Posted by Stephen Quirke on January 29, 2009 under Art, figure, painting, watercolor, watercolour | 
Last night I transformed my office back into my studio and did some painting. I really want to paint at least once a week. Ai tog! Here are three pictures I worked on. The first is Aura my wife and her mother:
This was the first version I did in December.
I also started a new painting. I wanted to do an alla prima watercolour but alas I was too tentative. The painting will require more washes to complete it. Immediacy takes guts – there is a lesson in life. For me at least.
This is one of the women who clean fish in Kalk Bay harbour. The boats drop off fish which we can buy. Then we take our fish across the harbour to these women who deftly gut and clean the fish. That place is full of characters. The last time I was there, one of the men was feeding the guts to the seals for the tourists to photograph. He threw a handful into the water and the gulls swooped down and carried it off before the seal could get there. ”And here come the gangsters” he says – only he said “gengsters” heh heh.
The painting will have to wait for the next transformation. I still have a pot of water on my table but I will pour that on the milkwood I am nurturing at my door and that too must be packed away. Time to find a telephone booth in which to change into Stephen – “consultant extraordinaire” – At least I am learning I don’t have to wear my underpants on the outside (why on earth would Superman do this?) – but that is a subject for my other blog.
31 January – note: Interesting for me, I say immediacy takes guts and the painting shows a woman cutting the guts out of a dead fish. Now what would Jung say about that?
Posted by Stephen Quirke on January 28, 2009 under Uncategorized |
In September 1998 I trekked up to Namibia with my family. This was going to be a family holiday with a difference. I had sent almost 80 paintings up to a gallery in Swakopmund to have my first ever exhibition. A year before I had changed jobs, from a frustrating comfort zone in the oil industry to a challenging position in one of the large financial services companies. I remember my heart sinking the first time I looked across acres of open-plan hokkies with people buzzing around like bees on a honey-comb. The change was largely brought on by a journal I had begun. I was working through Julia Cameron’s book “The Artists Way”. Every morning I would get to work early and write my three pages, sitting in the parking lot. Most mornings I started by writing “So what are you doing about your exhibition”.
Back in my previous company I would take my paintings and pin them up in my hokkie just to look at.
One day someone called John pinned this note next to my painting:
So I started thinking about an exhibition. And I started working. It just happened that way. Most Friday and Saturday nights I would set up my watercolour works on the kitchen table at about 21:00 when my family were going to bed. And I would paint, often till 02:00 or 03:00. Usually I would realise I could not see what I was doing anymore from being too tired. And in the week I would put my paintings up in hok and dream about painting while I dealt with the business of Software Quality Management. And in the middle of the year I contacted Sharon at Hobby Horse. She had been so gentle with my first pictures I brought to the gallery when I lived in Swakop and had sold some of my work. I had said that if I ever held an exhibition I would give her first ops. She and Don were keen so we started organising – through fax! I sent my all of my work up to Windhoek with someone who was flying up for business. Don organised to pick up the work and got busy with framing.
My friend Melanie helped me design the invitation and wrote the paragraph about the artist. I organised with friend Roy the printer to print the invitations. And that was a mission. Eventually they had a mistake in the address. But anyway.
I had a wonderful day working with Sharon and Don to put up my pictures in the gallery. He teased me about my write up on the invitation which admittedly was a rather grand.
It was so exciting. And that night I presented my work to the town. Or at least those who were there.
Animus and anima refer to the male and female sides of our psyche. It seemed to describe the desert in Namib desert and the lush green of Cape Town. So this was not a major thesis in psychology. My two main pictures were of a boy, my son Calvin, lying on the Brandberg – at the top of Amies Gorge, looking across this vast plain to Table Mountain in the distance – Anima. The other painting was of a little girl peeping out from behind a stone-pine, from the slopes of Table Mountain. She is looking across a vast plain to Spitskop in the distance. Spitskop and Brandberg are both granite plugs that rise majestically out of the desert plain. mmmm as I write I feel the tug. We had some great camping trips out there. I remember lying next to a little fire on top of Brandberg with leopard, who had followed us all day, grunting just off in the dark. My daughter put on a tutu and posed for the Anima picture. I put a line drawing of the paintings on the invitation.
And here are the paintings. They are both on Fabriano – smooth, and are each about 760x1000mm which was a large on which to paint watercolour.
Animus
Anima
We had a few days in Swakopmund before the exhibition so we took a drive up the coast to Cape Cross, then inland past Brandberg West, where there used to be a copper mine, and round the west side of the Brandberg to Uis, where they had converted the old club into a motel where we booked in for the night. I got up early the next morning and drove back to the Brandberg where I sat on a nearby kopjie and painted two pictures. The first was sold in the exhibition but I kept one.
This is one of my favourite watercolours and I am glad I still have it. The trees in the foreground are Brandberg Acacias which only grow in that area, apparently, at least that is what my friend Buzzy told me.
It would have been great to show some of the work I had on exhibition. I really pushed my skills quite far in that year. I took pictures with my camera, as I set up the exhibition, but they were such poor quality that it is not worth putting them here. I should have taken slides but had prints. Anyway – it is OK to sell and move on.
It was dead quiet as I sat and painted. Every now and again the karoo-toads in the valley would chorus – kwa kwor kwa kwor – then fall silent. As I sat I heard a droning. Looking up I saw a cloud of dust on the road on which I came. Over the next 10 minutes the sound grew and faded and grew. Then this old old landrover bakkie came clanking past on the road below. Then the sound slowly faded in the growing heat haze. I finished this painting then packed up my stuff and returned to Uis. I have not been back since.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on January 27, 2009 under Art, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour, waterfall |
Here is a painting of the waterfall I did in December.
In the original posting I showed each step as I completed it. Here are the steps:
the drawing and the first wash
here I start building in the detail. Is it just me, or are these early versions better than the final?
Posted by Stephen Quirke on January 26, 2009 under Art, figure, landscape, painting, skateboard, watercolor, watercolour |
Here is a painting I did of Calvin going off on his skateboard to surf with his mates.
it is OK except I the palm-tree is a bit bland. I like this posture, it reflects his self-confidence and coolness.
I was not happy with the first one and did this one:
I was getting better at capturing details. Charles Reid paints with well directed but free swatches of colour and I felt I got this approach here.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Uncategorized |
I am moving this blog to a new site where my watercolour life does not mix so much with my facilitation and coaching at http://conversaction.wordpress.com/
Please come and visit me at http://deg34south.wordpress.com/ to where I will slowly be moving the paintings from here.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on January 25, 2009 under Art, figure, landscape, painting, seascape, watercolor, watercolour |
One of my watercolour projects during the holidays was a woman sunbathing at Caves Beach. I have referred to the painting in another blog of mine where I talk about the process of learning. But here is the final painting:
This is on Arches Cold Press 185gm and is 380×560 mm.
I have been following the work of Charles Reid and I worked so hard to get the colour and (more importantly) the value right in the first wash. And this was almost right. I also spent a day painting green swirls to try to get the water to work. The water has a combination of foam, different shades of water-colour, the shadow of the foam on the sand below the water and reflections from the cliffs. So it is very alive and beautiful. It is difficult to do it justice without making it look over-worked. Charles Reid also mixes his colours on the paper. I did this in her legs where I laid a swatch of cadmium red and aureolin down on her upper thigh and then, with a new brush put in a swatch of cerulean blue mixed with manganese blue, with some cadmium red for her right leg. the blue tint in the shadow is a happy accident that seems to reflect the colour of her towel. Which I think is magic.
Here is the previous attempt:
This was OK but got messy.
The first one looked like this:
The figure is less succesful but the sea has lots of life. I like the foam where it is hitting the beach.
I am moving my work to this new blog site from a previous site. K gave me such a nice criticism that I will be copying and pasting it from the old site. I am not keen move the whole lot in a blob.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on under Art, en plein air, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
A while ago I visited my wife’s family in Firenze. I had presented a paper at a software engineering conference in Brussels and negotiated with my company at the time to visit Italy. It was late October and Winter was setting in. But one morning I caught a bus into town early and stood on the Ponte Vecchio and did these two watercolour paintings. It was freezing and there was no-one about. It felt so good to be painting in such a historical setting.
I think this is the view downstream. Someone pointed out the tower where Michelangelo hid when Florence was overrun by his enemies. I will read this history again.
I crossed to the other side of the bridge and did a painting looking upstream.
While I was painting, a rat the size of a terrier jumped into the river and swam across.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on January 24, 2009 under Art, en plein air, figure, landscape, my work, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
Kogelbaai or Koeelbaai, we just say ‘Cool bay’ is one of my favourite beaches. There is a small beach there, tucked away under the cliffs, that not many people knew about called ‘Caves Beach’. There is a good wave there for surfing if you know what you are doing. But the coast line is frequented by Great Whites so – I don’t know so much.
Anyway it is really beautiful and Cape Nature Conservation are trying to keep it wild. I like to go and paint there on Saturday morning before my family wakes up.
Here are two the pictures I did sitting at the beach there:
This is a large rock with a cross on the top, in remembrance of someone who drowned there (which seems to be all too-regular an occurence).
And this is a picture painted from the other side of the cross rock from the painting above. That is Cape Hangklip in the background. (literally Hanging Rock).
Here is a picture I did in my studio, of the caves beach from a photo taken from the top of the path leading down to the beach.
That is Table Mountain in the distance, with Devil’s Peak on the right.
Posted by Stephen Quirke on January 23, 2009 under Art, figure, ollie, painting, skateboard, watercolor, watercolour |
Here is a picture, below, I did of Ethan doing an Ollie on his skateboard:
I liked the dark background as it gave definition to his upper body and arms, which were light. But I found the tree trunk offputting.
Here are the stages in the development of the first picture:
I had a feeling the painting went downhill from the first one and wanted to preserve some of the freshness.
So I did the picture again:
The background is more suggested than described and I liked the figure better. What do you think?
Any comments on the comparison?
Posted by Stephen Quirke on January 19, 2009 under Art, Uncategorized, my work, painting, watercolor, watercolour |
I love painting in watercolour. When I have time that is what I do. And I want to start making part of my living from this. I have started a blog to support my marketing effort in my other life. And in December 2008 I thought it would be cool to put some of my work out there.
I have tried a few different approaches to blogging my paintings – At first I had the same username as I use in my other life. But it got messy because the same links appeared on all the blogs. And I could only have one user address. Setting up another user on WordPress took me some time to figure out and I went to another blog platform. But I didnt like it there and now I am back, with a new user name, blog address and blog name. And I think I am getting it figured out.
I am keen to sell my work and have set up a site on etsy, as I have seen other artists doing. I have yet to register as a seller, as I need to understand more of the implications. But I am keen to do that too. I would like to sell prints and originals maybe.
In the meantime, I want to build up a history of posts and a log of my work. On my previous blog I had a gallery, which was OK to get my work up quickly but I don’t think I will do this here (now that I understand blogs a little better). Perhaps I will set up a website with my work.
But now I have some serious pressure mounting from my other world. Yep, a third life. So I will post the work I have so far and get it out there. I fully intend to be painting full on by the end of the year when this third rat is satiated and put to bed. To mix a metaphor.
So welcome to the start of this part of the journey.
