Tag: Research Project
Protected: In too deep
I’ve got the t-shirt, now I have to do it!
The other day, while scrolling in bed, I came across an ad for the Cancer Research UK Run 62 Miles in March challenge, and in a bid to allay my napping-in-the-daytime guilt, I signed up. Post-nap, and failing to rope my fella into it, I considered not doing it, but then a Cancer Research t-shirt arrived today, so now I have to do it. To be honest, the t-shirt is a little snug, so, not only do I have to run 2 miles everyday in March, I also have another challenge – to fit the t-shirt by the end of it.
I have been all over the place with my painting this week. One minute I love the big painting and feel committed to finishing it, the next I think it’s going in the wrong direction, and I seriously consider abandoning it. I oscillate between these two points of view a few times a day. I am quickly approaching the point of no return, and will have to make a decision soon and stick with it.
In the mean time, I have been painting my folks.
My fella came home from his work travels last Monday. It is so lovely to have him back, though now he has a fancy job, we don’t have as much time for day drinking. A spot of day drinking and hearing each other’s newes is one of our fondest gettogethers. The most memorable occasion was the time we were in Tuscany, and we ordered a Moscow Mule – which is vodka and ginger beer and one of my favourite tipples. When relaying the recipe to our Italian waiter, something got lost in translation and he bought us a vodka and gin. Naturally, we drank it to be polite. Sure, it packed a punch, by the end of it, it didn’t taste too bad at all.
My bread and butter diet is a dud!
Like most people riddled with Christmas-gorging remorse, my fella and I are on diets. We opted for different plans; my fella choosing Keto, and me, a bread and butter diet I designed myself. After sticking to our respective diets since New Year, my fella has lost 10lbs and I’ve put on 2.
I was back at school this week, and am quietly bricking it that there are only 19 weeks of term and a couple of weeks holiday left before it’s all over. I will be focused solely on my research project until the end, the main part of which is a large painting. I have been preparing for the painting the past few weeks, and am pleased to report that I finally started it this weekend.
It’s an ambitious painting, and there is no guarantee it will work. Currently, I am oscillating between hope that it will work, and freaking out that it won’t. The latter got the better of me this morning, and I bought a huge roll of paper so I can at least do some smaller paintings in case the big painting turns out to be a dud like my bread and butter diet.
To help improve my chances, my fella took me to a local river confluence so I could make an offering to the painting gods (assuming they hang out down there). It is the place that initially inspired my research project, and is one of my favourite places on the Island.
In other news, I am obsessed with hares at the moment. I love learning about them and drawing them…
…and painting them.
I haven’t seen one in the wild yet, even though they live close by, but I did see this handsome fellow in the Manx Museum the other day:
Such is my love of hares, I made a Wisdom Daily video about them last week.
Preparation is key
Abraham Lincoln once said:
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
Most of my studio time this week was spent trying to figure out how I want to approach the painting for my research project. The canvas is primed and ready, but before I start I have to figure out how I mean to go on. To do this, I have been staring at the blank canvas, rummaging through the paintings I have done so far on the course, practicing techniques, reading books related to the topic of the painting, researching the life of the central figure of the painting, visiting the locations where the event to be depicted took place, going for long walks to spark my imagination, and taking naps in the hope the sleep fairies give me ideas.
Through all of this, a consistent image has been coming together as to the general layout of the painting. But the particulars and details will only emerge during the process of painting it. Normally when I conceive of a big painting, I have everything mapped out, and more less know where I am going with it, and what it will look like when I am finished. Approaching this painting with so many unknowns, and being willing to let it emerge organically, relying on instinct rather than design, is very scary.
The whole reason I wanted to do this masters course was to be challenged in my practice and gain the courage to attempt a new type of painting, so I only have myself to blame for my current predicament. I suspect once I start the painting, I will love the process. I am going to give myself a few more days of prep work (as above), and will begin the painting when my fella and I return from Scotland.
One person’s frog-drawing is another person’s procrastination
I didn’t manage to write a post last week, as we had an assessment due which took up my writing time. Also, I’ve been whittling myself to a nub out here at Anam Cara, mostly trawling through online records, researching the subject of a painting I am planning for my final Research Project. It has to do with a well in Ballaragh, and a lady who ended up in it. It’s a fascinating story to research, with lots of avenues to go down. But while it’s thoroughly engrossing, it’s also very time consuming.
The best part of the research, is my fella taking me to the actual places where the events happened. I thought I’d found the well in question a few months back, and when my fella took me to revisit it this past weekend, I was astonished to see the someone is building a house on top of it. However, upon further research this week, it seems I may have been mistaken about its location, so we might have to do some more welling this weekend, which I’m sure will thrill my fella no end.
As well as welling, we had the opening for the Manx Museum exhibition recently. I meant to take lots of photos, but only managed some blurry ones of people standing around, such as this one of my fella holding my handbag, with my painting in the background.
Things have been a bit slow in the studio this past couple of weeks. I am very close to starting the painting for my final research project, in fact, the canvas is prepped and ready to go, I just have a few more test paints to do. I tell myself I am biding my time, but some might call it procrastinating, either way I have been drawing lots of frogs.
Plus, I painted this little fella the other day.
In the deep green sea
I had a good week in the studio, and really enjoyed being back at school without the dreaded covid. I have a dual focus this term, namely, drawing and my research project. Even though my drawing has greatly improved, after focusing on it this summer, I now realise that when it comes to drawing, learning and improvement never ends. For this reason, I have signed up for a series of drawing workshops, joined a drawing club, and booked one on one sessions with a drawing tutor.
I have also kept up my morning drawing discipline, which this week has consisted of filling large pages with a variety of ink and watercolour drawings. I really enjoy this part of my practice, and try and keep it light and fun.
My paintings this week were sea-themed, no doubt influenced by my passionate love of Moby Dick, which I am still listening to on my walks to see the bobbers. I agree with Ray Bradbury’s assessment –
“Shakespeare wrote Moby-Dick, using Melville as a Ouija board.”
I also experimented with colour and detailing, with the hope that when I come to do the paintings for my research project, I’ll know the palette and detailing style I want to use.
On Friday night, my dear friends and I had one of our ladies-nights at our favourite cocktail bar, Fynoderee. We were two-women down from normal, but we still had a wonderful time. As you can see by the photo I took, I was a bit wobbly by the end of the night.
Back to school Covid blues
My masters course resumed last week and I spent the majority of it with Covid. Thankfully, the worst of my symptoms had abated the previous week, but I was still self-isolating awaiting a negative test, which finally materialised on Saturday. Covid sucked, especially the night-time delirium and almost constant headache, but I have lived to tell the tale, so I didn’t do too bad.
Once I got over feeling crap, isolating at Anam Cara was actually quite wonderful. I napped indiscriminately, received treat-laden grocery deliveries from my lovely fella, painted loads, and went for long walks to see the bobbers (my collective noun for seals). They are pupping at the moment at the tip of the Point of Ayre. I am very careful not to get too close, but even seeing them all hauled out from a distance is a real joy.
Increasing my bobber-walk-joy tenfold this past week has been listening to Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. What a stunningly magnificent book! I have been listening to it because of a beautiful poem I read by Hart Crane, called Melville’s Tomb. I have been reading quite a bit of Crane’s poetry of late, in relation to one of the paintings I am planning for my research project. Crane’s poetry had a lot of detractors during his lifetime, which broke his heart, but now of course he is hailed as an American great, though his poetry is still considered difficult. Personally, I think its wonderful, and my sojourn into his inner world, and the world of Melville has been moving and deeply inspiring.
I am still at the experimental stage with the painting, and have mostly been focused on the kind of detailing I want to use, as well as figuring out the various elements of the painting, such as the imagery below which is based on a dream he had.
I have ordered what looks to be an excellent biography about about him, which I am hoping will help me narrow down and select the elements of the painting I would like to include. Frustratingly, Amazon lost the first copy I ordered, so I am now waiting for them to resend it. I’ll be writing more about Crane and the painting in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here is a video I made about him for my Wisdom Daily a couple of weeks ago.
Summer – week 15 experiments
This was the last week of the summer holidays, and I spent it riddled with Covid. What a nasty, pernicious virus. It was my first time getting it and I had a miserable time. Although I am still testing positive, I am almost back to normal, and last night I was able to sleep properly for the first time since I got it. Of course, just because I had Covid, I didn’t stop painting. It was pretty slow going, mostly just building upon what I did last week, in terms of figuring out the kind of detailing I want to use etc.
My fella went to Seattle and all he bought back was a fridge magnet and covid!
I’d like to say that I am faithfully nursing him back to health, but when he tested positive, I fled his house lickety-split and came back to the virus-free salt-air of Anam Cara. I did manage to buy him some Vicks VapoRub before fleeing, so I didn’t totally abandon my fiancée duties.
So now I am hold-up in the studio, waiting to see if I too have the dreaded lurgy. I did wake up with a sniffle this morning, but that might have been due to getting caught in a storm last night while romping around the Ayres. It was all fun and games on the way up there, with a tail wind and all, but I got battered on the way back, and was drenched by the time I got home.
Before my fella went to Seattle, we had the great pleasure of filming Hampton Creer for the Ann documentary. Hampton wrote the book “Never to Return”, about the Manx involvement in the penal Transportation system, which is where I first came across Ann’s story. It was wonderful to see him again, and listen to all his stories. He is so knowledgeable, not just about Transportation, but about Manx history in general. I could listen to him for hours.
I am pleased to say, I finally have a name for the Ann painting, Anileis – which is a Greek word meaning merciless. Not only is it very fitting in its meaning, it is also a beautiful sounding word, and when you say it, it sounds like the words Annie + lace together, which makes it the perfect title for the painting.
Here is a write-up about Anileis, that explains what the painting is about.
While I’ve been hold-up at Anam Cara, waiting to see if I too get Covid, I have been having a wonderful, undisturbed time painting away and enjoying my new satellite internet. What a difference it makes! Instead of waiting an hour or so for things to upload, it happens in an instant. This should definitely make my second year at art school easier.
Speaking of which, my second year starts in one week. I am looking forward to seeing everyone again, but am slightly terrified with how quickly the first year flew by and how much work I have yet to do on my research project. I have pretty much figured out what direction I am going in, which I did while on my long walks to the Point of Ayre this summer. It’s a wild, visually stunning landscape, which makes it perfect for thinking through creative projects.
I am not quite ready to share exactly what I have in mind, but here are a couple of the experiments I did this week for one of the paintings. One thing I have noticed since retuning to painting after drawing all summer, is how much my drawing has improved.
Well, it appears I didn’t flee my fella’s house soon enough, as I too have tested positive for Covid. Luckily, I haven’t got the nobody’s-ever-been-this-sick-and-lived man variety like my fella, just mild lady-Covid. Still, it’s early days, so I shouldn’t be too smug. One good thing is, I can now hang out with my fella, us both being diseased and all, that’s if he is able to prize himself out of his sick bed.
bexODESSA 