Just 19, 2020 techniques for last three paintings

Since I graduated from University in 1972 with a Fine Art Major, I have been teaching myself watercolour.  Because I didn’t have any watercolour teachers or books, I developed my own style. Instead of the usually watercolour approach of light washes working towards the darks, I started with the darks. I found that with one layer of dark over the white paper, the darks were more intense and luminous.  Also by working towards the whites, there was the maximum range of contrast because often the highlights of the painting were just the white paper.  My compositions were always well planned with small sketches proceeding the paintings. The paintings themselves were started with a pencil drawing. The paint handling was tidy and direct.

Recently I finished a watercolour of flowers that I didn’t preplan. I started in the middle and just gradually added flowers.  This was both exhilarating and worrisome because I was making composition decisions all the way through the painting.  I wasn’t sure I could pull it all together. The paint handing though was my usual dark to light with a very controlled approach. 

 When I finished this, I started a small oil painting out by our pond.  I pushed and pulled and eventually the painting came together together.

 Now I have used this oil painting approach in my current watercolour.  Instead of preplanning the composition, I just started painting.  In this case, I started with the two lilies in the foreground.  Because I started with the lights and no drawing and not being sure of what the background would eventually be, some of the petals were muted and dull.   Instead of using my scrubber to go backward, this time I am using white Pepeo gouache, some times alone and sometimes mixed with watercolour or Winsor and Newton gouache.   There is much charm and stress by doing a painting this way.  I am engaged artistically and also worried all the way through.  Here are the results.

I started this painting last week as a demonstration for a few artist friends.  It would have been better if I had had a bit more of a drawing before starting but I pulled it together with my scrubber and scratcher.

February 29, 2020

Cala lily, Orange and Pear is a bit of a departure for me.  Done on hot pressed paper it is very simplistic in design.  I am very happy with it.

February 26, 2020

Herman the Seagull

My grandfather and I had a friend, Herman the Seagull. Everywhere we went Herman would be waiting for us.  I am the old lady now, my grandfather long gone, but Herman still waits for me in almost every season and every country.

Herman and his seagulls friends flap and swoop overhead.  Their raucous voices call back and forth. When they catch an updraft, they lock their wings and glide, riding the wind, at one with the sky.

He and his friends fish in shallow waters and rest atop roofs and chimneys.  They cock their big white heads and stare with unblinking eyes.

It is when I scatter chips, crumbs and crackers just like my grandfather taught me to do, that they congregate in front of me.  They edge closer and closer to me, their hooked yellow bills almost smiling as they grab my tasty treats.

February 23, 2020

Word picture February 23, 2020

All night, we lay comfortable and warm,

Between clean sheets,  under a fluffy duvet.

Both doors are wide open to the Atlantic.

The cold night air rushes in,

Bathing us in the soothing,relentless, 

Pulsing, swish and thunder of the sea.

With the morning sky,

Comes a blush of rose along the horizon.

The cliff, still in deep mauve shadow, 

Is home to the flocks of swallows

That race across the sky.

My foreground is crisscrossed with

Power lines and weathered tile roofs.

Just for a second, I lock eyes with a lone sparrow

Sitting right in front of me.

Dozens of seagulls slowly flap overhead.

A high one flashes pink as it catches the morning light.

The lines of waves in the dark cerelean sea continue to roll in.

Now in addition to hearing them,

I watch as they explode in glory, fury, froth and mist.

Flashes of early morning light race along the top.

And then the wave is spent,

Rejoining our world as just droplets of water.

February 20, 2020

he Spice Cottage of Burgau, Portugal.

I am honoured to be allowed in the kitchen to watch. Three chefs, with small round white hats, flashing white smiles and dark lively eyes perform together to create amazing delicious Indian food in this sparkling clean kitchen, where everything and everyone has a place.

One chef flattens a dough ball, adds two triangles of Swiss cheese and then seals the cheese inside flattening it until the cheese is an even inside layer. Gee is rubbed on the top followed by a big layer of freshly crushed garlic and a layer of fresh coriander.  A showman slap sticks the garlic and coriander to the naan surface. Draped over a round cloth shape, the naan is lifted onto a wall of the hot brick tandori oven. A large round lid covers the oven.  In a few minutes the naan is puffed up and cooked. It is removed from the oven with two long metal pokers.  A bit of gee shines the surface and it is cut into four and then our starter is served in a basket with yogurt mint sauce and a sweet orange sauce.  

Earlier in the day, the large chicken cubes have been marinated with spices and cooked in the tandori oven and a Marsala sauce has been made, a kilo of spinach has been boiled for two hours, and the rice has been boiled and then fried with saffron.  Now some of the chicken and the Marsala sauce are mixed in a large frying pan. The chef stirs vigorously over the high gas flames. Gee is sprinkled in, then a splash of milk, a drizzle of cream and then pinches of the freshly ground spices, star of anise, turmeric, coriander, cumin and hot chilli pepper. After it is in the wonderful little copper serving pot with the candle keeping it warm, a sliver of almonds, and another drizzle of cream makes this perfect.  Next they start the Paneer Jalfrezi. I taste the bland paneer cheese, made earlier in the week.  It is mixed with the long cooked spinach sauce, the spices, a bit of gee and the cream and stirred over the high gas heat and suddenly it is is the best thing I have ever tasted.  The rice, refried with mushrooms, or eggs or cashews and raisins, completes the second course.

Two years ago, when we ate at the Spice Cottage, we never made it to desert.  Now we get Nazeen to package up some of the main course just so that we can savour small chunks of the world’s best, creamiest home made ice cream, Mango, Coconut or Pistachio.

February 19 How I work up to a painting idea

This morning I went up to our big deck and took with me a Cala lily that a friend had given me and a terrific Chinese vase that just happened to be in our casa.  I did these two quick sketches in my notebook and then I started the 1/8 sheet painting.  After finishing it, I drew it up on smooth half sheet paper.  Unfortunately this was hours later and the sun is now in a completely different location, and so I will wait until tomorrow morning to take the big painting further.

February 16, 2020

Two more paintings finished; both with a different approach to my usual

The first is the lemon tree.  One day I did the little sketch and then next week I went back and started a half sheet. I worked on the lemons with no real idea of how it would come together.  Then back at our casa, I fought with the number of lemons, the size of the lemons, the shape of the trunk.  There was more scrapping, scrubbing and white paint in this one than I have ever used before.

The second painting is the street behind our casa.  There are steps at both ends so I decided that I was safe to sit right in the middle of the street.  Since the stool that I brought had collapsed a couple of weeks ago and I had to through it away, I used a little ladder/stool that I found in our apartment.   Unfortunately, the legs didn’t lock open and on the rough cobbles, I suddenly found myself down on the ground.  Now this wouldn’t be a problem for most of you, but I have muscular dystrophy 2 and my legs and arms are weak.  Emilia, our landlady, heard my fall and rushed around the corner.  She doesn’t speak any English and so she kept trying to help me up and I kept asking her to go and get Jim.  Eventually, she did and somehow, before they got back, I set up the stool again and used it to launch myself to my feet!  I found the whole thing embarrassing and depressing.

So when I was working on this second painting, it was all  grays and all about the shapes and shadows and it seemed depressing too.  I took the challenge in hand, and added the people, the flowers, the birds.  I can imagine using this image in my next children’s book, “The Adventures of Dog and Table”.  I can just see Dog and Table prancing down this street and all of the people smiling and watching.

February 12, 2020

Word Picture, February 12, 2020

Early in the morning,

Before the sun has cleared the cliff,

It is the performance art of waves,

The combination of sound and sight,

That soothes my soul.

A dark line rolls in 

Across the cerulean sea

Toward the beach.

It builds into a mighty viridian concave wave.

The razor top edge glints with morning pink.

Then a thundering collapse

Of glorious surf and sound

Rolls along the entire shore.

When the energy is spent,

Only quiet flat froth remains,

Until the next wave arrives.

February 7, 2020

Word Picture, February 7, 2020

The teal sea rolls in,

Crescendos build and ebb

Where the amber cliff meets the beach.

Occasionally, seagulls squawk in alarm, 

Dogs bark,

A crowd of tourists with

Walking sticks hike by below us.

Jim amd I sit in the sun

at the “Veranda”,

Our favourite coffee shop,

Drinking sweet coffee

And burning our mouths on 

Piping hot nibbles of pastel tarts.

Gradually friends surround us.

Tables are pushed together. 

Seven of us

Drink coffee and chew the fat.

“Arts in the World”,

“Where to go in Italy”,

“Where to stay in Lisbon”,

“Favourite movies and books”.

Today, we enjoy the combination of

Friends, conversation, 

And our warm beautiful environment.

Today, we avoid political ineptitude,

The corona virus and global warming

I must be in a fruit phase.  Yesterday I sketched an orange on our balcony and today I did two sketches of lemons.

January 26, 2020

“Chips or chocolate? That is the only option”

Over the Bay of Biscay

In an airbus 321 to Lisbon,

The air crew push their trolleys

Down the minuscule aisles.

Our three stewardesses have 

Long dark pony-tails.

Matching Portuguese Air Uniforms

Are edged with poppy-red or lime-green piping

On their black vests, skirts

And ironed white shirts.

With gleaming perfect white smiles. 

They tell us:

“Chips or Chocolate?

That is the only option.”

Most of us choose chips;

Plump black air-filled bags 

With golden calligraphy,

“Gourmet Lays Chips”.

We tear the bags noisily

And crunch down the greasy morsels.

Clinking our plastic glasses of red wine

Adds an air of gentile decadence.

When Jim tells our winking waitress

That I am writing a poem about

“Chips or Chocolate”

She bring us more chips, more wine, 

Tiny toffee nut squares,

And four “salame de chocolate”,

A delicious salami like slice

Of white cake and dark chocolate.

We are the cute old couple;

Me scribbling and Jim flirting.

We are off to Burgau, Portugal tomorrow January 25. Please contact us by email laking.joy@gmail.com or wyatt.jim@gmail.com. These are the first two paintings of 2020