All prices on request.
Four new paintings from
Middlefield Farm.
August 2011.
Two of my favourite artists are Thomas Bewick, wood engraver (1753-1828) and John Constable (1776-1837). I have an MA in Victorian Literature but am also fascinated by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Britain. I imagine the countryside as it was then, teeming with animal and plant life: People were proud of their woods and the age of their trees, the rivers were full of fish, the bird song would have been LOUD and going for a walk meant scattering small furry animals from your path.
Surrounded by all this one would not have had very far to look for inspiration. Furniture was carved with animal and bird designs; clothes were embroidered with them. Nature was the most obvious thing there was - at hand everywhere to supply images for poems and songs:
The Missel-thrush's Nest
In early March, before the lark
Dare start, beside the huge oak tree,
Close fixed agen the powdered bark,
The mavis' nest I often see;
And mark, as wont, the bits of wool
Hang round about its early bed;
She lays six eggs in colours dull,
Blotched thick with spots of burning red.
by John Clare
My purpose is to use my invention to give form to all aspects of this heart-felt, ecological sensibility, out of a longing to bring back that free, untidy and abundant nature which has all but disappeared from our countryside as well as our towns: To give form to it with an old-fashioned aim; to make something beautiful, coherent, unselfconscious, simple, kindly and direct, that reaches others.
The most significant part of my art education came from eight years spent in a small group centred round artist Randy Klinger and based in a dusty wooden art studio at the Findhorn Foundation in North East Scotland.
By the heat of a wood-burning stove made from a World War 2 bomb shell found on the beach, we often spent three sessions a week drawing, from life, models known to us from the community. There was plenty of chat, much intimate sharing and some strong bonds were formed.
We talked about aesthetics and philosophy and argued about the possibility of allowing ourselves to unashamedly make value judgements about art, bringing back the concept of educated taste. This was not through snobbery or small-mindedness but based on attention to our physical reactions to art, valuing the honesty of the body's perceptions: Does it make you feel queasy? Then it isn't Art! Does it lift you out of the realm of the artist's personality and problems? Then that is Art!
I questioned every sweeping statement and outrageous claim this teacher made, until I was convinced that what he expounded was sound. And at the same time I learnt to draw. It was formative, difficult and exciting, but… all things must pass.
The days of the old art studio are long gone, and the drawings I made have all been given away. Randy is now the director of Moray Art Centre, for which I expect he will become well known and I am earning my living as a self-employed artist, exhibiting locally in Moray.
Updated August 2011.
The Art Barrow is a market stall hand cart made by a local craftsman to my design, from which to sell my artwork. I use it at local Farmers' Markets held in Forres by 'Transition Town Forres'. This is a movement looking to a future without oil when we shall need to be more locally self-sufficient. The markets sell organic local produce and arts and crafts.
The Art Barrow is small scale, locally made, uses no petrol and means I can sell work directly to the public without using art galleries. It is a portable exhibition space and an art installation in itself.
In 2009, I launched the beginning of a series of wildlife cards. There were three cards: a hedgehog, robin and wren, from my original paintings, and each contained a poem by Jean Kenward - a published nature poet, living today.
Farmers' Markets are held once a month (on the second Saturday) in Andersons School playground in Forres. The Art Barrow is almost always there and carries a different exhibition each time. For the full range of cards for sale, see CARDS.
Updated August 2011.
Woodlark 4"x4½" Hedgehog 6"x4"
Acrylic on paper Printed card
View Woodlark Poem
View Hedgehog Poem
How to produce a three-dimensional object on a flat piece of paper as if by magic but really by seeing – and not mind if you fail!
I had a very interesting teacher myself (see HISTORY) and it is his experiential method I am passing on. It is not an approach I have ever come across anywhere else. As always, with much gratitude to Randy Klinger; I owe what follows to him!
I offer one-to-one teaching at my studio and sometimes small groups, with people I know or people I have at least met and know a little. I prefer to teach complete beginners because they have no learnt habits to un-learn. Someone with even a little drawing experience can find it enormously challenging to drop what they know and try it another way! And yet this is often what is necessary to progress.
Drawings from old Art Studio days
The aim is to produce as three-dimensional an object as it is possible to make on a two-dimensional piece of paper! And this is achieved through hand and eye; not brain. Disengaging the brain can be another challenge. Like meditation, it is very simple and easy if we can only get ourselves out of our own way!
The main reason for working from close observation of a subject is to give the mind something on which to focus. It's not that it is necessarily 'better' to be able to represent a three-dimensional object realistically. Simply that if we have something to look at with the intention to represent it, we can be unselfconscious about what is happening on our paper. The end result on paper will be the surprising result of a hour or so's meditative gazing and simple copying, and will show our own originality shining through without any conscious effort on our part.
Art is full of paradoxes. I take it very seriously and yet the process must be relaxed and enjoyable. It requires very detailed focus but without strain. To draw we need to disconnect the brain, and yet there IS an intellectual aspect to it. We strive for perfection but some of the best results appear when we make mistakes. We surrender our personality and yet our individuality shows itself in our work. It’s endless fun and can be torture. It asks for courage to take risks and yet is, after all, only pencil and paper. As it is simply hand-and-eye, it can feel that no teaching is going on; then you discover a massive challenge you didn’t know you had!
The initial step, if you are interested in all this, is to talk to me about it, so that I know what it is you want or are expecting, and can tell you if that is what I am able to provide (as far as that is possible to tell at the beginning).
Contact joannadarling@rocketmail.com
Updated August 2011.
Wildlife paintings on paper are £80 framed. They are mounted behind glass, with a coloured mount, carefully chosen to bring out the light in the painting, and are framed in simple frames, some re-cycled, which have been selected to suit the subject. For more details about prices, please ask by emailing me at joannadarling@rocketmail.com
Barn Owl 10"x8" 
Red Squirrel 6"x4" 
Blackbird 5"x4" 
Woodlark 4"x4½" 
Hedgehog 6"x4" 
Pied Wagtail 6"x4" 
Barn Owl 7"x10½" 
Heron 7"x8½" 
Deer eating 13"x16"
Kingfisher 4"x5"
Seal 7 ½"x9"
Coignafearn
Lossiemouth
Dulsie Bridge
Iona
Thrush with snail 
Cat Walking
Wren 
Hedgehog
Poem inside right
Robin 
Poem inside rightRobin card is also available in a pack of 5 for use as Christmas cards. £8.12
Robin
Hayfield with spires 22"x16" 
Young copper-beech 12"x11" 
Grey Sky 15"x11" 
New Calf 18"x17" 
