Condiments at The Quayside

Condiments, The Quayside, Newcastle

(markers and coloured pencils in A5 sketchbook)

Good day out with the Mondaymondaysketchers, but it comes to something when you sit in the upstairs room of a pub with a window view of all the Tyne bridges and end up drawing the condiments set on the table. 

It was a sunny day but the wind was cold and a cold wind on the Tyne is even colder, coming as it often does from the North Sea. I found one or two hardy souls sitting at the tables outside The Quayside (a Tim Widdlespoons pub, so I held my nose and put my conscience on hold), but the upper floor indoors seemed more attractive. Quite a few other Mondaymondaysketchers were there, clustered round a table by a window with a good view of the High Level Bridge and beyond. No room left at that table, so I moved down a couple of  tables, but the view from that window was more restricted, so I resorted to drawing the condiments set on the table. I've been finding such subject matter increasingly interesting and was pleased to find that this one came out well. A few markers and coloured pencils lent a bit of colour.

[Little did I realise this would be the last Mondaymondaysketchers outing for quite some time.]

High Level

High Level (oil on canvas, 36 x 36 ins.)

My, but I found this taxing. An awful lot of close colours made it difficult to get the buildings in recession. Anyway, this will be the last one I'm doing for the Red Box show. I'm simply out of time to do more, although there were a couple I had intended to finish. On Saturday, Pat and I are flying to Croatia for a couple of weeks, so tomorrow will be taken up with last minute arrangements.

Old Drawings #25

High Level Bridge (Charcoal, pastel on cartridge paper)

I'm guessing 1995 again. I remember exaggerating the height of the bridge a little to make it fit the square - I'd just discovered the square format and was determined to make everything square.

The High Level was designed by Robert Stephenson and is the first major example of a wrought iron bow-string girder bridge in the world. It's probably my favourite of all the bridges over the Tyne (there are 12 in all) and is certainly the one I've painted most - I love the way its rectilinear profile fits the picture plane.

It's been closed to traffic since 2005 because, of course, in addition to the rail traffic on the upper deck, it was built to accommodate Victorian horse-drawn transport and years of heavy motorised transport had taken their toll. As a Grade I listed structure, there were strictures on how it might be repaired. The road bed, for instance, had to be completely replaced, along with a number of the girders which had corroded, and this had to be done with sympathetic materials. After a £42m refit it opened again this year, with traffic restricted to buses and taxis, going one way only (Newcastle to Gateshead).

Almost Done

High Level Bridge (work in progress) (Private Collection)

Another few hours at the Art Club today with this little picture. There's not a lot more to do to it, just a few chimney pots and a bit touch-up here and there in the background. I was hoping to get this one done in time for the Art Fair and it looks like I'll be successful in that.

If everything I plan to do for the Art Fair goes as well as this, I'll be a happy man, but I already have to make an urgent visit to the dentist tomorrow to replace a filling, so I think it wise not to count my chickens just yet.

Back on the Bridge

High Level Bridge (work in progress)

Back at the Club today, I decided not to take up the painting of The Gate again. Having tried to get an angle on the building twice now, and finding the result not to my taste, I think I'll write it off for now. Maybe I'm just not a painter of modern buildings

Instead, I spent a happy couple of hours getting this little picture under way. It's a view from the Newcastle end of the Tyne Bridge, looking towards the High Level Bridge with Gateshead beyond, and one of the buildings that cluster underneath the Bridge in the foreground.

I've done a lot of paintings from the Tyne Bridge in my time, but it must be a good ten years since I last did one. Recently I went onto the Bridge to take some reference photographs for a commission for Mrs Sums and while waiting for her to walk over from the Gateshead end, I took one or two other photographs. This painting is based on one of them. It's interesting, to me at least, to see how much my palette has changed over the years. This one, for instance, is one of the earlier series from 1993, A View from the Bridge:

View from the Bridge - The Black Chimney (Oil on board, private collection)