This is part three of my journey with a new collection of paintings based on Frida Kahlo using the same model, Lucrezia Uba, a student in Ferrara, Italy, who I first met in Dublin over two years ago.
She has now become my muse.
On presentation of my piece 'Ive got a Strong Urge to Fly' to my representing gallery, Gormley's Fine Art, Ireland and UK, I was asked to produce a collection which led me to an exiting trip to Ferrara to work with Lucrezia.
We are so exited that our work has made the Italian newspapers!
https://www.estense.com/?p=761971&fbclid=IwAR2payeHVjuaq7x3sfC_Nk5gCDYltpWzfk4_fG214IwNFUkWYYS0qt9EVOY
I never dreamed of such a thing!
So, now back in Ireland with all the paintings planned and my 'Frida poses' on file.....MANY of them!
So I have very busy at the studio....which at present is a tiny space near where I live...I will get back on that one.....
I have been preparing surfaces, this extremely large wooden panel is having fine linen stretched over it...
It is a bit tricky with such a large piece, so I apply PVA in about 4 sections. I cut the linen to size, always leaving an inch or two extra at the edges, place it on the board and carefully pull it back to expose the wood where the PVA is to be applied.
I then cover it down pressing it with the brush, and my hands, making sure there are no creases or air bubbles, and then I go along the board repeating this process three more times to get to the other end. I apply another coat of PVA mixed with water, in fact quite watery over the whole board to make sure that it is thoroughly covered, especially at the sides and edges.
I will add timber along the edges and the middle to give strength, so that It does not bend.
Why wooden panel, you might ask. Well, it's through trail and error. The linen, when stretched over bars, can sometimes sag, become loose especially under strong lighting like in many art fairs etc. So this stops all that.
As well, I paint in great detail and find this way suits my work. I love painting on linen, fine linen, so much smoother.
The whole making of a piece is entirely my own, right from the start including the surface. I have always stretched my linen or canvas onto stretchers, always self made. It unusual that I would pick up a ready stretched piece and start work. But in the odd occasion I might use one if the work is not to be so detailed and planned out.
I start the work by doing rough sketches.. extremely rough, as in matchstick men, these drawings are presented to models just to show what way they are to pose.....does the trick.
Then they are refined, and I like to see the piece as a whole, even down to how far to the edge of the panel or surface, each part of the figure or whatever else I have placed. So therefore, I must make the surface to my own specifications- not anyone else's standard frame already made up to try and squeeze something in where there is not the space each side, or too large each side....this is and important part of my composition.
I use the technique similar to the old masters, the drawings first and transferred onto the prepared panel. I love panel painting and in relation to this, during my visit to Italy I found my calling, I will speak of this at a later date,
So you can see the size of this in my tiny space here, please forgive the bad quality of images as they are taken with my phone camera. As it is, I am most grateful of the use of this place because small as it is, it is close to my home and an added bonus in that it has a skylight, which is great for painting, but it looks a bit like a prison cell here!!
A skylight!
Getting very cramped in here!
The place I love to use as a studio is situated 87 K from where I live, and driving there every day is not only exhausting but not kind to my car.....or my pocket.
I do love the place though, it is an out building in an organic farm.
If I could, I would live there.
So just after Christmas I came across this small room which was fine for working out things, drawings and small work....but the very big problem now it that as well as making my Frida collection, there are also deadlines which other calls that I must fit in.
I wont be able to do that here and must find some where larger immediately.
Easier said than done as before I found my out building in the organic farm, I had a great space for over five and a half years, right down the road, and had to vacate as it had been taken over by the builders.....
So, that left me in total turmoil, all this work to do...that's when the farm came about, wonderful but I cannot afford the commute.
As this was getting hard going, another place nearby came about, beautiful spot but it took what money I had, and was not practical in that I was not allowed to lock the doors!!
I view a studio as a sacred, creative space, and privacy is essential to me. I believe that anyone entering should be invited in by me, and not just to enter without my permission, as work is in progress and I have a spiritual approach to it. I feel that interruption could ruin the way that I oput it out into the world.
Call me mad if you wish, but I have recently met an artist working in a different genre who feels the same.
Crazy, as well, I had to carry all my gear from the car, up steep steps, then up a hill....to this amazing spot, but as I say........
I am writing this to highlight what artists go through to try and make their paintings.
I think I can speak for many artists in that nothing is plain sailing, maybe for the lucky ones, which I was for five and a half years, but all good things come to and end.
It is extremely hard to get set up with something suitable, the light, for me, is a big player as I am a portrait painter, I need good daylight for skin tones, which I have where I am...and also at the organic farm, great skylights.
And then there's the obvious, rent, electricity, wi-fi etc...phone coverage, which can often be so bad out in the countryside in Ireland.
I had been offered a place only to be let down, and then another farm building about 20 mins from where I live, which is still possible- if the furniture that being stored there was moved out. I am going to work on that one....or take a residency somewhere to do the collection../.?
Believe me, I am open to idea's.......?
FRIDA and I
This large panel I am preparing, is for a piece that was planned two years ago, when Lucrezia was doing and intern in the Green Gallery, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin while I was taking part in a residency there, so that's where we met, as you can see in the article in the Italian news in the above link. Lucrezia talks a little about herself in it.
The piece is called 'Frida and I', I have been planning it since I arrived back from Mexico and took part in the residency. This is where I had Lucrezia, and other models pose for me...with great results.
The piece will show you the very strong link that I have with the artist Frida...it is quite sad, in that is a self portrait.
Now, at last, I can possibly add this to my present collection, so it is in the running....
SO, I have also started the first piece, well, second, as the first one is already in Gormley's.
I decided to paint a 'revival'? of Frida's self portrait 'Me and my Parrots'.
I will talk about this and show you what I am doing in the next round.....
Thanks for checking in with me.. x
