Been away for a while, lots on and suffering some sort of tummy bug.  A wee bit of an update on preparing work for end of year exhibition.  Able to get boards cut at Sainsbury's Homebase which provides a cutting service FREE OF CHARGE.  Very obliging cutting to exact sizes.  Prepared boards with two layers of gesso and then applied first layer of oil.  This is a journey!  No knowledge of oils apart from my experiments with oil on paper which I love.  Oil on board works in a totally different way - it creates a totally different surface, there is not sinking which creates that lovely soft, velvety surface when working on paper as it remains on the surface and it is taking a long time to dry - I want to get on and hope that it loses some of the shine as it dries.  It seems as if the moment of creativity is passing while one watches the paint dry - maybe this is not for me.  Yes, I have reverted to type and planned - scale and number of boards and have a concept to work too.  It continues to be linked to the significance of the silver bracelet, brought back from Italy and given to my mum by my father during World War II.  The bracelet has many connotations and is a very personal item thus making my final project all the more poignant to me.  I have a comprehensive sketch/note/reference book as well as a wealth of material produced using different media in relation to the object.
Below are just a few of the sketches which I have produced as a starting point for my final piece(s).  My options are still open and a final decision has yet to be made.

The 'ghost' landscapes are of Italy during the second world war.  The imagery reflects the past and present, the unknown and the known and uses repetition of bracelet links to represent a journey.

 

 

 

The sketch above is oil on board and painted on a small scale but accurate in its proportions to the proposed larger work.  The landscape has been abstracted and one link of the bracelet has been introduced along with the dates of birth of myself and my two brothers.  The top one is in a dark monochrome palette (the war years), the second mid tones (post war and my birth date), 47 is also the periodic number for silver and is significant as the bracelet has now been given to me as a gift from my darling mum for my 60th birthday.  The third image references my youngest brother who was one of a twin, hence the divided board. In addition to this I have played around with the idea of introducing some text - however, my intention is to keep things simple - constantly reviewing! 

 

 

 

 

Today I have revisited some print work which I produced a few weeks ago using silkscreen process. These are abstract landscapes and although they are relatively small they have a freedom within them that I seem unable to produce with paint.  I am also in love with the tone of greys used - quite beautiful.  They are like black and white film stills.    There are five in all and I am currently experimenting with the bracelet forms above with the view to creating another layer over the top of them. These could be presented as a seriesof work.

As a comparison, the 3 oil boards lack depth and resemble a more battleship grey, which although could be seen to be aligned with the concept I am not happy with, plus they are still not dry! Oils may not be the way forward for me, not immediate enough, curtails the creative impetus.