I started this little piece using some sturdy packaging left from Christmas! The miniature artworks are made the same way a collagraph plate using a variety of materials sealed onto a mountboard backing with the addition of gold liquid leaf.
Now available from my shop just click the link for more details.
It is so difficult to photograph gold and textural art and convey it’s lustrous detail in a snapshot. But it has to be done!
I am focusing here on mini plates, I like their individual quality as object and am trying to figure out how to use them as pieces of art in themselves.
So many ideas and so little time! I mean lots of people have ideas and don’t necessarily go with any of them at all, but one of the difficulties of knowing that you are going to create something is ruling out all those amazing ideas other than the one you choose to run with.
I am not suggesting that any idea will turn out well, but the more you that try the higher your success rate, and a lot of attempts end up in the bin along the way!
Also theoretically it is a good idea to go with a theme. Choose an idea and beat it to death, until you run out of steam. All those mistakes and all those gains made with something intentional in mind.
Since this is all theory let me show you some practice! OOPs I have to reveal that I haven’t followed my own advice at all!
I am inclined to representative work, I love making images of animals and birds. But then I can get a momentarily distracted by other ideas I am interested in too and head off in a different direction. I really would like to do a series based on images produced by NASA earth observatory. They have this amazing website of beautiful images from space being continually updated. I am as fascinated by these as I am fascinated by drone imagery of our coastline here in the UK; seeing the landscape from above and then understanding it from the ground is really interesting to me.
The work below is the Arkansas River from space. This sort of work moves me toward the abstract and helps me exercise less restraint on my colour combinations.
NASA earth observatory images here
The original artwork below is £45 for sale online here
This painting was on cartridge paper which is not as satisfying a using watercolour paper. Still it was good to test out the shapes, colour and composition.
Attempt number two for the day …more textures and layers on this Hobby, an aerialist falcon taking its prey on the wing.
Playing with paint sounds like fun but for me it usually ends with frustration, perhaps because I am not really concentrating or taking it seriously and I finish up with a number of sketchy paintings which I really do not like. I have taught myself to try to ignore this feeling as the act of being undisciplined and attempting to have fun leads to discovering new ways of doing things. So today I have been having some “fun” with textures.
Here is my original painting which is now called The Gatekeeper in a nice chunky black A3 sized frame, it is a painting of a raven holding a key. Ravens are a common feature of ancient religion and mythologies from familiars of witches to the supernatural, from the carriers of souls and associations with good luck, to trickery and foreboding. According to legend, the Kingdom of England will fall if the ravens of the Tower of London are removed; care has been taken to ensure that they continue to inhabit the Tower as they have done now for centuries.
Sedna is mythological figure, a Goddess of the sea for the people of the arctic.
The young girl Sedna was tricked into marrying Raven, and later when her father tried to rescue her by kayak a raging storm brew and her father threw Sedna in to the sea in order to save himself. Her hands clung to the side of the boat and he beat them until her cold and frozen fingers fell into the sea and became sea mammals. Sedna sank under the sea and was transformed into a sea goddess, able to conjure up storms with her rage whereupon shaman must swim down to calm her by combing her hair.
The Innuits survival is dependant upon the success of their hunting animals. From this is derived a great respect for the animal kingdom. Part of the myth is that Sedna holds onto the animals if she is displeased with the people ( so that they will not be successful in hunting them) and untangling her hair is part of the process of calming her.
From this story I created my image of Sedna with fishes swimming amongst her tresses of red hair, she is looking up to the light of the sky on the surface of the water. The image at the bottom is a painting done some time later showing Sedna sleeping with three seals.
These three paintings on the left seen below featuring Sedna are for sale in Studio 71 in Totnes.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be a cat…. hey I will just take up this cardboard box in the sun, settle down and not worry too much about anything. I mean what else is there to do. Simba loves boxes, the rustle of some cardboard and his ears are pricked. Such simple tastes and happy times.
Gambolling free these ancient stones are set high up in the Lake District and surrounded by a circle of mountains. They have stood here for generations against all weathers looking at the stars and even putting up with the Victorians chipping at them for souvenirs.
Castlerigg Ancient Stone circle in the Lake District UK
Here at this little “beach” at Loch Venachar in Scotland the bank of this tree has been washed away by the loch over time. But look closely what has the tree got suspended in its clutches?
At Loch Vernachar Scotland UK
Poor old Mr Rock ensnared by the trees roots, the rock might be superior in the rock-scissor-paper game but it does not hold true here. One presumes over time the water will erode the roots perhaps, but I think that rock has got a long wait for it to be set free.
Large rock ensnared suspended by a tree.
Ok so this a mallard duck. The colours were irresistible. What more can I say.
Oh and that funny mustard colour water, well that was how actually was in real life 
I spent most of a week recently on holiday in the Trossachs in Scotland. Lucky enough not to be rained on, nor bitten by midges (timed it just right) and well able to enjoy the lush countryside, the watery brooks, lochs and dam, and also the broad and mighty mountainsides from the steam ship The Walter Scott on Loch Katrine. Loving the natural world here, seeing horned Highland Cows, watching scatty curly horned sheep and a rather domineering greater spotted woodpecker, and desperately trying to spot a golden eagle (like I was ever going to LOL). One highlight for us was a squirrel hide, set up so that visitors to the David Marshall Lodge (a natural park) could witness the antics of the pesky red squirrel, and even four at once at one time!
Castlerigg Stone Circle in the Lake District
Red Squirrels in Scotland
Loch Katrine in the Trossachs
Service Station Crow
Only I could be found taking multiple pictures by the car of a ragged crow at a service station car park for more art reference!
So the perfect location to stay as we did is The Ridings at Brig O Turk, which is in the middle of everything you need whilst in the middle of the lush countryside, with the Ben Venue mountain as a backdrop. Beautiful walks, the local pub (The Byre) and the Brig O Turk Cafe with legendary cream cakes!
You hear of artists taking months or even year or years to paint a picture. Obviously they are not painting at it all the time, just as a writer may not be physically writing a novel over that sort of period either. I have just finished the painting below, but alongside this one I have four other paintings on the go at the moment. One of these has taken four months or more since its inception before Christmas. It is now loitering on a table in my studio sometimes becoming buried in paper and sketches, resurfacing to remind me that it still exists and that I need to pursue the finishing touches. Initially the painting had a lot of momentum, and I have recognised that areas that go slow or even grind to a halt are where there are areas where I was not thorough in my pre-planning. It is not the painting but the decision making that can take time. As an artist I might hope that I will find resolve with time almost as if the painting might just fix itself, but ultimately the decision may have to be forced.
The Duck In The Jug below was kind of easy. I had produced an ACEO some time ago along these lines and so I already knew what I was going to do but then I wanted to do a much bigger painting which was a bit more sophisticated and to throw in the tulips as an extra feature.
And so now I need to get back to some decision making…
Diane Young Artist 