paintings prints and stuff

Ogwen Valley in the mist, charcoal, a bit bigger than A3 Ogwen valley in the mist, charcoal plein air We revisted the valley later in the week.  The clouds were low over the tops of the mountains and the distance melted into whiteness.  The little river Ogwen wound its way across the valley floor and the single track, switchback road disappeared off over the side of the mountain. All the recent rain meant the waterfalls were beautiful.  I did a watercolour/mixed media with one in the afternoon, while the group climbed up to a higher lake.  Next post ........

Ogwen Valley and the little river Ogwen winding through, watercolour/mixed media The Ogwen valley, watercolour and mixed media sketch I'm just back from a week painting in Wales with friends.  Wales + mountains means we knew there would be rain - but it made for some lovely atmospheric scenes to sketch. Friend Ros, that I travelled with, and I stopped on the way in a beautiful valley I last saw about 20 years ago when my daughter was at Bangor university,  I was determined to get there to paint again.  Nigel another member of the group met up with us there and we all got thoroughly wet and bedraggled sketching. The end of the valley was lost in rain/mist and the little river Ogwen tumbles through the valley from Llyn Ogwen (Lake Ogwen) above.  The narrow, single track road goes up and down like a switchback along the side of the mountain.  The waterfalls were beautiful with all the rain we've had.  Welsh black mountain cattle ambled by, with h...

The Cheviot Hills, in Northumbria, Derwent tinted charcoal pencils with a little of their watercolour pencil.  S&B  Delta sketchbook Another one from the hills, higher up than the previous one, Late afternoon with the light about to go and passing drizzly showers.  But beautiful.   I love the high hills with the dramatic, steep slopes carved by glaciers, sheep and the occasional tough breed of cattle.  Fast streams, waterfalls, isolated farms, single track road .....  I love it! I scribble a little watercolour pencil to get the underlying clear green and the basis for the sky and then worked in Derwent tinted chyarcoal - it's perfect for the colour, mood and texture of this landscape.   I really like them. Again in the lovely S&B Delta sketchbook/ And there's more ....

The Bend. Coloured pencil and white gouache This one was once a loud abstracted landscape, where I'd simply played with colour and the composition was frankly bad!  There was only a small distant patch of water in it, a lot more high foreground, looking downhill and the composition, viewpoint and subject were very different.  It wasn't something I wanted to keep but sat there - luridly - in my sketchbook.   The original and this were both just totally imaginary landscapes, based on a mix of visual memories.  I can't find a photo of the original - but you aren't missing anything! It's in that sketchbook with a deep buff coloured paper, a gift from a friend in the US.  Luckily the paper is strong and can take a lot of rough treatment. I used a mix of Jakar and Derwent electric erasers to 'draw' back into it, creating those paler trees, against a dark background, darkening the background further and simplifying,  taking out the distant dry reeds/hay...

 Detail 1   detail 2 progress so far .... Still a little way to go but here is a quick update.  I'm waiting for the paint to dry before working on it further. You can see a bit of pentimenti* - the copper shape shining through in the trees at the back - some will remain but the unnatural shapes, like the circle and almost triangle,  will be lost/adjusted in subsequent layers and glazes. *Isn't that a nice word for an altered underpainting showing through?

The edge of Dartmoor, a stream tumbling down through a wooded valley, coloured pencil and Rotring Art Pen in Moleskine sketchbook We'd been exploring up on the bleak high moors, which I love, small herds of wild ponies and sheep, stunted trees and rocky crags, narrow roads and ancient stone bridges.   Now we were at the edge of the moor - lush wooded valleys, streams the colour of whisky tumbling over rocks on their way to the sea - equally lovely in a very very different way.   I stopped to catch the dappled sunlight on this old bridge and the warm amber glow of the peaty water. It was an incredible tangle of wildflowers and branches, great contrasts of light and dark and not at all easy!  so it maybe got a bit overworked.  This is the hotel we stayed at - just for a day on the way home - right on the borderline where the wild, bleak, high moor descends into lusher green fields and wooded valleys.  One side of the road is the high moor, the othe...

Experimenting with those lino prints: Winter Light, Vivien Blackburn, lino and coloured pencil A lino print on left hand page of sketchbook, printed onto tissue paper and then worked on with Polychromos pencils and continued across the double page spread. Trying to catch a cold winter light - the kind that bleaches the colour out of the landscape. Moonrise, Vivien Blackburn, linoprint and coloured pencil, Vivien Blackburn This one was printed onto tracing paper and I then worked on the back of it with Polychromos pencils and again, continued the image onto the facing page. This one makes me think of the mood in Samuel Palmer paintings - does it for you? I've put some of the lino prints on my Etsy shop if anyone is interested - here

I decided to frame the pollarded willows with a little more of the work showing - this is it popped into a frame, showing the new crop. Sorry about the reflection from the window/door! Framed it's just over 2 feet (guesstimate) you can see the previous crop here I think I'll change the mat to a slightly deeper wheat colour to match the field beyond the water. I think it looks better larger - how about you?

Lino monoprints, variations on a theme, Vivien Blackburn These aren't simply linoprints now as they are all unique - I've used monoprinting techniques with them, 'inking' them up with oil paint and working into them with coloured pencils and oil pastel. So I'm calling them lino monoprints as the best description I can come up with. I've included one straight, rolled lino print to show how it prints with lino ink applied with a roller in the traditional way. Monoprints are unique prints that contain a repeatable element - like the linocut in these - but with utterly different results due to colour and inking up differences and work done after printing. Monotypes are absolute one-offs with no repeatable element. Working with my lino prints this way suits my way of thinking better than the clean cut lino print that's included in the line up above. If anyone is interested in owning one, I'm going to put them in my Etsy shop I haven't sussed out ...

Linoprints with coloured pencil in sketchbook. Vivien Blackburn I've been experimenting with those linoprints, The first one done on tracing paper glued to the left hand page, coloured on the reverse side (so the image is reversed and the print paler). The image was then continued on the other page of the sketchbook with the cp's. The paper is hand made with quite a rough texture and ragged edges, The second one was printed on white tissue paper and continued across the book in the same way, again with coloured pencils. The last one isn't a good photo - it looks better IRL, the oil pastel is shining in the light a bit and not showing the colours well. It's the monoprint roll up with the overprinted tree, worked into with coloured pencils and a little oil pastel. straight linoprint and sketch - a reminder of the source of these images I'm playing with digital versions as well -you are going to be sick of this willow!

Today I managed to print a dozen prints, mainly on brown papers. I was simply experimenting with what I could achieve and had only a limited range of colours to play with so worked with a mix of brown, ochre and ultramarine - no white available to lighten colours. The first print I hadn't used enough ink - these are hand printed with water soluble inks - I prefer oil based inks and using an etching press but beggars can't be choosers! With the water based inks I find it's necessary to use much more ink when rolling up - I don't know if other people find this? The second print worked better and I'd added ultramarine to the mix to darken it. As I was clearing up I rolled marks onto a piece of paper to clean it - and then decided to do one last print with the residue left on the lino over these- I think I'll experiment further with this too as I like the loose painterliness it adds. The chine colle ones weren't a great success and are probably heading for the ...

Pollarded Willows, Aylestone Meadows, Pastel. approx 16ins. Vivien Blackburn Another look at those pollarded willows. Behind me is the canal, just a few feet across the towpath and in front is Ulverscroft Brook. The dried grass of the winter field was pale in the bright light and the sky a pale cold blue. Late afternoon sun warms the sunlit side of the willows with an amber light. The patch of darker blue sky on the top left is a shadow not part of the painting. c&c???

Swithland Woods by Vivien Blackburn. Watercolour and mixed media approx 12 ins sq Tina Mammoser has written a really good blog post today on abstraction at http://tina-m.blogspot.com/ - do go and read it. It gives a good insight into the way she thinks and the preparatory sketching that goes into her lovely abstracts of the English coast. I like working on the edge between abstract and representational, sometimes slipping into total abstraction and sometimes working more representationally. The work evolves from observation and sketches, which are essential to me to understand the subject matter, the colours, form, composition I want to work with, perspective and tone. Sketching plein air in the local woods led to the first painting shown here - a watercolour/mixed media done from memories of different days working there over a long time. Sometimes I find I work best this way - lots of studies done over time but then putting them away and relying on visual memory. Degas believed in t...

I looked at some possible compositions for aerial views, particularly of Aylestone with the ancient packhorse bridge, Victorian canal bridges and footbridges, paths, tracks and roads making patterns across the landscape. It will be a while before I start any finished paintings from them as I want to do more sketching and finished paintings plein air before I start this. It will be more abstracted, playing a little with perspective and I need more knowledge of what is happening at ground level - the colours and textures and contours and details - before I start a large canvas from these. Most of these are in mechanical pencil but the one below is a mixture of oil pastel and coloured pencil - It was going to be watercolour over the oil pastels scribbles but then I decided to experiment with coloured pencil along with them. I quite like this composition with its 5 bridges packed into such a small area and criss crossing of paths and tracks. There are interlocking arrow shapes and Z shape...

The 15C packhorse bridge across a small river and flood plain. Charcoal. I'm sure I'm suffering from hypothermia! I'm still chilled inside and it's now 1am. I'm off to bed in a minute - husband went hours ago so it should be nice and warm as toast. Ros and I went sketching by the packhorse bridge this afternoon, both of us wrapped up well but oh it was Cold . I got absolutely chilled to the bone and after a couple of hourse we gave up and went off for a hot chocolate and a warm by the fire in a lovely little tea shop. We both got 2 sketches done first though so our haloes shone :) The first one above was in charcoal, I sat uncomfortably balanced on a thick tree branch above some mud and water trying not to drop the sketchbook in it ..... or me. The second was of the old iron railway bridge across the canal - the river that flows under the packhorse bridge joins it on the left. The old railway track is now a footpath that goes for several miles across the city. Mech...

Yesterday I did a couple of really quick sketches of the old Packhorse Bridge at Aylestone. It dates from at least the 1400's, possibly earlier. It's a long stone bridge, originally 200 metres but only 50 remain, with 11 arches, some slightly pointed and gothic looking and 'cutwaters' - buttresses that stand out like the prows of boats that presumable 'cut' the water and relieved the pressure on the stonework in floods. It's about one cart width with little refuges over the cutwaters to allow pedestrians to move out of the way of oncoming carts. aside: look at this very funny blog to see an interesting story sort of related to this :>) http://idlethoughtsofanidlewoman.blogspot.com/2007/03/le-derriere-du-cheval.html In the past, marshland was a bigger danger and obstacle to travel than rivers - rivers often have a place where they can be forded safely or bridges can be built. Marshland stretches over larger areas and is impassable. 50 metres of the bridge...

A sketch of Frog island, a grotty inner city industrial area, in watercolour and coloured pencil in the 11 inch square sketchbook. I really like to mix media, it gives me different marks and possibilities to draw on to push darks or emphasise lights. The tree is enhanced with a Lyra flourescent yellow pencil - the leaves were that incredibly bright and fresh spring green against the murky darkness of the old brick wall behind it. Behind the weir the water was inky dark and appeared still, although of course it wasn't. In front there was bright light reflecting and a jumble of ever changing (as the light changed) reflections. English weather isn't the easiest for sketching in! sometimes the light on the water reflected the bricks of the buildings clearly and at other it went dark with only hints of a reflection as clouds went over the sun. At one point the friend I was sketching with stood helpfully in front of the scene :>) I was drawing

a couple of close ups of yesterdays sketch - as it's a larger drawing it's hard to see the details.

photograph of sketchbook: I spent the afternoon sketching along the canal in an area called Frog Island with a friend. The other side of the weir is the canal and boats passed occasionally, this side is the River Soar and to the left is one end of Frog Island. With all the industry I somehow doubt that there are any frogs now - though there were 2 swans nests just below and moorhens scuttling about on the water and amorous pigeons strutting and cooing near my feet, so still plenty of wildlife. It's an old industrial area of Victorian factories and in the distance are cranes, they are extending one of the shopping malls in the town centre. This sketch has christened my nice big A3 landscape book ~:>) - it's about 3 feet across a double page spread so is nice to use with charcoal. I hadn't sketched out in charcoal for a long time and I really enjoyed it, I'll definitely be doing more. I really do like charcoal - it's such a painterly medium. In this I used willow ...

(slide show - if you subscribe you'll probably just see a little icon that says get your own !) I didn't have time to sketch today but I did manage to get out with my camera to a nice spot on the edge of the city at Aylestone. You go under an old bridge carryng a disused railway line to a little car park overlooking ancient willows. A Victorian bridge takes you to the other side of the canal and looks onto the water meadows surrounding the River Biam, a tiny river, crossed by a 15th Century packhorse bridge. It's popular with walkers because you can walk for miles along the canal towpath with occasional side trips like this and you can walk or cycle into the country to the south or through the city and out the other side to the north alongside the river or canal. Marsh land was the biggest barrier to travel and trade in ancient times - rivers could be navigated or forded or crossed by bridge, but marshes were treacherous and changeable and a major problem. The website says:...