Jackie Edwards Art: From Mexico to Ferrara, Italy, the Making of a Pai...

Jackie Edwards Art: From Mexico to Ferrara, Italy, the Making of a Pai...: Hi folks,              When you take a look at a piece of art, a painting, do you ever think of what goes into actually making the piece fr...

From Mexico to Ferrara to Ireland..Frida Poses 3, Board prep. and Studio.

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

 

From Mexico to Ferrara-2- Posing as Frida

Hi there,
             I hope you enjoyed my first post about my journey with my latest series of paintings inspired by the amazing Frida Kahlo.

As you know, I am now in Ferrara, Itay to work with my wonderful model-who I met in Dublin, Ireland. I am hoping, through this blog, to give the public some idea about just how much goes into producing a painting, or, in this case, a series of paintings.

So, today we got started on our poses. I was so lucky, Lucrezia (my model) and her boyfriend arrived by car to collect me from my hotel in the city and bring me out to her spacious apartment where we began to go through the images of Frida and the collection of colourful headdresses, scarfs, flowers and everything Frida that I could lay my hands on in Ireland before my arrival here.

I was given some amazing fabrics, a statue, braiding, and lace from a dear friend in Ireland to add to my own collection.
I then set upon sorting out the headdress etc. to match as closely as possible, to  each photo or self portrait of Frida that I had thought best to take inspiration from for this collection.

Here's what I was doing before the plane to Ferrara.... costume making....

 

 

The making of a collar that fits around the whole face, I wonder would anyone recognise which painting of Frida I will be using as my inspiration here....... 

 

 

 

More fabulous lace! Here are two blouses together to make one quite similar to the one Frida is wearing in another piece, as I said, I was SO lucky with my friend having such a great selection to choose from. The blouses getting aired ready for the trip to Ferrara.

For the piece I want these for, Frida wears a high lace collar, so I cut lace from the neck and shoulders of another blouse that I bought in a second hand shop, found some lace edging in my own sewing box, and set about making the neck piece, which you will see in another post over the next few days.

 

 

 

 

Making my own headdresses to as close as I can within the timeframe I have given myself...

Enjoying this, it's been so long since I did some sewing and I love it!

 

The colours of Frida, and my friend had loaned me this statue for one particular piece- fab!

 

 

At last we start unpacking the costumes in Lucrezia's apartment.

So which pose first?

A beautiful Sunday morning in Lucrezia's hometown of Migliarino, which is just about a half hour drive- or less-outside the city of Ferrara....so we decide to go and have a look at the local market for a scarf I had not sourced for one piece yet, and to get some food. This is getting so good.

Pasta! Has to be done!

 

 

 

 

Fabric everywhere...just what we wanted.

 

Lucrezia driving us to Migliarino..

 

My first time ever in the Italian countryside and I was so happy to be there.

An added bonus to be driven by a person who is local and knows the place so well.

 

 

 

Market day...what luck!

 

One of the beautiful buildings in the town. I loved the architecture in Italy. x

 

 

We were looking for green and also yellow to best match the dress and headdress on two different pieces. I had left a yellow scarf at home that matched but unfortunately did not bring it along.

But we did find this green scarf...we hated this particular shade of green but it had skulls all over it which is so Frida and Mexican looking.

As it turned out, the scarf looked fabulous on Lucrezia.

 

 

 

In Italy- MUST eat pasta! We had a fine lunch in Ristorante '800 in the town of Migliarino...if you are visiting I Recommend this place. And as they say, if the locals eat there, then it is the place to go.

 

Next we head back to the apartment and the fun begins...

 

Check out my next post and thanks for reading this.

 

Follow me also on Instagram; @jkeartist

Facebook; http://facebook.com/JackieEdwardsArt

Twitter; @artshowjackie

 

 

 

From Mexico to Ferrara, Italy, the Making of a Painting Collection.

Hi folks,
             When you take a look at a piece of art, a painting, do you ever think of what goes into actually making the piece from the very start?

It is not always the case that one stands in front of the easel and begins, just starts painting, although that happens very successfully, I would like to share with you my own inspiration and planning of a piece before I actually start painting with the brush, how much work goes into just one painting, indeed the collection I am embarking on right now.

How do I make a painting?

Here goes......

A very brief introduction to the inspiration behind my  Frida Kalo collection.

In 2016 I was in Mexico, and fell in love with the place. I wanted to make a collection of paintings from the inspiration I got there.
Everybody LOVES Frida Kahlo...including me, but I only got around to start my Frida Inspired painting late last year.

'I've Got a Strong Urge to Fly'

Oil/ Egg Tempera on Line/ Wooden Panel

 

 

My first piece in this collection is 'Ive Got a Strong Urge to Fly'...

A little about this piece;

While I was doing an artist residency in St.Stephen's Green, Dublin, and Italian student agreed to pose for some paintings....not Italy...not Mexico....but Dublins fair city is where I began my Frida paintings! One would of expected that I would have a model pose..and rightly so in Mexico, and indeed, a wonderful model did pose, but I did not get the time to plan this collection and my model there, stunning as well, has posed for other paintings. I did photo shoots there so I can make the paintings from them at a later date.

Indeed, in Dublin during my residency, I had met Lucrezia, and she posed for a photo shoot wearing the best we could find at the time, that looked like the Frida images that we saw on the internet!

 

So, at last I set about making up the composition and I painted the first piece in late 2018.

 

When I presented this to my representing gallery in Dublin, they asked for me to make a series. Bingo- at last- I get to do my Frida collection!

It gets better.. they also asked that I use the same model.

My model is an Italian yound lady studying hard at university in FERRARA, Italy....

 

So, here I am in Ferrara, writing this blog. I arrived yesterday, and tomorrow, my model and I get to work

But the work started well before I got to Italy. To do a Frida painting, for me, takes planning.

I have been busy fining and doing quick sketches of how I would like the paintings to look..

At first, a rough idea. Then I decided about 6-7 paintings, and got started selecting the images for each painting.

 

For these I needed clothes and headdresses that best represented Frida, so I set about sourcing materials, scarfs, flowers for the hair, headdresses, not an easy task, I like my painting to be detailed, so I had to get the colours and clothes just right.

 

I was very lucky that a dear friend had some beautiful fabrics and lace, as well I found some in second hand shops and also had some things in my own house. I sewed and made my own costumes..

Here are some

of the images from how I begin my work before I GET TO THE EASEL..

 

So this was the start of my journey with Frida.

I am writing this from Ferrara, Italy, where I have come to work with my fabulous model, Lucrezia Uba.

Please forgive my lack of good writing here as I am rushing out to start the poses- SO EXTING!

 

I will be posting more updates very soon and I really hope you can join me on my journey with this collection.xxx