Though I haven’t posted new works here in a while, I’ve been working on several things. They’re taking longer as I’m working in oils, which is a much slower process.

Above is an oil portrait of my friend Donald. It needs a bit more work and you can probably see I’m sort of winging it as I don’t really have a process with oils as yet. Once I’ve created a few more of these I’ll do larger portraits with a bit more life and characteristics of the subjects and I’ll also post more information about the people I’m painting.

Donald has been a great friend since the early 90’s, and this doesn’t hugely capture the aspects I’d like to (for example his mercurial, fun qualities – though he can be very contemplative as seen here) but as an exercise in observation and technique it’s worthwhile, and definitely looks like him! I’ll be adding more of these from now to Spring.

Here are a couple more showing progress ..

 

 

 

 

The other series I’m working on this year involves themes that have been on my mind since September last year. I’ve been exploring avenues of Medieval history. from a variety of angles I suppose.

This probably stems from a lifelong love of the ‘Narniad’ – the Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis, whose imaginative and immersive approach to fantasy belies a rigorous education in Classics, and a dedication to theology and Christianity in later life.

Lewis was deeply interested in the Neo-Platonic view of the cosmos, which was a complicated yet harmonious view of the universe and our place in it. It’s only in recent years (fifty years after Lewis’s death in 1963) that the writer Michael Ward realised that the seven books of Narnia were each inspired by the seven planets. He published his observations in a book I’m currently reading called Planet Narnia (published I think in about 2008).

Once I understood more about the neo Platonic view of planets, it was stunningly obvious that each of the books absolutely immerses you in the ideas and qualities of the planet it explores, though the relevant planet might not even be mentioned.

I’ll save this complicated and fascinating subject for future posts, but suffice to say for now I find it a magical and quite beautiful way of perceiving nature and the subjects I paint, so this year I’ll be painting something each month that corresponds to month, time of year and related subjects.

With the month of January relating to the planet Saturn (associated with black among other things) I’m working on a very large night-scape at the moment. This smaller painting was one I began on the Isle of Iona back in October; every night I’d go out to look at the stars in a sky unpolluted by human-made light. (If you’re as mesmerised by a clear starry sky as I am, you’ll know that I ended up with a nasty crick in my neck!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The larger painting (in progress, below) is on a 40×40″ (about 3.5 feet) wood panel, in oils. Already I’m appreciating the density of colour and texture of oil paint, as contrasted with acrylic, I’m not appreciating how long it takes to dry, but as someone who’s pretty impatient temperamentally I suppose it gives me more time to consider the subject. I find it stymies my creative flow and inspiration somewhat, but the quality of paint adds something special to the process and finish. I also like the smell of linseed oil!