kicking back?

portrait of Fionn Brennan and his sons

Well after a busy few months, with the completion of the last Osprey book, I've taken the opportunity to organise my studio, work up a few ideas and just catch up on the mundane necessities of modern life out.

Its actually nice to take it easy for a few weeks, puttering around with ones own ideas and doing the normal things. But alas here in Ireland we have been buffeted all week with the tail end of the Atlantic's worst weather, so i didn't manage to benefit from our previous nice weather, i suppose its natures way of balancing the books weather-wise?


But this juncture has allowed me to look at a number of ideas/thoughts that have been whispering in my ear for sometime now. These have been jingling around in my head, some may seem slightly divergent from my usual work, but they are there, so lets roll with them.

to each cow its calf

For me these are like flickers which can disappear like the embers of a campfire with sunrise, but others can be more persistent and smoulder on until a little air brings them back to life?

These are the whispers in the echo chamber of creative thoughts or passing traffic on a motorway, which has a roundabout and one exit, some ideas zoom past and take the exit, while others keep reappearing, sometimes these are fully formed ideas, others are based on feel, an objects, a sounds, a great face, a story, some random piece of information, music, another image, a building etc.

These become parallel thoughts to my waking mind (like a 2 channel tv) your dealing with life/work on one channel, but if you switch this is on the other station. Until you attend to it in some shape of form, they persist. Annoyingly it seems to go hand in hand with other work or if your busy, which is typical.

I've embraced the lull, to do a little bit of oil work (not something I'm relaxed with, but something i wish to do more of), so I'm slowly putting one foot in front of the other to see where it takes me. The current idea's, suit oil as they are the single figure or simple compositions and oil has a nicer quality to it, colour, texture and feel, i think.

monk preaching

Although i do wonder if I'll ever get to a point were i can produce large scale or multi-figure work in the vein of artists such as Don Troianni, John Buxton, Robert Griffing, James Guerney (particularly his historical work for Nat. Geo), James Bama or Tom Lovell etc.

Not to mention great masters such as Detaille, Phillipitaux, Gerome, Barque, Rochling, ter Borch, Messonier, Jean Alaux (Battle of Denain is one of my all time favourite paintings)....

But its cool to get back to grass roots and do some of my own work, not to worry about how many buttons are on a tunic, if the pocket flaps are the correct shape, not to over analyse or think too much (some would say this should be easy for me ;¬), but have an idea and run with it like the Celt playing the Carnyx or my fantasy painting of Ian Pan-derson or the Jacobite cavalryman or my Colmcille inspired monks...these still need to be correct but its not so much of a juggle.
 
I've also been lucky that a friend of mine Luca, a graduate from the Angel Academy, Florence, has also encouraged me to explore oil a bit more, not to wimp out. This is the benefit of the like minded, you can take the advice uncritically and ride the creative slipstream in its wake.

But at the end of the day, its all about "mileage"...

Battle of Denain 1712, Jean Alaux

battle-of-leuthen1757, Carl Rochling

battle-of-leuthen1757, Carl Rochling

Edourd Detaille

attack on Braddock's column, copyright Robert Griffing

cavaliers playing cards by Messonier

copyright Don Troianni

Fontenoy, May 1745 by Phillipoteaux

copyright John Buxton

portrait of Jean Bart, Jean Léon Gérôme

copyright Robert Griffing