Dreamer

 Dreamer

(Oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in)

[SOLD]

This lovely lady is now on her way to be with a collector in Yorkshire. I know she’ll be in good company.

Memory Lane

 Memory Lane

(Acrylic on canvas, 8 x 8 in)

A painting from almost ten years ago. I needed the frame for something else, so took the opportunity to make some revisions. The painting is now darker and potentially more mysterious, and for me that seems right. I'm beginning to realise that changing times and my attitudes to the work, can be reflected in reworked paintings. Something for more thought.

Staithes Harbour

Staithes Harbour

(acrylic on canvas, 12x12 in)

Yesterday, I put the finishing touches to another painting that's hung around the studio for a long time, waiting to be finished. It was, I think one of the first, if not the first painting begun when I switched from oils to acrylics. Now to find a suitable frame so it can be shown in an exhibition.

Crab Pots, Staithes

Crab Pots, Staithes

(Acrylic on canvas, 12x12 in)

Yesterday I moved an old painting out of the way, and found this one hidden behind it. It’s in a nice black frame and dated 2017 and although I can tell it’s been displayed somewhere, I have idea where or when. Anyway, I like it and if you do too and are interested in buying it, please get in touch..

 

Night Station 2009 - SOLD

Night Station 2009

(oil on canvas, 24 x 30 in)

SOLD

I waved goodbye to this painting today as it set off on its journey to a new home with a collector in the USA. An interesting operation, because for the first time I had to order in a custom made packing box, rather than rely on pieces of cardboard from wine boxes et al.

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.

Staithes III

 

Staithes III

(Acrylic on canvas, 16x12 in)

Finished the third of my Staithes paintings today.

Memory Lane

Memory Lane

(acrylic on canvas, 8 x 8 in)

Another painting completed recently for the Path Through the Woods series. The title is somewhat ironic because I can't remember where this lane is. 

Path to the Sea

Path to the Sea
(acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 cm)

Leaving the Envelope and Jar to stew for a while ("marinade" might be a kinder term), I've returned to what's becoming a theme of mine - paths or tunnels through woods. This one is based on a photo I took this year on the island of Lopud, but I've allowed myself a good deal of liberty with reality.

I used the technique I learned from Lesley Seeger's workshop in March, laying down a layer of gel medium and thin paint, then working into it. Previously I used the pointed end of a brush but this time I thought I'd give a Colour Shaper a go. I've had these things lying round the studio for ages and never known quite what to do with them. The taper point tool made some really interesting marks that, when I came to work on the painting after the gel had dried, began to suggest quite exotic plant life. Some kind of cactus or succulent appeared from the top of the wall at the left and I encouraged its growth. 

The actual path on Lopud did lead to the sea but the path was very high up and we never reached the end or saw the sea. It seemed appropriate, then, to let me get a glimpse of the sea in my painting.

Crab Pots, Staithes

Crab Pots, Staithes
(acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 in)

I put the final touches to this painting yesterday. There are still things I might do to it if I allowed myself, but that would be a mistake. As it is, it captures the essence of the day better than I could hope.

Repair Work

WIP
(Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 in)

This is the painting I started a fortnight ago, before running into obvious problems with perspective due to some faulty reference material. After painting out the errors in perspective and some further repainting, this is where I am with this one now. 

Here's how it looked before:

Six Italian Caps

Six Italian Caps
(Acrylic on canvas, 8x8 in)

I knew I had to do something with the upper right cap: it was a curious colour and the Italian flag and lettering, coupled with the line between the cap and brim, was making an annoyingly gurning face. 

Once you've seen that sort of thing, it just won't go away, so I finally settled on replacing the flag and letters with the more standard "ITALIA". The subdued brown of the cap changed to a brighter yellow and now I'm much more satisfied with it. Satisfied enough to sign it, anyway.

Bird Table

Bird Table 
(Acrylic on canvas, 8 x 8 in)

I completed this little painting a couple of weeks ago, but forgot to post it here. I know it's a bit sentimental, but sentimentality is nice now and again, and I like it. If you like it, it's available - just email me.

Here's the sketch it was based on:

Evening, Hanover Street

Evening, Hanover Street
(Oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in)

This painting has now gone to its new home in Hitchin, Hertfordshire

Course Project 3

Project 3 WIP (Acrylic on canvas)

I'm really enjoying this online course run by Este Macleod, because it has certainly thrown me out of my comfort zone and I find myself producing pictures which I couldn't predict before I started. 

This latest is being developed from a canvas prepared with several layers of mark-marking, following Este's guidelines:

Erased Canvas

Sixty years ago, the American artist Robert Rauschenberg obtained a drawing from another US artist, Willem de Kooning and proceeded to erase it. The result, titled "Erased de Kooning Drawing, Robert Rauschenberg, 1953" is in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Leaving aside the merits or otherwise of this piece of work, I was reminded of it when today I embarked on a similar project.

Of the larger canvases I brought home from University in 2001, one was four by four feet, stretched and primed and pristine white. Too big to store easily in the studio downstairs, it's been tucked behind another similarly-sized completed painting in my bedroom. But there's no room for such a picture, devoid of imagery or no, in my next studio, so today I began the process of taking the blank one apart.

First of all the canvas had to be pulled away from the stretcher, the staples popping out and falling to the floor. Using my Gran's dressmaker's shears, I cut the canvas into strips and put them in the bin. Next I took out the screws. This showed that the bloke I bought it from ( he'd made several and didn't need two of them) had cunningly made use of several short lengths of wood, fastening them together with four-hole metal joining strips. So, more holes and more screws.

Once the screws were out, the stretcher still held together because of the thin strips of MDF round the edge which provide the canvas with lift away from the wooden stretcher. They had to be eased off with the screwdriver. Once everything was apart and on the floor, it looked a little like a flat-pack item from IKEA, laid out to check against the sheet of assembly diagrams. But I was going backwards, and the wood was broken up into shorter lengths and binned.

OK, I don't think this was an artwork, though I'm sure a video of the afternoon's work would entrance just as many people as those I see being ignored so often in galleries. And as a philosophical exercise, it kept me on track to shake off the ridiculous idea that possessions make me who I am.

Northumberland Fells

Northumberland Fells (oil with collage on canvas, 30 x 30 cms)

Another useful day, adding one more small landscape to my store. I just need to "do ten more" and find somewhere to show them.

Given the elbow, a new series

Shelter (Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 ins)

This painting is from 2001, but it represents a theme I want to see if I can return to.

Despite the injury to my arm - it turns out I have tennis elbow - I've been putting in some vigorous palette knife work on a couple of paintings which I think may go well with Shelter.

Blawearie Steps (work in progress)

I don't think this needs a great deal more work, but I may surprise myself when I return to it. The other I'm less sure of, but I like the subject matter. It's based on a Second World War pillbox lying at the edge of the golf course just beyond Dunstanburgh Castle.:

Pillbox (first stage)

I bought these canvases - they're Loxley Ashgate canvases - in a carton of ten from Ken Bromley at a decent price. They work out at about a fiver a piece. I couldn't make them for that price, even if I could make them of better materials. Still, tennis elbow and all that ... The canvas is only 10 oz., which is a bit light, and they're only double primed. but I've put on another three coats of acrylic primer and they look much better now. In addition, on the Pillbox canvas, I put on a layer of Winsor & Newton Pumice Texture Gel to give the area of the foreground grass a bit of "tooth."

The painting now standing ...

I'm on the point of starting a new series of work for some of the shows we (Figure 8) have lined up for next year, but I'm short of the canvases I want. I can't make them myself, as I pulled a muscle in my right arm last week, stretching one up. And it's too late to order them this week, as they'd probably arrive when I'm away on Arran next week

So in the meantime, I started a new one at the Art Club yesterday. The view is actually from one of the offices on the same floor as the Club, but it surprised me how many of the Club members didn't recognise it. Even artists go round with their eyes closed, sometimes.


Central Station block-in



Central Station (first day)