Just a quick post to say I’ve overhauled my gallery on this blog (see menu above), with a selection of artworks (some of which you’ll have seen in recent posts). Hope you enjoy browsing! Feedback welcome.
Experimental ink study © Mari French 2017
I’m off to London by train tomorrow to deliver these 3 recent paintings for final judging for the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours Exhibition 2017 at the Mall Galleries, London.
I was fortunate to get 2 through the final selection last year (which I wrote about in this post), so I’m delighted to have had 3 through the preselection process this year. These are from my current series of works inspired by the Venetian lagoon and its islands. You can see others in the series on my website here.
Wish me luck!
‘Neither land nor sea’, water-based mixed media on board. © Mari French 2017.
‘The crossing’, water-based mixed media on board. © Mari French 2017.
‘Resonance’, water-based mixed media on board. © Mari French 2017.
Recent markmaking and loosening up exercises helped me get back into painting after limited studio time over the new year, and overcome the dreaded artist’s block. The result was these little studies in acrylic and ink on paper. I used just 3 colours (plus white), watching the interesting colour mixes emerge.
By working on a group of smallish papers fixed close together I could use big gestures to make the marks, skipping from one to the other with my implements or media as instinct took over. The trick with this method of loosening up is not to think too much about what you’re doing.
It’s great playing around like this and it does seem to feed into later work in certain ways. Above I’ve used everything from eyedroppers, ink pencils and several types of brush to fingers and the side of my hand to push and pull the paint around, scribing into it with the end of a small paintbrush.
Tonal values experimental study © Mari French 2017
Experimental study (detail) © Mari French 2017
Mari French RI : contemporary artworks 