Icons.. A distraction technique.

 Well here I go with yet another distraction.. I've started working on another commission, a double portrait of a very artistic couple from Totnes but, the 'can I do this/I can't do this' gremlins got to me yesterday.

 So as a distraction, which is my favorite technique, I started on a short series of 4 tiny icons which will go to the gallery Fannie & Fox in Penryn, Cornwall.. I had already made up the little papier mache shapes, they had been sitting in my basket for some weeks patiently waiting for the idea to arrive..

 They are made from papier mache then a mix of gesso and whiting to give me that absorbent surface which I so love.. The paint is acrylic.

This last photo was taken late at night, sitting on top of my latest read to give you all some idea of size.. The book is 'Of Bees and Mist' by Eric Setiwan.

How the egg became a bowl...

As my 'egg' paintings evolve my brain is beginning to awaken. Working this past week on the painting above with radio 4 gently gently chatting away in the background, a thought came to me... In recent years most of my work has been about vessels and women.. Using boats, bowls, eggs (even the odd pear) as a metaphor for rescue and keeping things (people) safe. 

(Natural pigments on recycled wood)

So, why did I change the largest egg into a bowl?  

The painting had been it in the studio for weeks.  It kept peeking out from behind other work... teasing me, niggling me... Making me think! ....What's that all about?

I kept looking at the painting (below), propped it up around the house, took it out into the garden. Wondering why it wasn't working for me. 

I get up really early, just after 5am,  I love that time of the morning it's still quite dark here in Cornwall. I open the back door and listen, the birds are just waking, the seagulls are already up and squawking.. Sometimes I can smell the ocean. Sometimes I can hear the fog horns.. A magical place..

Kettle on, tea made.  As I turned to go into the dining room I caught sight of a very simple hand thrown bowl sitting on the side with the sour dough proving.. It's a beautiful bowl, red earthenware with a creamy glaze inside, around 100 years old. A dough bowl.. A vessel, keeping my bread dough safe. Just like an egg keeping it's contents safe... 

So that is how the largest egg became a bowl.. The pear is another story...

..'An empty bowl is a symbol of going on a pilgrimage, a sacred journey, open to the gifts of life. A bowl is a powerful symbol of nourishment, emptied and refilled over and over throughout life'..

Working with with natural pigments and gesso has makes my brain ache at times it's even caused me to think things through.. Not like me at all.. Thinking??? What's all that about... But, it is such a beautiful medium, the colours are gentle, it has a soft matt finish and best of all the process is a pleasure....

Natural pigments, gesso, and life's balance

 I have an obsession with eggs at the moment... 

Eggs and balance...    ..'Life's balance'

Some are quite tiny on recycled wood. 

Fixings to be attached and names to follow..

Postcards

Just found this old 'draft' for a post, have no idea if you've seen it before?

They were from a postcard project I worked on with Barbara Morrison, an amazing artist from Colchester. Amazingly they survived the Royal Mail postal service.