IAN SCOTT MASSIE: PAINTER AND PRINTMAKER
  • Home
  • Art
    • Giclee Prints
    • Open Edition Prints
    • The Yorkshire Dales
    • Masham
    • Yorkshire
    • Midlands
    • Scotland
    • London and The South
    • The North of England: Lake District and The North East
    • Large Paintings
    • Miscellany
    • Northern Soul
    • Screen Prints
  • Commissions
  • Exhibitions
  • Contact
    • Contact
    • Where you can find me
    • Previous Exhibitions
    • Biography
  • Books etc.
  • Courses
  • Art Tuition
  • Blog
  • On Film

Ian Scott Massie's Blog

Nailing Your Colours To The Canvas

1/5/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
An interesting news item cropped up in the papers just after New Year. A painting of the Elizabethan spymaster, Francis Walsingham, was found to have been painted over an earlier image of the Virgin and Child. The Guardian article, which appeared on 3rd January, suggested that the arch-Protestant Walsingham would have been horrified to discover that his image was floating a few millimetres above an overtly Catholic image.

Further correspondence to the paper the following day pointed out that the destruction of a Catholic image and its replacement with that of a Protestant campaigner would have delighted Walsingham – and I suspect this is true.

But how would an artist view this story? Well, a seasoned wooden panel would have too good, in material terms, not to have been reused. Any artist soon realises that painting over an existing image, which has been primed afresh, gives a wealth of interesting textures that underlie and guide the brush strokes. Also, in an historical period such as this, artists would have been painting out unsalable images and replacing them with saleable ones as fast as possible.

So I think what we’re looking at here is a result of a major cultural tsunami. A regime change has rendered a lot of paintings politically unacceptable (and therefore unmarketable), the ruling elite are leading a demand for images of the new movers and shakers, and artists have making the most of the situation.

The question is: how many more lost paintings are there under pictures painted at similar times. Quite a few, I would think.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    November 2022
    September 2020
    March 2020
    August 2017
    July 2017
    April 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

Ian scott massie


Paintings & prints

Castles/Abbeys
Lake District
Large Paintings
Limited Editions
N York Moors
Places of Pilgrimage
Yorkshire Dales
N York Moors
Lake District

The Marches
Scotland
Screen Prints

About

Exhibitions
Books
Art Tuition
Commissions
Contact
Privacy Policy
​

Email

ianscottmassie@mac.com
  • Home
  • Art
    • Giclee Prints
    • Open Edition Prints
    • The Yorkshire Dales
    • Masham
    • Yorkshire
    • Midlands
    • Scotland
    • London and The South
    • The North of England: Lake District and The North East
    • Large Paintings
    • Miscellany
    • Northern Soul
    • Screen Prints
  • Commissions
  • Exhibitions
  • Contact
    • Contact
    • Where you can find me
    • Previous Exhibitions
    • Biography
  • Books etc.
  • Courses
  • Art Tuition
  • Blog
  • On Film