Dawn Over the Copse, ©John O’Grady 2015
8″ x 8″ x 1.5″, oil on deep edged panel, ready to hang.
I have often spoken about how memory of place enters into much of my work but the memory of a place is often filtered by time and the love of particular paintings carried round in my mind. These also play a crucial role in what I end up making.
There is a core of artists I look at often, when I am stuck and don’t know how to move forward or just to look at for pleasure. Many are female artists: Helen Frankenthaler, Agnes Martin, Gwen John and the great Joan Eardley.
While painting this work, her paintings came flooding back and especially her energetic treatment of foreground and that often used phrase ‘a sense of place’ she captured in her work.
When looking at her work, Dylan Thomas’s poem ‘The force that through the green fuse drives the flower’ comes to mind. This title seems to fit perfectly her work even though I’m not sure I understand fully its meaning. It seems to be like a force of nature erupting onto the paint surface, her work appears fearless and full of energy and yet its treatment is so sensitive.
Seeded-Grasses-and-DaisiesSeptember, 1960. Oil and seed heads on Hardboard, 122cm x 133cm
All of Joan’s landscapes and seascapes were painted outdoors. Grass and seed heads are mixed into the paint, probably picked from where she was standing. They add texture, combining real and painted imagery.
Summer Fields, 1961, Oil and grasses on hardboard, 111cm x 110cm.
One of my particular favourites. Painted near Catterline, a small fishing village south of Aberdeen where she spent much of her time from the 1950s. The work is verging on the abstract.
Can you feel the life force surging through these pieces? She is in these paintings, heart and soul bared
for all to see.
You can see over 100 of Joan’s paintings here.
These tour de force paintings are big, well over 100 cm and painted outdoors in extremes of weather. She must have been a determined and tough character but I think that comes through in the work too. Unfortunately she died when still in full artistic flow. Who knows what might have lay ahead for her.
These paintings and many others are like dear friends that continue to give me support and nourishment in my own work.
‘Dawn over the Copse’ has a different mood, quieter. It captures the atmosphere and light at the start of day. Influences surface in unexpected ways, filtered through our own temperament.
I would love to hear what you think.
I love the colours in this latest painting of yours. Especially the sky.
Thanks for introducing me to some of your favourite painters, there were several I didn’t know.
I like ‘Summer fields ‘a lot, and agree with you how her strong life force radiates from the paintings, and I wouldn’t have guessed the scale, they seem monumental but also intimate and small.
This was a timely post for me, I am once again copying one of Ivon Hitchens works because they delight me and push me further in letting go of my tendency to draw and keep perfecting. Plus the colours light up my lights.
I wasn’t going to mention copying yet another work on my blog, slightly ashamed as if I can’t come up with my own ideas. And I hadn’t previously seen other artists I admire speaking about being directly inspired by fellow artist’s work. So I appreciate you mentioning it.
My challenge is to bring what I learn from copying, back into my own work.I tend to admire artists whose technique and way of seeing is far from my own.
Meanwhile, we’ll have an ‘original’ Hitchens for our bedroom. 🙂
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/371406300496291461/
(Maybe I should go into art forgery!) cheers, Sarah
Hello Sarah,
That’s a lovely still life, I can see why you worked through and created a great Hitchens forgery 🙂 Well it’s interesting what you say about not having encountered other artists talking about their influences, after all none of us operate in a vacuum. I wonder had Kiefer been looking at Eardley when afixing grasses and seedheads to his paintings, perhaps!
Yes I agree ‘Summer Fields’ is monumental but also intimate, she managed to square that particular circle with fabulous results.
Thank you for your comment on the ‘Dawn over the Copse’
Thanks for introducing me to these paintings John and for your interesting reflections on memory and influence. There is a gentle quietness in ‘Dawn over the Copse’ and the colour is wonderfully evocative with a delicate milky light. The overall palette and especially the warm glow of the grasses in the foreground appeals to me and the copse adds an air of mystery. Lovely.
Hello Christine,
You are welcome, she is not that well known unfortunately. She found I think a great balance between power and delicacy. I think the palette in ‘Dawn over the Copse’ is an interesting one which gives a particular atmosphere to the piece, with as you say the ‘milky light’. I am glad to hear that the painting has a mysterious air for you, thank you for your comment.
I really enjoyed your commentary, John, and the comparison with Eardley’s work, which seems overwhelmingly “life force”-driven to me! I looked at some of her other paintings, and what strikes me is the furious energy in the brushwork and palettes and the rendering of things like sky and water as almost solid forms. I can see how this would inspire and influence you, particularly in the way you work the foreground and your beautiful, lively treatment of grasses. But whereas she renders scudding clouds with a couple of rough strokes, as in Summer Fields, your work has a delicacy and transparency, especially with distant views and in changing light, that for me captures the mood of certain elusive atmospheres, seasons, times of day, and imagined landscapes more completely. I would love to see Eardley’s work up close, though, as it seems that the energy would spill right into the room. And there’s something very thrilling about those definitive marks! Your thoughts about the Dylan Thomas poem seem very apt. “Dawn Over the Copse” has a marvelous balance of ethereality and groundedness — it evokes the feeling of a walk at daybreak with a soft breeze blowing as the sky is opening up.
Hello Jo,
‘life force’ driven absolutely and Yes I think they would spill right into the room. Thank you for your comment on ‘Dawn over the Copse’ and your thoughtful remarks on the differences between it and ‘Summer Fields’. The ‘ethereal quality and groundedness’ in the painting that you speak of is perhaps the continuing interest in the relationship between what is aerial and what is matter. Perhaps explored through the palette. Thank you very much.