Glenn Marshall - Yorkshire Artist
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The Devil's in the Detail....or is it?

27/1/2015

4 Comments

 
Picture
Now what could this be?
What do reckon this is? Before you answer - here's another question. Have you ever seen a painting in a book or on your screen and thought how good it was only to be disappointed when you see the real thing? I'm sure we all have but what about the other way round. Could it be detrimental to a painting to not see the original? I use the internet a lot to showcase my work and I have no issues with the quality of the images I upload to my website, Facebook etc, etc. However for me there is no substitute for seeing the original close up and personal. I would like to illustrate this by using one of my paintings. I am not going to show you which one until the end. One of the drawbacks of not seeing a painting in real life is that a lot of the details can be easily overlooked. If you only see a digital image of a painting on your laptop or mobile device it is very difficult to grasp the scale or context of the piece. The size of a painting is very important because it is chosen by the artist so he or she can fully accommodate the ideas that have inspired in the first place. This particular painting is 30" x 22" and with a 3" mount and 1" frame width it takes up a sizeable chunk of any wall. Here's another bit....
Picture
What do you reckon...a flower of some sort? This will help:
Picture
Once the flower is seen in context it is much easier for the mind to process. These are buttercups. I drew them and added masking fluid before painting over them. When the painting was absolutely dry I removed the mask and painted the flowers - winsor yellow for the petals with a tiny drop of winsor red in the centre while still wet. So here's your next one:
Picture
Right - obviously a hedgerow. It's meant to be hawthorn painted quickly with reds blues and yellows mixing together wet and wet and then darker branches and leaves painted in after the first wash was dry. Let's move upwards a bit....
Picture
So here's the top branch of the hawthorn hedge and now we see some details of the landscape. This could only be the glorious Yorkshire Wolds with its undulating contours, large fields, big sky and characteristic yellow oilseed rape fields in the background. Here's another feature:
Picture
It's an old chapel but clearly abandoned and derelict so let's see how it sits in the landscape:
Picture
Once it's surrounded by trees it looks even more lonely and sad. But this is not a sad painting. On the contrary I was inspired by the exuberance of spring life all around me - the lush greens, the cheerful flowers and the singing birds - a celebration of riotous renewal. I hope you have enjoyed looking at some details from my painting and if you have got this far then I reckon  you deserve to see the full monty....so here it is...
Picture
"Buttercups and Bibles"
So the strange looking object at the start turned out to be a fence post. Did you guess right? I hope you have enjoyed looking at these little details and that they have added to your enjoyment of the whole painting. Anyway one last little test before I leave. Can you find another symbol of new life and renewal in the painting? Let me know if you do. Glenn
4 Comments
leta
27/1/2015 06:03:24 pm

Well, at first , I though it may be a headstone because of the curvature. Then, I was starting to think it was a post of some sort. Awww, and I see the new calf. Are you related to Sherlock Holmes? I enjoyed the mystery. Lovely painting, Leta

Reply
Glenn Marshall
28/1/2015 06:11:12 am

"Elementary my dear Leta!". Well spotted. When I went to do sketch there were a lot of cows and a notice - beware of the bull - so I didn't get as close as originally intended. However the bull probably did me a favour as the painting became a 'landscape with a church in' rather than a 'church in a landscape' if you get what I mean.

Reply
Brad Gilchrist link
28/1/2015 02:06:55 pm

Beautiful painting and very entertaining site. . . I guessed "stone marker" what it was marking I had no clue. Enjoyed the visit and I will share

Reply
Glenn Marshall
29/1/2015 09:55:46 am

Thanks Brad - I am glad you enjoyed it. That wasn't a bad guess as I have painted a lot of the old stone way markers on the North Yorkshire moors. I'll have to dig out a few. Thanks for share. Glenn

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    Professional artist now semi retired and enjoying being eccentric!

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