Ian Scott Massie's Blog

Published on: August 11, 2012

Art in the Pen - the North's Visual Art Fair

Ribblehead Viaduct (Watercolour)

I'm taking part in Art in the Pen this year. Its an annual gathering of great artistic talent in the unlikely setting of an auction mart in Skipton. Where sheep and cattle are normally bought and sold there will be paintings, prints and pottery instead.

Bolton Abbey (Watercolour)

For this event I've been working on some new paintings including Bolton Abbey and the Strid but I'll also be showing work of Ribblehead Viaduct on the nearby Settle to Carlisle Railway and Janet's Foss - a beautiful waterfall near Malham in addition to a wide range of other paintings and prints.

The Strid (Mixed Media)

Among the other artists taking part are Charlotte Morrison, Hester Cox and Rosie Scott Massie who, like me, show their work at The Masham Gallery.

Art in the Pen runs from Sat 18 and Sun 19 August and is open from 10am to 4pm. Admission is £2 (under 16s free). There is also free parking and the event can be found at Skipton Auction Mart, Gargrave Road, Skipton, BD23 1UD.

Horses Under a Yellow Sky (Mixed Media)

CLICK HERE to see more pictures which will be on show at Art in the Pen.

CLICK HERE to visit the Art in the Pen website.

CURRENT EXHIBITION

Until August 31st: The Edge of the World

Bamburgh (Watercolour)

The Edge of the World is at:
The Gallery, 24, Market Place, Masham, North Yorkshire. HG4 4EB
www.mashamgallery.co.uk

The Gallery opening hours are:
Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 1pm - 5pm
Monday - Closed

All the paintings and prints shown in this newsletter are available to buy through The Masham Gallery.
CLICK HERE to enquire.

Published on: July 23, 2012

Going Into Print

Until I went to Neville's Cross College in Durham in 1973 I had no idea what a screen print was. But then I met a couple of art students who were turning out fabulous images using a process that was incredibly simple and brilliantly clever.

As with so many wonderful things, it was the Chinese who came up with screen printing. You take a piece of fabric (silk was the norm for a long time), stretch it over a frame and block out areas - with a stencil or by painting on a special blocking fluid - that you don't want to print. Then using a squeegee (a short length of wood holding a rubber blade) you squeeze ink through the screen onto the paper or fabric beneath.

On Janet's Foss (above) I began by blocking out the white areas of the waterfall and reflection and printed the pale green layer. Next, everything that is pale green was blocked out and the mid green layer was printed. Lastly everything but the dark green areas was blocked and the print was completed.

Used in this way screen printing is perfect for painters since (as long as you can think in terms of negative space) it allows you to use to same skill set that one normally uses directly on paper. Compared with etching, for example, it is a low tech, clean, safe process requiring no acid baths or sharp tools.

Brograve Mill 4 colour screen print Edition of 9

Masham Church 3 colour screen print Edition of 7

When I came back to screen printing after a gap of many years I found that the materials had changed (manmade fibre screens and easy to clean water-based inks) and also that I had changed. As a result of my years developing as a painter I had found a style and some of this carried over into screen print. For the prints of both Brograve Mill (a derelict windmill in North Norfolk) and Masham Church (which I see every time I look out of my window) I have used a very limited palette. I have also made strong use of shadows, reflections and texture techniques - all ideas which have developed from my painting. I also like the fact that a screen print is very much a handmade work and I only produce small editions of print (usually only 6 to 10 copies of each image).

I now find that painting and screen printing allow me to develop artistic ideas in very different ways.

All the new prints above, and several more, can be seen on the freshly-revised screen print page on my website. CLICK HERE to be taken there.

To receive updates on my work as it develops follow me on Facebook (by CLICKING HERE) or on Twitter (by CLICKING HERE).

A large selection of my work is always available at The Masham Gallery.

Published on: July 13, 2012

Under A Northern Sky

Under A Northern Sky was first published in 2009. It is a collection of poetry and paintings which I had written and painted over a number of years and which I felt complimented each other.

It now appears in a completely revised second edition and is the first book to appear in the imprint of Masham Gallery Press.

It is priced at £9.95 and is available from The Gallery, Masham

ISBN 978-1-909260-00-9

CLICK HERE to order Under A Northern Sky

A few extracts from Under A Northern Sky :

Curlews

Wind of cloudscape and seaspray
Scours, roars, glides and soars between the evening hills.
Kissing the fan of falling water,
Rattling the rusted shells of leaves on limestone,
Hissing in a tide of trees
And lifting the magic bird.

The stone coloured camouflaged curlew -
Curving beak and curving song -
Swings like a dark lantern on the unseen slopes of sky
And pours its liquid flight
Down to the nest of night.

Waterfalls

Its is only when I am afar and alone
My three loves,
That I see you clearly.
Glittering,
Poured like wine over silver,
You are my roses and my rain.

Hard on the ice-bound edge of the year
Or drowsy in folds of a summer meadow,
I sleep with your dreams running sweet through my song
And know you,
In truth,
As the only gold.

I am always in awe of your matchless light,
But ever I aim where my strength will not follow,
So I am Icarus and you are the sun
And I die for your joy and am glad in my sorrow.

A November Kind of Day

This is the hour when the weariness comes
And the pen is falling from my fingers,
When cobbles shine with rain and afternoon light,
And the smoky smells of autumn linger,
And I think about you and I miss you still.
I wish you could hear my song but you never will.
Its a November kind of day.

This is the hour when a telephone rings
But no-one’s ever there to answer.
This is the time when all the fog fills the sky
And hides the heaven’s silver dancers.
And I turn your memory over in my hand.
The way I feel today I know you’d understand.
Its a November kind of day.

This is the time when night comes hungry and cold
Devouring dreams with deadly fingers.
This is the time just like the time you left my life.
I thank God the memory still lingers.
On days like this I feel so sad I cannot say.
I miss the years we lost because you passed away.
Its a November kind of day today.

The Wishing Seat

Whenever I’m here I’m never alone,
There’s always you and me.
Whenever I’m here I feel at home
On the old tree’s bones
Where the sunshine’s warm
And the wind sighs and sings and moans
Like a ship on the southern seas.

Whenever I’m here its a lovely day
Under winter or summer skies
And in times to come when you’re far away
I’ll be leaning back on the bark of grey
And feeling inside the warm sun’s rays
And looking out of your eyes.

Whenever I’m here and the touch of gold
Is frosting the winter breeze
I will always find your hands to hold
For wherever we are we are touching souls
Forever
For in my wishes are folded
Your words by the wishing tree.

Published on: July 7, 2012

The Edge of the World

Ardnamurchan Lighthouse (Watercolour)

New Exhibition at The Gallery, Masham : The Edge of the World
21st July to 31st August

Saltburn Pier (Watercolour)

The Gallery in Masham is mounting an exhibition entitled The Edge of the World which opens with a preview on July 20th. The exhibition's title is taken from a remarkable film set on a remote Scottish island: The Edge of the World. (More about the film below).

Looking From The Yorkshire Border (Mixed Media)
Middlesmoor (Watercolour)

The exhibition will feature by some terrific artists: Catherine Sutcliffe-Fuller, Heather Gatt, Pamela Knight, Winifred Hodge, Gareth Buxton, Lesley Birch and myself.

The concept of "the edge" can mean so many things. The more I thought about it the more I realised that I would have to make some careful choices in exploring the subject. In the end I painted a serious of works which relate to the theme in different ways.

Two pictures: Looking From the Yorkshire Border and Saltburn Pier take Yorkshire as my world and show the views looking from the pass which leads from Cumbria into Swaledale and, far to the East, the end of Yorkshire where Saltburn pier dips its toes in the water.

Lindisfarne (Watercolour)
Lindisfarne (Screen Print)

The images of Lindisfarne and Bamburgh refer both to life on the edge of England but also to where the worlds of the Celtic saints and the Vikings first met. Middlesmoor Church is on a hill, high at the head of Nidderdale, standing in an ancient sacred place where, in the Dark Ages, the edge of earth met the edge of heaven.

Skye from Sanna (Screen Print)

Skye from Sanna and The Lightouse, Ardnamurchan are both paintings from Ardnamurchan in Argyllshire, the most westerly part of the British mainland. Here a long finger of land reaches out, over the isle of Mull, towards the Hebrides. It’s the edge of Scotland and it feels like the edge of another world.

Bamburgh (Watercolour)

The Edge of the World is at:
The Gallery, 24, Market Place, Masham, North Yorkshire. HG4 4EB
www.mashamgallery.co.uk

There is a preview on July 20th at 7.30 pm. Come and join us for a glass of wine if you can.

The exhibition runs from 21st July to 31st August
The Gallery opening hours are:
Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 1pm - 5pm
Monday - Closed

Published on: June 5, 2012

An Invitation to North Yorkshire Open Studios 2012

The Open Studios scheme has been running in North Yorkshire for many years now, and it might have been made for the county. North Yorkshire, England's largest county, includes two National Parks - the Yorkshire Dales and the North Yorks Moors - and is home to a huge community of artists and craftspeople.

Once a year, over two weekends, members of the public get the chance to meet us, watch us at work and buy work directly from the artist. If you're interested in my work please come and see me at Artison, just outside Masham in Wensleydale.

To see some of the work I will be showing this year, opening times and details of discounts on Artison courses CLICK HERE.

To view this year's participants go to the North Yorkshire Open Studios website by clicking HERE

To visit Artison CLICK HERE

Ribblehead, Evening one of the new paintings on show at Open Studios.

Essential Acrylics Workshop - spaces available
Sunday, 15th July 2012, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Price: £65.00

To book CLICK HERE

Acrylic paint has transformed painting since its introduction 50 years ago. Discover the versatility of this easy to use, vibrant medium. At this workshop you will learn what acrylic paints are and how to work with them.

- Be guided through the use of acrylics by brush and knife,
- Find out how to set out your palette and prime your surface
- Explore techniques and media for creating texture
- Learn about brush strokes, colour and tone progression and how to thin paint

Published on: May 17, 2012

Keeping It Simple

Perhaps because I grew up in the sixties, the era of Arne Jacobson, Ian Nairn and Habitat, I have always appreciated minimalism. Though the rooms I live in are cluttered with all sorts of pleasant detritus, when it comes to what lies within a frame less has always seemed more to me. I started with a very limited palette when I began to paint seriously (in oils) in the 1970s - burnt sienna, phthalo blue and white - and for over a year explored the wonders that those three tubes could produce. In this I was led by the persuasive influence of Lowry, Hockney (a great fan of the phthalos in his early days) and , the minimalist master, Whistler.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler made me question how much of anything a picture needs to really work. His great passion was in reducing the variety of tone as a component of a picture. (See Whistler’s Mother - Arrangement in Grey and Black:  Portrait of the Painter’s Mother).This he achieved with an incredibly limited palette and the most economical rendering of his subjects.

Whistler

Hiroshige

Heavily influenced by the Japanese master Ando Hiroshige, Nocturne in Blue and Gold Old Battersea Bridge is a case in point. Its also a typical Whistler title and reflects his desire to relate his work to music. Have a listen to La Cathedral Engloutie by Debussey, one of his contemporaries, and you can see the connection.

Castle Howard in Blue

Castle Howard (detail)

I’ve recently been going back to my minimalist beginnings both in paint and print – trying to find simpler ways to render images which might lure one into a maze of complexity. As part of a series of architectural paintings I’m working on I’ve recently painted Castle Howard (Brideshead for anyone who remembers the excellent adaptation of Waugh’s book). It is an incredibly complex building – a cliff face of elaborate, symmetrical relationships. I’ve worked it up in Indian ink and then repeated washes of watercolour.
Two years ago I took a different approach to Fountains Abbey. In that case, rather than becoming entangled in the Gothic surface decoration, I focused on the charismatic silhouette and the soft light of early evening. (See the top of this blog).

The Mickle Coo and the Muckle Coo

Twa Coos

My latest work is a highly reduced pair of screenprints of Galloway cattle. There is a small herd of these in the fields near Masham bridge and I’ve sketched and reduced them to simple shapes, leaving the imagination to fill in the rest.

If you would like to see any of the pictures above (not Whistler and Hiroshige, I should point out) they are currently on display at The Gallery, Masham.

Into Every Life a Little Rain Must fall, Josie Beszant

The Gallery also has a great exhibition opening Saturday 19th May called Close to Home which features some wonderful work by Josie Beszant, Janis Goodman, Helen Peyton, Rosie Scott-Massie, Angie Rogers, Colin Smithson, Elizabeth Price, Vic Sayers and Wendy Tate. For more details CLICK HERE.

To read May’s newsletter on Andy Goldsworthy CLICK HERE

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Published on: April 30, 2012

The Beautiful Stones

I first came to Avebury in 1965 on a school trip. Although I can’t say my time at Slough Grammar School comprised the happiest days of my life, my alma mater was very good at showing us places that mattered. I remember the feeling of the place was magical, like sunshine after rain, and I felt, in a way that I have come to feel in other special places, that I belonged there.

Avebury is a vast stone cirlce containing two small stone circles enclosed by a huge circular bank and ditch. Across the neighbouring fields the remains of stone avenues lead toward the centre. On the neighbouring hills evidence exists of other stone circles. This is often interpreted as a ritual landscape designed for a specific function: to be the stage for a coming-of-age ceremony for our ancestors. (To read more about this I recommend The Avebury Circle by Michael Dames. To order CLICK HERE)

The most extraordinary thing about Avebury is that in the middle of all this is a village – a village with a guilty past. Most of the stones survived well into the seventeenth century until they were brought to academic attention by historian John Aubrey. William Stukeley made the first accurate survey of the stones in the mid-eighteenth century but had to observe his study being destroyed before his eyes as local villagers broke up most of the stones for building material. It seems unbelievable that such a great human achievement which had stood, untouched for 4,500 years was virtually obliterated in about twenty years.

Landscape of the Megaliths Paul Nash

Three of my heroes, Paul Nash, John Piper and Barbara Hepworth were inspired by Avebury and the shapes of the stones went on to become recurring images in their work.

Avebury Restored John Piper

Two Forms Barbara Hepworth

I have really, really wanted to make a great painting of Avebury for many years and I have failed repeatedly. However recently I’ve got closer to my goal by taking a deliberate step away from reality by working in print. Screen printing forces you to take a simpler approach and the result has been that my stones are becoming more abstracted until I found I had pared everything back to what I loved about them – their incredibly beautiful shapes. Here are a few of the resulting images. Most of these were created for The Bluestone Gallery in Devizes, Wiltshire, which is very close to Avebury. To visit their very nice website CLICK HERE.

Avebury 1

4 layer screen print

Avebury 3

4 layer screen print

Avebury 2

4 layer screen print

Cairn

4 layer screen print

The Gallery in Masham, North Yorkshire which is the main outlet for my work, has a lovely new website. To pay a visit CLICK HERE.

There are still some places on the course I'm teaching at Artison about A Contemporary Approach to Watercolour. Friday 18th May 10 am - 4 pm
Watercolour frequently suffers from an undeserved reputation as a pale, washed out medium. Contemporary watercolour artists, however, are exploring vibrant new ways of creating results rich in colour and texture and this course looks at some easy ways to take these ideas into your work.
To book a place CLICK HERE

To visit my Facebook page CLICK HERE. You can also sign up for my monthly newsletter from this page, full of information about art history, exhibitions, art courses and book reviews.

Published on: April 24, 2012

Fine Detail

My interest in the details goes back a long way. I can remember when I was very small losing myself in the patterns on my Aunt Belle’s china, looking at the cast iron coal hole covers on the pavement, following the swirls in the paisley carpet designs.

Along with the smell of damp and the dust motes floating in the air the things I remember best from the long hours in church were the carvings on the medieval screen, the worn encaustic tiles on the chancel floor and the graffiti bitten deep into the choir stalls by previous generations of the bored. Of the interminable sermons not a word ever stayed with me.

I spend a lot of time drawing and painting buildings. I usually start by getting to know the silhouette but it’s the details that draw me in.

Looking back through my photo files I’m amazed by how many times I seem to click the shutter on something small, but amazing. Here is just a small selection.

The next art course I'm teaching at Artison is:

A Contemporary Approach to Watercolour

Friday, 18th May 2012 Price: £65.00

Watercolour frequently suffers from an undeserved reputation as a pale, washed out medium. Contemporary watercolour artists, however, are exploring vibrant new ways of creating results rich in colour and texture and this course looks at some easy ways to take these ideas into your work. By the end of the course will be able to:

- Mix and use watercolour in a variety of ways
- Incorporate different media for different effects
- Plan paintings which move away from traditional styles
- Develop an awareness of directions in contemporary watercolour

To book CLICK HERE

Fountains Abbey,
Late Evening
Watercolour
Framed Size: 28" x 21"

Currently on sale at
The Gallery, Masham

To enquire about this painting CLICK HERE

To visit the NEW Gallery website CLICK HERE

Published on: April 10, 2012

The Uncomfortable Legacy of Damien Hirst

“The world's an ugly place; you need to brighten it up whenever you can.”
Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst left Goldsmith’s College in London in 1989 with a clear-eyed vision of his future. He had a list of the people he needed to court, a strong sense of his own identity ( a Mockney accent and a penchant for wearing black and white) and a few reheated ideas from the likes of Duchamp and Warhol. Now, with his enormous exhibition currently at Tate Modern we can all see how it's turned out.

I think one description of Hirst which is highly relevant is “the artist we deserve”. He is the artist of the Ikea generation, the credit bubble, the age of celebrity – his work is quick, slick, sometimes beautiful and available in virtually every size and colour. Like Andy Warhol he embraced a “factory” approach – the endless spot paintings, for example, churned out by teams of painters and then by digital print - but, unlike Warhol, had little or no involvement in the final work. A signed, mechanically printed, reproduction of one of these extremely arms-length masterpieces can be yours for £20,000. (That’s right – a piece of paper which has been run through a computer printer of an image Damien didn’t paint will cost you twenty grand). And there it is: the point every conversation about him arrives at - Hirst equals money.

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living by Damien Hirst (1991)

But is that all? I don't think so. Nearly every idea Hirst has put before us has some merit: facing a shark head on is to go some way towards imagining your own death, the soothing colours of sleeping pills in a medicine cabinet invokes the lethal attraction of endless sleep, a hypnotic mandala of butterfly wings leaves you stunned by the glory of nature. But. for me at least, once the first thrill is gone there is just the dull emptiness of repetition and the distant ringing of a till.

I would certainly advise anyone who wants to see a terrific lesson in the history of modern art to go Tate Modern and see Hirst’s artistic life on show. Its on till September and you may be moved in ways you don’t expect.

Most artists want to make a living out of our art but most of us are driven by the urge, the joy, the obsession of creativity - by the constant refrain that there is more to say and a better way to say it. I feel, however, that all poor old Damien has driving him onward these days is the empty thrill of a full wallet.

Damien Hirst's Solo Exhibition is at Tate Modern, Bankside, London from 4 April 2012 – 9 September 2012

A comment by Banksy on Damien Hirst's spots.

Published on: April 5, 2012

Painting Durham Cathedral

I began painting buildings a very long time ago. I’m fascinated by how everything fits together, how the shapes and surfaces reflect the light and create the shadows and how the silhouette works against the sky.

I fell in love with Durham Cathedral the minute I saw it from the train that was taking me to my interview for Neville’s Cross College in early 1973. Passing over Durham viaduct the city was suddenly revealed – houses, churches and trees crowned by a castle and an iconic cathedral.

John Ruskin, the great Victorian critic, called the view from Durham Station the eighth wonder of the world – and this from a chap whose house overlooked one of the best views in the Lake District.

Durham Cathedral from South Street, Mixed Media

Some of the very first paintings I ever made were of this building for the simple reason that they were painted for the Cathedral bookshop. I lived in several places in Durham - Neville’s Cross, Potter’s Bank, Crossgate, Gilesgate – and from each point found that the cathedral reveals a different character.

Durham is unusual for being a complete Norman cathedral – a tour de force of dogtooth arches, barrel vaulting and round-headed windows – where most British cathedrals are a collection of building styles depending on whatever look was fashionable when some money was available.

Durham was built to house the shrine of St. Cuthbert, whose much-travelled coffin rooted itself to the ground here. The monks who had been carrying Lindisfarne’s premiere saint around for 120 years (on and off) were probably glad to finally put the coffin in the ground and he still lies at the heart of the building.

Durham, Screenprint

I get a lump in the throat and a tear in the eye whenever I go back and I must have painted the great church dozens of times but I still find things about it that make me pick up my brush again.

In Notes from a Small Island Bill Bryson says: “If you have never been to Durham, go there at once. Take my car. It's wonderful.” I couldn’t put it better.

The paintings shown are all available from The Gallery, Masham. CLICK HERE for details

Artison are currently taking bookings for my painting course:

A Contemporary Approach to Watercolour

on Friday 18th May. For details and to book CLICK HERE