Wednesday 18th November – 11th December
Monday to Friday 10.30 a.m – 5.30 p.m.
at The Flying Colours Gallery
The Courtyard, 6 Burnsall Street, London SW3 3ST
Telephone +44 (0) 207 351 5558
Tag Archives: Fish
Plaice
His rather squashed eyes look up at me reproachfully. If he were alive they would be sticking out of the mud or sand in which he would be half buried awaiting a careless crustacean, or bivalve. Both the eyes are on the right side of his face which is flat and comes to a point. It is as if a ordinary fish had been redesigned by Picasso during his cubist period and then run through the rollers of a ringer. I bought him from the fish counter in Carrefour and now he is sitting with me under the fig tree while I paint his spots. Not the orange ones. I haven’t got to those yet. Plaice can adapt their colour somewhat to their surroundings but the orange spots don’t change.
He’s quite small. Plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), are caught younger these days, though capable of living until 40 most are caught at the age of 6: too many humans, eating too much. 
Marks and Spencer are good about selling you fish in season and Sainsbury’s claim to be the largest retailer of fish certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council but when in England I always buy fish from the local fishmonger, Gibson’s Plaice, who have generously supplied me with many of my models.
If you would like to be kept informed of forthcoming shows email me at mailto:catherineforshallpainting@gmail.com
All photographs © James Forshall
Zeus
It did get cooler. We had a couple of days of rain. The plants around the house are lifting their heads with relief. The stinging nettles are particularly energetic.
I took the opportunity to stretch canvas.
The canvases are the platforms for paintings which I will show in November at the Flying Colours Gallery in Chelsea.
This is a detail from one, Zeus, a painting of a John Dory, (Zeus faber), or St Pierre in French.
The Flying Colours Gallery have taken some of my work to the Edinburgh Festival and are showing at 6A Dundas Street 11th – 19th August, Monday to Saturday 10.00 a.m. – 6.00 p.m.
If you would like to be kept informed of my shows and other events please email me at http://catherineforshallpainting@gmail.com
All photographs © James Forshall
Tidal Pool
This shoal of fish has been moving around my house as I work on it. They’ve spent quite a lot of time in the kitchen. I look at it in different lights and in different places and now that I’m happy with it I’ve signed it and the shoal will be traveling in a van to the Moncrieff-Bray Gallery, near Petworth, West Sussex.
Photography http://www.jamesforshallphotography.com
New work for the Oliver Contemporary Gallery, London
Caught in the Wave 90 cms x 90 cms acrylic on canvas
These two recently completed paintings went off to London this week. They will be on display at Oliver Contemporary
Trout 100 cms x 50 cms acrylic on canvas
Razor Fish (xyrichtys novacula) in Menorca
I am in Menorca.
We are staying with an old friend on the other side of the harbour and yesterday when the others went off to an organ recital I went to the fish market to sketch some of the local fish. The market is surrounded by a windowed cloister where the merchants have their stands selling squid, octopus, spider crab, tuna, bass, bream and the friture of the mediterranean, small rascla, gallina, cerrano, cerrano imperiale, salmonetes, and Jureles.
A small orange fish with black and yellow eyes, a small mouth and blue stripes down the side of his face caught my eye. The local bye laws only permit him to be fished for a week a year, from the first of September. Fishing outside this period incurs a fine of 150 euros. When threatened he dives down and buries himself in the sand.
Fish scales © James Forshall
I had never seen this fish before and had to ask the fishmonger to write down his name, Rao, Lolitos or in English Razor fish, though I hazard the name Razor fish is the local name Rao anglicised by the English sailors who were stationed here after the island came into British hands falling the treaty of Utrecht (1713).
We went down to the harbour, where some men, their equipment moved around in liberated supermarket trolleys, were mending nets and where I did some sketching and then lay on one of the pontoons between the boats, dozing in the sun.
Lolitos, Rao, Razor fish sketch © James Forshall
© James Forshall
Fish sketches © James Forshall
I will use these sketches for some large scale paintings when I return to Britain.
‘A Journey Through Summer 2013’ at the Oliver Contemporary
Equinox Tide 160 cms x 80 cms acrylic on canvas
Until the end of September, there is a selection of my paintings at the Oliver Contemporary in a mixed show, ‘ A Journey Through Summer 2013’ . There are also paintings by Simeon Stafford, Catharine Armitage, Matthew Batt, Mary Ford, Kate Boxer, Ingrid Wilkins and others.
Oliver Contemporary, 17 Bellevue Road, Wandsworth Road, London SW17 7EG.
Telephone 0208 767 8822
Opening Hours Tuesday – Saturday 11 a.m. – 5.30 p.m.
