Last rays- Glen Sannox

Last rays- Glen Sannox
Soft pastel on board
18x12inches

Another landscape from Arran. The previous Bastion painting was from the top left of the ridge looking down to spot this painting is from. Here we are looking back up Glen Sannox with the Bastion on the left guarding the entrance. 'The saddle' can be seen at the far end of the valley. We almost went that way till we say the descent!! Opted to come down 'the Devil's Punchbowl' onto the lush (and boggy!) slope on the left middle distance!

This painting was started on Canson board but I have to say the surface did not suit my heavy impasto style. Lesson learnt. I used one of the Canson boards and used Colourfix 'Supertooth' pastel primer tinted warm red on top to give my grip for my thick pastel layers.


Also tried out my new Henri Roche pastels- very lush and high quality sticks with high pigment content. Very nice - thanks to la maison du pastel

Here's the sketch

Ryan

New Pastel Scribbler available

The new edition of the Pastel Scribbler is now available to download for free from the Pastel Guild of Europe CLICK HERE!

or paste this into your browser:
http://www.pastelguild.com/Scribbler/Pastel_Scribbler_June2012.pdf

Please take a look. There's some great review articles about the various pastel papers available out there. I've got an article in there about the wonderful Sennelier La carte paper that I use for studio paintings.

Enjoy

Ryan

The Bastion- amended!

I got some great new Unison pastels yesterday- their 'Heavenly Shadows' set. I'd not been happy with the shadows in the mountain of 'The Bastion' painting but didn't seem to have the right colour. The great thing with pastels on Sennelier la carte is that using a bristle brush, you can remove layers of pastel and the paper keeps its grainy surface and you can paint over the top.

I've lightened the shadow overall, especially as the Bastion ridge gets further away. By lessening the contrast between dark and light and cooling the shadow colour, it helps to acheive the effect if the ridge receding into the distance.

Ryan

The Bastion, getting a little late in the day

The Bastion, getting a little late in the day

Soft pastel on Sennelier la carte
16x12 inches

Here's another landscape from the recent trip to the Isle of Arran. The mountain is called The Bastion- quite fitting! The valley below is called The Devil's Punchbowl. The bay in the distance is Sannox Bay where our B&B (and the pub!) were waiting. As the title suggests it was getting a bit late in the day and legs were very tired at this point. Home was in sight but there was no easy path down. Plan A was to work our way along the ridge to te Bastion, where according to the map there was a route down (??), we decided against that!. Take my word for it though the Devil's Punchbowl is no easy shortcut!!

With this painting I was trying to capture the sense of distance and aerial perspective. The contrasts of the deep shadow were tricky to control and not dominate the scene. I opted on keeping it simple and just suggest the forms of the slopes in shadow.

Ryan

Standing Stones, Machrie Moor

Standing Stones, Machrie Moor
Pastel on Sennelier La Carte
16x12 inches

Here's a landscape painting, the first I've done in absolutely ages. These stones are one set of about 13 on the amazingly atmospheric Machrie Moor on the Isle of Arran. We stopped for a while here and soaked up the atmosphere (and a dram of whisky).

In the painting I wanted to capture that atmosphere and sense of peace and remoteness that we felt there.

Ryan

These boots are made for walking

These boots are made for walking

Soft pastel on mixed media board
16x12 inches

This painting just won the April 'Get Dusty' competition for the Pastel Guild of Europe! I'm excited as it's the first time I've won something with a painting and it's the first painting I entered in the guild's competition- beginer's luck I reckon!!

This was a bit experimental too I used mixed media collage of old maps from a vintage atlas. Maps of Scotland specifically where I've walked. I'd just come back from a walking holiday on the isle of Arran. I distressed the maps with inks to add to the weathered look. I tore up the paper's edges and stuck to illustration board. This made for an interesting starting surface but to make it suitable for pastel I needed to paint a pastel primer on top. I didn't have one so made my own! Some gesso and acrylic inks gave a neutral grey colour. For Pastel though you need 'tooth' grit or nice expensive paper that holds the pastel dust in multiple layers. I added sand from Portobello beach and marble dust. This gave me a really coarse sand paper ready for the pastel.

When the competition theme came up 'Old shoes still life' I knew straight away that my muddy walking boots would be a good subject. I set up the still life in an interesting composition and lighting and painted with a mixture of soft pastels.

Ryan

A little bird told me

A little bird told me

Mixed media on canvas
8x8 inches

Another small painting, inspired by the noisy bird in the garden! It was so loud and once you'd picked up on the sound it got in your head and couldn't shut it out!

I used personal collage elements as the base of the painting and then embellished with acrylics, inks and texture gels. In this one I added a printed element also.

Hope you like it


Also I became a member of the Pastel Guild of Europe this week. This group's aim is to promote the use and interest of pastel painting as a fine art media. I regularly use pastels for my life drawing/painting group as its ideal for quickly getting an image and colour down on paper- this is really essential when working directly from life as even the best model will move. I'll certainly be doing more pastels as a result, and hopefully pushing myself to do other things like landscapes (I've not done a pure landscape in ages!). I'll try to keep updates coming!

Ryan


Ryan

Setting out

Setting out
15x12 inches
Mixed media on canvas

This one is inspired by the many beautiful harbour/fishing villages on the East Coast of Scotland, Eyemouth, Dunbar, Crail etc.

I've used collage, Inks, Texture gels, Acrylic and oil pastels to create this.


Ryan
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A moment of pure bliss

A moment of pure bliss

mixed media of canvas
8x8 inches

This was a really fun painting to do. Lots of gold bling in there makes it very decorative, Klimt wouuld be pleased!

There is collage elements that are then painted over with acrylics, inks and oil pastels.

Ryan

Classical style drawings

Have been continuing to practice my clssical drawing techniques, here's some recent examples:

This one is from life and took about 1hr 15mins. It utilises grey paper, graphite and heightened by white chalk. There no smudging, only directional hatching to indicate form. This is a technique favoured by many of the old masters.

This one was done yesterday at the National Galleries of Scotland. There was an 'Easel Sketching in the Gallery' event that I took part in. Basically there was a model and easels set-up for volunteers to draw. Took about 20mins, but was tough because there was quite a crowd (about 30-40) bustling around watching you work!! It uses willow charcoal and white chalk on a warm grey paper. Reasonably happy with my effort considering I wasn't warmed up and was under pressure!

Finally I went to the back stair of the gallery where there are many classical Roman busts (Mix of marble and plaster casts). Picked this one to do a sketch off in my journal, using just a new mechanical pencil (HB) I bought. I really liked the fact that this pencil was always sharp! There was quite an audience again as visitors walked past, many stopped to see what I was doing and asked a few quesions. Quite a challenging afternoon!

Ryan

A night on the tiles

A night on the tiles

Here's a sketch of the next painting for my new mixed media style that's developing. The sketch is literally a thumnail 3.5 x 3.5 inches. It's enough to give me an idea of what the finished piece might look like.

For the sketch I use Staedler pigment liners to draw the image, this one worked first time luckily but then I have drawn my cat Baggio lots of times! By using ink, you can't erase any mistakes so makes you just go for it (its only a sketch!). Once I have the drawing down, I use Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watersoluble wax pastels to add colour. The best thing with these is they have high pigment ratio and when you get a brush with water, you get a lovely wash of pure colour to quickly indicate the colour strategy. It's still transparent so you can see the ink still too.

With this there's not much I wanted to change other than the angles of the buidings. So I got started with the painting. I start with collage to make the basic shapes and add texture. I sketch in black ink the image using the wooden end of a brush and a square cut-out of cardboard (this stops me being fussy and detailed- adds character to the drawing as its a bit wonky). Colour and paint are then built up in layers with extra colloage here and there. The cat is made up mainly of collaged newspaper!

A night on the tiles
Mixed media on board
15x15 inches

Ryan

Defiance, new portrait in pastel

Defiance Pastel on paper 12x15 inches A new portrait painting I was keen to try to capture the expression on the models face in this one. She's got a really strong defiant profile. Ryan

Portrait swap

Karen Oil on canvas 8x12 inches For the past 3 years I've taken part in a portrait swap with other artists around the world. It's great fun painting another artist and getting a portrait in return from them. All along there's encouragement and sharing of techniques and ideas. This year I was swapping portraits with a New Zealand artist- Karen. Here's my portrait of her. Happy 2012! Ryan

Life paintings

Wow September came and went so fast- I never posted anything. That doesn't mean I wasn't busy painting and drawing! I'm still going to my weekly life painting/drawing group at Whitespace. I'm now using acrylics to paint the long pose (about 1 hour 45mins). I'm painting on little boards only 9x12inches, to allow me get a degree of finish within the time frame. These boards (MDF from DIY store) provide a good painting surface, they need to be gessoed (3 coats) before use and I then paint neutral gray mixed with acrylic texture paste medium to provide a more interesting paint surface and to get rid of the white gesso- replaced with a midtone. Here's the one I did last week

Rebecca 9x12 inches Acrlyic on board And here is tonight's effort

Justin 9x12inches Acrlyic on board I'm using a new viewfinder that I got, It's really helping me think about the composition before I start and keeps me focussed on scale too. With many of my tutored life classes I'd done previously, there was always pressure to make sure you got the WHOLE figure in to the picture- which really hampers creative composition I feel. The viewfinder let me try out different cropped compositions to pick one that is interesting before I start. Also I'm working with a limited pallette (yellow ochre, raw sienna, burnt sienna, Burnt umber and black and white) I'm finding this works great for me creating believable skin tones and creating a moore harmonious painting. Ryan

Forbidden fruit 2

Forbidden fruit 2
Mixed media on board
15x15 inches

He's the sequel to the 'Eve' painting I did. Has been on the spare easel for a wee bit while I did some oil painting studies. Finally decided to get this one done.

Here's some close-ups so you can see the textures and collage elements







Ryan

Cast study

Cast study
pencil on paper

At last I can post pictures again thanks to a new digital camera! No life classes at the moment as the Whitespace studio is being used as one of the many venues in the Edinburgh festival. Been working on this to keep my drawing studies up

Ryan

Modern art vs Classical art study

Thought I'd share this article I stumbled accross that I found fascinating. It's about the common argument between modern art and classical style art. A proper study was done looking at the behaviour, attention time of the public looking at artwork in the Tate Britain gallery:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365672/Modern-art-How-gallery-visitors-viewed-work-Damien-Hirst-Tracy-Emin-5-seconds.html

As an artist who paints and loves classical styles but also is enjoying the freedom of a new contempory style emerging in my art, this was very interesting.

I definitely think that the findings of the study mirror my behaviour in a gallery. Most of the minimalist conceptual type stuff leaves me a little cold and don't have much interaction with. I find myself skim-reading it and moving on. I'm not saying its not good by the way, just that it doesn't excite me- others of course argue that I'm not giving it the time and thought to GET the concept though my deep thinking about it. As always with art its a very personal response that is unique to each individual.

One of the examples in the article is Damien Hirst's large paintings of coloured dots- to me its decorative and pretty but I get no story or message from it and as such my attention is not held. I find the same with Mark Rothko's work. Both of these artists sell for huge amounts of course! Whereas some Tracy Emin drawings (though often difficult to look at in regards to content and 'crude' technique) are thoroughly modern do have a message and have made me stop and contemplate.

For me I like looking at modern art and classical art- one informs the other. I prefer modern art that has a bit of craft to it and preferrably a message or bit of narrative.

I think one of the key things that cause a painting/drawing to hold the viewers interest is composition. In classical styles, laws of composition are carefully followed and exploited to keep the viewers eye movement controlled and moving around the canvas- clearly from the study it works well. A lot of the 'modern art' they discuss in the article lacks this or deliberately break these composition rules

-maybe the fleeting glances of the majority of the public is the cost they pay?

Ryan

Colour studies

Well I'm using my scientist brain to improve my artist brain!

Up until now I guess I've been buying paint tubes based on their shiny-ness, because other artists metion they use them, or whether they're on offer(!).

Well no more!!

I'm using my natural scientific brain (at last the day job comes in useful for more than the bills!)

I'm studying Suzanne Brooker's 'Portrait painting atelier' a lovely book I got for Christmas. So far I've been drooling over the masterful painting examples biding my time until I had more time to devote to artistic study (as opposed to the scientific type!). Also I've got a new digital camera (since the last broke I've been limited to what I can post)

Essentially the first exercise involves exploring the pigments on the pallete and learning control over the mixing capability of each colour.

Here's the first two using core earth red pigments and then contempory red pigments. For each I painted the the hue (colour out the tube) then experimented with tines, tints, shades, warm, cool and neutral mixes of each colour.





Doing this not only allows me to improve my colour mixing control and skill, but also allows me to directly compare different paint hues and variations between manufacturers.

I found these difficult as I have a red/green colour blind deficiency so mixing the neutrals caused me a bit of consternation (as I had to mix green into my reds to neutralise the colour)

Next up is the oranges and remaining earth colours!

Ryan

A virus

Here's my latest one. It's a bit of an exploration in mixed media- trying out a few new things. Some of the lovely new range of Daler Rownet artist acrylics and Caran D'ache Neo pastels. Different paper types used in the collage too include washi, handmade indian paper, cardboard and printed images.

Having real bother with my digital camera- think its on the waay out. Very difficult to get an accurate image. Quite frustrating and I think I'll need a new one after pay day.

Ryan

Edinburgh College of Art Degree show

Went to see the ECA Degree show tonight- lots to see. It finishes on Sunday so if you're around and about Edinburgh its well worth a visit:

http://www.eca.ac.uk/degreeshow2011/
There were a couple of painters that caught my eye, they were using allegory (one Christian symbolism and the other Greek mythology) and painting large canvases in oil.

one was Aisha Al-Sadie, unfortunately I didn't get the other's name but will post if I find out.

In my more recent work 'Forbidden fruit' and the unpublished work that currently on my easel utilise suggestions of symbolism in the use of the apple.

There was a lot of pure abstract paintings on show that had some nice mark-making and subdued colours. I thought some of it was nice but a little derivative- its not really my bag but can appreciate that many will like this. I prefer art with more skilled craft and narrative. Was a good opportunity to get in ECA and have a look around though. The building is amazing with beautiful light airy studios looking onto Edinburgh castle- woth seeing by itself!

There was a lot of classical sculpture casts around as well, I can see me going to try to draw them. I did some life classes with artist Graham Flack who teaches there who told me the public can go in and draw there whenever they like so I'll try to do that.

Ryan