Oil or Water?

Rain, Frenchman's Creek. Watercolour

Oil or water, obviously they don't mix, I know that! However what drives the decision to use which media, especially when depicting water in all her many guises?
I love watercolour, I am in love with watercolour. I think it is a difficult medium, it takes an almost sneaky type of control on the side of the artist. On the one hand you need to have some experience of what it will do, which colours will cause which reactions. Who will sit happily with who, who will repel and rebel. On the other hand you need to be able to let it go its own way, invite the "accidents" encourage the unexpected. Sometimes the place or mood that I am trying to capture seems to dictate the medium.
The picture above is watercolour. It was a damp, misty day but muggy and steaming too, then it began to rain. There was a cleaning property to the air brought on by the rain and the water in the river seemed to clear showing beautiful patterns of copper and yellow colour. I couldn't imagine catching that feeling in oils. It needed the transparent quality of watercolour.
But...
I also love oils. I love the buttery feeling of the colours, the freedom that the addition of light right at the end of the painting gives you. I can paint and paint and then flick in some light and it is literally like switching on a light switch. All of a sudden the picture is transformed and brought to life. Magic! The picture below is oils. The day was sunny but very still. I was sitting above the small beach at the mouth of the river, where the river widens and meets the sea. Often here are loud and powerful waves but on that day, not a breath of wind. The water seemed almost oily, slightly thick but clear. As the sea slowly sucked out the tide the sand became silver and the pebbles shiny and bright. All I could think of was painting it in oils. Dabbling in all the rich greens and blues that were under the water, speckling on all the yellows and ochres and almost blacks that were the shore.


Ebb Tide, Oil.

Maybe I should stop worrying about being a watercolourist or an oil painter and just be ambidextrous.
I suppose they are a bit like cats and dogs.
Some people are dog people, they just like dogs (that's oils I think, don't you? Quite predictable, loyal but capable of doing tricks and performing very obediently. A dream companion in the right hands, a nightmare in the wrong hands!)
Some people are cat people. So this by rights must be watercolours: Haughty, independent. Make you feel great when they are purring and curled up on your lap but off like a shot for sardines from the house down the road. Startlingly beautiful, wild, free and proud. Or mangy, hissing and untouchable.
And some people are both. I think I must be, the nutty dog woman and the mad cat lady all rolled into one. I suppose one just has to "go with the flow" Try to listen to your emotions, find the feeling that comes from what you are wanting to paint and then reach for your cat or your dog!

In The Frame

Framed! I collected these two from the framers yesterday and thought I would show you the results. I LOVE them. They are "floated" on a white board with white wooden frame. This is how all of mine look in the gallery and I think it works very well with the light down here and also with the nautical, watery themes that I paint.

I am always surprised at how much a frame makes a picture and think that it is as important a decision as every other decision that one makes when creating a piece of art work

The question is, what criteria do you use when deciding on a frame? It is almost like choosing new glasses or a haircut!

Personally I like to try to reflect some of the aspects of the painting... I paint very figuratively with quite a lot of crisp detail (well that's how it seems to me) but I do like to let the brush strokes and the way the paint is applied do some of the talking. Therefore I wouldn't choose a hard precise metal frame, I might go for something softer, more tactile, like wood.
But I use crisp colours and enjoy the effects of light so something that will enhance that and show that element off...so choose white wood.

I was messing around here and trying to see if my theory worked so I have digitally put this one into an antique style ornate frame.

To my mind the fiddly nature and the colour take quite a lot away from the painting. See how the mud and water has faded into a bit of a non-discript background.

In the final "digital frame test" the colour and detailing on the wood and the fact that there is no breathing space around the picture have given it a cramped and cluttered feeling. While as it could be seen as a cramped and cluttered painting it needs the bright clarity of the Cornish light in which it was painted.

These, of course, are only my opinions.

If you have a painting and want to try what different frames will look like why not do some digital jiggery pokery like these. Or try uploading your image to something like Pictureframe, where you can see how it will look with endless different frames. There are lots of good online framing sites where you can do this before you order your frame.

Canvas and Paint Process 1

To start at the very beginning I pull on my boots, grab my little camera, my little pack of moleskine sketchbook, tiny paint box and water brushes, then a scrappy sketchbook and something to draw with in my pocket and the dog.
Then we set off down the lane to the sea...
The first thing I do when I have arrived at my destination is to take a little time just to look and listen, I am not here to make the finished painting but rather to try and absorb as much information that I can. After my zen like standing and staring I get the scrappy sketchbook out. It is a collection of rubbish scraps of paper and cardboard, it is designed so that I really don't care about it at all, so that I will never be precious about any drawing in it, they will never go anywhere or be shown to anyone (ha ha, here I am doing just that!) The point of this sketchbook is exercise, like stretching before a run, warming up.

Here are a couple of the warm ups, I left the rest on the boat the other day so I cant show them all to you. This should give you an idea of what I am talking about. In doing these I am also realising what it is that I particularly like about what I am looking at.

Light, line, shadow and texture.

After that I will take a huge bunch of snaps, not photographs, just snaps which will help with colours and other information.

If I have time and it is not too cold I might get out my Moleskine sketchbook and do a much longer sketch like this: "Masking Tape"

After all that I go home and work out my painting plan, the size and a very detailed line drawing. It feels like this is the longest part of the whole thing but it is necessary because I want to be certain that everything is just right and I want it all locked firmly in my mind!

The next post will be about preparing the support and beginning the painting.

Canvas and Paint

Canvas and Paint.
Oil on gesso board
15cm x 30cm or 6inches x 12 inches.

I am drawn to the boat yard, the abstract shapes of rope and chain, shadow and light and all those different surfaces and textures. Early on a Sunday morning, when all good folk are still enjoying a cup of tea in bed, it is the most peaceful place to sit and draw, just the sound of gently lapping water and the birds waking up.
Now, I have documented the progress of this painting and over the next few days I will make an attempt to explain my working process. I may not get through the whole thing in one post, it may be spread out over a few days and of course my fellow watery artists may be posting their watermarks in between, but, I can promise that over the next few days I will tell you... The how, the why and a bit of waffle along the way.
So tune in to Watermarks to catch all the thrilling installments!
Oh yes, I really want to know what you think of this painting as I may try and get it into a dreaded jury chosen art exhibition, what do you think?

Training Session

Right, I am off training, keeping myself artistically fit.  It is a very cold winter afternoon.  The wind is howling and it will be dark soon.  I have dashed out to get my "fix" of the sea.  First of all scramble to the top of the cliff, it is a great view from there but when I get there it is way too windy to attempt to draw.  I struggle with my back pack and find my little camera, snap a few pictures of the surf.  It looks and sounds great from up here but the pictures don't do it justice.  So I call the dog, voice lost on the wind, she sees me flapping about and follows me back down to the beach.
It is high tide so there is no beach but I find a space to sit, out of the wind, tucked in between some rocks.  Now I wait and watch.  Trying to see, trying not to assume I concentrate on looking.  After doing this staring thing for a while I feel as if I have waves in my head, I am at one with the wave and have become flotsam and jetsum!  So suitably zenned up I get out my scraps of cardboard and start to draw.
I am using big pens and bits of cardboard box, sometimes I believe it is necessary to just look and draw, not for any other reason than to train.  Yes, that's it, training.  Like a runner or a swimmer would train hard all the time to keep fit, to try to be better. This is what an artist must do.  Out early or after work, fit it in... this is my training.
So that I keep on my toes and don't get fooled into doing anything other than looking and drawing I try using other materials, don't get precious about paper, this isn't for sale, not even to show anyone (except I have just shown you)  
Draw on anything, make your hand do what you want it to do, look more at what you see and less at your drawing, soak it up and breathe it in.  This is why making art is so good for you.  How can you worry about anything when you have to become so absorbed in your subject?

After a while I am too cold and need to head home where I will try to get some of the waves out of my head and into a painting.

Painting Journey

I am taking a little trip, you can come too, it is the journey of a painting.  Off we go, across the fields, through the woods, past the village to the ferry, across the water, along the coast to Grebe rock.  

It sounds like a long journey but it isn't, just a couple of miles.

I have with me my dog and my sketching gear.  I am revisiting a painting that I did earlier in the year as I am working on a few paintings for the gallery in Falmouth, Beside The Wave. 

 It is a great spot, you can sit on the cliff and look down through the trees at the water.

First of all I have a cup of coffee, then I sit a while and really listen and look before making a watercolour and pen sketch.  

First I paint the water, looking at how the light is showing the way of the wind.  Next I am using a big permanent marker pen for the trunks, I want to get the feeling of them, big and solid masses.  I use a smaller pen for the scribbles of tiny branches

Then I write a few words down in another note book, it is just to fix things that I have noticed and want to remember for the painting.After that I head home to begin work on the painting.

Once home, the first thing to do is to make a working drawing. 

 I use scraps of coloured pastel paper and black and white conte crayons to make rapid sketches.  This helps me to decide on the composition, the direction of lines and generally to think through the painting.

This is then drawn onto a gessoed board and painted.  It takes several layers of paint to get the depth of colour that I want.  I use brushes of several sizes, a small pallet knife and some bits of card to paint it... and here it is:

Durgan

Oil on board.

6in x 6in.

Four fish out of water

The Lynn Painter-Stainers Fish
14" x 18", coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Following on from Jeanette's post yesterday about her fish, I thought I'd post a drawing I did recently while sat in the middle of the exhibition for the Lynn Painter Stainer's Prize! (see Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2008 and Exhibition)

It's very odd drawing a still life (involving what I think were herring) sitting in the magnificent Livery Hall hall of Painters' Hall - the home of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers in the City of London - but that's what I did.

I should explain - that I was trying one of the workshops run during the exhibition. It's really nice sometimes to turn up for a still life set up by somebody else and all you have to do is decide what angle you're going to draw it from!

I took one of the large pieces of paper on offer and used my own coloured pencils. I used my camera to work out the four lines for cropping the image and drew out a pencil 'frame' on the paper in which to work. I then adopted my normal approach to sketching plein air which is to scribble using an open hatching method. It's also a good approach when working on paper this big and in a limited timeframe (this took about an hour or so).

Drawing on paper you're not used to is always interesting with coloured pencils as I never quite know how it's going to react. With some papers the coloured pencils just sink in and on others it's really difficult to get good darks. This one was slightly veering towards the latter and it took some time to get darks associated with the scales and shadows of the plate down.

I wouldn't have chosen fish to draw as a still life but I really enjoyed this and I'll certainly do some more in the future.

Welcome to Watermarks!

Welcome to Watermarks!

Watermarks is a small community of artists who create art from water. We like to sketch, draw and/or paint all forms of water - the sea, the coastline, beaches, rivers, streams, waterfalls, fountains - in all styles, genres and media.

Left to right: Tina, Lindsay and Laura

With this brand new group blog we aim to:

• display works in progress as well as completed art
• highlight other artists (past and present) whose art involves water
• highlight exhibitions of relevant artwork and
  
• discuss media matters and tips and techniques for creating art out of water

Left to right: Ronell, Sarah and Vivien

You can find the names of the members of the group and all our blogs in the sidebar. We are (in alphabetical order):

• Vivien Blackburn - in Leicester, England
  
• Laura Frankstone - in North Carolina, USA
  
• Gesa Helms - in Glasgow, Scotland
  
• Jeanette Jobson - in Newfoundland
  
• Tina Mammoser - on the south side of the Thames, in London, England
  
• Lindsay Olson - in the Chicago area USA
  
• Katherine Tyrrell - on the north side of the Thames, in London, England
  
• Sarah Wimperis - in Cornwall, England
  
• Ronell van Wyck - in Montlouis sur Loire, France
  

Each of us will be introducing ourselves and our interest in water and, in some cases, projects we've done or are doing or have planned in posts over the next few days. Vivien is going to start as she had the original idea!

Left to Right: Gesa, Jeanette and Katherine

If you're interested and want to see what we're up to why not subscribe to this blog? You can find the subscription links near the top of the right hand column. Alternatively maybe you'd like to follow us on your Blogger blog?

We'd love to know what you think about the idea underpinning this new group and blog - and you are welcome to leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading about our new blog and we hope to see you again soon.