Dancing with the Devil

I have to admit today's posting is not what I'd call an original idea. I was reading Moonlight and Hares lovely artwork blog and she recalled how a painting which she began in 2009, had finally been completed. Her study of a woman had radically changed into one with a marine feel with the woman being possibly a selkie (a seal which can shed its skin and become a human).

And this got me thinking of why and more importantly how paintings happen. I just don't know. I don't paint as much as I did since moving house as I had to leave my outside studio (okay shed) there, which seemed to be a very creative place for me to work. My current workspace is the third bedroom, which while okay isn't such a creative force. But I used to go into the old studio, pull out a canvass and quietly sit. I'd then suddenly begin working. I never planned anything or spent weeks researching. I just let my mind unburden itself. Psychiatrists take note ha ha ! I have never understood where my ideas come from, they just arrive and I have to work at breakneck speed to get the creative idea out on the canvass before it disappeared.

Reading Moonlight and Hares blog took me back to 4 years or so when I found I became obsessed with the lyrics of a Jethro Tull song, Kelpie. The lyrics are here.

There was a warm wind with the high tide
On the south of the hill.
When a young girl went a-walking
And I followed with a will.
``good day to you, my fine young lady
With your lips so sweetly full.
May I help you comb your long hair ---
Sweep it from that brow so cool? ’’
Up, ride with the kelpie.
I’ll steal your soul to the deep.
If you don’t ride with me while the devil’s free
I’ll ride with somebody else.
Well I’m a man when I’m feeling
The urge to step ashore.
So I may charm you --- not alarm you.
Tell you all fine things, and more.
Up, ride with the kelpie.
I’ll steal your soul to the deep.
If you don’t ride with me while the devil’s free
I’ll ride with somebody else.
Say goodbye to all your dear kin ---
For they hate to see you go
In your young prime, to this place of mine
In the still loch far below.
Up, ride with the kelpie.
I’ll steal your soul to the deep.
If you don’t ride with me while the devil’s free
I’ll ride with somebody else.

In particular it was chorus line "If you don’t ride with me while the devil’s free, I’ll ride with somebody else." This lyric went round and round my head for days and days. I kept playing the tune over and over again. I had become obsessed with it. Then one day I got down a 4 foot x 3 foot canvass, put the CD on repeat and began. Using acrylic paint squirted directly onto the canvass and using only rubber rollers to mix and apply the medium, I ended up with this painting, which was completed in about 20 minutes (sadly this old photo doesn't do it justice, I may try and take new photos over the weekend).

It's called "Dance with the Devil" and I still absolutely love it. I have no idea what it is all about, what its meaning is and I don't mind that. It can be anything it wants to be as it was just the outpourings of a manic 20 minute creative outburst. I often get this painting out and look at it, close to the lovely marbling of the paint is a joy to view (something that mixing paint on a canvass with rollers can do) and to be honest I have absolutely no recollection of how I painted it, or why.

I appreciate everyone may not like it. All I know is I painted it, it recorded a moment in time and and I'm glad I did as it gives me great pleasure.

Sunday afternoon with a 2B pencil

I thought with this posting I'd be a little bit self indulgent and go through a drawing I made over the weekend and the very haphazard unplanned way I work.

Yesterday afternoon I found myself indoors for a change watching the Burleigh Horse Trials on BBC2. I do like a good three day event. Anyway sitting still for more than 2 minutes is difficult for me, but yesterday for the first time in a long while (actually since Good Friday) I unleashed my 2B pencil, some heavyweight cartridge paper, a mug of tea and while watching the TV began drawing.

At the beginning of my drawing I had no idea what to draw, but as a horse jumped over a five bar gate and a fence at Burleigh, I began with a five bar gate, and from that beginning a fence emerged and the makings of a tree.

Onward I went. Filling out the tree and then a link fence, some back ground and then a second tree in the field. At this stage I still planned to do a summer tree, i.e. one that is in leaf. But that never happened, possibly as it was more like winter out there than early autumn.

So now my trees will be sans foliage, what else can I add? How about some rooks !

Yes that's not too bad. It lifts the drawing and gives it movement. Adding some shadows and a few more defined branches at this point I thought yes this doodle is now just about finished. It wasn't meant to be a massively polished drawing, just a sketch really while I watched TV.

And then I broke a golden rule. All paintings, drawings and sketches suddenly shout out to the artist, "stop, please stop I'm finished now". At this point do not fiddle about any more or add anything else. But then I did and added a few more rooks which wasn't too bad, and then in a moment of madness some empty rooks nests in the front tree. And that's where I overcooked the drawing, and yet again I've learnt a valuable lesson in drawing and artwork "know when to stop". And yes if you are wondering I only used a single 2B pencil...... my art comes cheap!

Mind you I don't think Molly was too impressed!!

+++++++++++++++

And one final mention about the Corfe Mullen BioBlitz which happened over the Bank Holiday. We're planning to broadcast a piece from this tomorrow, but Steve Davis from the Dorset Wildlife Trust has written a blog article just now which sums up the day wonderfully

His blog entry is here

Paintings

After a couple of nice comments about my paintings, I thought as I've no new news on the wildlife front I'd post a couple more. I don't usually paint wildlife, my painting is more of a chaotic creation; which is where the name of my Art website quicksilverwhistle came from (ergo, my wildlife blog's odd name). I tend to paint fast, furious, from memory and without any planning, and never draw anything. Therefore often whistle at the end result, which I have to admit can be different to my original thought (such as this Pheasant which started out life as a seascape - don't ask).

The painting at the bottom of these three was completed using a 2 inch rubber roller, paint on, slosh it about and for me (not everyone) I can see an abstract Cockrell head and eye. The colours aren't as sharp here as in the originals I'm afraid.

 

 

What tends to happen is I watch wildlife from Autumn to Spring then in the summer "do shows". So a couple of photos too, which may give the reader something to smile about (is that really all of me in that shirt????) - this was at Yetminster last July.

 

 

The hub of activity - my artiste studio (okay I know it's a shed)

 

Day off tomorrow, as taking her who must be obeyed to Dorchester Oncology Centre for her 3 monthly checkup, a good excuse to pop to the Dorset coast afterwards, under the pretext of a spot of luncheon near the sea, but just may have my scope in the car !!