Carolyn_Blake

CAROLYN BLAKE
6th – 27th August 2022

In the Glasshouse acrylic and graphite on paper 91 x 71cm SOLD

Descending flight mixed media on paper 91 x 71cm SOLD

Pilgrim place I mixed media on canvas 90 x 90cm* £1200

Pilgrim place II mixed media on board 25 x 25cm SOLD

Ancestral find mixed media on board 17 x 16cm* £500

For the path mixed media on board 22 x 22cm £500

Coming down from the tops mixed media on paper 91 x 71cm SOLD

Ambiguous figure mixed media on paper 91 x 71cm £950

Life Study I graphite & chalk on paper 54 x 42cm* £500

Life Study II graphite on paper 50 x 42cm* £500

Dock II mixed media on card 28 x 34cm £500

Dock I mixed media on card 28 x 34cm £500

Drawing I acrylic & graphite on paper 29 x 19cm* £350

Drawing II graphite on paper 50 x 42cm* £350

Drawing III acrylic & graphite on paper 29 x 19cm* £350

Drawing IV acrylic & graphite on paper 29 x 19cm* £350

Valley Series I acrylic & graphite on card 34 x 28cm £500

Valley Series II acrylic & graphite on card 34 x 28cm £500

Life Study III acrylic & graphite on card 32 x 30cm £500

Valley with yellow acrylic on board 62 x 62cm* £850

Dockside acrylic on board 62 x 62cm* £850

Birdman walking with Ancestors acrylic on board 62 x 62cm* £850

Secret Postcard I acrylic & graphite on board 30 x 25cm £400

Secret Postcard II acrylic & graphite on board 30 x 25cm SOLD

Secret Postcard III acrylic & graphite on board 30 x 25cm SOLD

Secret Postcard IV acrylic & graphite on board 30 x 25cm £400

Secret Postcard V acrylic & graphite on board 30 x 25cm SOLD

Secret Postcard VI acrylic & graphite on board 30 x 25cm 400

Secret Postcard VII acrylic & graphite on board 30 x 25cm SOLD

Secret Postcard VIII acrylic & graphite on board 30 x 25cm £400

Secret Postcard IX acrylic & graphite on board 30 x 25cm £400

Secret Postcard X acrylic & graphite on board 30 x 25cm £400

Secret Postcard XI acrylic & graphite on board 30 x 25cm £400

Secret Postcard XII acrylic & graphite on board 30 x 25cm £400

Nude I (front) acrylic & graphite on wood 15 x 10cm* £400

Nude I (back)

Of Boats I acrylic on paper 91 x 71cm £950

Of Boats II acrylic on paper 91 x 71cm £950

Of Boats III oil pastel on card 31 x 26cm £450

Propeller oil pastel on card 30 x 25cm £450

Nude II acrylic & graphite on canvas 10 x 8cm £350

Homage to Mabon acrylic & graphite on board 36 x 31cm* POA

Born in Hereford in 1946, Carolyn took up painting at the age of ten at
Saturday classes in the old College of Art in Hereford. She attended full-time
at Hereford College of Art as a mature student and then studied with Welsh
artist Roger Cecil, who remained her mentor until his death in 2015.
My paintings generally begin in an intuitive, almost impulsive way, learning from
alterations, the original starting point somehow gets lost and then re-emerges as
something different. Where to start? The poem by Jean Florence called ‘Carki’s
Workshop’ best sums up my painting practice and also my studio; although the
location has changed the inner essenceis the same. Of the works here in TheTable
gallery there are several series - a run of thought and expression.

Carki’s Workshop
for Carolyn Blake
A blue metal coffee pot sits on a log between the
old black cast iron stove and the log box.
You have lit the stove now and the shed is slowly warming
although my back is still cold. You show me paintings in
process stacked around the walls, blocks
of colour, coloured arabesques, vibrating,
creating tensions and resolving them or
waiting for resolution. High in a corner
Kokopelli, the flute player, hangs turquoise
and angular on the drum you made seven
years ago when you first brought back his familiar
spirit from New Mexico.
Squatting
now on a paint saturated cushion
on the paint spattered bark flecked floor
in your paint streaked jogging bottoms, you scrub
in turquoise, wipe it off with the sleeve of your sweater
immersed and concentrated, the warmth of the stove
soaking your back.
The afternoon is greying.
Beside me a shelf of stones and bones, the things
that artists accumulate, and writers too, come
to that: crab shells, ammonites, stones with holes
two bleached jaw bones of a small animal
a lamb perhaps, with all the teeth intact and
an old worn fluid bone recalling
Georgia O’Keefe whose work you love, and
post cards, pigments, crayons, chalk and pastels
and even a tin of Kiwi shoe polish, ox blood
for finishing, you say when I ask.
Framed
in the window behind the bench dead bamboos like
chinese brush strokes jostle and judder flying their
pennants in the winter wind and through the
window ahead of me Tibetan prayer flags
flap up and down the washing line post beside
the fresh cut stumps of a hazel. Beyond is a plain green
field where dogs parade on leads towards the river
this Saturday afternoon, a mini Crufts
tempting me to waste time in counting breeds.
The sun still touches the flank of the far hill
picking out small trees.
Where do you start?
I ask. How do you know when you have finished?
Start with the coffee pot, you say, producing
it. A deeper blue than its original
against a black flue in a deep red space.
What is that blue? I ask. Lapis lazuli
you say, showing me the pot from Venice.
Blu Oltramare, ultramarine, madonna blue.
The coffee pot, a solid blue triangle in a red
field becomes Bellini’s Madonna of the Meadow
I used to visit in the National on Sundays
when I had the blues.
Start with a blue triangle
a madonna’s robe on a brown field, a Kokopelli.
Start with a black dog on a green field
start with a shell, a stone, a hazel stump
a bamboo cane in the wind. Start
with the coffee pot.
Jean Florence

Green Line acrylic on card 10 x 10cm* £300
To purchase work please contact Val Harris at art@thetablehay.com or 07956 452195
The gallery offers Collectorplan, an initiative administered by the Welsh Assembly,
enabling you to purchase work up to the value of £5,000 with an interest free loan repayable over a year.
All measurements are for framed sizes unless marked * where the paintings are unframed.
The gallery is open Thursday - Saturday 10am - 3pm or by appointment during exhibitions.
All paintings are for sale upon receipt of this catalogue.
43 Lion St Hay on Wye HR3 5AA | 07956 452195
art@thetablehay.com | www.thetablehay.com