nearly the end of August! and more adventures… a fantastic weekend in the Western Fjords – drama at every turn with mountains and fjords in tortuous configurations…
but first you must have a waffle…
then evening walks with the drama of mountain shadows
or sunsets
or references to Magritte.
The horizon always has a line of some intensity…
and the icecap is clearly visible. Greens are reflected in still waters…
and I feel provided with enough inspiration for some time to come!
On return to the studio, some work begins to happen, but as it is nearly the end of the 3 months, I feel that I don’t want to begin any large-scale new works. What follows here is the result of the last few weeks of my last month:
I have done a series of self-portraits on me wearing various vegetation and other random stuff, inspired by a series of photos on the internet of “old people” wearing vegetation… this is lupin girl.
and this is “elderly scots woman wearing a beach on her head”
I filled my sketch book with various representations of the Western Fjord mountain landscapes – I haven’t tried to make them abstract – although I would love to be able to delve into that challenge without being terrified of what marks I might make.
This is a first attempt – making marks by printing from various bits of rusted metal, and arranging in different configurations. I realised that the orange surveyor’s tape I have brought with me actually is a really interesting contrast to these printed marks, so I have tried to use more of it.
I printed onto fine Japanese papers and arranged them with a projected image and took photographs of the results. I love this kind of work , and will try to develop more of this on my return. But it does require a suitable dark space to play in!
I was inspired by the abstract work of fellow artist John Teschendorf, who was generous with his telling of his own artistic development in Australia.
I tried book shapes with some of the prints…
and also photographed the abstract patterns of found stuff from the local dump – flattened and mounted on the wall.
There has been opportunity to take work outside to experiment. I probably should have done more of this…
I used up the last of my Japanese print paper to try this small series of geometric works, inspired by the shoes of detritus found on the beach. In the meantime, the landscape, which is by now strangely familiar, continues to amaze every day and evening with different drama:
Now I have to begin to plan my final exhibition for the end of this residency – I have chosen to call it The Icelandic Diaries, and I have been offered 2 large rooms in the local cafe for 3 days this coming weekend. I will post more later!