DRAWINGS & PAINTINGS: August Edition

Reece Bell
2 days ago
4 min read

A note from Harry - August Thoughts

I’m a lucky man. The state the world is in, frightful people in power, so much suffering and unhappiness, so many problems with no easy answer. Yet I have a world I can go to that is absorbing, demanding, traditional but always changing, in which senses and ideas can be confronted, tested and represented, and in which I feel at home. And also some people get pleasure from the results of what I do. Painting, of course.

Like most people, I do what I can by petitioning, donating and voting, but I can’t help but feel a little guilty at not doing more. Or is it that I’m feeling guilty because I don't feel guilty enough? In any case it doesn't stop me from going into that lovely state of mind where the blending of tones to describe a particular form or reshaping an eyebrow to slightly change an expression seems as important as anything else even though you know it isn’t.

— Harry Holland

What I'm Working On

One of the things that happens occasionally is a change of mind necessitating removal of a whole passage of work. It’s a real pain and sometimes a whole day’s work has to be got rid of but this time it was relatively simple and only a morning was wasted.

In the boat and skyflier paintings I do there’s always a blue sky with clouds. I’ve often thought I’d like to paint one of those clear deep ultramarine skies you sometimes see in the Mediterranean (never in the UK). Just rich, gloriously empty blue. In the past my colour has been a mixture of ultramarine and ivory black, with maybe some phthalo blue, mainly because all my colours are greyed in some way because form and space have been more important than colour and I’ve never before wanted a sky like that.

I’ve been working on a painting provisionally called “Surf Upset” (Fig 1.). It had a clear sky but in this underpainting it had the usual greyed out colour which I wanted to change.

By the time I’d got partially through I thought it looked hopeful, even exciting (Fig 2.) so I finished down to the sea (Fig 3.).

After half an hour of torture which even tea and calling myself names could not ameliorate I decided I’d been right all those years, and started removing the bright blue. It took an hour because the layer was quite thick and had to be scraped first, then washed with white spirit (Fig 4.). Back to where I started. (Fig 1.)

In order to regain some kind of dignity I decided the sky would be richer than usual and eventually came up with a mixture of Ultramarine and Phthalo and, dammit, a bit of Ivory and applied it to the sky (fig 5.), eventually achieving (Fig 6).

Which I’m happy with, at least until I start faffing about with the other colours….

Fig 1.

Fig 2.

Fig 3.

Fig 4.

Fig 5.

Fig 6.

New This Month

Own a peice of the process - Harry Holland: Drawings

This unique volume collects examples of my drawings throughout my career - from early works to anatomical studies, still lifes, self-portraits, studies for later paintings and sketchbook pages, many of which are appearing in print for the first time.

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Studio Insight: The Subject of Light

When I built my studio, one of the considerations was light. For planning reasons I couldn't have a side window so daylight had to come from above and we arranged a set of north facing rooflights. This means no natural light from the side for still life or figure work but a soft overall light great for working in. I had fluorescent lamps fitted that echoed as closely as possible the rooflights. Any sidelit projects had to be done elsewhere or using artificial light, mostly spotlights. The trouble with that is there always seems to be an element of drama using artificial light which is at odds with the quiet contemplative ambience desirable for studies and finished pieces from life. But perhaps that’s in my head.

Anyway, artificial light does throw up possibilities, such as controllable shadows, and dark spaces such as my storage and work room downstairs enable candlelight, one of my favourite effects.

Looking Ahead

I’ll be spending time drawing - I have a model twice a week, and I’m beginning to go over ideas for the next set of work but mostly what I’ll be doing for the next few weeks is finishing work that has most of the decisions and changes done, and it’s just a matter of bringing out all the forms, spaces and colours to their fullest. Here are a few, some more finished than others.

Thanks to everybody for your support and interest and I hope you and yours are well and keep that way.

Thank you,

– Harry