I recently took part in a two-day painting course entitled ‘Glimpses’, at Leith School of Art, led by tutor Eleanor White. The premis for the course was the idea of momentary glimpses of things seen – either momentary in time or in space. So a momentary glimpse in time might be a certain way light falls or an expression on someone’s face. A momentary glimpse in space might be a keek of something which catches your interest, such as a view between buildings or flashes of colour on different objects which dance together.
We worked on drawings to make ‘views’, by working with blocs and with windows, and then worked on a larger painting, mindful of the idea of ‘something glimpsed’.
The final act was to ‘kill your darlings’, and to bloc away parts of your painting, creating windows, with glimpses of what lay beneath. This glimpse could be a particular passage in the painting, or you could completely destroy your original glimpses, and recreate a new one, by adding and taking away, being bold, and working away at your surface.
I don’t think I was very bold, the original painting I made was quite strong, in colour and form, and my working over it to create glimpses didn’t do enough destroying. Still, it was a worthwhile exercise. Here is one of the paintings I made.
And here is the ‘glimpsed’ version
JANE FRANCIS 