Exploration in oil - Loch Fyne 2023
The Inspiration
The Inspiration
The Inspiration
Ciara and I were lucky enough to be invited back to our friends lodge on the banks of Loch Fyne in January.
On our previous visit to Nikki and Mike's beautiful home, in September 2020, we had been blessed with days of clear blue skies and warm winds. We rowed out to a beach, swam with seals and completely fell in love with this most glorious of places.
This year, the skies were grey, it rained almost non-stop and, being quite far north, the sun (?) didn't rise until 9am and fell back to earth around 3 in the afternoon. We still got out for walks along the shoreline, squelching all the while, and in truth, such is the beauty of this part of Scotland that it still took our breath away.
Preparation
The Inspiration
The Inspiration
I always have odds and ends of MDF lying around my studio in Wingfield so anticipating long hours indoors, I decided to take a selection of small boards (15cm square) to Scotland. The size was dictated by two criteria; a small car and the desire to waste as little oil paint as possible if my efforts proved futile.
I then scavenged around our leaky conservatory and Oscar's bedroom for any tubes of oil paint and brushes, pallettes etc.
The Doing
Working from photographs, I decided early on to work within my limitations, the main one being a complete lack of experience in oil painting. My abstract work lent a good colour sense so it was really a case of letting the paint find its way.
Day 1 was prep day - I mixed up some paint with some Liquin which I found and painted each board with a grounding colour based on those around the shoreline. The lodge was filled with that irresistible (to me at least) smell, reminiscent of the artists studio I had recently visited and I was beginning to feel that my journey had begun.
Day 2 was a reality check - half a dozen blank boards demanding to be filled.
The Results
I discovered that limiting myself to small boards provided an ideal place to start on my oil painting journey. The results are pleasing and serve as reminders of some wonderful times. I intend to do more when we return to Loch Fyne in January 2024 if only to enjoy the intoxicating scent of turps.
Working with colours
One of our recent commissions
Every so often, I get asked to undertake a different style of framing. That may involve working with new materials, applying different techniques and, as happened recently, working with an exciting range of colour schemes.
Here you can see the various stages of the work and the finished results - definitely one of my most enjoyable commissions to date.
The initial brief
The brief was to frame 16, 12cm square fragments of paintings, arranged as shown above, with contrasting mounts and frames.
Measuring
Each fragment needed to have the same border all round. This required painstaking marking out of each mountboard prior to cutting. .
Cutting
Cutting multiple windows requires particular attention to over- and undercuts (those lines that one often sees in the corner of windows where the blade has overrun.)
Painting the frames
Painting the frames
The frames, constructed by us out of 35mm flat beech, were sanded and painted using 2 coats of Little Green sampler colours
Assembly & Hanging
Painting the frames
Finally, it all comes together.
Projects in 2022
Etching, float mounted in a waxed natural ash frame with deep ash fillets
Corner detail with signature
Corner detail showing deep (19mm) ash fillets
Oil on board in a waxed dark oak tray frame
Finished frames and art, created by participants aged 6-10 at the HAF Summer Workshop
Monochrome Gallery
Cranes against a Winter sky
Bill Wyman & Mick Jagger
Luton Town FC
Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman - 1964
Brian Jones & Bill Wyman - 1964
Mick Jagger & Brian Jones - 1964
Free diver
Tray Frame Building
