Fox Bay in the old days.

A tough nut this one. Painting of Fox Bay West Settlement forty odd years ago, having trawled many old photos looking for references I narrowed it down to two, showing the view of the settlement from across the bay at Fox Bay East. There is often a problem with panoramic vistas here in the Falklands and that is getting enough going on outside of the narrow horizontal strip that is the middle distance to the horizon (which is where most of what's recognisable will be), I find there's only so much one can do with sky and featureless foreground but by combining these two photos there was a composition that answered.

Original photos:

Combined reference:

That was the easy bit, now just need to do a 50 by 70 cm painting of it. Progress so far:

Philosophical rambling in the Antarctic...

During my recent Antarctic trip I kept a journal which I've gradually been transcribing. Yesterday I came across a passage that I wrote after a rather fine encounter we had with a Fin whale, we managed to sneak up right alongside him which is unusual with these shy giants. Not sure what I'd been drinking that day but it seemed to have put me in a rather whimsical mood. Philosophy?....perhaps, could be complete bollocks though.

The whale is ambivalent to us, sometimes curious but really we are just another thing in the ocean to him. Considering the exploitation of them that we’ve indulged in in the past, and to some extent still do so, why is this the case? We can only surmise that the whale has no means to communicate memories or information as we understand it, the threat we pose is simply unknown to the individual cetacean, he has no measure of the danger that our steel vessel could represent to him. Can he be aware that we personally in our boat are no threat? I doubt it.

We are unique in our ability to communicate, through our creations, information, stories, history and knowledge. This is our talent, whether through spoken or written language or through art and pictorial records. This is not exclusive to artists and authors, we all use these mechanisms all the time, This communication is what has allowed us to gain a measure of control over our environment and to allow our species to flourish and spread....yet we are not powerful, our environment is artificial, a construct of our collective genius, individually, stripped of the apparatus of our technology, we are at best almost helpless. We can personally hold only a tiny portion of the knowledge and skill that gives our species this power, a portion that alone is almost meaningless. The belief in our control is a subconscious fiction that we have to conceal from ourselves the truth that our lives have no purpose greater than that of any other animal, no matter how humble.

We are paradoxical creatures, we have this belief in our control, this collective blindness because of our vision and awareness rather than in spite of it. We are aware that we will die, we cannot avoid this fate in spite of all our power so we want there to be meaning to our existence that will subvert this ‘dead’ end. Again communication is the key, through our ideas, art, writing we can gain a degree of immortality as we see it. The whale is not concerned with such constructs, with the future, the past, with existential conceit, he merely lives his life. He is, perhaps, wiser than we are.

Something new...

We had three old biddies...ahem...that is to say three retired teachers host a craft day in our house this Friday. They were teaching various crafts, sewing patchwork, flax weaving, felt making, watercolours & pyrography. The wife and I were supposed to be on our way to Stanley but were stuck out here; ferry delayed by poor weather.

Thought I'd have a crack at something different from my neverending pastels.

Pyrography:

Watercolours:

 

Interesting experiments, may well try expanding on these new mediums. Many thanks to Myra, Heather and Wendy for all their hard work.

A golden opportunity

See this wee ship: 

She's the Hans Hansson, a cruiser run  by Golden Fleece Expeditions who do charter expeditions to the Antarctic. The owner Dion Poncet had advertised for a semi-voluntary extra crew member for her latest trip so I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring....and I got the job!

So there we go, on Monday 16th January I'm away south for 6 weeks, South Sandwich Islands, The Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia. I'll pack my drawing stuff and see what inspires me down there in 'the freezer'


What an opportunity!

Christmas commission challenge....

Now that Christmas is out of that way I can post about the three 'Christmas present' commissions I had this year. What made these interesting was the increasing difficulty and decreasing notice of the three. For the first I had a couple of months notice, nice, straightforward child portrait. No problem at all. A single, lovely reference photo that just about jumped off the screen and plenty of time. The next was a double portrait of two collies in late November, multible reference photos and a bit of compositional jiggling needed....Still no problem, a harder subject but a few weeks was still enough time to get the job done.

In mid December came the real test though, a big landscape commission (I find landscapes to be the toughest subject)...and I only had a matter of days...a very few days...to get it completed. It was a sunset view of a local range of hills called Rincon Ridge, fortunately they are right here in Fox Bay so I dashed out to get some references for the hills and foreground, a quick sort through my sky ref photos for a suitable sunset sky and a bit of photoshopping produced a workable composition so there I was, ready to go but it had to be finished, sent to towm to get framed and be back here before the big day. Really wasn't sure if I could achieve it.

But I did, Jane in the Pink Shop pulled out the stops to get it framed and sent back in time.
:-)

So here are my three Christmas commissions in order of increasing difficulty and tightening deadlines:

Ashleigh, soft pastels on 30 X 40cm yellow pastelmat.

Marni & Zia, hard pastels and pastel pencils on 30 X 40cm grey pastelmat. (really enjoyed doing this one)

Rincon Ridge, Soft pastels, hard pastels and pastel pencils on 50 X 70cm grey pastelmat. (This was tough but in the end rewarding, I didn't get stuck and it turned out better than I dared hope).

I learnt a lot from doing this painting, if I'm being honest with myself I was afraid of attempting large landscapes, the few I'd done felt like flukes. In finishing this commission I've managed to lay some of that fear to rest, I'm now quite looking forward to the next one (which BTW is already in the pipeline...and involves painting buildings as well as natural features....ulp!)

Blasted 2

Another example of what the weather can do to trees in the Falklands, this example is based on a photo taken on Carcass Island. Happily this feeble specimen is not typical for trees on Carcass, that island is a real garden spot in our harsh climate.

There's palm trees there even...

....well....cabbage palms anyway.

For once I recorded the stages of this charcoal drawing, usually I'm in too much of a hurry.

Got another two commissions finished last week too. My lips are sealed though, they're both Christmas presents so can't be shown on here yet.

New studio

Well...my wife and I have agreed that we need the bedroom that I had occupied as a studio to be a bedroom again. Fortunately there's a big ol' room in the attic of the building I work in that was sitting empty. Until recently the terms of the lease meant I was unable to sublet any of the unused rooms but that's recently changed so I thought why not? I'll treat myself to it, after a day hauling a surprisingly large ammount of art related junk up a tiny narrow staircase here it is...my new studio, must be four times the floor space of my old one and with wonderful light, just need to stop the velux window from leaking and it'll be tip top.

Fini...

Had a call from Sarah today, good news was that another of my paintings has sold, bad news was that the exhibition had to be closed a day early (A cruise ship is due to arrive earlier than expected so the Jetty Centre had to be restored to it's former, painting free, austerity).

So that's that, the paintings are down, my first exhibition is finished. I'm really pleased with how it went, made plenty of sales, had some great feedback and loads of interest in my art. If anyone missed the exhibition you can still have a look at the remaining paintings by calling in at Sealed PR, they'll have them in their office for the next week or so, there's still thirteen left of the twenty three that were for sale....there's still some gems there, don't miss out. ;-)