This is the penultimate of my contributions to the upcoming Small Scales show at the Open Eye gallery. Going well so far.
There is some music for this - a cool ambient track from Radiohead's 'Kid A'. It was playing as I was touching in the final hints of glaze, and it fitted very nicely with that moment. However, I went through a kick of playing the then youthful Radiohead's first ever album - 'Pablo Honey' - round about this time, so these paintings are quite strongly linked with the angsty screaming abdabs of 'You' and the strident vulnerability of 'I can't' and 'Lurgee'. An underrated album? Dunno. It is very raw, but I certainly couldn't get enough of it over the last few weeks.
The primary image source is in S.W Russia, near a wood (that may have once been a tiny settlement or farm) called Kuliki, and it presented itself as a very arresting random find on google streetview. As far as I can tell, Kuliki – Кулики - is a generic term for 'Wading birds', like we say 'Hawks' or 'Ducks' without being too specific. The term includes Curlews, more associated in Britain with open fields and moors, and which have a very distinct and haunting call.
Compositionally it's all about wide open space, long shadows, and The Light on The Birch Tree. The road going straight down the middle in the source location didn't work for me though. Luckily - and with the magic of google streetview - by following the road north and finding another heading east I found a whole lot more wide open space and a new variety of foregrounds - all with the right shadows and streaky lights with which to recompose over the road. I also elongated the birch tree a little to fill more of the sky above it – which I think works better.
Not much to say about the technicals here – just a pretty straightforward gouache dot grid on grey priming, then straight on with placing objects and areas (dark tones and cloud lights first) in oil paint. The sky colour evolved very pleasingly – this was my chance try out my new Isaro Deep Blue, with a second layer of Ultramarine/Ivory Black/Zinc White padded on very sparingly towards the top. This very powerful blue is a factory blend of Ultramarine/Pthalo Blue/Zinc White which is just about smack on what I'm usually aiming for to work a bright, clear blue sky – with the magical property of appearing slightly greener as it thins. Just like the real thing (mostly/often/sometimes) does towards the horizon. It's not cheap, but then I'm only really ever going to use it quite thinly.
I made a bit of an effort to make this a 'small painting', as opposed to a 'miniature', by consciously being a bit looser and trying not to get pulled into too much fine detail. 'Letting the paint do the work' – as Mr Knight (my school Art teacher) used to say. I think I mostly succeeded, but it was difficult not to get caught up and drawn into the sunlit top of the birch.
Quite chuffed with this wee piece. I think it's an engagingly pleasant little landscape which I was very lucky to come across. There's no subversive element here; at this scale, that's very difficult, especially as I didn't want to get too 'dragged in' to superfine detail.
I hope the images I have made of it are accurate enough. It'll probably be varnished and off to the gallery within a few weeks, and I (and certainly Madam) will miss it if it doesn't come back.