Author: Jaq McCaughern
Cat-astrophie
So, the shed/studio was locked up for the night, and the cat went missing!!!!!!!!! The result was a lot of very delicate porcelain paper clay pieces drying on the window ledge were moved by said cat to make way for her night time sojourn until a morning rescue was effected. She was completely unmoved by her mayhem and was extremely hungry after her late night shift in the shed.
An open studio or an at home
I intend to organise an “At Home”, or “Open Studio”, for the middle of November, so I have a lot of planning to do.
I find I need to have dead lines, and this will be good motivation for me to clear out the decks, offer some bargains and special deals. Iv’e picked out the weekend commencing Friday 13th Nov and finishing on Sun 15th, obviously lots of stuff to work out yet, I’ll keep y’ll posted.
What next?
The simple answer is, I need to sort out my studio, buy more paint and brushes, and try out some new stuff. We are coming up to the cold months, and I usually try to work in my inner studio, very small but can be kept warm, unlike the rest of studio, which gets freezing. I am thinking that I will spend a fair amount of time drawing, and planning new work and strategy for 2016, always good to plan ahead.
Commission Complete
The commission of 2 panels each 4′ long x 2′ wide is complete, clients and artist happy with end result, and a huge relief, of the final outcome. It is a massive responsibility to undertake a commission that you know means a great deal to both parties.
I have found it an interesting process, and because the new work was inspired by a previous piece of mine, it was strange to see how my interpretation had progressed, and changed, I found that I could not re inhabit the same space I was in previously, and that my style had subtly altered.
It only remains for the work to be hung in the clients home, and I will be posting pics of the panels in situe, cant wait.
Coming to the end of a Commission
I am on the final track, after lots of ups and downs, and it is quite scary to think that you will be losing something that you have obsessed about for a period of time. This body of work has grown from raw materials, wood, screws, glue, primer, pigment, varnish, dutch metal(schlag). I have repainted my under painting and gilding twice, lots of time waiting for process to dry, and worst of all, leaving to get your eyes reset from looking at the work too long. The panels are now in my sitting room, so that I can get new perspective on them. Still finessing and touching up. Image is quite dull but gives an idea.
Commission Progress
Continued with under painting of panels, using acrylic paints, this is just the first part of my process, and it is important to get a good balance of colour bearing in mind that it will all be completely gilded over.
Gilding completed today, will leave overnight and then distress both panels tomorrow, as timing will be critical.
Coming towards the culmination of these panels, I always enjoy this part as it is a coming together of all the processes. By now the panels are quite heavy and really take some man handling around, sometimes wonder why I don’t just paint on canvas, but then I guess I wouldn’t enjoy it half so much, and for me, texture and relief is my passion.
Field Work & Multi Tasking
My panels have now had all their layers of gesso completed, and set, and need to be sanded down ready for the next stage, but 1st I need to batten the back of the panels to ensure the strength of the panels as they are quite heavy now. Ideally I should have done this as 1st job, but has to be done now before the final stages of painting gilding and distressing.
I have been taking advantage of fine weather to collect specimens for my Jars. This time of year their are lots of fruits, berries and seeds that are interesting shapes.
Fresh from the kiln
I have filled the kiln with flowers leaves and seaweed, dipped in porcelain paper clay slip and air dried, it is always a bit of a lottery what will survive, and this is the first time I’ve tried seaweed, bladder-wrack to be precise.
most of the bladder-wrack survived, along with other pieces. These pieces are very fragile as they are only dipped once, if I dip twice I lose definition, which I want to keep. The fragility is also a metaphor for the fragility of life, and here I think of the coral reefs that are dead or dying, that have all their colour and life leached out of them, also the bleached bones and fossils, survivors of artifacts that lived once.
Inspiration
Today I have completed another layer on panels, and I am close to completing this phase, all that’s required now is for layers to completely dry out, and then I can commence with under-painting.
I have just taken out of the kiln some flowers and leaves that have been dipped in porcelain slip, it is always interesting to see what has survived and what hasn’t, and sometimes the unusual not quite’s are more interesting.
…………….. just out of the kiln, and survived burnout
