Rowley Gallery Blog
Andrew Walton kicked it off: Dear Chris, I thought you might like this palette. I came across it in my shed. I had half cleaned it some time ago and left it as it looked so nice. I have always liked the working stuff which artists use. Turner’s paint box etc. I might think of a blog posting on this, what do you think? Each of your Rowley artists could send in a photo of their paint boxes and palettes! Continue reading “Palettes”
Message: I have a painting which I was in the middle of re-framing, and noticed it had the artist’s name `Annabel Keatley` on the back. Would it be possible to let me know the title of this piece of work, and when she did it. I can email a photo of it. Kind regards. Continue reading “Sketches In Lhasa”
In March I participated in an annual papermaking swap with 40 papermakers from different countries. The package of papers which I received in the post from the organiser Elena Siff, of Etsy Papermakers Guild, introduced me to the diverse and creative papers of 40 paper artists like myself, each experimenting in their worlds of paper, plant fibres, colour and pulp. The variety and quality of the papers was wonderful and the experience was very inspiring. Continue reading “Making Paper All Over The World”
Hojas de Papel / Falling Leaves / Installation / Handmade Paper Piece. I wasn’t sure about the title so I’ve just put it all. As a papermaker I often look at the leaves and flowers of a plant and wonder how they will react in the papermaking process in terms of texture, colour and fibres. Continue reading “Falling Leaves”
The Hedge Warbler or Dunnock
Printed from the boxwood block engraved by Thomas Bewick for his
History of British Birds, 1797
Continue reading “Bewick’s Nature Print”
Annabel Keatley is exhibiting her paintings, alongside work by Emma Plunkett, Lesley O’Brien and Silvina Daniela Rodriguez, at Biblioteca Municipal Salobreña from December 3rd. More details here.
These are the first etchings I have done since printmaking at Edinburgh College of Art in 1984-88 where I did a lot of mixed media using silkscreen printing with etching. They are solar plate intaglio and relief etchings. It’s a technique which allows you to transfer a black ink drawing made on acetate onto a plate, using the sun to etch the plate, by exposing it to the sun for as little as 3-4 minutes, rather than using toxic chemicals. These are my first attempts. Continue reading “Printmaking In Granada”
Getting into habits regarding working methods can be really liberating. You only have to think of Morandi and the way his limited subject matter and studio discipline created ultimate freedom for him. I have been used to making my landscapes from thumbnail sketches done in the landscape and then making my paintings in the “tranquility of the studio”, a well tried and tested almost Victorian attitude. Like Bonnard and others I find painting in front of the landscape impossible, there is simply too much information to process, and like lots of artists I will see detail too early and the resulting painting won’t work. Continue reading “En Plein Air”
Whilst I was writing my last post, Waiting For Inspiration, I started to realise how much I was longing to paint again, after a long eight month break. So as soon as it was finished I went to the local market and ordered some beeswax. I started painting in my studio again. I began without any images in my head, I just knew that I wanted lots of texture, hot colours and a feeling of spontaneity and freshness in the finished work. I used the landscape all around me to express this, but it wasn’t intentional, it wasn’t my starting point. Continue reading “The Light Of The South”
When I read what Robert Newton said in his post My Work about how he can get ecstatic with excitement when his particular method of painting works, it made me think about that feeling when a painting is all of a sudden finished, as if by magic, even though you’ve maybe spent weeks and weeks or months even, working on it. Continue reading “Waiting For Inspiration”