Away

One of the benefits of working on studies out of doors is the time spent away from all other demands and the resulting clarity of focus. It is refreshing and energising. It keeps studio work on its toes.

With this in mind, I'm heading off on a residential course for the next week to write. Just write. Only Writing. The very idea makes my brain go inside out with incomprehension. But there it is.

It's going to be weird. No question. But I think I can handle it.

Anyone interested in booking on the Painting with Chalk Pastels Course (13 September - 1 November) can still reach me by mobile (might be voice mail, but I'll get back to you, I promise!), and e-mails will be answered. 

So for now, Away we go!

Detour

Meeting of Ways K Howell 2012 Pastel on Paper (Very Small)

     Summer is full of longer, more circuitous routes. Even our broadband is on holiday. I don't think it's the heat.
     A short drive home from a camping trip became an exciting day-long exercise in finding a way off a vehicle-mosaic M road. Probably beautiful and sparkly from the circling helicopters' point of view. On ground level, more of a study in passive/aggressive driving. But I digress.
     Work on larger pieces has stalled. In the short term, I'm doing tiny studies when the English summer will allow.
     Detours give us the opportunity to come at things from a new direction, with a new perspective. The trick is probably in keeping sane whilst time slides past And We're Not There Yet...

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
 (As You Like It , the Bard)

Connections

           Stairs, unlike broadband, never fail to connect. 

Doors of Perception

Portal K Howell 2012 Charcoal/oil pastel on paper 14 cm x 21 cm

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. 
So says Goethe. 
And then comes the development work.


 I love the simple magic of doorways. A door is choice and possibility, the unexpected and undiscovered just beyond the threshold.
This is a reconstructed Saxon arch, and while it appears to go nowhere (it's part of a freestanding wall, the building no longer extant), it offers a whole new view through its frame. A Portal. From here to somewhere else, furnishing a glimpse of the Other Side (In this case, a shifting tide and Cumbria ).


Paintings are coming along Slowly... so many possible doorways!

Still Waters

Coming Up For Air K Howell 2012 Pastel study 13 cm x 13 cm

     Still playing with the stone cut graves. There's something about the  quality of the reductive anthropomorphic shape filled with water. Says it all, really.

     This study shows a calm, still puddle,  but it's often windy on the headland and at times the water in the graves is quite choppy. A mini tempest brewing, creating all kinds of interesting and beautiful patterns. I've been messing with ideas to build a series of paintings for ages, and it's becoming clear.

     Water contributes 65 - 90% of the mass of human cells, along with carbon, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus and trace elements. It's the phosphorus I have my eye on right now - and I think I can see where this is going. Finally. As all alchemists know, pissing about does pay off.

Stumped

Stump K Howell 2012 (tiny study) Pastel on Paper

Torrential rain last week and now the sky is a careless, indifferent grey. Maybe that's what I like about living here. The unpredictable, intense flashes of sunshine that never last, but are more interesting for their infrequency. Well, it's a theory.

I've painted this stump before - it looks totally different now, having entirely shed its bark. It's looking more vulnerable and exposed. Fibrous. I suppose what caught my eye was the dance of supple limbs around the ragged remains. An intricate, rented world momentarily brightened.

Moving on with some larger acrylics which are building slowly, but hopefully will be ready for a tiny local exhibition next month. They are twin paintings, exploring paint application and dancing with the devil in the detail, it seems. We'll see what emerges.

Congratulations, Lucy Watkins! Lucy's painting has been selected for the Royal Academy's A-level Summer Exhibition online, which is quite a feat! There were over 1450 entries, and Lucy's piece even has a room named after it.

Having seen the actual exhibition of A-level work, I think everyone deserves congratulating, as the developmental work, sketchbooks and finished pieces are really wonderful. Great to see! Keep it up, lovely people...