these paintings of my garden in deepest September bloom are all oil on gesso board with a 2 cm deep edge, 25 x 20 cm.
SMALL PAINTINGS
THERE IS ONLY THE HACKLE OF A HOLE WHERE THE WIND BLOWS
oil , sand and shell on a cradled gesso panel, 25 x 25 cm, 2024.
This small painting is from a group especially made for Tatha Gallery’s celebration of its tenth year.
They are part of a new body of work I am making about Tentsmuir and Kinshaldy beach where I walk my dog several times a month, based on a poem I wrote almost 2 years ago (published in Tears in the Fence Literary journal Spring 2023). From it I have taken the titles of these small paintings.
UNDER THE WILD TREES
acrylic, oil and damar varnish on board, 2024, 30 x 20 cm
The depth of ancient Caledonian forest, somewhere in Perthshire, echoed in the layered depths of paint.
AM I SATISFACTORY?
oil on acrylic on cradled gesso panel, 2024, 7 x 5 ” with a tiny deer-suited figure sitting in the bandstand. The bandstand in the park (La Florida) in Vitoria-Gasteiz, that beautiful capital of the Basque country. Is she/are they singing tonight?
THINGS WHICH ARE NOT
(Not Available) Inspired by another poetry writing workshop – on a starry starry night – thinking about Midnight – little oil painting on board, 2024, 20 x 20 cm, – Things Which Are Not – “For I am every dead thing/In whom Love wrought new alchemy – the day’s deep midnight ” – a bit of John Donne.
TONIGHT I AM WAITING FOR YOU
oil on cradled panel, 2024, 7 x 5 inches (18 x 13 cm)
this is a park with a bandstand in the Basque capital, Vitoria-Gasteiz. It’s a beautiful city with much greenery, and this is the view from my hotel when I stayed there in autumn 2015. More or less. I love painting on this scale, the extra looseness it gives to the brushmarks is very satisfying.
TODAY I AM THINKING ABOUT
oil painting on gessoed cradled board, 2024, 8 x 6 x .8 inches, or 20 x 15 x 2 cm,
this guy has long sweptback ears, he is part of a series to do with a poem of mine – based on the story of Oisín, the Irish hero who is born as a deer when his mother is turned into one by a dark druid. The deer-boy and deer-people are populating some of these, and they inhabit a place inspired by photos I took nine years ago in France on a friend’s property and in northern Spain, in the city of Vitoria_Gasteiz, which is the capital of the Basque country.
A KNAPSACK ON MY BACK
Oil on cradled gesso board, 2024, 19 x 16 cm.
I started using oil paint again early this year and tried it quite runny and gloopy on this one, not quite under control. The same two figures and the little white dog are in the large painting Footnotes in the Singing Wood, done just after completing this.
LOOK I AM CHOSEN AS A BEAR
Acrylic on a cradled board. 2023, 20 x 25 cm or 8 x 10 inches