Traditional Tales

this is quite big, ink on paper. disappointed in how it turned out, but its prompted a head searching in how to achieve the effect I want, loose stylized spontaneous decorative crisp lines. When i get a minute I'll play with different inks again and if it comes to it, investigate making my own textured version of 'scraper board'.

This picture is about a story my storyteller friend told during a recent visit. These traditional tales are so strange and primal, scary, non linear, something beyond what we understand or expect from modern narratives. I think to capture them in an illustration form requires a more intuitive non-linear approach, not sure how yet. But even though i consider this picture a fail, I gained a better understanding of the primal metaphors within the story while doing it. I'll not tell the tale, a) i couldnt do it justice b) its gruesome !

Midwinter Birch painting

The snowy light is fascinating me,. daylight is so brief, but this last week has had a bright moon at night which helps combat the darkness, and in the snow makes everything amazing eerie colours, shapes distort, shadows shift. I like just going out in the freezing temperatures & looking at the sky trying to breathe in any light available. I hate Midwinter.

I've also been getting sick of 'painting by numbers' representational landscapes, which people like, and buy. But am currently allowing myself just to go mad with the paint, paint from memory and just splodge around to see what happens. Its pretty mentally exhausting but feels good. I also haven't had space/ house to myself in a couple of months, so am having to shift my working methods to try & work around this. Luckily the snow colours are inspiring enough to help combat the midwinter blues.

Stags & Snow

After a very long, very slippy, very snowy, very beautiful drive to Inverness today, I painted 8 of these staggy pictures.