Michael

There are times in my life when I feel swamped by darkness for whatever reason – it may be triggered by current circumstances or it could be a ‘dark night of the soul’ that hopefully will pass. Thomas Moore wrote, (in his book with that title) that if you find yourself in the dark belly of the whale, all you can do is to be there and be carried by it. The other thing that he suggested was that you might find your own way of expressing it – whether it be through music, poetry or art, etc. Here are a few ‘dark stirrings’ from the belly of the whale….

‘Be Still’ is my second piece following our trip to Iceland. Often the most profound landscapes are the quiet ones – those you have to be still in order to fully ‘receive’. The title is taken from the words ‘Be still and know that I am God’ of course and looking at this beautiful and subtle landscape, I had the sense that God was in his heaven and all was right with the world. Since returning to the ‘real world’ after our trip, much has happened to challenge this but I will always have the painting and the memory to remind me.

We have recently returned from a short break in Iceland where we were lucky enough to experience the Northern Lights. I have created my first pastel interpretation of them on black card and really enjoyed the ephemeral nature of the subject. Most of the pastel was applied to my fingers first and then to the surface which was a very subtle technique – echoing the way that the lights gradually emerged from a hint through to a dancing, intense display.

I’ve been working on a new series of oil paintings over the last few weeks focusing on Northern Skies. I’m really enjoying the subject and the buttery blending qualities of the medium. Here are a few examples

Following my art & soul workshop with the Northumbria Men’s Group on Sunday, I was reflecting on the importance of ‘soulwork’ in whatever we do. In my own work, I sometimes try and drop down into a deeper place before starting a piece of work, perhaps by listening to what’s going on inside of me or just becoming still for a few moments or maybe listening to some music. Then I just try and let the image or images flow through me onto paper or canvas. Here are some of a recent collection of such ‘soulscapes’ and you can view more by clicking the ‘innerscapes’ tab at the top or by scrolling down your dropdown menu.

I ran a small group activity this weekend with the Northumbria Men’s Group  about letting soul express itself through pastel painting. It was about letting go, keeping an open mind, enjoying the process and choosing colours,  tones, gestures, marks and shapes that express stirrings of the soul in some way.  Always difficult to describe these things in words so I worked on a fairly spontaneous piece to introduce the idea and here it is…

We recently spent a week up in Ardgour, Scotland where the scenery was wonderfully dramatic. Here’s the first of what I hope will be a powerful series of paintings. This one was painted with soft pastels.

I have recently returned to watercolour wet into wet work and have really enjoyed moving between landscape inspired moodscapes and purely abstract pieces. There’s a great freedom in mixing a range of colours and tones, wetting your paper and launching in with no clear idea of how the painting is going to look. Here are some of them…

We had a great time opening up our home in sync with the Rossendale Art Trail this weekend, met some of our neighbours, fellow artists exhibiting at the church opposite and managed to sell a decent amount of work. Here’s a piece that was well liked at the exhibition:

I visited Hebden Bridge open studios last weekend and really enjoyed the ‘artistic vibe’ that was going on there. At the end of the day, I came across an artist called Anna Gibson whose work was just the kind of work that I am striving towards – on the line between landscape and abstraction and very evocative. So I was inspired to come back to the studio and continue working towards this goal. Only one or two of the images that I produced were anywhere close to that line but the others had value in their own right I think. Sometimes I have to allow myself to go through a transition from the realistic painter that I have been previously, to the semi-abstract painter that I hope to be. Here are the small pieces which are mostly oil paintings with a couple of acrylics as well.