Above: Forest of Luffness 13. Oil on 30×30″ canvas. Rose Strang 2025
Getting into the flow of this series at last, with three large paintings that make sense together. It was a relief to get back to painting today after a nasty virus. More painting on Monday.
Here are a few more details …
Above: Forest of Luffness 12. Oil on 30×30″ canvas. Rose Strang 2025
Today’s painting returns to the mysterious forest. I’m quite happy with the looseness of the paint. It made me reprise yesterday’s painting as I wasn’t too happy with the figure of Richard. Here it is …
Also some close ups of today’s painting …
Above: Forest of Luffness 11. Oil on 30×30″ canvas. Rose Strang 2025
More work today on the latest painting, I wanted more of a sense of mystery in the forest background so I simplfied it considerably and darkened it, with very little light. I also blured the edges of the male figure somewhat to bring the female figure and baby into focus.
I want to emphasise the cycle of life – birth to aging and death, not to make us all feel depressed but to express the what we bring to each of these experiences. Emma’s focus is entirely on her new born baby, there’s the strength of motherhood. With Richard Demarco there’s a complete presence – he’s attending to every aspect of the place and what it has to say to him, also how it speaks to his spirituality.
I like the way the bright leaves of spring highlight Emma’s arrival into the painting. In short, I’m glad I woke up, took a look at my painting, had a bit of a hissy fit and changed it up a bit!
Above: Forest of Luffness 11. Oil on 30×30″ canvas. Rose Strang 2025
I decided to work on yesterday’s painting a bit more as I felt it lacked depth and compared to the rest of the series, looked a bit sketchy.
More details below, including myself next to the painting to show scale…
Above: Forest of Luffness 11. Oil on 30×30″ canvas. Rose Strang 2025
More work today on the Forest of Luffness series. Today’s painting features Richard Demarco beginning to explore the tomb, while in the background Emma walks into the picture with baby Atlas. It’s an odd composition but I liked the filmic sense of mystery. I enjoyed painting loosely and freely; more of this sort of painting to come I think.
A few close-ups and details …
Above: First of June. Forest of Luffness 10. Oil on 12×12″″ canvas. Rose Strang 2025.
Today I updated yesterday’s painting of Richard Demarco, and as usual I’m not at all sure I shoudn’t have left it! Still, it does actually loo more like Richard, and it did need a bit more grounding – so I added legs, hint of the chair etc, but quite sketchy.
In the upcoming documentary, we”ll be interviewing Richard about some of his past work – exploring dialogue between war-torn countries and the healing presence of art.
Back when I worked with Richard as an assistant archivist and curator, Richard was working with Mercy Corp on an exhibition called Beyond Conflict, whch explored the negative impact 9/11 had had on a western view of Muslims.
We’ll be discussing that exhibition in the upcoming doc’ and we’ll be exploring the role of faith in art – does it change what we seek to express, or what we look for in others’ artworks?
Some more views of today’s finished painting.
Above: (Painting in progress) First of June. Forest of Luffness 10. Oil on 12×12″″ canvas. Rose Strang 2025.
I’m working on the hands and the rest of the background tomorrow (the easy part!) you can see pencil outlines.
Clickable images and details below –
Working on a close up portrait of Richard Demarco today for the Luffness series.
This is fairly small again at 12×12″ canvas. I took a still from film footage of our day at Luffness, from which I’m painting this portrait.
There were nine of us there that day last year, including little baby Atlas, but when I carefully look back through all the footage Manuel sent me (Manuel Pennuto is the documentary maker of the Luffness project) the person really paying attention is f course Richard and Terry.
It’s why I asked he and Terry Newman if they’d like to visit the friary ruins at Luffness.
I’d write more about that but it’s 9pm and I’m puggled! There’s nothing more complex than painting the human face – that is, if you truly want to capture expression, hence feeling tired. It’s a good thing I now have a painting lamp so I can paint all hours, but my back isn’t thanking me!
I feel I could create three portraits showing sight, hearing, touch and soul – the idea of (as D.H Lawrence put it) wholly attending.
More tomorrow …
Above: First of June. Forest of Luffness 9. Oil on 30 by 30 inch canvas. Rose Strang 2025
This is the largest in a series of the same subject. I wanted to create it on a large scale to really get the sense of the figures in a forest – possibly lost, or perhaps they’ve discovered themselves in a different realm or time!
Here are the three paintings at different sizes –
Forests seem to have always been associated with mystery, a search, sometimes the idea of freedom from authority, or the idea of spiritual seclusion. I’m a fairly instinctive painter – I don’t begin with a definite concept that I then execute precisely – far from it! I think this approach echoes what I find in landscape and why I paint it. Adding figures always brings tension – it makes the viewer ask more questions, especially when the group are so srangely placed as they are in this painting.
More paintings coming soon, I’m having a little break from it for a couple of days while I write a book of short stories I’ve been working on. More on that later …
Here’s aclose-up of the figures –
Above: First of June. Forest of Luffness 8. Oil on 19.5×19.5 inch wood. Rose Strang 2025
This series is (at last) coming into its own now. It’s taken far longer than other painting series to become coherent as there have been a lot of elements to bring together.
I’m starting to see the theme of a search emerge – these figures in the forest asking questions of life and death. I’ve always loved Gauguin’s painting D’où venons-nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous?/Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 1897 In which he asks these questions so fundamental to the human condition:
At the same time as painting this series (which explores the ruined remains of a 12th century Carmelite Friary) I’ve also been learning Medieval music from the time, which has become part of the documentary (by filmmaker Manuel Pennuto) about this entire project.
So, tomorrow I’ll share some photos showing part of the process, including really beautiful stills from our music recording session from the Song House at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh last week. Hugely inspiring!
Above: First of June. Forest of Luffness 7. Oil on 12×12″ canvas. Rose Strang 2025
Today’s 12 by 12 inch oil on canvas sketch for the Forest of Luffness series. Also below, the same image (clickable) and a detail …
One more at this size then I’ll be on to 30×30 inch canvas, which will make life easier in some ways. It’s impossible to get more detail on faces at this small scale without getting finicky, which I don’t want.
With today’s painting I wanted to explore the sense of a group of people lost, or searching in a forest. On a larger scale it will be possible to have them smaller and more in the distance.
More on Monday …
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