A Pilgrimage.......

Georgia O'Keefe at the Tate. What a way to start the week.  First discovered her when I was a student in the late 60's, when the idea of a woman artist being successful and making it up there with the 'big boys' was absolutely mind blowing.  Saw photos of her flowers and only one or two landscapes, there was no internet and the only books we had were whatever the college librarian deemed suitable, so the big exhibition at the Tate was a dream come true.

It was really exciting to get up close and look at the detail and how she worked her images. I was surprised at how thinly the paint was applied, it almost had the appearance of watercolour. I had expected a more impasto, but this was so delicate . Beautiful drawings and the colour applied 'inside the lines',  no overlapping, but fabulous gradations that carried behind the foreground items. I do hope someone has saved/archived her drawings. There is another story to be told there.

I bought this card to send to my Mum, thought it would bring a smile to her day.

This is my favourite Georgia painting. This image haunted my dreams for months. Extremely clever lady.

(Both these images from the Tate web page)






That was a lovely day out with my friend Amanda House (see Blogspot View from our Hill). Finished off with a meal at Le Pain au Quotidien - Mmmmm.  Thank you John for chauffering us to and from the station.

From there the week went downhill. Our lovely facebook page, Dorset Artists, has had its first major upheaval. Someone asked in a PM about copyright, what a minefield. Suffice to say I hope it blows over if we don't keep mentioning it!

Have been working on my watercolours again.  Autumn is always a lovely time to experiment, the colours can be so vibrant (reds, yellows, oranges) or misty and interesting (smoky blues and greys).

I have been painting rosehips.  I love the slashes of crimson and cadmium red amongst the bright green leaves. From a distance they look like blood flecks against the foliage.

Then as the week has gone on  the yellow is creeping into the leaves and their shapes are changing, curling and withering. Do I sound obsessed yet?