Wimperis on the Wall

Today is the opening of my exhibition at Beside The Wave all of the paintings are now on their web site and looking glorious in the gallery, framed and beautifully hung.  There is a watery section with paintings of the Helford River, where I am so lucky to live,

where I spend my time painting in all weathers and all times of the day and night.

The river and water is complimented by a selection of paintings about gardens, another of my passions.  There are gardens on and around the Helford as well as further afield...

Which leads on to a selection of paintings that were done during my trip to Provence. 
Drop by if you happen to be in Falmouth during the next two weeks, (as well you might be the place is heaving with folk due to it being Falmouth week, even Brad Pitt is in town filming his new movie, maybe he will call in and purchase some paintings!!)

If you cant be there in person then please enjoy the pictures on line and take a look at a very nice blog post on the gallery blog.  If you are interested in the collection of very fine artists that the gallery represent then sign up as a follower of the blog as it has some fascinating insights into the studios and working practices of the represented artists and the blog is written mostly by the official gallery blog reporter...thats me!

The Drained Lake, Victoria Park

The Drained Lake - Victoria Park - July 2011
8" x 10" pen and sepia ink in Moleskine sketchbook

This week I walked home from my physio at the hospital via Victoria Park

I planned on sketching the lake on the basis that it must surely have been refilled for the summer months.

Yet again, I was met with a park which for most of 2011 has resembled a very large building site. Huge screens block off access to large parts of the park.  It's so depressing that I now rarely visit.

I ended up sketching the line of stakes which go out to the defunct fountain in the middle of the lake and the puddles which remain in the middle.

All this in the middle of summer after the schools have broken up.

Did nobody at Tower Hamlets Council think it might be a good idea to have most of the park operational in time for the school holidays and the good weather?

I'd add at this juncture that I watched while the lake in St James Park in Central London (which is run by the Royal Parks and is a much bigger lake) was drained, silt removed and then refilled.  I seem to recall think this took a few weeks - and every time I visited I saw vehicles scurrying around the lake bed moving silt around.  It was unsightly while it lasted - but it was also relatively speedy in getting back to normal

Every time I have visited Victoria Park in 2011 all I can see is a nearly drained lake and lots of screens preventing access to the edge.  What I never see are

• any signs of anybody doing anything to the lake
• any signs indicating start and finish dates for any of the jobs being done in the park.  In the past I've always found lack of communication on dates to be an absolute sure-fire indicator of poor project planning and poor project management.

Does nobody at Tower Hamlets Council care about the people who use Victoria Park?

Cornwall in May - Vivien

Dawn across the bay, oil about 14 ins or so across

 Life has been getting in the way of me posting here so I thought I'd do a big post of images from a trip to Cornwall in May.   Most have been on my blog but you can see them together here.

What interests me is the changing light and colour as time, season and weather pass.    As the day moves on the colours change constantly, by the minute, the tide moves in or out, clouds change the colours, the sun moves from behind the silhouetted cliffs - ever changing.  It's great to revisit the same view in the way that Sarah has with the creek near her home and Jeanette does with the bays, Katherine does with the ecology park.  Some of these are of the same view, others are from different viewpoints or a few miles along the coast.

Sunset over the bay, coloured pencil

 Double page spread, across the beach, afternoon light, double page spread in the Canson watercolour sketchbook (pages are 12 ins wide), watercolour/mixed media

I use whatever medium either fits in with the time/family committments I have available or suits the subject.

We shared a house with my daughter, her husband, 3 year old grandson and 5 month old grandaughter - which inevitably affected painting time and materials.   I did manage to get out painting  alone though, leaving the family to their own devices :>)

The Crowns at Botallack, A3, charcoal and ink

 The Crowns again, inktense and coloured pencil

 The family wouldn't have tolerated sitting in the wind while I did the above charcoal sketch for instance - and my blood runs cold at keeping hyperactive grandson away from those sheer drops!

 Ink and wash sketch in the Canson watercolour book, The Crowns again

Porthgwarra, oil, approx 14 ins

 Porthgwarra is a little cove that is accessed via a cave - the tide was in and so there was no beach.   This was done sitting on the cliff top with a seal bobbing in the waves watching us.   Himself sat happily in the sun - it was windy but we were sheltered.   The programme 'Coast' explained yesterday how those waves are created by winds way out at sea, not so much local conditions.   Up to thousands of miles away.

The USA is somewhere off over the horizon :>)  - the first transatlantic telephone cables were laid from the nearby beach at Porthcurno (very very beautiful).

detail

Study of dawn colours across the bay, coloured pencil in moleskine sketchbook, A5

Study of afternoon colours across the bay from the house, coloured pencil in moleskine sketchbook, A5

Moorland Stream and ancient pack horse bridge, watercolour and mixed media on A3 sketchpad

Moorland stream in moleskine sketchbook, ink and coloured pencil. A5

There are more but this is probably enough!

Now I need to go and get the paints out and do some more work.

World Oceans Day

 Yamabuki

6" x 12"  acrylic

June 8th is World Oceans Day.  On World Oceans Day people around the planet celebrate and honor the body of water which links us all, for what it provides humans and what it represents.

It seemed appropriate that this little golden fish represent the importance of the oceans.  Yes, its not sea dwelling, but water, even fresh, eventually becomes part of the ocean and the hydrological cycle repeats over and over.

The term nishikigoi in Japanese means "colored carp" and refers to the magical realm of koi fish. The Japanese invest symbolism in many animals and especially koi carp, the common goldfish being the domestic version of carp. Yamabuki: The gold fish represents gold, wealth and prosperity.

Wealth is not always measured by physical goods and money.  Wealth comes from what is around us naturally, how we treat it and how we treat ourselves and others. 

Cornwall, May 2011

The Crowns at Botallack, charcoal sketch, A3, Vivien

It's a while since I posted anything here - sorry.

This is a recent one, done on a very windy day, hair blowing in my eyes and fighting to keep the sketchpad still.   It's a mix of willow charcoal, compressed charcoal and charcoal pencil.

The sea was swirling around the rocks below,  gulls wheeled past, that cliff goes a long way upwards above the old engine houses that blend into the cliff.  The thought of miners walking down there in the teeth of a gale, the waves nearly reaching them, then going down dark narrow tunnels under the sea, lit only by the light of their candle, was in my mind as I worked.  A hard life, with a very short lifespan.   Charcoal seemed the right medium to express the place and its ambience.

You can see further sketches of the area here

Limpid progression

I've been painting this piece over on my blog for the last week or so and I'm finally calling it done.  I thought I'd show the progression shots of the painting here, as I did with my previous wave painting, Landwash.

This piece is called Limpid, the soft, gentle, clear water seemed to warrant an equally relaxed name.  The painting is oils and 12 x 24" on stretched canvas.

 

 

 

The Lake and waterfowl at Kew Gardens

Last Wednesday I was sat in the sunshine, next to the Lake in the centre of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, drawing this sketch and listening to the complete din which the birds were making combined with what sounded like tree munching.

Spring Green, Sunlight and the Sackler Crossing at Kew Gardens
11" x 16" pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Large Folio Moleskine
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

It reminded me of city folk who go to the country for some peace and quiet and can't get over how noisy it is because of all the noises from the animals and activities which go on a rural area.

The Lake has a huge amount of waterfowl and they're all very territorial.

When we arrived we had a swan letting some Canada Geese know that they were NOT allowed to get into the water just in front of where I sat.
They tried it once or twice and the swan steamed in with wings set to "ack ack" mode and saw them off.  After which they took to marching up and down on the bank with occasional forays for a bit of weed from the edge.  We were sat there so long they began to ignore us so it was fascinating to watch.

In the meantime the gardeners seemed to be getting rid of prunings although it did sound rather more like they putting an enormous tree through the shredder as the noise was so loud.

Then the mallards had periodic races across the top of the lake.  They seemed to be keen to see how long they could skip across the top of the water before they had to take off

The coots were being noisy as per usual (when are they ever not?)

Every once in a while some other Canada Geese would practice display landings by swooping in and doing a very "look at me" landing in the middle of the lake.  Boys will be boys.....

Believe it or not the sketch is not quite so luminous as the leaves were.  I had the combination of brand spanking new leaves with that incredible green - lit from behind by the sun - at the same time as the sky changed so it became violet blue as it thought about having a thunderstorm.  Thankfully that held off until we got home!

Link:  The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew