Early Morning North Beach Iona.

Early Morning North Beach Iona

I have mentioned often before that I was fortunate enough to spend a year of my life living and working on the building of Iona Abbey on the beautiful little Island of Iona. During this time I spent many hours walking the island on my own in the early hours of the morning or late evenings. During the winter months there were only about six or so of us lived in the Abbey, the summer brought a great many visitors who would come and stay for a few days or a week.

I got to know the island very well. I can close my eyes and fill my head with the many pictures of the little coves and beaches.

This painting is one of the larger of the paintings I do. It was painted from memory but I have no doubt at all that it is fairly accurate. I painted just a two weeks ago or so and as yet it has stirred little interest. I suppose it is one of those paintings that will mean more to me than to others. As I was saying in my other blog, "It all depends on how you see it."

This blog is linked to my other: It All Depends On How We See It.

Lead Kindly Light

Lead Kindly Light

I painted yesterday. It started out to look like another day when I would end up with nothing but a fuller bin. It turned out to be instead a day with a happy accident. I had started to paint something else but I was not at all happy with it. My concentration level would be slipping because of this and so the mistake occurred. I lifted the wrong colour. At the speed I paint there is never a coming back from that. But I did like what had happened on the canvas.

I made a coffee and stood looking at the happy accident. As those who follow my blogs know I have been walking the coastal path near where I stay. I intend to do it all, and the way I am doing it in sections walking out and back, when I have finished I will have seen it both ways. It is 150km so I will be having a few walks.

As I looked I saw different aspects of the walks I have been having. I put them together to come up with this painting. It is a painting of nowhere and lots of places. One of the little fishing villages, look at it from a distance. The lighthouse I saw the other day.

One or two people have seen it. One of the lads I was talking with yesterday thought I must have been in a gloomy mood when I used these colours. My wife felt the same, asking me why I chose to use such a dark palette.

They were both wrong. I did not choose the palette the happy accident did. I felt far from gloomy I felt peaceful and calm.

Why the title I have given it? I was a parish minister for 20 years and I loved nothing more than a good sing. Sunday after Sunday I was able to slip into the service a hymn that I liked to sing, and then I got the pleasure of blasting it out in full voice.

As most of you know I cannot sing anymore and yet after all those years, I still find myself humming some of those tunes as I paint. Often the song I am humming without knowing why gives me the title for the painting.

I having been discussing with Ruby the importance of the titles of paintings. I think they point people in the direction you would like them to be thinking as they look at your work. They should though, also allow the person to put their own interpretation to the work and fill in the gaps for themselves.

So here it is, Lead Kindly Light. For those who know the next line I think this painting just about fits the bill.



This blog is linked to my other. I Am Alive and it is a Good Day

High and Dry

This painting has been kicking about my paint space for sometime. I have a real interest in how nature can take something discarded by man and in a short time begin to recapture it for itself. Along the coast are a number of discarded rowing boats and wrecks of boats that have washed ashore after being wrecked at sea. At first they look like a terrible eyesore, but soon the seeds and the grasses move in and begin to make it part of the scene. The wood begins to rot and in its turn becomes a haven for bugs and mites. So it goes on the discards become a mini environment and in some cases a thing of beauty.

This painting was done from a remembered experience of such a scene. It haunts me. It is another that I have thought of trying to do something with. Is it too desolate? Should I add some yachts in the distance or a far shore? Should I have more growth within it, as I am sure there will be this summer.

I have had a number of comments made to me about this painting mostly along the lines, "I like it very much but it is a bit too sad to hang on my wall."

The title made me use it on my other blog this morning it seem to fit with the theme. On reflection I painted this at the time I was painting a number of seascapes. Maybe this was one too far. Or to keep with the theme of my blog maybe I had drawn from the well of seascapes too often and should have moved on.

It was painted from memory using acrylic on canvas.  Would be grateful for constructive suggestions.

Since I posted earlier I have been tweaking something I never ever should do but you can now see both together for better or worse.

This artwork was used in my blog The Dry Well it can be seen at :- The Dry Well