Michelle Hynes Artist Glasgow blog

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Shades of Dark and light and Charcoal

Castle Stalker The Lynn of Lorn by Michelle Hynes 1982 60 cm x 42 cm

Castle stalker The Lynn of Lorn 1982 by Michelle Hynes Charcoal on paper 60 cm x 42 cm

By the age of 14 I became fascinated with monotone and sketching. It was shades of light that captured me and the contrast between black and white and the many shades in between

My parents bought me some charchol pencils for my 14 th birthday and my journey took me around Scotland ( on paper) . I sketched from both from life in our garden and from photographs in magazines and books.

This is of one of my early charcoal sketches from around 1982.

Title

“Castle Stalker Lynn of Lorn”

Charcoal on paper

60 cm x 42 cm

Castle Stalker is a four-storey tower house or keep. It is set on a tidal islet on Loch Laich, an inlet off Loch Linnhe. It is about 1 ¹⁄₂ miles north-east of Port Appin, Argyll, Scotland, and is visible from the A828 road about midway between Oban and Glen Coe.

Why should you try a charcoal drawing? Charcoal is a smooth yet brittle material that has similar properties to chalk pastel. The dark substance comes in different forms—some are hard while others are soft—but overall it offers a quick sketching experience.

It leaves you with blackened fingers and hands and dont itch your nose whilst sketching 😂

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Where to begin ….. Hearing in colour!

I suppose I need to begin in this lifetime ( there have been a few 😂) . I Don’t remember a time when painting wasn’t a part of my life. I dont know what it feels like not to paint. Im 54 now and having been painting all of my life. I suppose a good start might be one of my early paintings from around 1982 when I was 13. I discovered Monet.

Up until this time my paintings had been in watercolours and this was my first painting in oils on board of Monets The Poppy fields. I painted this because my mother loved poppies.

1981 by Michelle Hynes titled Homage to Monet

Oil on canvas board 60 cm x 42 cm

“Claude Monet painted The Poppy Field in 1873 on his return from the United Kingdom (in 1871) when he settled in Argenteuil with his family until 1878. It was a time that provided the artist with great fulfillment as a painter..”

I loved colour ! Monets Poppy fields drew me to them but the tones were more subdued. I wanted brighter more vibrant tones so my palette was loaded with yellows ( this has stayed with me for some reason ) i still lean towards yellow and orange tones in my work.

I had no idea about painting the faces so I just didnt. As a young teenager I read everything I could about Monet in the local library and ( we didn’t have computers back in the day ) from my dads set of encyclopaedias.

I painted everything I could find that had colour . Colour wasn’t just confined to my paintings it was in my writings , I wrote poetry and colour featured strongly and I was learning to play the piano so some of the pieces I was playing I heard in colour ( sounds crazy but true) Beethovens Moonlight sonata was a deep blue , Edvard Greigs Morning was a pale green . I thought of everything in terms of colour and still do .

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Experimenting with colour

Grass is green , sky is blue or is it ?

Ive always been fascinated by colour and wonder if the colours I see are the same as the colours everyone else sees?

In my wee Scottish croft series i wanted to show the brightest colours of the Scottish Highlands especially the tones of Purple heather .

It led me to a series of paintings that were fun to paint and in turn it led on to more “ sheep” but thats for another blog post .

So todays post is about Wee Scottish Crofts and the life of Scottish crofters.

This series was painted in Acrylics on canvas and has been now made into prints and cards.

For my own journey I loved the freedom of using colours other than the expected grass is green sky is blue and the addition of the sheep made each painting unique.

I started painting this series around 2014 , I may add more if the mood takes me.

Still life fruit on Linen in oils 1983 30 cm x 15 cm

Still life fruit on linen cloth oil on board 30 cm x 15 cm by michelle hynes

Still life, as a particular genre, began with Netherlandish painting of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the English term still life derives from the Dutch word stilleven. … Live ones are considered animal art, although in practice they were often painted from dead models.

I started painting Still life in high school ( and i enjoy painting still life to this day ) is it just me or do all artists have quirky fruit bowls , milk jugs, vases saved for still life painting?

One thing that fascinated me about painting still life was using the colour wheel to apply contrasting shades and tones and the colours of shadows . Over the years I must have painted hundreds but today i want to share an early fruit bowl still life in oil on board.

This painting is Still life fruit on linen oil on board 30 cm x 15 cm oil on board This was painted around 1983 .

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