October 2017 - New Work from Elizabeth

Elizabeth never fails us!  She's been beavering away, and has produced the following pieces of work, saying : "It is some time since I have sent you anything mainly because I didn’t think there is anything worth sending !   However, I think it is about time I sent something and show you what I have been trying to work on.    The first work is working on things from photographs and I am not sure about them.  Also a few of the better sketches."     

Elizabeth 1 - 5 min sketch

Elizabeth 2 - boats

Elizabeth 3 - boats 2



Elizabeth 4 - Lonely Road, after a painting by
John Atkinson Grimshaw

Elizabeth 5 - Mara

Elizabeth 6 - Shells with book of Paul Nash

Elizabeth 7 - Summer Flowers

You are modest, as ever, Elizabeth!
The first piece, the 5 min sketch, is a little difficult to see.  I have tried boosting it, but that's as far as it will go.  However, what I can see of it, and really like, is the leaning gesture, and the HANDS.  Lovely big hands taking the weight in a most believable way.  The only thing I think you've been too conscious of, and looks a little less convincing than the rest of the drawing, is the head.

Now, these two boat pictures I am really happy about!  You are using your paint as an extension of your looking and drawing, and that's absolutely what you need to do, as we have said a few times before!  They each make a different statement, and they are both unarguably 'Elizabeth' in style - good!  I love the simplicity of your no. 2, where you've used just line, giving the whole thing an ethereal feel, and then no. 3 has that wonderful interplay of marks and colours.  They are both very nice statements - more please!
Now, your no. 4 is completely different in feel and execution - it is more of a conventional 'watercolour' in its look.  However, that is right and proper for the subject, because you wanted it to look soft and moody, and a bit melancholy.  You've used the colours in a lovely wet, fluid way, and that all adds up to a very evocative statement.  Most importantly though, even though it has a more conventional style in terms of the paint application, the way that you've represented the trees and the more distant landscape has still been done beautifully with marks, and dots and dashes - so very much 'you' still.  It's very nice.  Just take a little care with the figure.  Even if you're just representing the essence of a figure, the gesture still needs to work.  Think of some of Turner's little squiggles in the distance in a painting, you could still believe it as a crouching figure, or whatever.

Your portrait of Mara works beautifully - nothing much I can add to that.  It's useful to compare it to your no.6  'Shells and Paul Nash' though.  I like the simple colours, but I'm not convinced by the form of the shells.  The central conch-like shell is a good example - it doesn't really have much fullness, and it's not so easy to read the opening into its interior.  It's difficult, I appreciate, because a lot of shells are rather amorphous shapes, but all the more reason you need to define their form.
Your no.7 'Summer Flowers' is different again.  It's rather like a glorious fabric design!  It's got just enough detail in it.  Any more, and the whole thing could have become very overworked.  I do like the sense of light coming from behind.

No. 7 - mirrored!

Cheekily, I have played with it to see how it could be a mirrored design!  What do you think (probably hate it)?

The wonderful thing, though, is that you are doing so much experimenting, and trying different way to represent your ideas.

Thank you for sharing it all with us, Elizabeth.