i took a few photos while I was making this piece over the last couple of days so I thought I’d put them together in a post as they show a lot of stuff that didn’t go into the final image but I find quite interesting anyway.

The piece started off, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, with ideas about an Alan Reynold’s painting, Keeper of the Dark Copse II as well as thoughts of golden wood that Tolkien created in The Lord of the Rings called Lothlórien, in mind. You can see the Alan Reynold’s painting on the Tate website here, I’ve referenced it before as it has captivated me ever since I first saw it.

The first Step was drawing a tiny thumbnail in a little sketchbook which fixed the basic idea of where I wanted to go in place:

I then started on making the main figure. I drew it out on paper and then added acrylic gel to give it some texture, using a rough hog hair brush to keep the texture lively. Then, loosely mixing some Prussian blue and Van Dyke Brown and slapping it quickly onto another piece of paper I pressed the painted paper onto the sketched out figure. The loosely mixed paint, rough brushstrokes, mono-printing and textured gel all contribute something to the final effect, and there is a considerable element of chance and accident going on. Sometimes the result doesn’t work, the textures working against the image, but often something interesting does happen, not perfect, but with happy accidents of pattern and effect that would be impossible to recreate with just direct painting, I never tire of playing with this kind of thing. Here’s the finished figure:

After the figure was done I started making the painted papers for the foliage and cutting out the individual elements and adding a simple texture for the background. You can see the finished elements plus some of the painted papers and the background panel in the photo at the top of this post.

With all the separate parts of the picture made I could start playing with composition. An aspect of this technique I enjoy is being able to move things around and experiment before pasting everything  down, so here are a few try outs:

And another by-product of the process is the marks and images that appear on the papers I use to press paint onto the papers I want to work with. Maybe it’s because these are much more accidental, with no thought going into how they will look at all, that they are sometimes quite interesting – sometimes more interesting than the planned image!

And after each painting I make in this way I always end up with a heap of offcuts that are too pretty or interesting to throw away so I’m slowly disappearing under a mountain of painted paper 😉

 Keeper of the Golden Wood

I had a few things floating around in my head when I was making this piece, Alan Reynold’s Keeper of the Dark Copse and Tolkien’s golden wood of Lothlórien amongst others. It’s also quite Neo-Romantic genius loci as well I guess.

I made the image by painting up papers with different textures, then cutting and collaging them together. One of the advantages of the technique is that you can move the individual elements around as much as you like before pasting them down. With this one there were quite a few arrangements that I liked; I’ll post about these and the process tomorrow, but if I decide I like one of the other compositions better I can always make another one!

I’ve been sorting through some previous work over the weekend to see if there was anything that I could use for the upcoming show next February. I came across all kinds of things I’d forgotten about and found a few pieces that, although I was happy with them at the time, I never got around to framing or showing anywhere and that I think will work for the exhibition. They are all works I’ve made by collaging previously painted papers together to make the final image, and they just about squeeze into the ‘dryad’ theme that is going to pull the pieces together into a more cohesive group, i.e. there is at least a tree in them lol. Stylistically, though, I think they’ll work well with the new images I’ve been making recently:

Nightwatch

Portal

This third image, ‘Raven Crag’, doesn’t really fit the theme at all but I’m tempted to include it as I like it and I think it will work with the other pictures:

And if I can rig up a display case I’ll show the ‘Hedgecrows’ folding book I made earlier this year too:

So, with a combination of new and older work, I think I’ll get the 12 pieces or so I need to fill the space comfortably, although I still need to make about four or five new pieces by the end of January – skates on then!

These little butterflies spend much of their time up in the woodland canopy
so I don’t see them very often, but they’re always a welcome sight, they’re rather lovely, especially their pale undersides with delicate, beautiful markings. Last weekend in Berlin, when the bright autumn sunshine made looking up through the oak trees on our street such a joy, the Purple Hairstreaks came into my mind, fluttering away in their own little world up in the canopy. I’ve shown females here, which have less purple in their wings, but I wanted them to blend in a bit more with the oak branches and not jump out too much.

Here are a few more images of the collage as it developed over the last two days:

A few things have recently coalesced together to suggest the leafy direction my work is taking for the exhibition next year. One of them is this detail from a photo Jan took of me when we were out cycling in the forests North of Berlin a few weeks ago. It was a glorious late-summer day and we had a lovely time , but when we got home and downloaded the photos I was taken by my shadow against the tree in one of the pics of me standing in the trees. It really looks like some strange ghost or spirit lurking in the forest gloom.

The great weather has lasted into the autumn in Berlin too, and last weekend I wandered around our neighbourhood and the nature park down the road to take some photos of the beautiful rich colours which inspired the Dryad collage I posted a few days ago. The oak trees that line our street were blazing golden in the sunlight:

And amongst the trees at the Naturpark Südgelände, the fallen leaves and fungi were beautiful;

Here’s a sketch I did of I guy I saw on the train – I gave him a bit of the autumnal treatment too:

Finally, another element in my life that’s turned a bit ‘green’ is the tattoo project by my friend Clive Hicks-Jenkins that I’ve become involved with. Clive asked for volunteers to come forward to collaborate on the project by helping devise designs they would be willing to arrange to then have tattooed on their bodies. He will go on to paint portraits of the volunteers with their tattoos and the whole process will go into an exhibition. I’m no stranger to a bit of ink and I’m chuffed to be involved – you can see the project, called Skin/Skóra, in more detail on Clive’s Arlog here. We’ve started to discuss a couple of ideas including a green man motif (although I’m also mightily tempted to go for one of Clive’s killer gingerbread zombies; you can see what I mean here – they’re awesome!). I’ve always felt so connected to the natural world and never really happier than when I’m out somewhere wild and beautiful. Clive has been creating wonderful green man images for some time so it felt a natural choice of subject matter, although as the project progresses things might go in a completely different direction.

So, all in all, just as the leaves are falling off the trees I’m exploring all things that grow and our connection to them 🙂

This week I’ve made a kind of title image for the set of pictures I’m contributing to a group show in February next year. I’m exhibiting with my friends Phil Gomm and Phill Hosking and the show is called PG+PH+PC. We exhibited together over three years ago, along with my partner Jan Groszer (who has since moved to Berlin and become an accomplished photographer) and it’s good to be planning something together again. Phil and Phill are such good fun to show work with, I’m sure we’ll enjoy ourselves although our lives have become busier in the intervening years and it’s more tricky finding time to devote to our artwork!

I’ve been playing with some collaged hedgerow ideas recently, and my work over the last few months has been influenced by trees and woodlands I encountered on holidays and day trips over the summer, hence the Dryad title. The pieces will be celebrating all things leafy and wild and exploring some of the myths that have developed around our connection with trees. Now I’ve just got to make the work – simples!