LOVE COLOUR EXHIBITION COLDSTREAM JUNE 2011

THINKING AND REFLECTING

I was taking my turn, sitting in a gallery, waiting for customers, pondering and asking myself,

‘Why is it that when some people get really old, they calmly say in a matter of fact way, they’ve had enough’?

I thought, well I can understand in a way, but as I looked out of the window at the changing autumn colours I couldn’t imagine ever getting tired of the beauty of nature. Then I remembered that although there are scenes in nature that can be visually stunning, there’s more to it than the physical form, and there’s no doubt that something is having an effect on the ‘heart’, the emotions, which creates the perception of beauty and with it the profound feeling of well-being.

But which comes first, the sight before us then the opening of the heart or the opening of the heart and the beauty before us. Is it both? Do memories of bliss experienced through any of the senses trigger the ability to open the heart? So if we see a food that was once blissful in the tasting, the memory triggers a willingness to experience that bliss again. If we’re using the sense of sight we think it’s what we see, if we listen we think it’s what we can hear, if we taste, we think it’s what we are eating etc. The feeling of pleasure/bliss/love appears to be ‘in’ and ‘require’ specific experiences, a multi-coloured sunset rather than a pile of rotting waste. But of course it doesn’t, because the bliss or love resulting through connecting with any of the senses is the same bliss/love and is only limited by our ideas of what we think will trigger the experience.

With a feeling of love for the beauty beyond the window I asked myself ‘Why limit it to what’s outside? If your heart has opened, keep it open and experience the room’. So remaining in that state, I ignored any critical ‘I like’ or ‘I don’t like’ mental commentary and looked at the walls, the door, the door frame, the floor etc. without judgement, and everything, form, colour and function seemed very quietly right and in a way beautiful and heartfelt. What was also interesting was that the feeling emanating from the forms seemed to be what I was experiencing in my own form so how could I ever be tired of that?

NEW PAINTING STAGE 7

This could be the final painting but as I've just taken another look at it  I know I'll make some final touches to the Aloe. I had it to this stage a few weeks ago and  I've started another painting. The bowls are quite glossy because of the paint medium I used as you can see from the photo. I still don't have a title for it. I initially wanted to show the overlapping of the bowls and the Aloe echoed it but but there is something of Mother in Law's tongue about this thrusting Aloe and the full rounded curves of the bowls contrast that. It also feels as though there's some kind of competition going on.

NEW PAINTING STAGES 6 6A+6B

Detail of Aloe

This is the almost there stage. I'm still working on the Aloe but the stones and earth in the pots are almost finished. I'll let the those areas dry while I build up the bowls next. It really is a case of looking and looking. I'm still not happy with the quality of the surface of the Aloe yet. It isn't glossy and it isn't matt. I really don't feel I've captured the watery fulness, if that's they way to describe it. Sometimes the light falls onto it and there's a translucency that needs expressing. 

 

I need to bring the bowls up to the same level before I have another look at the Aloe and I'll make a start by having another look at the green bowl.

I wish I could say that the mind has been still during this painting, but it hasn't, there has been so much noise there.

Stage 6

NEW PAINTING STAGE 4 +5

I can never remember how the painting develops usually so these photos are useful, and I don't make a secret of my process it's just that I usually forget. I try to stick to the traditional 'fat on thin'.

As you can see in STAGE 4  I've been working on the Aloe. I worked as far as I could go just using turps to thin the oil paint. It needed to dry before I could take it any further which meant I started bringing up the bowls.

I started the bowls in a new session. The time flies when I paint and the hours go by and sometimes I only stop because of lack of daylight. I used the paint medium, to thin the oils so that they would dry glossy. My intention with the bowls is to do a number of layers so that I can create depth.

NEW PAINTING SEPT/OCT 2010 STAGES 1-3

These are images of my progress so far on this new painting.I actually started it in Aug but getting ready for my open studio took up so much time, there was a gap of three weeks before I got going again. When I went back to it last week I found the aloe had grown, so it had to be re-drawn. I decided to prioritise the aloe and work on the pots later. I'm going to paint the bowls using a standard medium to get a glossy finish and just thin the rest with turps though that might be too flat for the aloe I'll just have to see. So far i've just been working with ultramarine, sap green, green gold, lemon yellow, alizarin, burnt  umber, vandyke brown, titanium white. My approach to oil colours was based on the colours I used with watercolours, primary and permenance being the most important aspects. I spent a lot of time when I first started painting with oils, mixing colours and never getting the quantities right. I've now got a much larger range but old habits die hard. I've increased the size of this canvas to 40X50 cms so the intention is to enlarge both canvas and image as I go, as I kind of lost courage with the large still life as they required so much energy. As you can see the organic overlapping growth of the aloe is mimicked by the bowls. Again the intention is to paint with attention. Easier said than done because one goes into automatic and the process becomes mechanical whilst one gets lost in thoughts. In fact the more practised the technique the easier it is to slip away so one has to be constantly watchful and keep returning to being fully aware of the hand, the brush, the paint, the canvas and how they all connect. It's happened a few times but not that often.

Sylvia Quinn Home: AFRICA: Abundance of Spirit

Sylvia Quinn Home: AFRICA: Abundance of Spirit

I started with the large tin, had been wanting to use it for a while and it was a case of looking around for the right objects/props to go along with it. Never start off knowing what a painting is going to end up like. The final touch was the African paper knife my father brought from Durban in the mid fifties when he went to Africa for the factory he was working in and they needed to see the buses were being assembled properly. No-one else wanted to go and it was during the time of the Durban riots. He was shocked that he wasn't even allowed to pass a screwdriver to the Africans in case they learned how to use it. The painting has just sold and I know it will be enjoyed.