Father Time, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 x 100 cm Little things make a big difference but those little things can be time consuming. I’ve been slowly drilling screws into the brick work in my work-in-progress gallery space to make a flexible easy hanging system. It’s a hard dusty job but worth it! I’m still needing…
Category: Seascapes
The Walls Have Ears!
The walls might not have ears but they do have eyes, that is windows… I think of my small seascapes as windows to the sea. Painting, I hear the sea in my mind’s ear and see it in my imagination. I love the way a small canvas size can suggest a vast oceanic space. These…
Tao Te Ching – Five
Heaven and earth are ruthless; They see ten thousand things as dummies. The wise are ruthless; They see people as dummies. The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows. The shape changes but not the form; The more it moves, the more it yields. More words count less. Hold fast to the centre….
Meeting of the Sky Gods
Last week clumsy me damaged a painting. It upset me but in the big scheme of things seemed trivial. Last night I spent half the night dreaming that I should repair it and to repair it by adding horses in the clouds. As I painted the three horses and restored the painting it seemed a…
Framed for £100!
Do you want to collect art, but don’t know where to start? Do you want to give someone a really amazing present for Xmas, a wedding or special birthday? Do you already collect art and want to add to your collection but are running out of wall space? Here is a solution –…
Art, Bamboo Glasses and a Foul Mouthed Pub Landlady
Last night at the exhibition opening of Seascapes at the Old Chain Pier in Edinburgh, stories were told about the eccentric landlady who presided there in the 50’s and 60’s. Her family had owned the pub since the turn of the century. My friends mum and dad, revealing how they went on their second…
‘My Walls are Too Small!’
‘My walls are too small for a big painting!’ It’s a comment I hear a lot and it always makes me laugh. I look at the person and think, ‘What a load of rubbish, you don’t live in a hobbit hut!’ So here is my low down on why ‘my walls are too…
Wonderful World
Imagine an art gallery in an industrial unit? The sort of place you might go to have your car MOT’d! This is Resonate Arts House in Alloa and I love the space! An artists dream in fact – big wall spaces, well lit, run by art historian Clark, whose passion and knowledge of the visual…
Punctuation and Painting
I am lucky to have a friend who is punctuation and spelling goddess. Or as she would describe herself, a pedant. My ability at both p. and s. is OK but I always seem to make silly mistakes: often the same one. Habitual grammar gaffes. Dah! Looking through a piece of writing and finding…
Looking Through Your Eyes
The process of painting is fundamentally abstract – colour brushed onto surface. So why are artists driven to abstraction? What is the motivation? And does a painting gather energy – become real, gain a life force, by being seen by you? Does a painting actually exist if no-one looks at it? I have a…
Solo
I have just been offered another solo show. It will be my fourth this year and I have said yes. Solo – alone! Yup, that is true! Me, my paints and my animals. But somehow when I am working I am not alone. Painting definitely bridges the gap between here and there and keeps me…
Hope at Sea
How to do a Truly Terrible Painting and Have a Totally Terrific Time …
To do a good painting you have to be prepared to do a really, really shit one. So here is how to do a truly terrible painting in oil paint and have a totally terrific time Put on some rubber gloves, yup a bit kinky this ‘art thing’ darling, and if your lungs are…
Waterfall
Water falls From heaven to earth Nourishing Waterfall Symbol of transformation Release of energy Power to harness Infinite possibility Fluid yet immutable Ancient yet brand new Sound of water Breathing Flowing life force, subtle energies within Ever changing yet permanent Each drop gathering force Making the whole Illusionary manifestation Paradoxical…
The Field of Intention – What is it?
Maisie and Me in the Field! What is The Field of Intention, other than the name of my next painting exhibition and workshop that I will be giving at The Findhorn Foundation’s Moray Art Centre later this year. The Field of Intention is my name for the magical creative IT! It is not…
Field of Intention
All winter Crazy Maisie Cockerpoo and I have walked around the field behind my house. I walked, she ran and ran and tirelessly chased her ball. ‘Be more Maisie!’ My new motto since she came into my life! All winter I have had the thought that I could do an entire exhibition based…
Travelling the Seven Seas for £100
Directions, Oil on Canvas, 21 x 26 cm, framed. Below are some oil paintings that I love that are available for £100 each! I don’t know about you, but I love to travel and so do my paintings …. they are adventurous creatures! Here is my choice of little gems who want…
Collecting Treasures
I have been painting a series of small paintings Small treasures … I love my small paintings. Small paintings are a place where an artist develops and works out ideas … A chance to really experiment and play … Creating a depth of field in a limited space … A place for the imagination…
Diary of an Exhibition – My Motivation and Intention
‘Stress Puppy’ by Kirsten Harris I chose to paint seascapes for my upcoming exhibition partly because I have sold every seascape I have ever made and I hope to increase my chance of success! The reason I desire to sell well is to fund my next project, which is likely to take many…
Finding my ‘Fuck It’ by painting the sea
Last October when I committed to painting a seascape exhibition I was in two minds as to whether it was a terrible idea adding so much potential stress on top of the grief of losing dad to cancer in June. Anyone who met my dad knows he was a force of nature much like the…
Diary of an Exhibition – Love Guides Me Forward and Up!
I took this photograph driving home over the Lang Wang from Edinburgh on Saturday, April !st. April Fools Day! Driving towards this angelic cloud was so amazing I had to stop … a watery formation, an energy shifting… A moment to listen for the message from The Fool! It is time for…
Diary of an Exhibition – Spring
‘Rainbow Wave’ Oil on Canvas, 40 x 50 cm Spring is Spinging – Hooray! The warmth of the sun is reaching Scotland … Welcome welcome golden yellow rays! The palette changes immediately … Warmer, brighter, the days have colour again. The change of light heralded by a rainbow being caught…
How to Create Movement in Paintings
I often get asked – How do I create the feel of movement in my paintings? So I thought I would attempt to write a ‘HOW TO’ blog! How to create movement in a painting – Keep your body and your eyes moving at all times. A key is not tightening your own…
Diary of an Exhibition – I’m in Two Minds!
How come some days I paint well, easily, in the flow… some days I surprise myself and paintings show up, arrive into life and other days painting is clunky, the paint goes muddy, the image unformed, lack lustre? I have been thinking about it as I am running out of time to paint this…
Diary of an Exhibition – Painting, Stress and Death
Somehow I have to find a way through the grinding pressure I am feeling today and get myself out into the cold and paint … I don’t have – to I want to … I have committed to paint an exhibition by the end of April … It is a clear intention! I…
Diary of an Exhibition – Despite Myself I Paint the Sea
Painting the sea … It all comes back to flow This watery world we live in Surrounded by water … in the air, the ground, our bodies … Little Britain, our island We are destroying our clean waters, our clean seas We are destroying our bodies Beguiling sea – you are destructive and dangerous…
Diary of an Exhibition – Love on the Beach!
Love on the beach … What does that say to you? Feeling high from the salt air and the great vibe Eating fish and chips and ice-cream Romantic images hand in hand Your dog or kids going mental with joy or Sand in your smalls? A few years ago it was sand all over…
Diary of an Exhibition – Paint Over
‘Influence’ Oil on Canvas 80 x 100 cms Yesterday I decided to look at old unresolved canvases and see if I could do a paint over. This canvas has two under paintings – hidden ghosts. First incarnation was a kind of fantasy landscape done about 3 years ago, with hare filled…
Diary of an Exhibition – Releasing Art Flow
Releasing art flow Muscles as water I paint the sea and become the ocean Body 70 percent water Frozen body freeing to a flowing tidal wave of art The heart my art Muscles releasing – contracting to release again Melting Finally bouncing like the brush on the stretched canvas Spring is springing…
Diary of an Exhibition – Everyone Else is Taken
‘Sometimes there are Rainbows’ Oil on Canvas 40 x 50 cms ‘Be yourself everyone else is taken.’ Oscar Wilde This is great advise for any artist and I found myself saying words to that effect out loud in the studio a couple of days ago. ‘This is MY painting’ I exclaimed! The…
Diary of an Exhibition – Not Good Enough for What?
‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.’ Pablo Picasso I have been struggling with that ‘not good enough’ habit! A habit that I am convinced for many of us started at school when we were told, as some kind of weird encouragement, that our…
Diary of an Exhibition – Stealing Clouds
‘Good artist copy, great artists steal!’ Pablo Picasso I want to steal the clouds, capture them, own them, trap them on canvas … I am obsessed by clouds. My friend it turns out is jealous … ‘I wish the the clouds did it for me like they do it for you. I don’t…
Diary of an Exhibition – Abandoned
‘Art is never finished only ever abandoned’ Leonardo da Vinci Last week I revisited abandoned paintings … Paintings that hadn’t been resolved but had something going for them that was worth a relook. A week of attempting to reconnect and find resolution with abandoned ideas. Sometimes we all need time to…
Diary of an Exhibition – The Joy of Stuff and Clutter
Diary of an Exhibition – The Joy of Stuff and Clutter The last couple of days I have been thinking I want to write something about the joy of clutter and stuff, in response to the many articles around that are advocating clearing out and living in empty spaces as some kind of new…
Diary of an Exhibition – A Line in the Sand
A day at the the beach Walking the spine Drawing a line in the sand Sea air Waves Shifts in energy patterns I have been looking at the wave patterns on the beach seeing bodies … body consciousness … body maps on the beach … I am lying in semi-supine a lot…
Diary of an Exhibition – When you are Dead…
When you are an artist people regularly joke ‘You will be rich when you are dead’ or ‘I have to wait until you die, then my painting will be worth a fortune!’ Is there any other job where folk anticipate your death for monetary gain, even if it is in a jocular fashion. I guess…
Diary of an Exhibition – Ego Gets In The Way
I have had the intention of writing a follow up to my free creativity e-course experiment – Any Body Can Paint, whilst working towards my exhibition. It has been bubbling under the surface. On Monday i decided to get up early, 5am, and wait for daylight 8am, to go into the studio to be…
Diary of an Exhibition – Boundaries
The incident of the mask has made me think about boundaries I thought I had a strong boundary in place by wearing a mask Yet I still got hurt… How often do I think my boundaries are strong when they are not? How often do I think I am doing the right thing…
Diary of an Exhibition – Flow is a Wavy Line
Diary of an Exhibition – Flow is a Wavy Line I walked on the beach yesterday thinking about painting seascapes and really hoping the sea air would clear my lungs I was in a great flow of painting these last two weeks, then I messed up my lungs by having the wrong filter in…
Diary of an Exhibition – Vapours, The Incident of the Mask!
Diary of an Exhibition – Vapours, The Incident of the Mask GOOD NEWS! I am more an idiot than a lunatic! Turns out that the mask I have been wearing had a dust filter and not a vapour filter in it! Who knew? Not me! But my brilliant 80 year old retired…
Diary of an Exhibition – Luna Sea
Diary of an Exhibition – Luna Sea A grumpy two days of thinking oils and me are OVER! Not because I am not totally in love with oils, but because my lungs don’t like them anymore This morning I decided to go into the studio and pack my oil paints away for now…
Diary of an Exhibition – Lunatic
Diary of an Exhibition – Lunatic I have been busy – painting like a crazy loon Well it is a super lune Super moon This painting has been hanging around my studio all summer – unfinished, unsure how I was going to move forward with it… Today I started working on a…
Diary of an Exhibition – Lost Moments in Paint
Diary of an Exhibition – Lost Moments in Paint As soon as you start a painting it becomes an attempt to find resolution to a problem An ending A visual solution An idea unformed trying to find form Each start is a commitment to the relationship You are undertaking a journey There is no…
Diary of an Exhibition – Triptych
40 x 40 cms 40 x 40 cms 40 x 40 cms ‘Hope at Sea’ by Kirsten Harris Triptych 120 x 40 cms Oil on Canvas I woke up this morning brooding on my triptych and whether I could resolve the problem of bridging…
Diary of an Exhibition – Triptych or Not?
I have been working on a triptych The triptych started colourfully but the snowy light of the day seemed to influence the paint robbing the colour to a more subtle scheme A triptych – 3 individual paintings becoming one They have to work alone and together I started to think of the painting in…
Diary of an Exhibition – Mask
Diary of an Exhibition – Mask I allow myself to fail…. it’s a good strategy for success with oil paint, oil paint allows change I am wearing a mask in the studio thinking about choices Wear the mask and paint, or chose another medium? I love to paint in oils So today I chose…
Diary of an Exhibition – Chasing Light
Diary of an Exhibition – Chasing Light – Day 2 I am chasing light Obsessed with clouds Tormented by the sky I visited the bridge again today The tide was out Driving towards him – a weather front Torrential rain for the last few miles But I could see clear sky in…
Diary of an Exhibition – The Bridge in the Sea
Diary of an Exhibition – Day 1 The Bridge in the Sea A bridge on a beach crosses a stream When the tide comes in the stream is immersed by the sea The bridge is stranded in the middle of the ocean No one can cross to him He is useless… a bridge from…