cape St. Francis, and in a very short time was broken up, all on board but one man going down to a watery grave. The survivor, named WAUGH, got on to a rock and there he remained all night and a great part of next day. When the Hercules neared the spot, on her round to Conception Bay , about noon on Tuesday, this poor fellow was s een waving a handkerchief; and Capt. BLANDFORD, of the Hercules, promptly manned a boat and sent her with a strong crew to effect his rescue. The waves ran so high at the time that they could not get near enough to throw a line within WAUGH's hold, and a second and third attempt were made before they succeeded in reaching him with a rope and life-preserver. After three hours spent in the utmost endeavors for his safety, WAUGH was pulled off on board the Hercules in most exhausted condition, but at all events, saved by the heroic efforts of Capt. BLANDFORD and his crew.

The Waterwitch which left here for Cupids, soon after the Hopewell , struck in the neighborhood, of Cape St. Francis also, much about the same time. There were twenty-five persons on board, and of these twelve, eight men and four women, went down with the vessel. The following letter from Rev. Mr. Johnson, Church of England Minister at Pouch Cove, shows how the survivors of the Waterwitch escaped and no praise can exceed the merits of the Pouch Cove people in the saving of these poor creatures and the care and tenderness with which they succored them. (See same letter under date of Dec 3, 1875).