Streets in Bologna

Streets in Bologna [SOLD]

(Acrylic on board, 14 x 8.5 in)

Friday’s new start at the Art Club was this view of streets in Bologna. Several alterations later, and the Italian street scene is done.

It's a combination of a view I liked and the serendipitous finding of a panel that was the right shape. I’d do more of these views if the panels were readily available.

 

Chinese Bottle

 Chinese Bottle

(Acrylic on board, 8 x 8 in)

[SOLD]

This small still life painted, I think, during the Lockdown, has now sold and on its way to its new home.

Seville Tile Factory

 Seville Tile Factory

(Acrylic on canvas board, 10 x 12 in)

I was fascinated by the Tile Factory in Seville when we went there in 2017. The strange shapes of the bottle kilns with mysterious openings and cantilevered lamps were a delight for someone who revels in the unusual. I was immediately reminded of the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, a tremendous influence on many of the painters I admire from the period between the Wars.

Here's a Photoshop treatment I did of a photograph taken on the same visit. I think it evokes some of de Chirico strangeness, but despite a couple of attempts I've failed to turn it into a successful painting. I may return to it again.

Mixed Reception

Mixed Reception

(Acrylic on board, 8 x 8 in)

I finally finished this small painting that’s been lying around for almost a year. It's based on a photograph I took from a roof terrace in Trogir.

 

Up Pink Lane

Up Pink Lane

(Acrylic on board, 10 x 10 in)

In doing this small painting I was reminded what it was that put me off painting Newcastle: all those neoclassical windows and other details! Give me wonky vernacular any day.

 

Malaga Patrol

 

Malaga Patrol

(acrylic on board, 30x30 cm)

I made a freely painted start to this new subject. I was uncertain about how it would develop, but that was an attractive prospect. The painting of it kept presenting me with umpteen niggles that demanded correction, such that I got really fed up with it, but I like it now it’s finished. My intention was to make this the first of short series, but the proposed second in the series looked so disappointing that I quickly covered it up with something more promising.

Opening Sale

Whitby Fudge Bar

(Acrylic on board, 8 x 8 in.)

SOLD

Yesterday at Gateshead Art Society I started to work on the recent oil pastel picture but was gently nudged back upstairs by a reminder that as a committee member I should be helping with the setting up of the Xmas Exhibition.

I suppose I should be grateful for that because it allowed me to make sure my four paintings were displayed well. (This has not always been the case.) And it's possible, therefore, that it was so perfectly placed that today at the Opening of the Exhibition it caught the attention of the nice young couple who bought it.

Whatever, it's always gratifying to find that someone is prepared to part with real money for one of your pictures and I hope they get many years of pleasure from the Whitby Fudge Bar.

Still Life Doodling

Still Life Doodle (WIP)

(Acrylic on board, 10 x 10 in.)

I still haven't decided on a method for preserving squeezed-out acrylic paint at the end of the day, so rather than simply scraping it off the palette and throwing it away, I've been painting it randomly onto small boards. 

Last night, I was taken with the idea of trying out a painting idea on one of these prepared boards, using one of a couple of still life doodles I did recently. I think it has potential.

Still Life Doodles

(Marker on paper, each image 3 x 3 in. approx)

Pharmacy Jar

Pharmacy Jar
(acrylic and collage on board, 9 x 9 in)

Finished. I've worked on the Mediterranean buildings outside and fiddled with the olive branch. I'm happy with it, if not completely satisfied. I'm never that.

WIP : General Dealer

General Dealer (WIP)
(acrylic on board, 10 x 10 in)

That nice lady who got scrubbed out has gone home for her shopping bag, changed her coat and reappeared in the picture. More fiddling here and there, and the picture has moved along reasonably well.

Whitby Fudge Bar

Whitby Fudge Bar
(Acrylic on board, 20 x 20 cm)

This the second of the two small paintings finished today and to be sent to the Bondgate Gallery show. Like the previous one, it offered a lot of fiddly detail and took several attempts to get a sky colour that I liked. As the awning is a cold blue (and yes, it had to be blue - no other colour would do), I needed to get a warm sky behind to make the picture work. For a while I wrestled with a pale purple but gave up on it as being too difficult to get the tone right without being very chalky - a problem with acrylics, I think.  In the end I opted for what you see - cobalt blue.

The Seafood Shack

The Seafood Shack
(Acrylic on board, 20 x 20 cm)

The North of England Art Club has announced another of their exhibitions of 20 x 20 cm paintings at the Bondgate Gallery in Alnwick. The theme is "People, Figures and Faces", the paintings must all be 20 x 20 cm and offered for sale at a fixed price of £50 I showed two pictures last year and sold one of them, so I've decided to submit two more this year (although there's no limit on the number I could enter).

This is the first. I found working in acrylic on board a little different to working on canvas and the size made the detailed subject a bit tricky, but overall it's worked out OK, I think.

More Whitby Fudging

Whitby Fudge WIP
(Acrylic on board, 8x8 in)

Moving slowly along on this one. Although I rather like working on these little paintings, I have to admit it's difficult getting any kind of detail on the figures which are necessarily very small. Do I need the detail? Who can say. It's just something I feel I have to do on this style of painting.

Initially, I thought I was going to like the blueness of much of the painting, but now I've put in the woman's coat, I think I want a contrast. More thought needed.

Whitby Food

The Seafood Shack WIP
(Acrylic on board, 8x8 in)

Whitby Fudge WIP
(Acrylic on board, 8x8 in)


Never one to be keen on finishing a painting, I left the others I was working on and started these two paintings earlier this week. There are things about them that I like and some I'm not so sure about, but mostly the exercise is just an acrylic learning experience. I think they'll work out OK in the fulness of time.