Rosewall Hill, looming. Digital painting.
Between visitors to my recent exhibition, Beneath the Surface, in King’s Lynn, I thought I’d make good use of any ‘downtime’ and try out the digital painting app ArtRage on my iPad. It took a few attempts to get the hang of, but it’s becoming compulsive and I like to think it may have a positive effect on my use of colour and mark-making.
‘What remains’. Digital painting.
Anyway, these are some of the results, inspired by a day spent exploring the surrounding moorlands and remains of the Levant and Geevor tin and copper mines in Cornwall on a recent St Ives holiday. The two digital paintings above are the latest ones and I think I’ve learnt to exploit more of the subtleties of the tool/colour/effect options of the ArtRage app since I produced the first examples below.
I’ll probably always prefer to use physical paint on paper or canvas, but in situations like this in places where I don’t want to make a mess or leave work drying while I talk to someone, the iPad might make a useful sketchbook alternative.
Geevor Mine, Pendeen. Digital painting.
Levant: verdigris leach. Digital painting.
Mari French RI : contemporary artworks 
Mari, I really really like these & enjoy the fact that when I learnt that they were done on an iPad, I thought to myself….aah! thats it, however I didn’t know you could do this on a computer. There is a loveliness to the computer generated-ness quality that I can’t quite explain. Very pure & filtered almost, I don’t know and could go round in circles here, but won’t, but I can’t stop looking at them.
That’s lovely Sam, it’s thrilling to me that you get such pleasure out of them. I had always assumed I’d find digital painting a bit cold and clinical, but I’m surprised by how fulfilling it can be … it’s just another way of expressing my reactions to a subject after all isn’t it. I’ve used Photoshop a lot in my former life as a graphic designer but, possibly because these weren’t produced for a commercial reason, they felt entirely different to work on. It will be interesting to see if I feel differently when (if) I use the app for sketching from life. These were done entirely from memory.
Thanks for responding to my post so quickly! 🙂