Untitled. Oil, conté & graphite on Mylar 20″x24″. (These paintings always look so much better in real life, I think.)
A winged thing that is tied to water. Inspired from bits and pieces from the river shoreline, things now lying around the studio.
A studio view with most of the mess unseen.
(The other painting was posted previously here.)
© Karen McRae, 2013
Sliver-thin layers and double exposures. From the series Surface, Submerge.
© Karen McRae, 2013
I suppose this image doesn’t seem to have much to do with the rest of this post but it is woven in with a fine thread…
In the past few months I have been very fortunate to be included in a couple of wonderful publications and I thought I would mention this as a way of perhaps introducing these magazines to anyone that might be interested.
The first is a gorgeous publication from the Netherlands called “Flow Magazine” and they included this blog(!) in an article all about nature blogs. (*Although the article is in Dutch, Flow Mag has recently started issuing international copies of their magazine in English. Also, I recommend checking out some of those other nature bloggers listed if you have the time.)
You can find a copy of that article here: Flow Magazine ‘Groene Bloggers’
I am honoured, also, to have art from my ‘Surface, Submerge’ series included in the latest print issue of Art & Science Journal along with some other very accomplished artists.
You can find that article here: Surface, Submerge
As well as print issues, Art & Science Journal has a very beautiful and interesting blog.
Many thanks to both of these publications for the recognition, and for allowing me to ‘reprint’ these articles [*copyright of these articles remains with each publication]. I hope you get a chance to check them out – click on the images below to be brought to their home pages.
(Untitled. Oil, graphite and Conté on Mylar)
It’s the first day of summer here and it feels like a true summer day with gently swaying grasses in the sunshine and strange insects in the garden.
[The first image is a painting/drawing in progress (I never know whether to call my pieces paintings or drawings – I guess they are both) and the other two images are photographs made with camera movement.]
© Karen McRae, 2013
This image is made from 2 photographs. One being a surface reflection of flowing water, and the other, remains of a seagull.
The seagull caught my eye because as it was lying in the water at the river’s edge, the wings were moving with the rhythmic lapping of the water, as though somehow, there was still a touch of life.
© Karen McRae, 2013
Taking things apart.
Above are the two separate images I had combined in the previous post. The duck is cropped to make it less central. It still feels very familiar to me this particular bird-in-flight form.
It twigged a memory of watching the herons in flight during the last days of Autumn, just before migration. It is such a different form.
[Thank you to everyone who joined in the discussion for the last post. It was very interesting!]
© Karen McRae, 2013
There has been quite a lot of painting happening here the last couple of months. Brushstrokes and thin layers, glazing and blending.
Trying to find the essence of a seascape in a slow build.
The subdued colours of a day with a low sky.
A sky that settles like a whisper in your cupped hands.
A world painted by fog.
This is not the sea but there is a sense of it here in this river. An essence. There was a sea here once. It has left pieces of itself behind.
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© Karen McRae, 2013
fog. flight. and true fables.
© Karen McRae, 2013
An image from a photographic series layering the ephemeral (withering flora) and the enduring (ancient fossils). This image is an in-camera double exposure. You may recognize the form of the orchid from the previous post.
© Karen McRae, 2013
Dessicated orchids, still in bloom.
© Karen McRae, 2013
draw and shoot 