Annual Review 2024

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Annual Review 2024

The Don, estuary, October 2024, oil on card, 25 x 30 cm - available

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 Travels

I returned to live in the UK, specifically Scotland.

 I am overjoyed to be back in the United Kingdom, which, however demoralised it may feel, is such a culturally rich, enjoyable place, with many interesting people.

 And, critically, it is where, if anywhere, I belong. The weather is pretty awful, however. It is often cold, and the darkness of winter is unpleasant. I`m trying to think of ways to get away during the worst months. I dislike being shut indoors so much.

Therefore, I`m looking at options in Asia, and the Mediterranean.

 

Social Media

Like many, my broad feelings about social media have altered from seeing it as a space offering communicative and commercial possibilities to being a zone dominated by morons, willingly  exploited by crooks and manipulators.

 Perhaps I, too, am a moron? Having that suspicion, I restrict my usage to what I consider the minimum necessary to maintain a  presence: a new picture on Instagram every couple of weeks or so, and all new pictures on Facebook. Thus, I maintain some contact with the public without deeply entering the morass.

 

Flickr

 I have 944 followers, down 2. I stopped posting here

Blogger

 There are 85 followers, a decrease of one. There were 465 visitors, with Singapore and Hong Kong bringing the most recorded. But the stats do not seem dependable.

Crown Street, (near Portland Street), Aberdeen, oil on card, 27 x 27 cm - available

 

Instagram 

The site with landscape paintings - tadeusz_deregowski - has 404  followers, up from 392. The one with photography - modestphotographybytderegowski- has 116 followers- no increase.

These numbers, in Instagram terms, are very low and are likely to remain low as I will continue to post infrequently.

Saachi

I didn't sell anything here this year though it is now open for sales.

 

Facebook

 I continue to post here though it is an unpleasant site run by people whose ethical positions are  questionable.

 

Photography

I took few photos.

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Painting

 

Allotment, Garthdee, oil on card, 30.2 x 24.5 cm - available

I  worked steadily to explore Aberdeen, the city, parks, seafront, and some suburban areas. Aberdeen offers a great deal of variety and there are many places still to visit. The changing moods of the city, as the seasons progress is charming. 

Technique

I returned to oils and this has been very pleasurable. The depth and weight of oils, the splendid colours, so rich, and the diversity of textures making it easily the king of paint media.

I am currently experimenting with beginning paintings using first the strong colours unmixed from the tube. Then, to apply mixtures. Then, thirdly, to lighten the colours with yellows- including Naples Yellow. The final stage is  to apply colours mixed with Titanium White. 

The purpose of this is to place strong colour as the foundation of the painting. I have felt that the previous method (where I move from pale colours, mixed down with Titanium White, later going to darker or brighter ones) has led to some timid, and occasionally washed out, or chalky, pictures.

I have steadily attempted to paint to a larger scale, creating bigger carriers to allow this.

Writing

 

I  didn't write in 2024. I do not feel like it, and I don`t want to force it. I often feel I have nothing to say but I don`t think that`s a bad thing.

 

Westburn Park, Aberdeen, entrance, oil on card, 31 x 27 cm - available

Exhibitions and Sales

I exhibited work in Frauhaus in Aberdeen, at Coppa Coffee, the Heinzel Gallery and had work with the Society of Scottish Artists. I participated once with the monthly Art Bizarre  at 3 Mad Hatters, Justice Mill Lane.

I sold about twenty  paintings altogether in 2024.

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Next year: 2025

 

I begin 2025 in India, an escape from the dark and cold of Aberdeen, and the chance to go somewhere which has lurked in the back rooms of my imagination for the best part of a half-century. 

The India trip is largely Rajasthan, but will include time in Delhi and Agra, as well as an excursion to Chandigarh and then up to Shimla and further into the valleys of Himachal Pradesh. 

What follows on my return at the end of March is unclear, but I hope to be able to show some work in Duns in the Borders of Scotland. It could be that the India trip points me in a new direction. Perhaps it will incline me to go to Nepal? Or other parts of India? 

 

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Praia Moçambique; Manganese blue and Viridian; advantages of larger scale

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Praia Moçambique, paths, oil on card, 29.7 x 27.5 cm - available

 

Praia Moçambique, paths- detail

Today I started using a tube of Manganese blue, a warm blue, i.e., slightly greenish. I see this colour has been discontinued for heath reasons and is now Manganese Blue hue. I also used Viridian, a dark, bluish green. Both are quite lovely, and slightly outside my comfort zone.

They are easier to mix than I had imagined, not bullying the other colours or staining the palette as, say, Phthalo Blue so notoriously does.

I have about another ten new colours to try, all from Winsor and Newton's artists range and I shall work through these over the next few weeks,

A big advantage of working on a larger scale is that one can experiment more with colour, including by cross-harching or scumbling for a vibrant effect, and one can vary the textures used more too. I shall grow larger in the next six months or so.

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Sambaqui

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Sambaqui, cloudy day, oil on card, 28 x 26 cm unavailable

 

Sambaqui, cloudy day- detail

 

 

Today I used Cobalt Green, a lovely dark coppery colour by Winsor and Newon; I mixed it with Kings Blue- a Harding colour. 

 The painting has a very conventional composition.

 

 

 

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Sambaqui, June 4, 2022

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Sambaqui, June 4, 2022, oil on card, 28 x 25.7 cm - available

 

 

Sambaqui, June 4, 2022- detail

 

 

 

 

 I'm using a new colour - Winsor and Newton's Cobalt Turquoise light- it mixes very happily, not bullying other colours in the mix. 

 

Seascapes are ideal for patiently trying new colours- you don't have too worry too much about drawing, or creatng forms.

 

 

 

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Vargem Pequena, view; soya oil paint

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Vargem Pequena, view, oil on card, 26 x 28 cm - available

 

 

 

 

Vargem Pequena, view- detail

 

 

 

 

 The  Lefranc and Bourgeois oil paint (Titanium white) that came in the post is based on soya oil instead of linseed oil.

 

I hope that doesn't matter.

 

 I'm mixing oil with an Alkyd medium. which speeds drying time significantly; sometimes I also add linseed oil.

 

 This is a new place to work, from a hill. There is a little traffic passing but it isn't too unpleasant.

 

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Dunes, Lagoa, July 2021

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Dunes, Lagoa, July 2021, oil on card,  25 .7 x 28 cm - unavailable

 

 

Detail

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture is very grey-brown and wintry. 

 

I've been using Liquin recently and thus the paints dry much faster. I first mix up a basic palette with liquin before applying paint (this initial stage is extremely enjoyable, in which one discovers fresh new colours). I sometimes use a little linseed oil too, to get the right flow. The brushwork is rapid and consists of hatching. 

I painted a close up of some of the shrubbery about a year ago, which I felt very successful but I have been unable to repeat this for those strange reasons that govern one's interactions with the motif.

 

 Trying to recreate previous successes seems never to work. It's all rather mysterious.

 

 

 

 

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Three new tubes of paints and three brushes

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Three  new tubes of paints and three brushes

The paints are: 

Brown Madder: I've never used this before but think it might combine with Prussian Blue for depicting  deep shadows.

Light Ultrmarine: this is rather a staple, it's not too forceful and is excellent for skies;

Light Cupric Green (aslo known as Scheele's Green): ths is based on Phthalocyanine, and will be strong, probably  difficult to mix.

There are also three brushes. These tend to lose there sharpness after only a few sessions but, fortunately, aren't too dear.

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Those who repeat the expression, "a good workman never blames his tools" must be people with very limited understanding any craft activity because the choice of tools is so evidently critical to the result, regardless of ones level of experience.

 And so is the choice of material. Indeed, if we say that the artwork is the transformation of matter into meaning then what we choose to use is in itself consequential, before we have even begun to manipulate it. 

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View across the dunes, May 2020; blue

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View across the dunes, May 17, 2020, oil on card, 23.5 x 21 cm

I am revisiting this extraordinary area, which at first sight appears barren, but at second can be seen to be rich.

I don`t  know how long I will spend this time round working here. It feels right to be here now. That`s probably because I spent of the last couple of years driving up to the forest where the landscape is, obviously, quite opposite in almost every sense, and I needed a change.

 Anyway, the dunes are  fascinating, and necessitate a completely different approach. The browns, greens and yellows are marvellously subtle and teasing.  I`ve now been back about six or seven times, so perhaps I`ll do much of my painting this winter here. I have bought seven new brushes expressly. 

 

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Blue

I`ve been using a paint called Pthalmo Blue. It`s so strong that it tends to dominate all the other colours. So I use it with considerable care, much like Prussian blue. But even so it can easily stain all the other colours on the palette. Prussian and Cerulean blue are similarly difficult, I find, readily dominating the palette. But their sheer force is such that it is very tempting to use it for creating accents and both mix in interesing ways if used sparingly.

The Cobalt and Ultramarine blues are considerably easier to mix being more delicate.

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