Clashnettie: fields, stream

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Clashnettie,  fields, stream, 37.5 x 29.5 cm

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My work at Clashnettie Arts Centre

This picture brings to a close my period working in Clashnettie Arts Centre, which is about 10 miles north of Dinnet and the Dee Valley, but feels much more remote, located as it is behind twisting roads and at the end of a unpaved track.

I was fortunate with the weather, with day after day of dependable sunshine, or, at least, rain-free. 

I`m ok about with the work I did - at least, most of it -though perhaps it surprised me less than I expected it to. 

Does it make any sense to expect to be surprised? It sounds self contradictory.

 What I mean is that this place did not give me many views or motifs which I had not encountered before, thus my responses were likely, an accessing of old solutions. And it is not just the motifs, but also the quality of light, the weather and the flora.

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Asilah, a block

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Asilah, a block, oil on card 24.9 x 20.8 cm - available

I`m certain we could have spend more time here in Asilah without becoming irritable.

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This picture is perhaps my favourite of the Asilah set: I like its simplicity.

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Valencia, Plaça del Pintor Segrelles

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Valencia, Plaça del Pintor Segrelles, oil on card, 22.4 x 20.6 cm - available

Today I think, how pleasant and activity this is, painting outside. It`s possible to forget this in ambition.

Some paintings are unsuccessful but most aren't. But they arent amazing either. Its good to have in mind a broad area of "good enough", even if defining that in specific terms is impossible.

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Black and white painting: some thoughts

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Thoughts on black and white painting

I`ve put a showcase of black and white works here:

https://tadeuszderegowskiblackandwhite.blogspot.com/

I have been working on and off in this mode since 2012.

 What are some thoughts? 

In no order of importance:

1. The technique is very simple compared to colour work. I need only use one brush, and I can correct things far more easily than when working in colour. The decisions to make are considerably fewer. and I can respond much more rapidly to scenes and to changes in scenes. 

2. The technique emphasizes texture. I can create texture with cloths, brushwork and the underlying texture of the support.

3. The technique invites introversion. I believe that colour is essentially more decorative than black and white,  and that black and white has an essential seriousness.

4. The technique tends to create  melodrama. This is most obvious in the depiction of skies, where clouds become very dramatic if described starkly in black and white. Similarly, shadows have far more drama than they would in colour.

5. As it requires less equipment, it is much easier to carry materials around. This is very liberating.

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Johnston Gardens, July 25, 2025; larger pictures

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Johnston Gardens, July 25, 2025

oil on card, 39.2 x 48.5 cm - available

A lot of the large pictures have been flops. The larger size shows a lot of things that aren`t so obvious on a small: issues relating to colour harmony and composition.

 So, I had thought of going back to a smaller size,  but this painting went so satisfactorily that I decided to buy more large pieces and work on them for the next month.

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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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Torres, distant rocks: part 7

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Torres, distant rocks, watercolour on paper, A2

Torres, distant rocks - detail

This is the last of the set. 

I like it a lot- it has a certain grandeur.

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Joaquina- watercolour

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Joaquina,watercolour on paper, 35 x 27.5 cm

 

 

 

 

This is on a heavier Canson paper- 200 gsm. I feel that i am getting the hang of this: having a larger (almost A3) paper means I have more space for gestural effects and that I don't overwork the painting.

Tomorrow, I'm going to go up to A3 and see what happens. I hope the sun shines as that (obviously!) makes the paint dry faster and allows easier layering.

 I feel that watercolour necessitates a kind of understanding an patience with the medium that isn't required in oils, where one can make mistakes with impunity, as the paint can always be scraped off.

I'm not sure about the but at the top centre: it seems a bit messy to me.

 

 

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Putting paintings away

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Paintings are stored in cardboard trays to protect them from dust and other damage

 

 

Putting paintings away is a chance to get rid of weak pictures.

You can think of your art career as a journey, in which every picture represents a chapter, or at least a paragraph. It's a biographical approach. In this approach every picture is a lesson, teaching something about the artist's journey. It makes the artist into a curator of his own museum. There is something conceited in that -though that, you might quip, is being an artist all over.

Or you can treat making art as a thing you learn to do, then when qualified, is a craft that you reproduce , and you'll have good days and bad. This approach is that of the picture-maker, and is in many ways akin to making furniture or jewelry. You curse the bad days and, having learnt what you can, discard any substandard work. This approach appealed to me when I set out painting pochaades. I liked it's down to earth qualities, and the idea of developing a recognisable format and becomeing expert at it.

I can see both perspectives but find the former can lead to one becomeing somewhat precious. You can only learn so much from weak pictures. And they take up space and bring you down.

 

But I can also see that making art is not just like following a recipe. It has to have subjective, exploratory elements or it simply isn't interesting. And to explore is, occasionally, surely, to mis-step...

Ergo, I chart a course betweeen the two positions.

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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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Annual Review 2020

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2020

Pale tree

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Travels

There was one long trip to central Chile.

The Chile trip was a bit strange. I was mostly unhappy for mysterious reasons. Perhaps, because of that I didn`t miss the travel restrictions that Corona virus brought (though as I type I feel a sudden strong melancholy urge to be in New York, where you feel quite free in a way I don't sense anywhere else).

Anyway, I did a few good paintings, including these:

Melipueco, Chile, with itinerant, oil on card 25 x 22 cm

Gardens, Villarrica, Chile, oil on card, 20 x 22 cm

I had intended to do Patagonian Chile in January coming, but that is not possible. 

I had an exhibition at UDESC, the state university, but it was closed after the first few days due to COVID. The exhibition itself was badly managed by CEART, who did everything at the last minute in a a slapdash, even contemptuous fashion. There is a lot of fuss being made about cuts to arts in Brazil, but if this agency is typical, and I fear it might be, then they do not deserve to receive public funds.  

With COVID, the automatic clamouring for public funds among artists was incredible. It seemed inconceivable to  many artists, who eagerly signed ´petitions demanding state assistance, that they might work doing whatever was required to pay rent. Many appeared to believe that society should treat them as essential labour in the same level as police or medical workers.

 I worked very steadily and efficiently in Florianopolis, on the island, increasing the size of paintings, the brightness of their colours, and, I feel, using social isolation constructively.

On the way to Cacupe, settlement

 oil on card, 24.3 x 29.7 cm

The dunes, a rise, oil on card, 20 x 25 cm

I am very happy with this one (above).

Trees by a lake, Winter, Lagoa, oil on card, 28 x 25.8 cm

Above Lagoa, early July, 2020, oil on card 26 x 28 cm

I started to visit the rocky coastline on the south of the island. It's fairly quick to get to on the new road:

Rocks, sea, sky Armacao, oil on card, 26 x 28 cm

I also occupied my time with taking photographs, and writing short essays.

 Thus, the year passed.

 I like being alone and did not suffer as much as I usually do. I found the empty streets pleasing and the silence calming. I don't like shopping or crowds so their absence made me happier. I enjoy thinking and I resolved some things about where to live and what to do with the next bit of my life.

I am 51 and it seems that I am entering some other life phase, one characterised by greater self assurance and settlement. I also realised something very obvious, which is that much of what happens to us is arbitrary, and we have only some control over how much and how we interact with this. Ergo, there is little sense in getting too worked up about anything much, though it is wise, of course,  to take precautions.

You will quite possibly think how platitudinous and I daresay you might have a point, but personally speaking, until recently such banal truths were never as obvious to me as they ought to have been and they do therefore have some consequence for me.  

And, slightly wiser, I advance into 2021.

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Social Media

Flickr

I'm not a member any more and I can't post new images as I have reached their non-member limit. 2.3 million all time views. I have 952 followers: a slight decrease from 959.

Blogger

There are 84 people listed: the same as ever. Why does this never increase? Presumably because my Blog can be tracked in other ways, and it isn't necessary for followers to declare themselves. 

Looking at the statistics page with its graphs, for the last 12 months I see: 25,700 visitors, with a peak day on 7 August with 426 views. 

Top countries in terms of percentages are Italy (32%) USA (32%); Russia (4%); UK (4%); Turkmenistan (4%). In absolute numbers: Italy (8.18K); USA (8.15K); Russia (1.16K); UK (1.07K); Turkmenistan (930);

It is surprising how low the UK is, and how high Italy.   

Instagram

There are 287 followers, up from 221. This site is very good for introducing people to your work. It is very easy to use, with excellent editing functions and keywording so you can link your work to that of others. 

I also have an Instagram Account dedicated to photography. It has 46 followers: tderegowskiphotos

Twitter

I have 238 followers. Down a little from 247. I never use this site as I find it dominated by an unpleasant style of discourse. In any case, it isn't really for showing pictures.

Saachi and other sales

There were no sales with Saachi. There was one sale this year, of a Moroccan painting.

A lane, Marrakech, oil on card, 16 x 15.5 cm   SOLD

Facebook

I continue to use this excellent site to talk about art and photography. It is a very good site for artists to use, as through it's "pages" you can create bridges between your personal and creative existences. 

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The future

I move house shortly and, that resolved, and the vaccine available, normal life can perhaps resume. For me that means going at some point to the UK, most likely in late Spring. Then, if at all possible, a visit to Andalucia. But that is in the hands of the Gods.

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Trees in sunshine, Santo Antonio

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Trees in sunshine, Santo Antonio, oil on card, 26 x 28 cm unavailable

This was painted thickly and confidently. At first I liked it, then I didn't, and now I like it again.

The things I like are:

1. variety of greens
2. thick paint texture
3. sense of movement
4. lively

The thing I don't like is:

1. feels a bit rough

But I think the liveliness would be lost if I started trying to tidy it up.

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This one is a bit like Vuillard. It has that containment.



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Santo Antonio, bushes and trees

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Santo Antonio, bushes and trees, oil on card,  19 x 24 cm

A thickly painted picture. A painting is thing of paint.

 I think recognising this is essential for the best painting- I mean really introducing this textural element into the picture. 

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Cacupe, trees in a garden; painting success or failure

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Near Cacupe, trees in a garden, oil on card, 30 x 25.5 cm   AVAILABLE

It's funny how some days the painting goes well and on others not, how unpredictable it is.

This one is the result of two visits. The first didn't quite get the ball into the net. This one has a range of textures and a confidence that the other lacked, with a varied textures and a wide range of yellows. I have destroyed the former. 

I destroy about a third of my work.

 For me failure nearly always has psychological roots. Some days I seem to work steadily and easily and everything just slots into place. And others are a struggle from first to last and I might even destroy the picture after. It is frustrating not to know how to guarantee that every session is a success.

 I try to console myself with the notion that even on the bad days I am learning something, storing up some knowledge for another day, but I'm not 100% convinced that if that is really the case. 

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There is a Bonnardish feel about this one. I identify a lot with the intimist idea- art as a revealing of secrets. 

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A trip to Chile: Melipeuco, part 4, a road

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Melipeuco, a road, an itinerant, oil on card, 29 x 23.5 cm SOLD

One of the most successful of the trip- though I must say that I`m happy with the work overall. There`s a big van Gogh influence here, of course, and maybe also something of Gillies. 

It`s funny how sometimes pictures just come together, at other times the thing limps along. It`s quite unpredictable, even after years of working.

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A trip to Chile: Villarrica, part 3

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This pair from Villarrica was painted in the woods by the river-one of the few places, in the unusual heatwave, to offer shade.

The two paintings represent two stylistic approaches that I have been playing with over the last years, the former more detailed and constructed of smaller strokes, the second made from fewer, larger areas, and with much thicker strokes.

One reason for the second style is that it is a reaction to the former, which can degenerate into fussiness. The fussiness happens when the light shifts on the motif- and as a result I unconsciously start repainting various areas, and therefore the painting loses the compositional objectives it had the start. To resolve the resulting  confusions I  simplify the composition using larger brushes. 

Another reason for this style is that I am conscious that pastoral painting can easily become twee. This awareness makes me want to use a more forceful style  to prevent this from happening, and which I call the blocky style and which produces pictures that are a bit more like posters.

In contemporary art twee, or any sweetness is an anathema. This is connected to the idea that artists should participate in (and ideally lead) revolutionary movements and these have to be utterly poker-faced and cold and aggressive to achieve their objectives. There are one or two exceptions, such as Klee.

Villarrica, forest path, oil on card, 24 x 28.2 cm

Villarrica, oil on card, 28.7 x 23.7 cm  unavailable

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Annual Review 2019

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2019

Travels

There were two complete trips: to Peru and to the UK; another will begin on 26 December, to Chile.

 Arequipa, a view from Ponte Grau, oil on card, 22 x 25 cm

The Peru trip lasted six weeks and was a good, extended painting session. One can really go forward doing two solid sessions a day, 5 times a week. I returned with as many as fifteen good paintings. The pictures were of a larger size than on previous trips. 

Green Park, London, Avenue, oil on card, 24 x 30 cm   SOLD

The UK trip was not a success in terms of making paintings because of bad weather. I hade been looking forward to doing paintings in Scotland's beautiful west coast. What a fool! How it poured down, and I even got a cold- in August.

 I will not gamble my time and money in this way again and instead when I go to the UK in 2020 I will also go to a southern European place where I can work happily and cheaply: southern Spain or perhaps Portugal beckon. However, the small exhibition in Edinburgh was well received and sold well. 

The work: travel painting

There was a gradual but definite scale increase and an attempt to use bolder colours and shapes. I continued also to produce black and white still life pictures. I continue to explore expressionistic approaches to landscape. I moved apartment and studio and with this had the chance to discard weak work. Over time one becomes more clearheaded about what is good or not. 

One the whole, the reasons for a work being a success are not technical but connected to the my psychological state at the time of making. A good picture arises from a balance between knowledge about the subject and it's novelty. If it is too familiar one becomes deadened, taking its peculiarities for granted. If it's too unfamiliar, one flounders.  The lack of seasonal variation here is unfortunate: seasonal changes serve so well to renew interest in a landscape through the year.

For this reason, attempts to criticise the works lead to consideration of the mental conditions in which a picture was made. Happily, satisfactory mental conditions arise readily, predictably: when I travel to new places. And happily, the world is very big. To maintain that balance between the familiar and the unknown though I tend to return to places I have at least some previous relationship with.

When I began travel painting the idea that I was telling some autobiographical story- the painter travelling diarist aspect- enlivened me, and I thought about the story I might tell about a trip and a place, and myself, through a series of paintings. With time, however, those stories lose their consequence and one is just left with a series of paintings, good, bad or indifferent. And, of course, the novelty of the activity disappears.

 But a sense of mission is surely vital in any enterprise, however philosophical one might be about the results years later. Without enthusiasm- joy indeed- one might as well stay at home watching Netflix.

In Brazil

Forest, December 2019, oil on card, 24 x 29.5 cm

My paintings here explored woodland and forest, to the almost total exclusion of other subjects. Woodland shade is so agreeable when the sun is blazing down. I explored mainly two places, in Santa Antonio da Lisboa and Parque Florestal of Rio Vermelho. It would be good to find other places to explore as eventually these will become stale.

Still life painting

The corner of a table, a book, my diary, a spoon, my wallet and part of a chair

oil on card, 16.7 x 15.2 cm

It can be said that still life painting is simply a diminutive for of landscape, albeit one in which artists have the God-like power to arrange its motifs as they see fit. I like to work in black and white on these, to have that starkness.

Exhibitions

There were two exhibitions, one in Lagoa and one in Portobello. The former did not sell, the latter did. There appears to be no almost no market for art in southern Brazil. This is not simply a matter of the appalling economy, it is about taste and values.

Social Media

Flicker

I stopped posting here. I somewhat regret this as it did connect me to some sort of community of more serious visual artists, albeit with a focus on photography. I may return, though I would say that the role of this site has for me been largely replaced by Instagram. I have 959 followers. No change.

Blogger

The number of followers is the same. 84. But there are other people looking regularly whose monikers don't appear. I don't write things as much anymore. That's partly becuase working larger I produce less.

Instagram

The number of followers is 221, up from 136. 

Twitter 

There are 247 followers. It is a bit of a waste of time using this site, for my purposes , except maybe to announce exhibitions.

Saachi

There were a few sales through Saachi. These are always a bureaucratic challenge.

Facebook

Following advice, I created a page to represent me.

In the social media world such numbers are extremely low. I don't kid myself oh they are few but very dedicated, as their comments are not many. 


  

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