Bank Holiday Weekend

It has been the August Bank Holiday Weekend and it has been very hot, hot, hot. Both combined to throw the whole weekend out of kilter and it only now that the routine is beginning to get back to normal. The weather has changed too becoming cooler and wet.

I made myself go into the art studio today, not that I have been neglecting arty things but I did switch to more art journalling types of activities and creating colour swatches and such. I have been reluctant to go into the studio knowing what faced me i.e. several boards of multicoloured marks; boards which needed some decisions made about them. I sat and looked at them and applied some more colour - add and take away; positive then negative, creating and destroying but I still felt ill at ease. Then I realised that these boards represented chaos to me and I needed calm. So I created calm, perhaps not in the way I should but I just mixed ochre, crimson and lots of white and created a pale neutral and painted the chaos out. Some of the under tones showed through but suddenly I felt calm and ideas of where to go next began to emerge. I felt so much better and I am ready to return to the studio again.

The Weekend

On Friday we made a journey to Kirkcudbright, on the Dumfries and Galloway coast. We had been, for the first time, in June and stayed overnight so we could have a good explore of the town. I had long heard of Kirkcudbright as being a painters' town with good light and scenery but it was first recommended to me by a curator at the Gracefield Art Gallery in Dumfries. We had called in to look at the art on show and it just happened to include a number of the works of the Glasgow Boys, which we admired. The curator explained that may of the artists would go to Kirkcudbright and surrounding area on the summer and suggested the pretty town was worth a visit. That was a few years ago and it took til this year for us to go.

The Kirkcudbright Galleries has only been open a year and is housed in the original town hall and gathers together the work of many of the artists who lived and worked in the town. It is a good space on three levels and when we were there we were told of an exhibition of the work of one of the former residents which was about to open. Sadly, we missed the opening day but we did vow to return to view it. So on Friday we drove through horrendous rainy weather along the A75 but as we pulled into the town at about 11.30 am the rain stopped and it remained fine for the rest of the visit.

The exhibition was of the work of Charles Oppenheimer (1875-1961) an extremely talented artist and draughtsman from Manchester whose family owned a mosaic manufacturing business. He worked as an artist and mosaic designer and even when enlisted in the forces in WWI used his artistic skills. The gallery had a good range of paintings from private collectors as well as loans from various institutions and covered a range of paintings about Kirkcudbright and its surroundings and the many continental holidays he and his wife took.  Most were landscapes of various sizes in watercolour and oils. The most interesting thing, I found, was that when he returned to painting after the War his paintings seemed to get tighter and taken on a more formal, smoother style, abandoning his earlier looser, more painterly style. Often, it seems, it is the other way round in that as an artist gets older the style gets freer.

It was well worth a visit, as was the cafe within the gallery where the cheese scones (made inhous by a member of the cafe team) were excellent. Worth a return visit for that alone!

Back Home

Well and truly back home now and into the post vacation routine of washing, cooking, cleaning and shopping. I have not yet un-packed all my Burton Agnes art gear, a slow trickle is happening but it is slow work. I did manage to get into the studio on Saturday afternoon and found I could not paint. I had no idea what to do but when I left The Artist in Residence situation I had plans of where to go on several paintings. I found myself painting with totally alien, pastel colours. I had a little more positivity yesterday but I was just using white/light colours and going over those areas to strengthen that colour.

Today I just called in the studio and spent some time studying some of the paintings and trying to think where to go next. I then worked on the computer on art related issues and listened to the Art Juice podcast.  Later I took a walk down to a our local castle.  An idea has been floated by someone at the local Art Club about members submitting a painting related to the castle at our next exhibition. I went to take some photographs and sketch (not much of the latter) with an idea of photo transfer onto the paint panel but it needs a lot of thinking about as I quite fancy the idea of a multilayer approach.

Wednesday - Last Day

Well we have finally made it to the end of a a 'two week' Artist in Residency stint. I never felt like quitting at any stage and the only dips came after about 10 days when a feeling of weariness came over me in the afternoon.  This in part was because of tiredness caused by poor sleep patterns - my mind buzzing with the events of the day stopped me from getting off to sleep and there were a few 3am toilet calls which coincided with the local cockerel waking up.  There were the hourly church clock chimes and my natural summer waking time of about 6am which also made its contribution?  Of course,  there was also the greenhouse effect of working in a westerly facing summerhouse in a sunny August so that from about 2:30 onwards it could get stifling hot.

It has been a positive experience meeting and talking with so many interesting people - we all have our own tale to tell and even though it may seem boring and common place to you it can be fascinating to an outsider. It also gave me opportunity to have a two week concentration on making art, which is primarily what I wanted.  I am pleased I went with a plan of what I wanted to do and had everything prepared for that, yet it also allowed for flexibility. It was not related to Burton Agnes Hall nor was not about producing finished pieces but it was something and nothing that I could get on with, it provided learning opportunities but nothing of such importance that it would suffer from distraction. I now have several boards on which to work towards a finish.

The flat was clean and tidy by 9am, a time I had set myself so I could take out the bags to the car before the kitchen team arrived. I had fewer bags than when I arrived, having managed to sent somethings back home with my husband and having consumed, reduced and generally finished off and disposed of  most of my supplies. It seemed a little early to go down to the summerhouse so I stayed in the flat where I did have internet connection. It was a good decision for there were a couple of heavy showers that were best looked at through the kitchen window.

When I did move I drove the car to the summerhouse where I could load up much of my painting gear, already packed away on Tuesday afternoon. This meant I was left with very little by way Art material - a pad of water colour paper and a box of paints so I could make a pretence at painting. In fact, I intended to make notes from articles I had on my tablet via photosnaps or other WiFi free sources.

Thus, the day passed slowly and in three hours we had three and a half sets of visitors (the half being a German gentleman with little English who hovered near the entrance). It was a slow warm day and although the cafe seemed busy we could see few visitors in the grounds and so by 2:30 we decided to call it a day and started the final clear out. I was in the car heading for home via the Beverley by 3:15pm.

Goodbye, Burton Agnes Hall and the Artist In Residence Experience. Will I repeat it  - never say never - it was a good, enjoyable two weeks but I would have to think seriously about the accommodation in the future. The surrounding were beautiful and the staff we encountered delightful and so help. I am left with lots of positive experiences and emotions.

Tuesday

Decided today would be my last acrylic painting day so I put another few marks and colours on these boards and will leave them until I get home. Why is it the paintings do not look as bad when photographed than in real life? Do not know where I am going with these but that is OK. They are play boards and this is only the second or third pass.

I think I would find it difficult to do any serious, high concentration painting in this situation for there are frequent distractions. It has been much quieter this week but often the people who call in to see us  can stay for a long chat and it is not always about our art work on display.  The conversations are more likely to be about their art work or they are seeking tips about materials and techniques about painting because many people seem to take up painting in retirement or are thinking of resurrecting their painting equipment put into store many years ago. It has also been interesting to find out where people have come from, many coming from some distance to holiday on the east coast or in the Wolds.

It was a finishing off day for the canvas roll painting and the last section proved to be very different; a different colour way and style from the rest. In many ways the earlier parts seems tighter and more controlled but it was an interesting challenge and so different to be working on canvas again.  Various other little activities were also finished or packed away and we had a good tidy up.  By mid-afternoon we both begin to wilt. We have had some very good weather, any rain coming at the beginning or the end of the day (in the evening we had a short thunderstorm) and for the most part it has been warm and sunny. So between 2-3 pm the summerhouse gets very hot and we frequently find ourselves having to go outside and seek shelter in the shadows cast by the yew bushes.

Monday

We had a bus trip in this morning.  A group of Leeds Loiners enroute to Bridlington. In many ways that was the highlight of the day, however, many were quite elderly and they were clock watching anxious not to miss the bus.  There were one or two other interesting folk called in to see us but generally a very quiet day.

It is getting harder to do the work as we are both feeling quite weary. However, I did paint some more of the canvas roll which I would like to finish before I leave.  I also did do some more work on the small board series but it was the wrong time as I was feeling quite tired by then. The other thing I wanted to do was a big sky landscape.  I did not want to use the boards but I had not brought my acrylic paper pad so I used some thin watercoloured paper which I gessoed.  The results were not good as the paper buckled and I was not happy with the colours I had or how they sat on the watercolour paper. I will finish it tomorrow but only for something to do.

The day started off with heavy rain and it had rained in the night too. Eventually, about 1pm the sun came out and in spite of a cloudy and windy hiccup mid-afternoon the sun remained. Thus the summerhouse got very hot again. Paint was drying very quickly yet this morning the cool damp atmosphere made the drying time longer than usual.

Sunday

The other day we realised that perhaps it was time to go inside the house to visit and familiarise ourselves with the paintings. We had had several visitors referring to specific paintings and I for one could not bring them to mind. So at 11am, a quiet time for us we locked up and had a lovely time inside the house admiring the furniture, the wood panelling, the moulded ceilings and of course the paintings, the majority of which are housed up in the long gallery.

Today, there did not seem to be as many visitors in the grounds as last Sunday but we had a steady trickle of interesting folk. Many of them were local,  especially from Driffield some 6 or7 miles away.  However, it did, also, seem a long day today; this was our eleventh day on the trot when we have been 'trapped' in the studio. It is an indulgence to be able to paint all day, every day but it can be tiring. I have had a variety of things to do and this has helped distract me and keep me fresher. I left the play boards of yesterday and revisited my canvas roll and added to the section I did previously, a few days ago. today For  some reason I was drawn to pattern work so spent a fair time painting dots and lines but then I did switch and  amended an earlier section where I had left some paintwork very messy.  I indulged in some free play and mark making on some gessoed book paper, to use up the left over paint and then did a little bit of collage in an old book. Weariness did get the better of me so I packed up, swept up and locked the door at 4:55pm. No visitors were to be seen or heard in the grounds so I toddled off back to the flat for a coffe and a chill!

The Weekend

All week we have been watching the events associated with the marquee set up on the north lawn in front of the ornamental pond. We did find out it was to be a wedding but today we did find out from various sources it was to be a post-wedding celebration. The couple were  married some little while ago and one or both were of Indian origin. but it was not to happen until after 5pm. Through the day we did meet a young Indian woman, up from London for the wedding and she was a family member and I did see her later looking very pretty but not in a sari, unlike  like many of the other ladies. I watched them have their welcome drinks in front of the house while listening to a string quartet and although I did not see the bride arrive for I think the couple walked in through the gatehouse up to the house.  I believe she wore a cream sari and after meeting and greeting their guests she went off to change in the house via the side door.

I watched from the flat window while I had a coffee prior to popping out. It had been a cloudy, on and off sunny, day but the latter part of the afternoon did come warm and sunny.  So I decided to drive the 4 miles to Rudston via the road which continued on from the main Burton Agnes Hall car park. In the churchyard at Rudston stands a monolith, a huge standing stone,  standing next to the church chancel and as tall as that building. The stone came from the Whitby area. The stone, and church stands on a rise and just below the hill runs the Gypsy Race stream /river, which runs to Bridlington and apparently, is the only water course in he Wolds which are a 'unique' belt of chalk land running from the coast inland. It seems  the geology and historical climatic events created this river free land.

It was a weary day work wise but I decided to continue the play exercise of yesterday on four smaller boards I had. (0ne was already played on (yellow black blue -arrgh!) I set them up on the table as one and played.

The good news today is that two of my paintings went to new homes -one in London (A Single Bloom) and the other to a northern home (On the Tops). I was delighted that both couples liked them so much and both went within half hour of each other. How strange but fortunate.

Friday

I had visitors today! My husband and son came through. They brought some supplies and took home some unnecessary luggage. We had a good lunch -real food - in the courtyard cafe , a good 'catch up' and a few good laughs. They went off to explore the house and gardens and then we did meet up again for tea before they departed for home, leaving me feeling it would be good to join them.

The day was fine with good sunny spells and a gentle breeze. Possibly not as many visitors were in the grounds as last Friday but we did have another visit from the language school based near to Hull. A new set of youngsters including some from Spain and the Ukraine. Some popped in to see us and we also had one or two 'adult' visitors too!

Today I decided to follow an exercise suggested on the 'Find My Joy' free taster mini workshop. The exercise was one I had done before a few times but had forgotten about it. I used a large sheet of cartridge paper which I gessoed (watercolour paper was recommended) and using masking tape taped off a border and run a tape along the centre. Next I divided the rest into 6 or 4 squares depending on the size of the original paper. I managed to get 6. Now all you do is play across them all as if they were one whole piece, using paint, diffent tools with which to apply paint,  oil pastel, pencils etc, etc. The restrictions are that you  may use just 3 colours plus black and white, colour mix  and work for no more than 30 minutes. I had such fun, it was quite energising and I did two of these sheets!

Yorkshire Day

Unfortunately Burton Agnes Hall did not seem to do much to celebrate the day but I was told Sewerby, near Bridlington has an annual big event to celebrate the day and so they were expecting numbers to be down here. I think it turned out to be better than anticipated and anyway the sun was shining and the families came out to play.  We certainly had a few more visitors than wet Wednesday, most making a comment about what a lovely studio in which to paint. It is, especially in the morning but come the afternoon it can get very hot as the windows face in a westerly direction.

I escaped this morning to go to Slimming World and get in supplies in Driffield. I have never knowingly been there before and was delighted with it.Thursday was market day so it was busy even as early as 9am. It is a long Main Street, reminiscent of Northallerton and has some of the big high street names, Tesco, Wilko, B&M, Iceland but many, many local shops all on that street. Well worth another visit.

I was back and inside the studio by 10:30 and pondering what to do with my two boards. I tried various things with Marazion but eventually it ended up creamed out. I like the rose cream surface with its hidden history and its sense of spaciousness. I would like to keep that and just add a little bit of colour, perhaps related to the garden... I did smudge some pink paint and drew loose plant like shapes and then cornfield came to mind. I had seen lots and lots of expansive yellow wheat fields and then it came ... I am leaving it for now; more work on the values but I am happy where it is for now a bit afraid to go in with some darks!.

it nee

Wet Wednesday

It rained and it rained! It had rained heavily through the night and I woke to heavy rain. When I looked out of the flat window the cafe courtyard was awash with water causing quite deep and extensive puddles. Luckily, they were able to sort out a drain and drain cover and things improved.

I walked over to the studio in heavy rain and although there were one or two dry times in the day they were only temporary. Needless to say the numbers of people visiting Burton Agnes Hall were down, especially with regards to  family groups. The cafe was very popular and the Hall but not all ventured into the gardens and only three came into see us in our summerhouse.  So we had a good long day of work.

I spent the day wrestling with two horizontal boards. At some point I got the idea that one reminded me of Marazion views from St Michael's Mount and the other of Flambrough Head. Perhaps, subconsciously, I became fixated on them and as a result little happened and they got tighter and tighter. They are at a point where they will be left for a good while to clear my mind of them.

Tuesday

The Gatehouse at Burton Agnes

The days are beginning to get similarity to them. I rise early and often there is a rain shower in the morning somewhere between 6am and 9am, although today a very heavy downpour caught me as I made my way to the summerhouse studio.  There I sort myself out and begin some prep work, such photograph and review the previous day's work. Today I started a doodle book - a short concertina like flier from a takeaway outlet. I gessoed it and started to randomly cover it with bits of the colours I was working with at the time. I must admit by the end of the day this doodle book/fliers was a bit of a dog's dinner of colour. I am not sure what I will do next - stamp and doodle,  zentangle on it, use it as a diary or collage onto it? It does not matter for at the moment - it is a base for future work.

One of the reasons the colours are such a mess is that I was trying to mix a raw sienna colour, having left my tube of shop bought raw sienna at home. I was also trying to mix was a neutral grey.  I do not have this colour in my mind's eye for I rarely use it and I only have it in watercolour paint not acrylic. My attempt came out as a rather lovely very pale mauve but with a very chalky appearance, however, that may have been down to the cheap paint I am using! I have my normal white acrylic paint but I must have acquired this cheaper version that got popped into the limited collection of 'Burton Agnes Hall' paints. My thinking being 'you do use an awful lot of white paint so take a spare to use for some of the early layers'. The trouble is that when you are in the thick of it you just reach out for the colour without checking the label. Lesson to be learnt there. 

Any way, a reason for all this stems back to a colourway design I had seen somewhere and a conversation with one of our visitors about collage. Not so much the collage where it is embedded within a painting but more about where the papers have their own voice. So I began painting my own papers using old book papers and working with them in a small way in an upcycled old book. I had removed many of the pages to reduce the bulk and stuck two or three pages together to give them more stability. I had popped it in my bag, fully gessoed, but with no real purpose in mind. In fact, it had been acting as a tea cup coaster. I think my mini collage book will be a more appropriate use for my little hard backed book.

Grey Start, Gloriously Sunny End

A grey drizzley morning greeted us today. I was on the road soon after 9am to drive the 7 miles or so east into Bridlington. I had to shop for supplies so I was on the look out for the Tesco supermarket. I know Bridlington but rarely drive through it myself as I am usually a passenger or on foot but after a road hiccup I parked up. Shopping was quickly done within the hour and I was back at Burton Agnes Hall by 10:30am and down in the studio in time for the Hall opening at 11am.

I was expecting a quiet day given it was Monday and a grey day but I was proved wrong, we had another day with a steady trickle of visitors.  I seemed to had a hard time in getting started today. I had a number of little jobs I wanted to do like laying down some gesso but I seemed to take my time, perhaps reluctant to get onto the painting panels. I have 5 panels, approximately 12"x8". One I am calling finished and one just needed a touch or two more. Panel 3 (started at the same time as the other two) is proving very difficult to come to terms with. The other two were started a day or two later; one so ticking along but the other may be more tricky.  However, by the end of the the day I did have a clearer focus on where to go next.

The sun came out about 2:30pm and within the hour I had found it unbearably hot in the studio with the sun beating down on the front of the summer house. I reached a point where I could pack up the painting materials and escape out into the shade for a while, returning later to do some mundane tasks. At 5pm, closing time I went to seek shelter form the sum in the walled garden. It is always so full of insects -bees, and hover flies and all kinds of other flying things including butterflies and bird. It is quite incredible.

Sunday

I am an early riser, especially in the summer, so I find myself breakfasted and sorted and wandering down to the summerhouse studio about 10.00am. I like the solitude to get things organised and have time to review the previous day's work. I have started making notes as part of that review process and also writing down my decisions of where to go next. I will then often go for a wander round the grounds, not often making sketches but I will take photographs. It seems silly to be in such a beautiful location, a flower painter's paradise, and not take advantage of it but I had set out with the intention of following a programme I have set myself to paint more abstractly and exploring the idea of painting intuitively. So I am treating this Artist in Residence as an opportunity to paint for two week unhampered by the normal demands of everyday home life but with quite a limited focus and the intention of getting the job done (i.e doing what I wanted and intended to do). I hope I can fulfill my aim and not get distracted with 'oooh I could paint this, or maybe that, or I could sit in the walled garden and sketch', as is my usual approach. This way I may have several paintings to take back home instead of itty bitty pieces of nothing. (However, I am also enough of a realist to know that when I get home and review my finished paintings I will look at thenm and think "What the heck is that?" and then paint over them but at least I will have a good paint surface to work on:)

Sunday must have been day trip day for many local people. The hall and grounds were very busy and we had more visitors and lots of very interesting conversations. There is a gallery in the courtyard and cafe area which is available to hire and two women artists are exhibiting their work in there. Both have very good drawing skills and seem specialise in flower 'portraits', people portraits and animal drawings and paintings. All of a very high standard. Unfortunately, they do not seem to be getting as many visitors into their space and those that do seem less willing to engage in conversation. Perhaps it is our intriguing location in the the attractive summerhouse which draws people to pop in and have a look.
Calling this one finished for now but now wondering if it needs something more at the right hand side.

Saturday

A day of rain was forecast for the east side of the country although ours came at the beginning of the day and towards teatime. In the meantime it was grey, chilly and damp, all this had the effect of keeping visitor numbers low at Burton Agnes Hall. However, we did have some twenty or so visitors pop their heads into the summer house, in spite of us keeping the door closed to try and keep warm. We had some very interesting conversations with most of them. Few of them actually did paint but some did have other creative hobbies and a number of them were regular collectors of art. Of course, they came from many parts of Yorkshire and further afield; often calling into Burton Agnes enroute to somewhere or coming from somewhere else.

I have often found that socialising can be quite an exciting and stimulating experience but also quite tiring. By the end of the day my mind was buzzing and I was quite 'popped' up but in spite of being tired I had difficulty getting to sleep, hearing the church clock chime at every hour. Somewhere around 2am I did fall asleep but awoke before 6am, a regular summertime waking time.

I did expect to have aching shoulders for I have been painting quite a lot; standing and stooping at not a very high table. I am very pleased with my discipline as I came with a list of things I wanted to do e.g. Paint every day on wooden panels in a small series , paint on a canvas roll, colour mixing, mark making etc. I may not have done all each day but when I can I have painted. It felt good to have that framework rather than arriving each morning and thinking what shall I do today.

I am not taking any of this work seriously, they are just play boards, a way of getting paint onto a surface. I have no expectations of making 10 masterpieces and most of my boards appear like the above after a day of painting. After a couple of passes /layers on the above board I kept seeing a face like shape. It was the end of the day so I thought what the heck let's have some fun . So with one or two tweaks a face emerged. I quite liked it in a quirky way so I think I will live with it for a while!

Day One

The anticipated nighttime thunderstorm did not arrive, although it did get quite windy and the rattling windows in the flat woke me 'asking' to be closed. So a sleep disturbed night for variety of  reasons. Heavy rain did come about 8:30am but it did not last long. I watched it from the kitchen window while I got breakfast. Facilities are challenging with the sink and very small worktop adjoining the cooker yet the kitchen room is quite large. Most of the furnishing are vintage and the decor basic but the whole place is in need of TLC and a good bottoming; it is likely that it is not used often and suffers from neglect. There is a large bath with shower over and lots of hot water. However, the power to the shower was lost after I had had my evening shower!

I was in the sun house studio (photo above) by about 10am but visitors are not admitted until 11am. It was a warm and humid day, getting very hot at times in the glasshouse. There was a steady trickle of visitors to the studio and we spent time from our work chatting to them.  A number were families with young children. now that the schools are closed for the holidays,  and many were retirees. Some lived locally out for a day trip and some on holiday at the coast. One couple were from Queensland, Australia and were taking in this area as part of their UK and Ireland tour. Some of our last visitors were Italian teenagers staying in Hull.
The rain and the thunderstorms came late in the afternoon, trapping me in the summer house for 45minutes!
Sue

Arrival

View of Burton Agnes Hall from the flat window - early morning.

I eventually arrived at Burton Agnes Hall on the hottest July dayto date. It was an uncomfortable and slow journey along main roads but through many small villages and rolling countryside. So there were numerous road works, tractors, white vans, day trippers and caravans, as the road to Burton Agnes goes onto the coast.

Arrival was a bit tricky as I has received no instructions of where to go, who to see, what to, where to get keys. However, there were some very helpful staff in the cafe kitchen, shop and admittance area so we soon got sorted and unpacked.

I am sharing the summerhouse Artist in Residence studio with a water coulourist. She produces some stunning loose, immediate watercolour paintings based on a theme of nature.. It proves to be quite a contrast from my few strong bold watercolour flowers and my equally strong coloured acrylics, loosely based on a minimal landscape theme. I have chosen to work with acrylics for the time I am here.

We had a good few visitors throughout the day, especially in the morning for a choir from Worcestershire were on a "national" tour to Hull,  singing in several venues around the area. Burton Agnes Hall garden was one venue and we were able to enjoy their lovely singing whilst we set up.

Sue

Burton Agnes Hall

I have been awarded an Artist in Residence position at Burton Agnes Hall, situated between Driffield and Bridlington, East Yorkshire. It is a stunning house with superb gardens open to visitors daily and I will be one of two artists taking over the small summer house situated in the garden to the front of the house.  Super excited but somehow reluctant to get my gear together. It is a challenge as I am a kitchen sink kind of gal and we will be there for two weeks! Lots of sorting to be done before Thursday, 25th July 2019.