My way of working.

My aims....

I do not want to illustrate or pre-plan.

I want to free myself from literal representation.

‘Sail away for a year and a day’

Oils and cold wax on 8 x 8 inch panel. 

I might describe the pictures as a visual language 

of my working process.

A personal form of self expression,

...drawing on my world of imagination.

‘In the cool of the day’

Oils and cold wax on 8 x 8 inch panel. 

The finished piece might reflect 

vignettes of memories

...of fleeting glimpses.

‘A blackbird sings loud and clear’

Oils and cold wax on 8 x 8 inch panel.

My actual process is complex

and I do not want it to be explained.

It needs to be a visual thing.

Each painting is different.

‘Shimmering blue and darkened sky’

Oils and cold wax on 8 x 8 inch panel.

Whatever I do will be a self portrait...

of who I am and how I think and feel.

My own personal story.

These paintings are on 8 x 8 inch panels

Oils and cold wax medium 

£ 40 each

Visit my website for more

small paintings and details of availability.

http://www.wildartdesigns.com

Until next time...

Thank you for visiting.

March Madness

In like a lion...

Our weather is quite contrary this year.

A warm February and now a complete contrast.

Snow showers, gales and cold.

My pictures this week are cheerful and full of colour.

They are going to a group exhibition tomorrow.

‘Hand in hand at the edge of the sand’

Oils and cold wax medium 

16 x 16 inches on box canvas.

In a hand painted wood float frame.

‘This I saw on an April day’

Oils and cold wax medium 

12 x 12 inches on box canvas 

In a dark grey float frame 

‘This I saw in an April field’

Oils and cold wax medium

8 x 15 inch panel 

In a hand painted wood frame 

‘Out in a tranquil bay’

Oils and cold wax medium 

10 x 12 inch panel 

In a hand painted wood frame 

I subscribe to receive emails from The Painter’s Keys.

In December 2018 I read an article by Sarah Genn 

who’s father Robert wrote a list of points 

for making a good painting.

Two of these are below...

Gestural Momentum 

— Never underestimate the power of a few bold strokes. Then, leave your strokes alone.

Artistic Flair 

— Have you added something that is uniquely and bravely yours?

(Robert Genn).  

www.painterskeys.com

These are 2 valuable ‘nuggets’ of advice.

The first is something I am trying hard to remember 

when I am working.   There is often a temptation 

to fuss with a ‘bold stroke’ which can lose impact.

These two details from my pictures show

bold strokes which were spontaneous and free.

I was careful to leave them alone.

Not easily done, I might say.  

The second ‘nugget’ to be brave and unique 

is my personal journey....

I am a painter and I make marks.

Here are marks I made quickly and intuitively 

without much thought...they happened 

as I ‘sculpted’ the oil paint with a knife.  

To keep these ‘bravely mine’ I do not have any 

reference tools in my workplace.

No photos or sketches precede my pictures.

I do not copy anything.

The marks evolve as I work.

If I like them, I leave them.

Otherwise I scrape the paint back.

Plenty of scraping happens in my studio.  

A detail from another painting...

More marks and scratchings.

I like the subtle grey shades of blue-greens.

Here is the whole picture.

Pure imagination with a watery feeling.

‘Turquoise trails of timeless flow’

Oils and cold wax medium

20 x 20 inch box canvas. 

Titles...

Someone recently asked how 

I give my paintings their titles.

I have a book of ‘words’.

Words from poems and stories.

Just things I see written which appeal to me.

From these I choose a few words which seem 

to say what my picture is about.  

Sometimes I change the words around and jumble them up.

It’s all a bit random.

I saw this quote somewhere which

made me smile...

Visit my website for more of my story 

and available paintings 

www.wildartdesigns.com

Until next time...

Thank you for visiting.

Visit my website for more of my story 

and available paintings 

www.wildartdesigns.com

Adventures in colour.

Colour and imagination...

‘Before anyone is awake’

The magic of dawn in a wild garden.

Colour and shapes...

These two quotes ‘say it all’.  

I found that I could say things with colors and shapes that I couldn’t say in any other way—things that I had no words for.

—Georgia O’Keeffe

The world about us would be desolate except for the world within us.

—Wallace Stevens

My garden studio is my painting world.

Here I make pictures from inside my mind.

‘Sound the trumpet, Spring’

Today I have been making ‘reclaimed’ works,

using previous paintings as a base.

Oils and cold wax in layers build up the story.  

I have swept aside the shadows of Winter 

to embrace the colour of Spring.

These two cheerful pictures tell a story...

of making new things from old.

Until next time...

Thank you for visiting.

A collage of recent paintings.

Visit my website for more of my story 

and available paintings 

http://www.wildartdesigns.com

Creating your own world.

Hello and welcome to my Blog.

‘Ice on Fire’

A new painting from an old one.

Oils on 10 x 8 inch panel and frame.

Start with nothing....and create a whole new world.

Go on an adventure of the mind 

and trust in the you of now.  

(Extracts from ‘here and there’ in my words).

~ ~ ~

I have recently been reading blog posts online.

An artist in USA shares similar painting thoughts to me.

Her name is Robin Olsen. (www.robinolsenart.com)

Here is a little of her blog...she says

“I now know that abstract painting, at least the way I do it, requires two things:

 

1.  A willingness to leap fully into the unkown,

 to let loose, go wild, and make a big, 

ugly mess without judgement.

 

2.  An ability to step back and analyze what's working and what isn't. 

 Then apply design principles to make the piece effective....

 It's a back and forth between the two, sometimes over a very long period, 

until there's a point where everything is exactly where it needs to be. 

 And the trickiest part is making it look like 

it just fell on the canvas that way”.

~ ~ ~

‘When memories wake up and dance’

Oils and cold wax medium on 30 x 16 inch canvas

This painting was such fun to make. 

Reworking a previous picture, I randomly made marks.

Layer over layer, adding colour.

Scraping and scratching.

‘Images’ began to appear. 

  Parts reveal the colours underneath.

There was no preformed plan, it evolved along the way.

After a few days the picture seemed to be working.

It was a world of adventure.

Time to let it rest.

A picture having the ‘whole new world’ treatment.

It’s a journey into the future.

An adventure of my mind.

I will trust in the me of now.

Thank you for visiting.

Until next time...

Making changes.

‘A change is as good as a rest’ 

‘Bright Abundance’

At the beginning of the year I selected three paintings for submission to an Art Society Show.

They were accepted and are now hanging in the Usher Gallery, Lincoln until 21 April.

They are larger than my previous landscape work and quite abstract in style.  

It is interesting how viewers react...suddenly face to face with change.

‘Spring grass and blue skies’

This week I read an article by painter Louise Fletcher.

It was just what I needed to see and I found it encouraging.

Here are Louise’s words..taken from her website:  www.louisefletcherart.com.  

“What kind of art do you make, then?” asked an elderly man I met while I was out walking my dog.

“I paint abstract landscapes,” I said.

“Just daubs then,” came the response and then – predictably – “I like things to look like what they’re supposed to look like.”

I get this. I really do.

I used to paint representationally. I enjoyed doing it and people responded favourably.

But there came a point where that just wasn’t enough anymore.

I wanted to express more than just what a field looks like, what a sky looks like, what a stone wall looks like. I wanted to express how it feels to be me. I wanted to create my own visual language. I wanted to explore paint. I wanted to explore myself.

Of course making a change like that means people drop away. Some of the people who loved my representational paintings don’t like this new work – some of them say that out loud, others just disappear quietly.

When that happens, I have a choice. I can retreat back to what’s safe and what’s easy for people to understand – or I can keep going, pushing into new territory and trust that new people will find me and my work.

It strikes me that this is what happens when we grow in any area of our lives – some people come along with us, others fall away. As we watch them go, it can be tempting to reach out and try to hold on – or to go backwards and act like we used to just to keep things as they were.

But the right answer is always to keep moving forwards and to trust that the right people will find us.

It is a dilemma.  

Do we want to keep other people happy?  

Or do we want to be true to ourselves?

Here is quote from David Bowie...

“Never play to the gallery. Never work for other people in what you do. Always remember that the reason you initially started working was there was something inside yourself that, if you could manifest it, you felt you would understand more about yourself. I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations”.  

‘At the ending of Summer’

I love change.

  It challenges me to discover myself.

I wrote this list some time ago.

The Art of Discovery...

Growing 

Making mistakes 

Learning by Doing

Moving on

Taking risks 

Trying new ideas

‘Blown by the soft winds’

So there it is...if I take risks with new ideas, 

and make mistakes as I work, 

I will learn from them and move on,

growing stronger as I discover what I can achieve.

Not bad for a wet Tuesday afternoon.   

Good wishes to all artists out there.  

Happy painting.