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A Series?

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Watercolor on Illustration Board

Permanent Collection of the Knoxville Museum of Art

Have you ever done a series of paintings? If so, designed around what principle--subject, execution, season, species, and so on? I'm thinking of the nests. Do you agree? What else?

   Sidney Oliver

Of course. I suppose once a series begins, they never really end. I would not be opposed to adding another painting of a window to my decades' long window watercolor series. I did so many that my son asked why I went to Europe to be inspired to paint windows when the US had plenty of windows I could paint.

The Observer

20X30" Watercolor on Illustration Board

Note the cat peeking out in the left window

When I began a series of small Rappahannock County skies, I told someone I had to do 10 small paintings within a certain amount of time. Some smart alec asked, "Who told you to do that?" Obviously, it was a goal I had set for myself, but a friend told me I should have answered, "the boss."

Rappahannock Sky Series #8

Oil on Panel, 6X8"

Being the boss means that I can decide to go off on painting tangents and develop all sorts of series on various aspects of the visual world. Who knows what leads me to become enveloped and immersed in a subject?

One time I was on a boat and sea kick. Every single book I read, every single DVD I watched, and every single thought I had concerned boats and water. I came out with a slew of 11X14" oil paintings of harbors, boats, and some type of water in the eastern part of the US or in Europe. This was possible to do in that the normal distractions were at a minimum at that time. I'm usually mildly immersed and not as consumed as during that series. Being consumed is preferable.

Harraseeket Lunch & Lobster

11X14" Oil on Panel

I live smack dab in the middle of a hay field, so a series on hay would be a natural undertaking. The hay is cut twice during the summer and I always wish those who are doing the work would leave the bales in the middle of the field for me to make artistic use of such a textured, light-filled subject. It's always disappointing when they load it up and cart it off almost as soon as it is baled. 

The First Hay Bale

6X8" Oil on Panel

At the moment, I am painting a Rural Study Series as well as a Cloud Study Series, which vary between being more realistic and more abstract, but usually a tad of both. These are smallish paintings usually painted using my pochade box.

Rural Study Series #14

8X8" Oil on Panel

Cloud Study Series #2

8X10" Oil on Panel

One of the first series I did was in the late 1970s. It consisted of 5 historic Knoxville buildings in intaglio. Each image was drawn and etched on a zinc plate using acid. As I recall, each image took around a month to complete. Since one works backward on the plate, I jokingly wonder if perhaps being able to do this with ease helped in my ability to drive on the left in England. I ended up producing 50 prints of each of the 5 images. I inked the plate at least 50 different times, prepared the paper, and rolled it off the press individually. Unlike a lithographic print run off by a professional printer, these truly are limited editions as the lines on the plate are dulled each time the plate is rolled through the press making each print an original. The artist tries to duplicate them exactly, but that's impossible. Limited edition lithograph prints produced at a printer are nothing but a sales gimmick. The numbered edition is meaningless.

As Sid mentioned in her question, an ongoing series that I have developed since moving to Virginia has been a series of bird nests. Perhaps the development of these nests is worthy of a separate blog post, so, Sid, shoot away if you think up a question on this. Rather than going into detail, l will leave you with a photograph of one of my many nests.

Five and Twenty Blackbirds

36X48" Oil on Canvas

Perhaps I've left out a few series, but these are the most prevalent in my work. If you paint and haven't done a series, I would encourage you to get cracking. One can learn a lot by exploring a subject to great depths.

Enjoy the process!

  Ruthie Windsor-Mann

This post is part of a series of Q & As between Ruthie Windsor-Mann and Sidney Oliver. 

We invite the reader to join in with other questions in the comments section. This needs to be interactive in order to work.

All photographs are by Ruthie Windsor-Mann unless otherwise credited.

Copyright 2019 Ruthie Windsor-Mann All Rights Reserved