WIP again

WIP again. 

(Acrylic on canvas panel, 10x8 in)

As if to prove the point made in my previous post, here’s another Work in Progress started yesterday, to add to the growing pile of unfinished work. When I’m ready, there’ll be a splurge of completed works. By the way, this painting is based on a photograph taken on the same day as that used for the previous post and only five minutes walk away. I think I see a consistent mindset.

Another Work in Progress

Another Work in Progress.
(Acrylic on canvas board, 10x8 in)

Lacking the will to push on and finish anything at the moment, I continue to pile up the WIPs and started this one yesterday at the Club. I rather wish I’d used a bigger panel now, so maybe I’ll consider this a study for a bigger painting.

In another forum, I was asked why I was attracted to this subject. I often find it difficult to articulate what it is that attracts me to a subject because it’s that old “if I could tell you what it is I wouldn’t have to paint it” trope. But I do recognise potential subject matter as soon as I see it. In this case I’m sure it was an element of dereliction, the monumentality of it (possibly why I regret the smallness of the panel) and the geometric shapes. 

Two Works in Progress

WIP - Aerial View

(Acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 12 in)

WIP - Crossing the Square

(Acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 12 in)

Two works in progress, both views from a tower in Verona. One begun yesterday, the other creeping to completion. Both with issues to resolve.

Work Yard WIP

Work Yard WIP

(Acrylic on canvas board, 10 x 12 in)

The first few hours at Gateshead Art Society today left me with this scrubby start to a new, quite complicated painting of a work yard just round the corner from where I live.

I’m genuinely encouraged and find myself becoming more interested in the mundane urban imagery around me.

 

WIP - Kwik Fit

 

WIP

(Acrylic on canvas board, 10x12 in)

Another venture into local urban scenes. I spotted the potential of this garage on a trip to the podiatrist - it's just across the road from his premises. Early days, but I think it'll work.

WIP - Evening at the Coffee Shop

Coffee Shop WIP.

(Acrylic on canvas board, 12x12 in)

I missed last week’s demonstration by Michael Ewart at the art club last week but I understand he painted a café scene. This week’s challenge was to paint a similar scene and because I like to use these challenges to, well, challenge myself, I dug out some photos I took around the turn of the century. I tried to make something of them while at University but failed. I’m more optimistic about this new version though the multi figure composition has me out of my comfort zone.

WIP - Yummies

WIP - Yummies

((Acrylic and collage on block canvas, 24 x 30 cm)

New painting begun, but lots to do on it. And some staffage to consider. Wandering around Newcastle, I took a few photographs of buildings and looking though them at home I was taken by the curious mix of the old and the new.

 

WIP - At the Lighting Emporium

WIP - At the Lighting Emporium

(collage and acrylic on board, 12 x 12 in)

A bit of fun today, with Gateshead Art Society’s programme suggesting “Collage” as the activity for the session. This work in progress is based on an old photograph of a lighting shop but where it’s going, I’m not entirely sure. Must iron out the creases first.

WIP - Holy Island Water Tower

 

WIP - Holy Island Water Tower

(oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in)

Not a great day at the North of England Art Club yesterday. I put this painting back on the easel to resume work on it and squeezed out some fresh paint onto my palette.

Then I noticed that a bottle of Liquin had fallen over and leaked out quite a bit of the contents into the bottom of my paint box. Liquin sets like a particularly sticky toffee. So, scraping out the Liquin as best I could, I started to clean the residue with white spirit and soapy water.

Almost done, I knocked over the inside tray, spilling all my brushes and tubes of paint onto the floor. My back is giving me real trouble at the moment, so by the time I’d dried off the paint box and picked up all the brushes and paint, all I was fit for was storing the painting back in the racks, putting away the easel and going home.

I haven't been back since, which is a situation in need of remedying.

WIP - Dietz

Dietz (WIP)

(Acrylic on canvas board, 8 x 10 in)

I’m working away on two different paintings at the moment, but Friday at Gateshead Art Society tends to signal the start of something fresh. And so it was today: I’ve been meaning to make something of a photograph I took many years ago of a butcher’s shop on Gateshead High Street. It’s no longer a butcher’s but still retains the interesting Art Deco character that set it apart from the surrounding vernacular buildings. Just blocked in so far.

Aberdeen Trawler (WIP)

Aberdeen Trawler (WIP)

(acrylic and collage on board)

A detail of something new, almost finished - watch this space.

New Wall Painting (WIP 2)

 

Wall (WIP)

(Mixed media on 30x30cm board)

Despite a determination to make progress with this painting, I got caught up in the hectic “fun” of having a new kitchen fitted, and that inevitably definitely meant a delay.

However, yesterday I felt able to move along this textured wall piece with some watercolour paper, some paint and mark making.

New Wall Painting (WIP)

Wall (WIP)

(acrylic and collage on board, 12 x 12 in)

It’s early days but I hope this start to a new painting indicates an end to the post-Covid malaise that hit me a few weeks ago. We'll see how things go.

Water Tower on Holy Island (WIP)

 

Water Tower on Holy Island (WIP)

(Oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in)

An afternoon with my oil paints at the North of England Art Club, concentration only interrupted by a man installing a blind directly over my easel. 

Rooting around in my paint box, I uncovered a tube of Mars Red and have now remembered how pervasive the colour can be. I'll have to remember to exclude it when I return to work on this.

Edinburgh Florist (WIP)

Edinburgh Florist (WIP)

(Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm)

Nice to finally get back to the studio at North of England Art Club after a break of over two years and get some oil painting done. Of course, after a lay-off of over two years, it was a struggle to get the caps off the tubes of paint and I’d forgotten how messy my hands get with oil paint. Still, I enjoyed getting to grips with the old medium again, an experience made even better by amiable chat with members I haven't seen for a long time.

A New Beginning

 

Street scene (WIP)

(acrylic on board, 10 x 10 in.)

Yesterday at Gateshead Art Society, while everyone else was doing an exercise in alla prima, I began work on this new one. It's based on a photograph I took in Crete and I think it’s going well, but there’s a figure to be added which might give me bother. Watch this space.

Staithes Beginnings

Staithes I

(acrylic on canvas, 16x12 in)

Staithes II

(acrylic on linen, 30x30 cm)

Staithes III

(acrylic on linen panel, 30x30 cm)

When I worked with oils, I always had several pictures on the go to allow for drying. Acrylics obviated that, but I decided at the beginning of the week I’d make an effort to work again on several pictures together. And here they are, with none of them finished.

And having said, "none of them finished" on various social media sites, I received, as I knew I would, several pleas to leave them as they are because they are finished in others' eyes.

I take these comments very seriously and thought long and hard about how to proceed (or not proceed).

I started these current pictures slightly differently from my more recent pictures, using a technique akin to an old technique I used to use when I had access to an office photocopier that gave me very contrasty black and white copies. The result has surprised me and I too like the way they are at the moment, but I can't help feeling that if the current state had been what I intended, they'd have been better because there are elements that look clumsy to the always careful me. 

So, I'll probably press on with what I originally intended and see where that gets me.

However, when I started this week of multiple images, I also intended to use the same imagery with different approaches (collage, mediums, etc). As I now have photographs of these paintings as they are at the moment, I think I'll use the photographs and see how I might develop from those. I hope all of this makes some sense. Do let me know if not.

 

The Queue Grows Bigger

South Shields Boatyard WIP

(mixed media on board, 12 x 12 in.)

I suppose one of the reasons so many pictures are lining up waiting to be finished, is that, with acrylic, it doesn't just sit on the palette allowing me to stick a brush in and work with it whenever I like. It dries up and I have to put out more paint from the tubes.

To avoid the need to put out a little paint to finish off a painting, I'm inclined to put out enough paint to start a new one, then use some of that paint to finish off a waiting picture. At least that's the plan; what tends to happen is that I push on with the new picture until I run out of time to do anything else.

Oh well, who said the life of a painter would be easy?

This new painting is not making me happy, at least not yet. I started it the way some painters do, by applying pieces of collage papers to a ground, then working into them to get at the image I'd decided on. I'm not sure that's a method that works for me. I'd rather have started with paint, then applied collage as appropriate. As it is, I have some areas I'm uncomfortable with: the thinner papers have buckled ( a brayer may fix that) and there are edges showing that I find distracting (whether other viewers would do so, I'm unsure).

I think what I need to do is proceed on the assumption that it has a long way to go and more layers need to be added to give a more complex surface. If, in the end, I really don't like it, I'll at least have learned something from the process.

Streetfighting Men WIP

(Photo taken in Dubrovnik)

(Sketch worked up in Photoshop from traced photo)

(WIP, with some paint and collage added)

This is a painting long in the gestation. I took the photo on holiday in Dubrovnik in 2012; the men were quite a long way off and the photo definition was really poor. So poor that when I tried to enlarge it in Photoshop it became hopelessly pixellated and I gave up on using it for a few years.

More recently, I bought a lightbox and tried tracing the printed photograph, scanned the tracing into Photoshop and then added some colour.

The next stage was to square it up on a 10 x 10 in. board, then add some collage. For that I dug out an old piece of an etching I'd saved from the Print Room bin at University (30 years ago!) - hence the curious round shapes at the right produced by someone's finger print on the etching plate's soft ground.

At the left I stuck down a torn fragment of a sheet that had contained a Gestetner stencil (science fiction fans will know all about those!) I'd use to produce a fanzine even longer ago. Who said stuff doesn't come in useful?

The stairs in the foreground have been started with some pieces of paper torn from a Sunday magazine supplement. 

The collage additions have produced a few challenges for the development of the painting. Hurrah! I like a challenge.

Fisherman WIP

Fisherman WIP

(acrylic on board, 9 x 9 in.)

I'd intended to push on and finish the two balcony paintings, but Friday morning dawned and I knew I'd need to find something to do at Gateshead Art Society. Finishing small details on the balconies didn't feel like an option, so I looked at the suggested project for the day - "Maritime Subject" - and turned to a recently abandoned figure painting. My regular reader may recognise it as the man in a garden:

The man in the garden was never going to earn his keep, so he's become a fisherman on a beach, probably somewhere in Madeira (but not necessarily). 

I'm liking this version much more and will finish it soon. Yes, along with all the others!