A visiting friend yesterday said – ‘I see your horse trees in the fields here!’ What lovely words to hear, as though horse trees have become a thing! At art school in the 80’s, I made a large, 3d, interactive canvas (you could put your head inside it through several holes and see more paintings)…
Category: Landscapes
Downhill All the Way
Downhill all the way! Is that a positive or a negative expression? If you’ve just climbed a mountain it’s positive, right? It’s exhilarating and easier to go downhill after the slog up. Yet, we think of ageing and the passing of time as ‘downhill all the way’, in a negative way. Ageing, honouring the passage…
Screwing Up
This does not become this This exists, then this One state This moment A flickering fire Forming, reforming The flame dies Embers Earthed by the rain Three stages of a painting getting worse, coinciding with my lungs not being happy with painting in oils again. Oil painting a guilty pleasure. Time to stop. Unfinished. A…
Angry Trees
‘And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.’ John Muir A friend said she thought that this series of paintings looked like angry trees. I absolutely love the description! These are the beech trees I wrote about a few days ago, the ones that are now sitting with their…
Epiphany
I had a bit of an epiphany yesterday – oil on wood panel rather than canvas. I’ve never used this substrate before with oil paint and loved, loved, loved it! These studies of the beech trees and Scot’s pines that I see every day are going to take weeks to dry as the paint is…
Fragments
Crow Fragments, Ink on Paper, 21 x 29 cm In my last post I wrote that I was feeling a bit wobbly, I didn’t realise I was coming down with tonsillitis. The body follows the stresses we feel. Too much stress is too much. Fevered, I’ve been seeing the most fantastical images appear in my…
Oil Paint versus Acrylic
Mother Africa, The Low Hanging Fruit are Easiest to Pick – Oil on Canvas, 150 x 100 cm Oil paint is honest! It’s substantial holding it’s rich, beautiful, natural colours but needs space and time available to dry, whilst releasing its toxic fumes. Acrylic is a dishonest bugger! It dries thinner than you’ve applied it,…
Work in Progress
Colour, spontaneity, control… Horse angels, wings, feathers, lightness, movement, riding, spirit… Water, rain, tears, springs, spirals, vortexes, flow, source… Moon shapes – intuition, psyche, time, the unseen… Spiders webs – connections, detail, delicacy… Dandelion clocks – seeds, wishes, magic… Circles – life on earth… A visual language in development…. These two drawings, Well Water and…
On Yer Byke!
This series of 11 paintings is about man’s relationship with bees – extinction and survival. I hope the imagery speaks for itself. I rescued two wasp bykes from my shed and these paintings are inspired by the stunning delicacy and beauty of the wasp nests although the paintings became more about bees than wasps. I…
Advent Calendar – 15th December – Baby Forests
Some paintings, like trees, take a long time to grow. ‘Cows at the Horse Trees’ is a learning curve painting and probably not done but has given me an idea… Baby forests! Baby forests are like the woodlands planted to commemorate a persons life but even more positive! Let’s plant trees to celebrate new beginnings….
Advent Calendar – 7th December – The Merlin Tree
Merlin, the sovereign’s magician, not so much one person but a wisdom tradition, a lineage from the heart of the ancient forests of Britain. Merlin is an important mythical figure, a myth being an idea in which man tries to make sense of the world. He embraces many archetypes – shaman, healer, mystic, animal communicator,…
Romance of the Falls – A Weekend with Turner – part 2
I ended the last blog wondering where Mr Turner was leading with forty painted postcards inspired by him. But I guess if anything it makes me more determined to think about what legacy I can leave. I am no Turner! The answer always seems to be to plant more trees. To let that be my…
Romance of the Falls – A Weekend with Turner
Joseph Maillard William Turner is described as the father of modern art. Every four years the Royal Scottish Academy of Art display a selection of Turner watercolours for about a month in a dimly lit room. Amongst the collection is a watercolour of The Falls of Clyde. I decided to approach the Academy to have…
The Last Tree On Earth
The Last Tree on Earth One dawn this spring I was watching the bronzy morning light on the tree outside my window, half asleep, drifting. I ‘saw’ an image of the last human in the world lying in the tree reaching for the last apple. It was a powerful semi-lucid moment. I decided to paint…
Tao Te Ching – Twenty One
The greatest Virtue is to follow Tao and Tao alone. The Tao is elusive and intangible. Oh, it is intangible and elusive, and yet within is image. Oh, it is elusive and intangible, and yet within is form. Oh it is dim and dark, and yet within is essence. The essence is very real, and…
Tao Te Ching – Nineteen
Give up sainthood, renounce wisdom, And it will be a hundred times better for everyone. Give up kindness, renounce morality, And men will rediscover filial piety and love. Give up ingenuity, renounce profit, And bandits and thieves will disappear. These three are outward forms alone: they are not sufficeint in themselves. It is more important…
Tao Te Ching – Eighteen
When the great Tao is forgotten, Kindness and morality and arise. When wisdom and intelligence are born, The great pretence begins. When there is no peace within the family, Filial piety and devotion arise. When the country is confused and in chaos, Loyal ministers appear. LAO TSU *** When The Tao is forgotten… I didn’t…
Tao Te Ching – Eleven
Tree Lovers by Kirsten Harris
Tao Te Ching – Ten
Carrying body and soul and embracing the one, Can you avoid separation? Attending fully and becoming supple, Can you be as a newborn babe? Washing and cleansing the primal vision, Can you be without stain? Loving all men and ruling the county, Can you be without cleverness? Opening and closing the gates of heaven, Can…
Mountain Art
Glencoe Mountain Rescue by Kirsten Harris, Acrylic on Canvas, 60 x 80 cms approx A few years ago I started chatting to a random stranger parked next to me. He was fixing a cable to the front of his Land Rover and talked about fundraising for Glencoe Mountain Rescue to buy them a new Land…
20-20 Vision – The Haggis Party – Profile of a Hill
The Haggis Party, Pen and Watercolour on Paper My latest few blogs are collections of art on specific themes. Certain themes recur almost without thinking. So these blogs are a kind of sketch book for me or mini exhibitions. (Apologies in advance for my poor photography of some of the images.) Tinto Hill here in…
On Tintock Tap
On Tintock Tap by Kirsten Harris, Pencil on Paper ON TINTOCK TAP – Traditional Rhyme ‘On Tintock Tap there is a mist, And in that mist there is a kist, And in the kist there is a caup, And in that caup there is a drap; Tak’ up the caup, drink aff the drap And…
A Local Ghost Story
The Grey Lady of Sheildhill Castle by Kirsten Harris
The Path of a Painting
The idea for this painting came from walking in the mountains. I wanted to make a painting which was more about the experience of walking uphill, than a portrait of a hill or mountain. I have called it ‘A Spiritual Path’, as it is about the push to keep going in life when the path…
A Conversation at the Picture Framers …
On my recent trip to the picture framers for 36 Views of Tinto Exhibition I had a conversation that I have been thinking about all week. I want to share it – I was helping another artist choose a frame for her painting for the show. A woman in the shop became involved in…
An Ashtray and the Inspiration behind Romance of the Falls Exhibition
I smoked as an art student. Nearly all of us did. It was the 80’s after all and we thought we were cool. What we didn’t realise was that the ashtray we were casually flicking ash into was worth a million quid! Now that’s cool! Professor David Hill, the world renowned Turner expert and…
A Falling Romance – work in progress …
Detail from a much bigger oil painting’ A Falling Romance’ work in progress …. Looking down onto Cora Linn … Looking across to Bonnington Linn An old postcard looking up to Bonnington Linn. Details of the upcoming exhibition In the days when The Falls of Clyde was on the ‘must paint’ list for…
The Field
Tinto and Stone Walls 23×30 cm Oil on Canvas ‘Paint the field of intention’. The words ‘the field of intention’ were with me all day. A weird instruction from my ‘higher self’ if you want to call it that. Words to override the blues and feeling that I might be a tad mad, that…
Head Up, Head Down
It’s a strange thing … I was mulling how the brilliance of Alexander Technique could be summed as ‘head up’, yet somehow it has given me the ability to keep my ‘head down’ and focus. Just get on with things. Well the neck is a flexible mobile thing, so perhaps it is not so…
Waterfalls – Symbol of Abundance
Waterfalls – Symbol of Abundance I love a good symbol! In the Chinese art of Feng Shui (Feng meaning wind, Shui meaning water) waterfalls and images of waterfalls, in the form of photographs or paintings, symbolise an abundant flow of wealth, prosperity and good fortune. Feng Shui is described as a system…