counter hit xanga
framework gallery | Scottish Landscape Art - Scottish Landscape Paintings

Posts Tagged ‘framework gallery’

The Framework Gallery in Troon

'Breaking mists, Isle of Arran'

‘Breaking mists, Isle of Arran’

Just a short blog this week as it’s been a quiet and quite uneventful few days.  I’ve spent most of my time working on a new 80 x 80 cm painting but to be honest it has been hard work and I’m struggling with it!  That said, I had a couple of hours working on it this morning and by the time I left around midday, there were a few rays of hope.

Anyway, I took three of the more recent paintings down to The Framework Gallery in Troon earlier this afternoon, ready for the run-up to Christmas.  If you’re a regular to this website then you’ll have seen the paintings before ….but I’d like to think that you’ll be happy seeing them again.  Indeed, if you live in the area you can get to see them up close and for real at The Framework Gallery in Troon for the next few months.

'Crossing to Harris, a damp April evening'

‘Crossing to Harris, a damp April evening’

For full details of the gallery please go to their website: www.frameworktroon.co.uk .The gallery at 83 Portland St, Troon, always has a good range of work by an interesting selection of different artists and its well worth a visit.  I hope you can get along sometime.

'West coast, Harris, May 2013'

‘West coast, Harris, May 2013’

0-0-0-0-0-0

‘Snow shower, below the east ridge of Ben Lui’

'Snow shower, below the east ridge of Ben Lui'

‘Snow shower, below the east ridge of Ben Lui’

 

‘Snow shower, below the east ridge of Ben Lui’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2012, 80 x 80 cm

Well then, here it is again ….finished at long last!  As you can see, I’ve developed the painting a little from the earlier two versions and have use just a little bit of artistic licence in making the conditions slightly worse than it actually was at the time!  We did in all reality climb these slopes in very good conditions and although there were plenty of dark heavy clouds around none of these produced snow until later in the day as we were heading back.  Anyway, I think this added work has given the picture much needed atmosphere …something that was I felt lacking in the earlier versions.

One of the regular visitors to my Face Book page commented when seeing the last version, that he could start to appreciate how much under painting there was in some of these works.  These paintings are built up slowly using many layers of paint and pastel and it is this way of working that helps me to create the atmosphere and depth in some of these pieces.

This painting can now be seen at The Framework Gallery in Troon and is priced at £1095.  If you have a chance and live in Ayrshire why not pop along to the gallery to see it for real.  They also have several of my other paintings and three of my recent small graphite drawings of Ailsa Craig. ….along of course with work by many other    artists.  You can get further details about the Framework Gallery by clicking on the link at the side of this page.

A day of small drawings

'Canisp & Suilven, Assynt', Graphite on wood, 2012, 148 x 210 mm

‘Canisp & Suilven, Assynt’, Graphite on wood, 2012

As the title suggests, today has been a day of graphite pencils rather than paint and brushes.  It has made a good change and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my few hours at the studio.  Yesterday I started playing around with a few ideas for drawings about Ailsa Craig and spent my last hour in the studio scribbling in a sketch book.  I quite liked one of the small drawings and today decided to try and do another version …..this time using a graphite pencil on board.  It made for some very nice marks and after doing one I got into it and over the next few hours did another three small pieces in this manner.  One of them based on the idea of looking across to the hills over on the Isle of Arran and the other two based on sketches I did up in Assynt a few years ago.

2 'Ailsa', Graphite on board, 2012, 148 x 210 mm

‘Ailsa’, Graphite on board, 2012, 148 x 210 mm

It is surprising what interesting marks can be made working onto wood as opposed to paper and in a similar way that the pastels I use pick up the surface of the paint, here the pencil picked up the small ridges in the primed surface. I was using a fairly soft graphite pencil most of the time – 6B, but for finer marks I worked with a 2B.  Each of the drawings are quite small …just A5 size and I may include several of these in a local exhibition next month.  The exhibition organiser asked especially for small pieces at the lower end of the price range.  I’ll post full details about this in a few weeks time.

'Assynt skyline', Graphite on board, 2012, 148 x 210 mm

‘Assynt skyline’, Graphite on board, 2012

Of course, now I’ve done these small pieces I’m already wondering quite what a larger piece would look like done in the same way?  As I already have several boards cut that are either 60 x 60 cm or 80 x 80 cm, I’ll probably try something at this size.  However, I’m getting a vague thought that perhaps something considerably bigger might work really well …perhaps 90 cm wide by 160 cm high.  Using the same scale of mark as the small pieces would be very time consuming on a large area but would be very interesting.  If I do try something like this then I think I’ll have to buy myself a good audio book to listen too while I’m drawing.

When I was in Speyer two years ago I worked on a fairly abstract painting that was I think 80 x 140 cm and I scribbled very fine marks into the whole of the surface.  This took me a couple of days of very slow work …and I was thankful there of having a good book to read while I worked.  Oh well, I guess it’s just a case of watch this space ….I’ll hopefully have time to try something like this soon.

'Across to Arran', Graphite on board, 2012, 148 x 210 mm

‘Across to Arran’, Graphite on board, 2012

I’ve just heard from ‘the gallery on the corner’ in Edinburgh that they’ve just sold one of my 76 x 23 cm paintings.  As they also sold one of my 30 x 30 cm pieces not long ago, I’ll have to get some replacements to them soon.  I have work going to The Strathearn Gallery for their Christmas Exhibition as well as several pieces going to The Framework Gallery in Troon for their pre Christmas exhibition too.  As I say, full details of both of these exhibitions soon ….the point is, that I’ll have to get a few new small acrylic and pastel pieces done ….it’s all go…..but very enjoyable!

 

Moving around

New Art Studio - December

New Art Studio - December 2011

It is now just over two months since I moved into my new bigger studio and yesterday I decided to move everything around!  I guess it takes time to work out the best use of a new space and the way I’d set things out on first moving in, well, it was far from that.

I’d put my easel and palette (a large piece of white ‘kitchen’ board on a battered and very old Black & Decker Workmate) close to the door.  This is the main source of natural light in this studio, so it seemed to make sense.  Opposite this are the stairs to the upper studio and the gap between the two had to accommodate my chair …a rather large rocking chair to be exact!  Suffice to say it didn’t leave much room to get past and into the main body of the studio.  This didn’t really matter to me; after banging my shins on the rockers of the chair a few times, I’d learnt.  However, this wasn’t good for anyone visiting as they had to negotiate their way past these obstacles in order to get to see the finished work hung on the end walls.  As I say though, in my defence, I had placed the easel in this position in order to get as much of the natural light as possible …so not that daft!

New Art Studio - December

New Art Studio - December 2011

However, this eye of mine is a strange beast and it does odd things in different types of light.  I always see colour now in a very subdued way but rather perversely not only does my sight fail almost totally in very dim conditions, it also fails if the light gets too bright.

In this new studio, the lighting is a series of six fluorescent tubes hung in two sets of three along the length of the space.  With the studio space above, the ceiling is quite low and so these tubes appear much brighter than in my old studio, which was in the old part of the building and had a very high ceiling.  So then, the problem I’ve found is that although my easel gets the maximum amount (not very much in reality) of natural light during the day, once the light outside fades, and the fluorescent tubes take over ….well, it’s just too damn bright for me.  At this time of year especially with the kind of dark gloomy wet days we’ve been having much of the time here on the west coast of Scotland, there has been precious little day light anyway and I’ve really been struggling to see what I’m doing.  Not that this is really that different from normal except that now under this great glare of fluorescent light …I can barely see anything of the colours ……except the very strong contrasting ones that is.  Any subdued colours just fade into a fuzzy nothingness!  Not great!

'Winter slopes, Glen Lyon'

'Winter slopes, Glen Lyon'

I had been working on one of my larger 80 x 80 cm pieces for almost three months and the other day I managed to completely wreck it.  The painting has been a bit of an experiment in all truth.  I’d been trying to create something that was full of marks and done in thick paint.  This was proving difficult but under this strange and intense light, it proved a step to far.

'October morning, Glen Lyon'

'October morning, Glen Lyon'

So then, with one wrecked painting, many hours and many pounds worth of paint down the drain, I decided yesterday that it was time to change.  The far end of the studio has less natural light but also, rather conveniently for me, slightly less fluorescent light too.  I have then taken all my painting gear up to the far end of the studio and hung some of my finished paintings on the wall on the right as you enter the studio.  It’s going to be much better for visitors, (no obstacle course) and the slightly less intense and more constant light should, with a bit of luck, prove better for painting.  I’ll let you know how things work out.

Finally, if you live in Ayrshire, why not pop along to The Framework Gallery in Troon.  They have a great selection of work by many Scottish artists and they now also have five of my paintings, (four small and one large).  Although you can see images of my work on this website, there’s nothing better than seeing and experiencing a painting for real.

The Framework Gallery
83 Portland Street
Troon
Ayrshire KA10 6QU

Tel: 01292 316144

Website:  www.frameworktroon.co.uk