Chained Up

Chained Up

(Mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

Well, this one fought me at several points, but I think I won through in the end. Another addition to my “Textured Door Series”. For more of these, please see the Portfolio on my website.

Forgotten Dreams

Forgotten Dreams

(Mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

Another textured door painting started some time ago, finally brought to fruition by some creative thinking and an old stencil. I first used that yacht stencil when I was in junior school!

 

Greek Doorway

Greek Doorway

(Mixed media on board, 12x12 in)

Completed using some of the billboard scraps collected in Verona as well as acrylic and crackle paste. I think I find this kind of textured painting more satisfying than any other because there’s always a little thrill at seeing some of the unexpected results of this process.

 

Untitled (Bari)

 Untitled (Bari)

(Mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

Now that the painting is finished, I find myself yet again surprised at the way a random layer of paint and torn papers can influence the eventual appearance of a painting.

Paintings Sold

 

Blue Door

(Mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

In Saltwell Park

(acrylic on board, 20x20 cm)

Two paintings sold and on their way to their new home in Gloucester.

Red Locker Door

Red Locker Door

(mixed media on board, 30 x 30 cm)

The latest addition to my series of weathered and distressed doors. My Regular Reader will know of my red/green eyesight deficiency, so using so much red on this painting was something of a high wire act for me.

 

Discerning Eye Success

 

Blue Door

(mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

Closed Indefinitely

(mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

Iron Box

(mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

I was delighted to learn today that these three paintings have been accepted by the Discerning Eye Exhibition at the Mall Galleries.

"A virtual gallery will open on 19 November and run until 31 December 2020 showcasing the artists’ shortlisted works with commentary and introductions by the selectors and a new platform for viewers to buy the artwork directly. All exhibiting artists will be included in a fully illustrated print catalogue. Awards will be given out to the winners in a virtual prize giving."

Bouquet for Kathleen

Bouquet for Kathleen

(mixed media on board, 8x6 in)

A little birthday present I made for a friend as a surprise. Now she has it, I can show it. I’d like to be able to thank the photographer who took the photo on which it’s based (I know she’s on Instagram) but I’ve lost her name.

 

Flowered Jar with Figs

 Flowered Jar with Figs

(Mixed media on mountboard, 9x9 in)

Offered for sale and sold under the Artists Support Pledge.

Woman with Window Boxes

Woman with Window Boxes

(Mixed media on board, 8x8 in.)

I thought I knew where this painting was going but as time went on, it proved to have a will of its own. The wall became very textured, partly as a result of umpteen layers of newspaper, tissue paper, teabags, ink and paint used to get to a point where I was satisfied. In the process, a vine of some indeterminate sort grew up the side of the window and flourished.

In case you're interested, this is the photograph that inspired the painting:

Funchal

Funchal

(mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

This is the second of my new wall paintings. It may seem very abstract but is based quite definitely on a crumbling wall I found in Funchal, the capital of Madeira. Still, it was the abstract quality that intrigued me and continues to do so. I love the way the various elements of it seem to float free from the rest and I was at pains not to make it so obviously a wall.

There are two more in this series so far. You may well find that they look more like walls, but it's this one I'll look to for inspiration in the future.

Hill Town

Hill Town

(mixed media on canvas, 24 x 12 in)

Working on the Textured Door paintings, I wondered how the methods used on those paintings might work on a more traditional image, so I began work on this view of a hill town.

A while ago I produced a collage of cut up inkjet prints of various views of places mostly in Croatia. It was tall and narrow and didn't fit in with my obsession with square paintings, so I put it away. Now that I wanted to try my new methods, I remembered I had a box of 24 x 12 inch canvases, ordered when I was making larger oil paintings, so I pulled one out of the storage room.

There's a lot of stuff on this painting - washi tape, tissue paper, pieces of magazine and envelopes, even some patterned wrapping tape, as well as acrylic paint and gels. 

It was an interesting project and seems to have worked pretty well. Oh, and because people have already asked, the white circles are satellite dishes!

The Greatest Showgirls Tour

The Greatest Showgirls Tour

(Mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

Cheered by the success, at least as I see it, of the series of door paintings, I started this wall painting last week. I laid out the main elements, but knew when I started I didn't want to include the large patch of grey cement that was in the source photograph I'd taken in Crete:

On the way to the Club, I came across a fly-posted ad for a touring show and ripped part of it off the wall. Sticking it down in the place of the grey cement, I began the task of accommodating this new element.

I pushed and pulled the composition and the painting went through umpteen changes, but now it's done. I’ve learned a lot from this painting and looking back at the original photograph, I think I may return to the image again.

Blue Door

Blue Door
(Mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

This door painting, the fourth in the series, took much more pushing and pulling than the others, but I think I’m satisfied with it now.

Door Textures

Door Textures

(mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

Although I'm in the middle of several paintings that I'd like to get finished, I was attracted to last Friday's programme challenge at Gateshead Art Society: Surface Textures. 

For many years I've been fascinated by the effects of sun, rain and wind on doors, walls and ironwork and have made one or two paintings based on those effects. So rather than get on and finish an existing painting, I began work on a new picture of part of a weathered door, using as subject matter one of many photographs collected on my travels.

The hardboard panel was first covered in black gesso which I allowed to show through some of the layers of acrylic paint and gel applied (and sometimes scraped off) with palette knife, rags and fingers. There are several pieces of watercolour paper stuck on too, so that the end result is one of actual texture and implied texture. 

I like it and will do more, I think.

Two Months in Crete : Sketch - On the Walls of Chania

On the Walls of Chania

(mixed media in 195x195 mm sketchbook)

I went out onto the road along the Venetian wall again, but this time I'd made preparations. The sketchbook page was collaged with some pieces of brown paper bag and fragments from a magazine whose colours I knew ought to correspond to a house I had in mind to draw. I also had a folding stool so I could sit in the shade at the side of the road while the groups of tourists passed by on the other side.

Things went well; the colours worked just as I'd hoped and with watercolour, coloured pencils and markers I got what I wanted from the subject.  Just as I was wondering if there was more I might do, a man drove up and parked his car in front of me, then covered it with a tarpaulin, completely shutting off my view. I decided it was time to go, so stood up, but somehow I put pressure on one of the three legs of the stool, it bent and collapsed and I rolled around on my back in the dust.

Thankfully, the car driver had gone and there was a gap in the groups of tourists, so my embarrassment was a private affair.

Old Buildings, Chania

Old Buildings, Chania

(mixed media on board, 12 x 12 in)

Finished about a week ago, this painting is based on some buildings near where Pat and I stayed on Crete last year. There's a big post needed to deal with that, as I've hinted before, but this isn't the time for it. 

This picture was long in the making because I'm going through a quite experimental (for me) period of trying out new materials and methods. For this I used acrylic paint, Posca Pens, FW Acrylic Ink, a bottle of dye with no label on it, tissue paper, and collage papers. It was a fascinating, if messy, experience.

Six Cakes

Six Cakes

(mixed media, 22 x 22.5 cm)

Also finished today. I like how this has turned out and it fits quite well into the "Collection Series" (which has just come into being) along with the recent caps, bags etc.

Good enough to eat? It's been said already, but not by me because I'm not much into eating fancy cakes.

Streetfighting Men

Streetfighting Men

(mixed media on board, 10x10 in)

Today I decided it was time to get some of these outstanding paintings finished. Why they've proven so awkward at the closing stages, I really can't decide. I know the man in the white tee shirt has had several faces, none of which convinced me, but I'm relatively comfortable with this one. Anyway, it's all done now.

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.