Jane Wheeler's Blog 2016

moving the paintings on

Posted jane -->on 1st Nov 2016

early yesterday morning there was a heavy dew and a pearly light which lit the moisture on the grass and crops, not as pale as frost, palest blue sky over palest green lines of winter wheat

and the sky was half covered with thin cloud.

so I worked on a charcoal drawing from memory and imagination, remembering all the fields I saw in Old Woman’s Lane in Cley, with their different patterns of drilled wheat or barley, and the electricity poles with their cross-crossings making a different pattern across the landscape from the hedges and lanes, and the drilled lines. trying to make a rhythmic composition that expresses the textures and patterns, condensing my felt experience of these fields.

I started two paintings

one quite small, to get a feel for how colour/paint/mark-making might work

and a bigger canvas begun

layering and trying to find the same rhythms as in the drawing

then I built up the fields with their lines. the drawing was my most important reference; I saw that the foreground hedge was not solid – there was a lighter section that needed to be put back in. this worked well, the layering allowing mark-making back though the light layer back to the dark.

looking at the drawing I could see that I’d lost the drama of the electricity wires swooping right down to the horizon, so I worked back into the sky

I’ve put a lot of paint on this canvas, so you really can’t see much of my deeply textured gesso brush marks

here it is as finished as I could get in the fading light. it will be interesting to look in a couple of days with fresh eyes in a good light. but I think this is going in an interesting and productive direction.

a closer look in a better light

I think I need the acrylic to be a bit juicier for this when I get the brush involved

but over all it’s a brave step I think

started a new one today so here’s the first charcoal

felt I needed something a bit bolder

and the basic underpainting steps in place. note we have the evidence of people and machines – a flat-bed truck and a tractor in the charcoal drawings, which I hadn’t put into the painting at this point.

I think I must go and see the Paul Nash exhibition at Tate Britain.

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cakes lane beginning to sparkle

Posted jane -->on 1st Nov 2016

we are very lucky to have a beautiful green lane that we share with Field Dalling, as it forms part of the boundary between that village and Bale.

today the grey sky made the autumn leaves radiate light upwards

it’s very pleasant not to have to worry about traffic with miss T off the lead, I let her off the lead a good deal now she’s older and has more or less stopped chasing creatures, or at least not very far, if she sees them.

the lower part is edged with bracken, which a friend told me is a sign of an ancient pathway, as it will have been established when bracken was growing freely across the landscape

almost the first plant to begin to relinquish its green, it turns a pale bronzy gold colour before its final rust.

this morning the northeasterly blowing drizzle across the fields made the lane felt welcoming and sheltering

leaves falling everywhere

winter wheat pale green in the field

the lace-like structure of the bracken fronds

the hedge twiggery’s verticals and criss-crossing palisade

the ash leaves piled across the path

hazels and field maple bright discs and stars

a painterly sprinkling at the edge of vision

gold and russet gleam

the stark hedge stems against the light

we stir up the leaves along the well-trodden path

in the gloom under the tall protective hazel and maple stems

the low light makes the exit to Marsh and Hard farms glow green beyond the crouching oak trees

hazel leaves are bright

the lane narrows down

and leaves blow across like large raindrops

although it will need cutting back soon I love the lane unkempt like this, it feels safe and warm, enclosing us against the wind.

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a firing and the completion of new work

Posted jane -->on 17th Oct 2016

I have had a few month’s break from firing, though I have slowly made a new breakthrough with my work, and now most of it has been through the process of glazing and firing

and I have had to get used to how it looks now rather than when I was making it. for this sort of work that is a big transition.

so I opened the kiln with the usual trepidation …

no accidental runs sticking pots fast to shelves. my first impression was a lack of drama

no bidori droplets, no glaze half peeled off, no thundercloud black glaring from underneath the glaze

I had put the oxides on with a very light touch apparently

and in the case of these big pieces, the slip had gone on thickly, no visible oxide watery marks

plus I had used fine-grained St Thomas white, and reduction St Thomas – where I didn’t, as in this little gourd shape, the clay sang through all the layers – this was pink grogged stoneware – like a red clay crank.

where I have combed the wet clay and put less slip on, the oxides show through and the chun glaze becomes transparent blue

I managed to balance the firing between overdoing and underdoing it quite nicely – this one would have developed elephant’s feet bidori if it had melted much more – it would have been bluer too.

I double-dipped it in the glaze and then added a little extra at the top of the grooves – I wanted this watery flowing feeling – Lunan Water 2

next time I will add some new to the slip – its crackle has completely gone.

Lunan 1 I double dipped sideways, so that the centre section has a thicker layer

and some almost bidori drips ….

from above you can see the little bit of oxide bleeding through the slip

to the headland 1 has a crack. this happened to two more pieces, but I didn’t glaze fire them – this one I didn’t notice it at all and it has just opened up a little.

I think I boosted up the bisque firing too quickly. I actually think it doesn’t matter too much on this piece – the drawing I did on it is very similar, and that has got lost under the slip.

another one of these, which came out absolutely fine, quite bluey on one side.

this was left glazed but unfired in April, so I popped it in, you can see how much thinner the slip was, you can see the oxide through it

I would have liked this one to have had more drama. I am going to work on the idea (the ploughed lands) in the next batch.

to the headland 2 has more going on than you see at first. again, thinner slip would have brought it out more

but on most of these pieces the thick flow of opaque pale blue across the white is very lovely, and exudes a calm feeling.

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geese and skies and paint

Posted jane -->on 9th Oct 2016

very slowly, this week I have got around to firing some of this new work. the wind was in the wrong direction all week – the kiln chimney duct comes out sideways from the shed’s gable end and the east wind blows straight down it, putting the flame out, or sending it underneath the kiln

so I packed the kiln but am only firing it today

as always, fingers crossed ….

I’m using the painterly chun glaze over slip and oxides again

and while the pots were out of the shed I’ve spent a couple of days painting, inspired by skies

full of geese

huge drama

and telegraph/electricity poles

first the charcoal drawing, which is the key

to the whole thing

firstly a very small painting to try things out

then a bigger one, 81 x 62 cm

which ended up like this last night; I wanted to introduce more colour than in the small one, so there’s cobalt blue, burnt sienna, and then alazarin crimson, ultramarine and burnt umber in various mixtures

up early this morning to light the kiln at 5.30 am, the clouds had parted like curtains and there were all the stars, and not a breath of wind

a lot of lovely sparkling light later

the kiln was going a bit slowly, but the painting cantered on, by lunch time I had done most of it, and broken my palette knife

the painting looked like this

the top and bottom right hand corners needing most attention

top right – I have a huge palette knife I used for mixing oil with pigment back when I did enormous oil paintings

bottom right – which was in fact interesting, quite different to work with –

the finished painting – and I found mark-making with it and the brush and the brush handle point worked well, I put paint on with the palette knife and them work into it with both ends of the brush

I started the geese very dark

and worked into them with this brownish grey

top left – keeping them fairly vague

the last thing I wanted was a sub-Peter Scott.

now I must get a couple of palette knives and some more plywood. I have a nice linen canvas to work on tomorrow though.

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back to Totleigh Barton

Posted jane -->on 4th Oct 2016

two weeks ago I was at the Arvon retreat, the old farmhouse at Totleigh Barton in Devon, for the excitingly named Poetry as a Controlled Explosion creative writing course with Jane Draycott and Jack Underwood

this was different from the Ann and Peter Sansom course, in which we wrote in eight exercises each morning and generated masses of material.

instead we looked at how to make our poems more explosive and then how to control them (to some extent) and the exercises were two or three a morning with more time to work the poems out.

I have at least six good ones, I think.

we were luckier with the weather than in May. early mornings were misty, and developed into days of sun and cloud

which allowed sitting outside to write and eat lunch by the end of the week.

I think I have more idea about how to push my poems in different directions

the Devon landscape is inspiring, but so were the people on the course.

there were a couple of young mentees of the Poetry Business, both at Oxbridge, and three other youngsters, and three published poets.

some spectacular writing was done

and some bonding

a lot of walking, along the banks of the Torridge

into Sheepwash, the nearest village

I think this is an addictive experience and I am very likely to visit Totleigh Barton again next year.

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changing weather

Posted jane -->on 4th Oct 2016

a bit of a lull in posts, I have been quite busy and then there was the Arvon week in Devon, which I really should write a post about, it was amazing, and somehow seems to have triggered a sea-change in my painting

a detail from a larger painting on plywood panel which I actually worked on in my pottery workshop (originally when it was corrugated iron it was my painting studio but the clay took over)

another detail – by the way the red is just my phone camera, really it’s an orangey rust – I worked on it in a much more relaxed way, over three days, partly because putting paint on with a palette knife, as some of it was, means it does take longer to dry, even in acrylic paint

and partly because there was no need to hurry, and there were a lot of other things going on at the same time.

the light is great in there, and my old studio easel has been propped up against a shelf until and used as a convenient hanger for years, so I turned it around, but kept it leaning rather than standing on its feet. painting before various things done

like adding the rooks, more sky paint and quite a bit of other more subtle stuff – the finished painting. it is 81 x 62 cm

the change was largely brought about by making charcoal drawings and NOT looking at the original photo. so yesterday, in the village hall I repeated this procedure.

early stage here

finished – only 40 x 40 cm, so when the palette knife comes into the mix and brush handle tip drawing, things can get quite quick, but very adrenalin fueled, and lots of colour mixing going on.

so then there was time to paint another ….

I have been quite fascinated by how the electricity poles that march across our fields interact with the landscape, and have taken a lot of photos of them recently

especially against evening skies

so this painting is part of a series

just 40cm wide, and 30 or so high. after this I was bushed, I have to admit. but there will be more!

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coastal

Posted jane -->on 1st Sep 2016

photos like these remind me of pots made with hands, all those finger pad marks. there is a lot of clay/mud to see at Morston when the tide is out.

other textures such as these swathes of marram grass give me the feeling that this landscape is almost animal-like.

we had an inspiring early morning walk last week.

paddling and getting mud between the toes

I love this boat – it’s a cockleshell of rough resin, cast from another boat I expect. belongs to Jonathan who used to harvest mussels down here. the beds have been covered with sand, so are not viable any more, terribly sad.

this is where the Stiffkey debouches into the tidal lagoon behind Blakeney point, Stiffkey or Morston Freshes.

more coiling, more focused now

this one is called To the Headland.

they are evolving into a series of landscape pieces

with some minimal scored things on this one. probably I will continue using the chun glaze over the oxide and slip, so the mark-making will be quite veiled.

knapped flints on Bale church – another form of inspiration –

and this sky the other evening, all the layers of light.

a new piece started yesterday. after a long soak in the bath I had a flash of realisation – went up to the shed in the dark in my pjs and did this fluting. the stars were wonderful – the Milky way above …..

another trip to Morston in between, while clay stiffened up

Tilda and the bush turning into one strange marsh creature

I counted 27 mute swans sailing out as the tide withdrew the water

we enjoyed a coffee at the National Trust cafe. I’m very sad that they don’t sell Ronaldo ice cream any more.

back to work, but needs a better resolution than this … too clam-shell …

I am trying to channel the sand dunes and the river at Lunan Bay near Arbroath in Scotland

the other side

from above

now to dry. I’ve started another, but this one is Lunan Water.

and I am adding a few more paddling at Morston clips for those of you who feel deprived of this very important resource.

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august

Posted jane -->on 26th Aug 2016

there’s something special about august, it’s late summer with a tinge of regret, but at the same time it’s school holidays and beaches and sand-between-the-toes and silly season.

the verges are full of seed heads and dry flowers that have finished, or the grass and plants are cut down and drying.

the oak trees in the hedges are dark green, some full of pale acorns

mornings are darker, misty and cool

some evenings there is a harvest moon before the sun has gone down

or there are wonderful displays of cloud

our short evening walks always a pleasure

I went on a bat and moth watching evening at Natural Surroundings on the Bayfield estate

saw and heard wonders – five kinds of bat, including the one we heard but couldn’t see, Daubenton’s bat, which skims the lake there. more different kinds of moths, trapped the previous night, young harvest mice in a big aquarium ready to release, and slow worms, a whole shiny taupe wriggling mass of youngsters and one adult – which we released in the dark under a sheet of corrugated iron.

morning skies are also a delight

though some mornings we are up too late and the sun gets up a bit too fast and hot for us

and tree shade is always welcome

Cakes lane has more shade, but where the sun comes in it’s trapped and there’s no wind.

mostly it is quite overgrown and the lower part a green tunnel

flowering thistles

too beautiful to cut

Miss T has caught so many sweethearts in her coat that she’s looking exceptionally well groomed at the moment

in the garden the chicory has outgrown the salad bed

and ripe damsons fall

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and it’s back to the clay again

Posted jane -->on 25th Aug 2016

it’s been quite hard to switch back to clay from my painting binge. in between I went to Art in Clay at Hatfield, which was good for making me think about what I want to do.

so I started coiling again, perhaps a little aimlessly

trying this beautiful butter pat maker for texture. it’s not really the right tool for clay but it’s a lovely thing in itself.

in the end it grew a double base and I got very hands on with some wet clay

from making that one I got some ideas. the weather being so hot, the clay stiffened up quickly and this piece grew rapidly

I’m using white St Thomas stoneware clay, it is lovely to work with and you can get a smooth finish.

but again I decided I didn’t want smooth

these are closed forms, so after a bit of time drying, during which it’s easier to handle them because of air pressure inside, I make a hole underneath and the extra air whooshes out

this one is more problematic, because it insists on looking like first a truncated torso

and then like a shape with breasts

I’m trying to see it as two joined forms.

now joined by the stem drawn around them.

back to simpler things

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barley fields and more

Posted jane -->on 12th Aug 2016

I have just put up the fruits of my almost four weeks of painting in the village hall on the walls of said hall, to share them with the users of the hall, and anyone else who wants to see them. so tonight we have our monthly fish and chips night and it’s a bit like a private view, and I’m feeling rather nervous!

things have moved on since my last blog, I’ve mostly gone forward with the same sort of idea as the painting of the barleyfield and the blue horizon trees, or at least I have tried to, and made my painting as loose as I can, closing in on small portions of some of the other paintings,

(this is from one I painted back in late winter)

or working more loosely from photos. on each one I am learning more, how much I need to simplify, but draw convincingly with the brush

letting the brush strokes themselves tell the story

trying canvas again after fifteen or so years, this one had its own special difficulties

but this little tree worked

this is a coarser canvas which is quite problematic to work on if you want loose brush strokes to work. I think this is too much dark too early

but I arrived at this, eventually and I’m pleased with its overall simplicity

this one started simple

ended up a little overdone

going for more simple

after painting this one, they both have their good points, I think …

a bit different, from a very dark photo which allowed me to invent more …. but the red came from the original image, I kept it because it’s so strong.

then I revisited the barley field with the blue trees, pulled out this oak from the soft and smoky background, it’s on a linen canvas, which is SO much nicer to paint on, an old painting, I just restretched it with the back uppermost.

it’s great to see them displayed together, with a couple of older pieces

framing makes them look very much more grown up

I haven’t got as far as framing any more (huge expense)

the canvases at least don’t absolutely need it like the ply panel ones

but at least the white paper background helps a bit.

fourteen altogether. so now, what about all that clay, and coil pot work waiting to be done?

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