Paintings

So this is what I’ve been up to when I had a spare minute away from writing and editing. It’s more abstract than my usual work, but still incorporates the use of other materials, in this case binding, found in the haberdashery dept. for a few pounds, and sequins removed from an old cosmetics bag! Before it was framed I exhibited it in the Eisteddfod Exhibition where it was awarded a First Class Certificate. It’s called simply ‘Fish’.

I’ve been doing this oil painting which isn’t going that well. It was initially supposed to be St. Peter Port Harbour, Guernsey, but I’m sure you’ll agree it’s looking increasingly like an old Cornish fishing harbour! Must get Cornwall out of my head! The image I took from one of my photos was too complicated with yachts and marinas and cars in the background beyond the wall, completely beyond my skills as an artist. Actually after all these years of copying and interpreting religious icons and constructing them by adding textiles and gold and silver paper, (see below) it’s not surprising I’m finding it difficult to paint a picture that looks anything like realistic! But it’s a work in progress, so hope to have a better much improved version soon!

Those of you who know anything about oil painting probably know that each application of paint takes ages to dry. The advantage of this is that I have an excuse to leave it for several days, even weeks, before doing any more to it. The disadvantage is that I pass it everyday on my way to the computer to write my novel and sits there on the easel shouting, “finish me!”

This is another icon I’ve been working on. Poor St. Francis, who indeed did champion the poor and needy, has been sitting on the shelf above my writing desk looking down on me while I persevered through many tangled webs to finish my novel, Dreamcatcher Girl. With this published, I’m now getting on with hopefully finishing other things. Like my previous one, Madonna and Child,  it is based on the traditional Icons, or an amalgam of many. I’ve used mixed media, oil paint, gold and coloured paper, etc. To represent the path that led Francis to give up all material worldly goods and lead the life of a poor monk, I’ve included items from his wealthier past. The coins remind us that he gave or threw his father’s money away, the sacking is the material he chose to wear which was harsh against his skin, the rope was his only belt, the leaves and feathers represent his love of nature and animals, and the white dove he holds in his arms offers to us his message of peace.

It was my husband Graham’s idea to collect all the sketches and drawings I’ve done over several years and publish them alongside my poetry. If nothing else, it has made my drawings and numerous poems accessible where as before they were literally everywhere! Old notebooks and sketchbooks, scraps of paper, scribbles on envelopes. It took quite a while to sort them out, and match up, at least where possible, each poem to a drawing. I think it works and I’m quite pleased my bits and pieces are all now bound up in one book. Named after the title poem, it’s called ‘Meet Me at Low Tide’ – for details see under the category  ‘Books & Reviews’.

This icon one is my own interpretation of a Russian icon. I like the phrase the composer, the late John Taverner used to describe his love of icons. He said they were like: “A window into heaven”.  In this picture of the Madonna and Child, I have used a mixture of oil paint and collage to give a mosaic effect  – the gold, sequins and shiny fabric catch the light and seem to draw the eye.  

I’m delighted to be able to tell you the previous Rector of St. Andrew’s, The Town Church in Rugby, Rev. Imogen Nay accepted my gift of this painting for the church and it now hangs there permanently. I love the way it catches the light when the candles flicker in the evening, in the half-darkness.

I don’t spend a lot of time painting these days but when I’ve finished a first draft and want to do something else to relax, preferably without using any more words, I like to paint. Here are a couple of my oil-paintings:

This was painted from my imagination. There’s something about old derelict boats that captures my imagination.

This painting – All Saints’ Church –  is of the old village Church of All Saints’ in the village where we used to live. I painted this from doing preliminary sketches and taking photos.