The Big Think

Bolton Abbey II. Mixed media on paper.

I haven’t been very active during the last few months, as you can see from the frequency of these blog posts. I’ve found the lockdown period to be very depressing. Long stretches of time with little to do has been very disheartening for me. But, I hear you say, it’s the perfect time to paint; why don’t you get the brushes out and get to work? I’m afraid my modus operandi isn’t quite like that.

The inability to get out and about into the wilder landscape has seriously dampened my creative spark, and only in the last week have I started work on a few paintings from older sketches.

Wooded hillside, Derbyshire. Mixed media on paper.

This would seem to be the perfect time to think about what I want to do artistically when the lockdown is lifted and where I want to go with my painting. My latest work has taken on a more abstract and incisive quality – scored lines with knife and pencil, paint gouged on with brushes, and perhaps I need to follow this through. Perhaps not.

Advertisement

Studio Beginnings

In the last few days I’ve been out and about making notes on the landscape and textures I find interesting. I don’t have to go far; in this part of the world there’s always something that catches the eye, a dry stone wall, old brickwork, a shady corner of woodland, the gnarled bark of a tree. Inspiration for pottery designs.

I’ve also been in the studio working on some more finished pieces from sketches I did last year on holiday in Exmoor and North Wales. Drawing is fuel for creative ideas when it comes to pottery. Designs are easier to come up with when you have a bank of material to work from. Besides, it’s a habit that’s difficult to get out of once you start. For me it’s something of a necessity. The pieces below were worked in various grades of pencil, charcoal pencil and pastel pencil. Details from them may find their way onto pots eventually. Maybe not.

Wall and hedgerow, Exmoor. Mixed media on paper.

 

Corner of the garden. Mixed media on paper.

 

Clifftop path, Nant-y-Big. Mixed media on paper.