TWILIGHT
Autumn 2020 paintings all on Arches Huile 100% cotton archival paper on board, 26 x 58 cm, framed
GORM: ALL WEATHER PITCH – BONNYRIGG Oil A floodlit oasis, inspired by chauffeured a young friend to football training. Selected for the RSA Open Exhibition 2021 (online)
GOLD: SUPERMARKET - STRAITON Oil, tempera, gold leaf The warm glow of Sainsburys. I remembered my old, gold SAAB car and imagined it coming to take me back to less frightening times.
BLUE: SERVICE ROAD – STRAITON Oil A metal landscape, discovered when I collected surplus food from M&S in Straiton for redistribution.
GREEN: SUPERMARKET - THE JEWEL Oil and oil pastel Waiting for a prescription for antibiotics following unsuccessful root canal treatment as I started 10 days self-isolation, seagulls appeared green when they flew near the ASDA sign.
YELLOW: VISITOR CENTRE - ROSLIN Oil with copper leaf An empty, artificially lit place seen against a low slung, haloed moon; the familiar appearing unfamiliar
SILVER: PLAYGROUND - ROSLIN Oil and aluminium leaf Floodlights on the community centre highlight the playground as the sun sets
all work © Linda Sheridan
WEE OIL PAINTINGS
Summer 2022 Plein-air oil paintings on linen-faced board 18 x 24 cm in wood tray frames 21 x 27 cm
WATERSIDE FLORA A.M. - HARLAW RESERVOIR On the beach by the reservoir with the ranger's team collecting the litter from the night before! I ignored the plastic waste to focus on the plants surviving at the water's edge.
WATERSIDE FLORA P.M. - HARLAW RESERVOIR - WITH BARBECUE BURN - SOLD Afternoon, on the shore at Harlaw. I included the longer-lasting trace left by last night's campers, the scorch marks of a disposable barbecue. I love trying to make sense of nature's clutter of stems and leaves.
'HE OVERTOOK HER IN THE WOOD' A.M. - HARLAW RESERVOIR A line from Burns 'On A Bank Of Flowers.' Harlaw on August evenings heaved with wild camping, leaving a morning-after feel. Morning sun reflected off the water glimpsed through the trees. There is a familiar but eerie sense of being seen, hiding, naughtiness.
'HE OVERTOOK HER IN THE WOOD' P.M. - HARLAW RESERVOIR - SOLD In the afternoon, the same scene but substituting colours of equivalent tonal values. I think the yellow of the reflections on the water adds to the eeriness of the scene.
THE TRILLS OF LITTLE GREBES - HIGH POND, PENICUIK HOUSE - SOLD Penicuik House Estate kindly permitted a group from Penicuik Community Arts Association to paint in the wildlife area normally closed to the public. Sitting by the High Pond, the air filled with the trilling of Little Grebes. Layers of far trees, further trees, hills with shifting shadows.
FLOATING - HIGH POND, PENICUIK HOUSE The lily pad floated, the reflections floated, the ground and trees seem to float above the reflections. I was interested in how the bright colours of the lily pad could sit within the muted colours of the lake, rendered in a very limited palette.
UNDER THE WALNUT TREE A.M. - INVERESK LODGE GARDEN Ah the heat - I enjoyed sitting in the shade beside the ridged and whorled bark of the huge tree. I worked on a burnt sienna background which affected the way I painted the bright sunlit scene beyond.
UNDER THE WALNUT TREE P.M. - INVERESK LODGE GARDEN In the afternoon, still enjoying the heat and taking a simpler approach, eyes scrunched to try not to see too much detail! The texture of the bark when sat under the tree seems quite light but the bright scene beyond pushed me to paint the bark darker. This time I worked on a yellow background and felt more cheerful!
LAYER CAKE - INVERESK LODGE GARDEN Sitting on a sunlit lawn, head on to the layering of the herbaceous border and bench backed by a sandstone wall, with the glasshouse behind and bright sky. A very urgently painted image, all the better for that. I enjoy the swirls of paint of the ornate metal bench.
WALNUT SHADE - INVERESK LODGE GARDEN The bench under the walnut tree, viewed from the sunny lawn. I had enjoyed the shade there the day before. Looking back at the same place, diverted by the bright details of a pot of geraniums. Three colours + white painted over a yellow background.
BLUE SHADE - INVERESK LODGE GARDEN Late August afternoon. The bench became an unconscious focus and took on an otherworldly blue. I was trying to limit the number of brush strokes, to link gesture with form. Three colours + white painted over a black background.
THE IMPRINT WE LEAVE IN THE INTIMATE TEXTURE OF SPACE - ROSLIN I found the title from Hole Ouisa’s film about Roslin Curling Pond: a quote from Nabokov: “I could also distinguish the glint of a special puddle ... an oblong puddle invariably acquiring the same form after every shower because of the constant spatulate shape of a depression in the ground. Possibly something of the kind may be said to occur in regard to the imprint we leave in the intimate texture of space.”
EVERY LEAF SPEAKS BLISS TO ME - INVERESK LODGE GARDEN I started this minutes before the garden closed, very bold strokes in thick paint. I waited for the paint to dry, went back several days later. Almost all the leaves had fallen and I painted their ghosts. A challenge to find the right tone for the sky beside the shadowed white roof truss and window wall. The title is from Emily Bronte's poem "Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away; Lengthen night and shorten day; Every leaf speaks bliss to me Fluttering from the autumn tree..."
APRICOT ALFRED LETTING GO - INVERESK LODGE GARDEN In the glasshouse, Prunus Armenica Alfred, the apricot tree. I drew it in oil pastel, returned a couple days later to paint it, delighted to find the same leaf posed on the edge of the terracotta pot. I loved the crazed bark.
BACK AGAINST AN OLD TREE - INVERESK LODGE GARDEN A stunning blue sky plus gusting winds! I sat against the trunk of an old decayed tree trunk which swayed creakily as I painted and clung onto the canvas and palette!
DAY OF THE PARTIAL ECLIPSE - INVERESK LODGE GARDEN I was drawn to the colour of the tree and only later appreciated the intricacies of the 17th century sundial, with its turquoise weathered metal gnomons. Its stillness counterpointed the flurries of falling leaves - my initial underpainting had far more leaves! At first the day seemed strangely dark and still - I later heard there had been a partial eclipse before the bright sky appeared.
ISLE OF LEWIS
CALANAIS: GHOSTS, SMIRR, SOUTHERN SKY Soft Pastel with raindrops on paper I worked 'en plein air' seated on the ground by a fence, looking south. 15 August 2022 09:00-10:55. I was saddened by recent buildings so close to the stones . A sheepdog shepherded the early tourists. I took time to focus. Smirr ended play. Soft pastel is a difficult medium for the Outer Hebrides but its subtlety matches the landscape. I had to leave several stones unfinished and felt that despite their enduring solidity this ghostly appearance fitted the spirit of the place..
CALANAIS: GNEISS, SEDGE, WESTERN SKY Soft pastel, graphite, ink on paper I worked 'en plein air' seated on the ground by a fence, looking west. 15 August 2022 16:00-17:40 The smirr had relented. I was less concerned with the enigma of the site than the physicality of the veined stones, patinated with lichen, the changing shades of grey sky, and the resilient grasses. I zoned out much. Calanais in August is overrun by visitors. While I was drawing, someone conducted a noisy fashion shoot around the stones with a drone and a woman in a red Marilyn dress. They left us to the sound of wind, birdsong, dogs barking, and tourist guides. I returned later to enjoy the stillness of a feeble sunset.
all work © Linda Sheridan
PICT-ISH [awaiting illustrations]
Each image 14 x 30 cm (33 x 43 cm frame) comprises a Linocut print and a blind emboss
PICT-ISH: OSPREY AND SALMON An expression of the continuity of experience across centuries. The natural world endures both in reality and in old stone. An imagining of what an ancient stonecarver had observed. I interpreted the original carving, in the Museum of Scotland, as an osprey with a salmon though I subsequently learnt that a sea eagle was a more usual religious symbol. I found it difficult to print inked relief and blind emboss on the same piece of paper - each image requires different levels of moisture and pressure. However, less skilful than hand carving fluid lines in stone 1700 years ago.
PICT-ISH: GREYLAG GOOSE My second imagining of what an ancient stonecarver had observed. I believe the original carving, in the Museum of Scotland, adepicts a greylag goose. Inking the modern goose was far more diffcult than the blind emboss! I based the linocut of the modern goose on an online photograph by Ian Fulton. An artist's proof is unique, although the lino can subsequently be printed again. If you have great patience!
WALKING IN JAPAN
Spring 2021 images recalling people and streets from my visit to Japan in Summer 2019
PEOPLESCAPE, JAPAN Charcoal and soft pastel on paper 28 x 60 cm framed Recollections of a statue in Zentsu-ji, a salaryman sleeping on a bus in Kyoto, a Kabuki theatre poster, monks at Toji Temple, a woman at Fushimi Inari shrine, sandals of passengers on a train. Set against a skyscape of cables in Kobe.
PEOPLESCAPE, JAPAN (after Sylvia Wishart) Oil on archival oil paper 28 x 60 cm framed I used a palette of colours from works by Sylvia Wishart in translating my black and white drawing into an oil painting. Orkney meets Japan!
GUARDIAN LION Conte crayons on Canson Mi-Teintes Paper 27 x 42 cm framed, £160 A collage of people from Shikoku island, focused on a a lion statue from a shrine in Kyoto, with votive bib and bonnet. The main woman was an attendant on a luxurious historic train.
all work © Linda Sheridan
WOODLAND
YELLOWCRAIG PLANTATION I Oil pastel on Two Rivers watercolour paper on board 40 x 58 cm framed Painted one hot day in August 2021 when I meant to paint a seascape but got no further than the woodland by the car park. The oil pastel skipped across the texture of the handmade paper. The brightness of the beach glimpsed between the trees. The changing light fractures the scene.
YELLOWCRAIG PLANTATION II Oil on archival oil paper on board 40 x 58 cm framed I returned to explore the same scene in oil paint. Dog at my feet, focusing on the stillness of the trees and changing light, back turned to the ice cream vans and families headed to the beach. Slow painting, finding colours to create a portrait of a place.
WOODLAND Mixed media on both sides of washi made by the artist, in A3 acrylic display stand (not yet photographed successfully!) I tried to recreate the sense of space in the Yellowcraig paintings. I drew without direct representation, enjoying the texture of a sheet of washi that I'd made in Japan which incorporates fragments of kozo bark. Printing ink on the obverse shows through in strong light , adding depth.
all work © Linda Sheridan