Tram Beginnings

Prague Tram (work in progress - 1st day)

I know, I know, I've started another one, but I couldn't resist it. I needed to paint and couldn't get into one of the existing pictures. I wanted to make further progress on the Night Station picture, but the inertia was too great.

As is usually the case, I enjoyed working on the early stages of this painting. One of the things I'm trying to do as part of my vague plan for the year, is to shake up my working practices a bit, so most of this was painted with a painting knife and quite a bit of gloopy Spectragel [Note to self: buy new tin of Spectragel]. When I used a brush, it was a round, rather than the flats and filberts I normally employ. I like the freshness this approach has brought to the work and I'll have to see how I can retain some of it as the painting progresses.

A brush with Barbara

Edge of Town (second stage)

No Club for me today. Dr Pam stayed here on Monday night and through Tuesday afternoon, on her way back from Edinburgh. We had a good time catching up and talking into the small hours, while I introduced her to the wonders of The Imagined Village and Lhasa's The Living Road.

Enjoyable though it was, Dr Pam's visit meant that I felt I'd fallen behind in work on Edge of Town, so I decided to stay at home and work today. But first, I had to go to the Post Office and collect my lovely new book on Barbara Rae. In addition to a wealth of plates, the book has an illuminating interview with her, and I was reminded of how her career has been more or less based on work made with collage and paint

In the past, I've dabbled a little with collage in my pictures, using it to give some texture. Here are a couple:

The Presence (Oil on board)

Old lady (Oil on board)

I've always liked the result, so I thought I might employ the technique again in the construction of Edge of Town. I dug out some tissue paper and pasted it onto parts of the canvas, using Liquin and Spectragel. There's always a danger that oil can make the tissue rot, but I figure these two mediums should be safe and so far I've noticed no untoward effects on other pictures.

After that, it was only a matter of waiting a short time for the collage to set and I was able to paint over the tissue. I think I've reached the stage where I feel the picture will never work, but experience tells me that once I'm able to start scumbling and glazing over the existing colour, things should work out fine. The sky is reflecting unduly in the photograph, by the way, but I think I'll try darkening it more, anyway.

Incidentally, if you're interested in Barbara Rae's work, I think it's still possible to hear a radio interview with her here. And, of course, there's a link to her website in the sidebar.

Still Life Painting

I was woken early this morning by a man at the door who said, "Mr Martin?" I shook my head and mumbled , "No."

"Gaynford Close?" he asked. I shook my head, and mumbled another, "No."

He looked puzzled and stared at the piece of paper in his hand for a while. "Do you know where it is?"

I shook my head .... well, you get the picture.

After he'd gone, I figured it would just be lazy to go back to bed, so I decided I'd go to the Art Club. Last week was the start of the new Wednesday Still Life Group and, although I'd put my name down as an interested party, I couldn't go. Today I would show my support.

As it turned out, I was the Wednesday Still Life Group this week. No one else turned up, so the studio was all mine. I made some coffee, turned on the radio which would generally get a shout of "Put that bloody thing off!" and thought about what I might want to paint in the still life vein.

It's about ten years since I last sat down in front of an object and tried to paint it in one go. I found an old shell, a tea towel and a small table, and off I went. The paint soon got pretty worked up and I had to resort to the palette knife and dollops of Spectragel, but in the end I felt that one and a half hours had been well spent. I think I'll do it again.



Shell (oil on board, 5 x 5 ins)