December Sky

We've been getting some spectacular sunsets recently. The sky last night was particularly impressive.

Knife Garden

Knife Garden
(acrylic on watercolor paper)

All those who suggested I shouldn't touch this painting I produced with a painting knife at Tony Montague's workshop, may or may not be dismayed to find I couldn't let it lie.

I said I didn't like the sky and I meant it, so I took my brush in my hand, dug out some different blues and painted over the rather scrappy, turbulent sky of the original. I think the new sky is calmer and makes the painting much less frenetic. Using different blues has left an interesting halo round the big tree and I like that effect. I'll probably leave it alone now.

I've photographed the painting in a temporary mount, just to see how it might look framed.

A Little More Cathedral

Cathedral (work in progress)

I've been struggling recently to get any painting done, partly because of some kind of existential angst - what am I painting for? However, I did drop into the Art Club last week and move this painting of the Cathedral and Black Gate along somewhat.

The buildings are working out OK, I think. I can now turn my attention to the top third, defining the town in the distance a little, and then settling the sky.

And One Makes Four

Holy Island 4 (Work in progress)

It's time to return to the Holy Island sky pictures and move them along, but I always feel three in a series is never enough, so yesterday I began a fourth.

The plan is to complete all four by the end of the week, so over the next few days they should all be appearing here. Watch this space.

Longbenton Skies

Although, when Vivien Blackburn issued her sky-sketching challenge in May, I didn't have time to take her up on it, I was determined to find an old sketchbook that had some skies in it.

In March of 1990 I found myself in an office with views of the sky and while I don't remember what prompted it, I bought a ring-bound A5 pad of Ingres pastel paper and some oil pastels which I put in a little box marked "SKIES". Whenever the opportunity arose - in other words, when the office was otherwise empty - I quickly sketched the sky, noting the date and time.

In April 1990, I moved into another office with views of ... another office.

As luck would have it, I couldn't find the sketchbook in good time to link with Vivien's listing of sky-bloggers but I came across it today, along with various sentimental items I thought were long ago destroyed, so here are the five sketches of the skies over Newcastle Central Office in March 1990.


1 March 1990, 4.25pm


15 March 1990, 3.45pm


19 March 1990, 11.15am


20 March 1990, 12.00pm


March 1990 (no specific date or time)

New & Old

The Gate (work in progress)

I feel like I'm struggling with this one, but I recognise there's been some progress today. Much of the colour has undergone subtle transformation, and the foreground is starting to emerge as cars and people. I'll keep at it until I make it how I think I want it to be (or until it tells me it's reached the stage of being how it wants to be!)

I painted this picture a few years ago but was always a little unhappy with how it turned out. I felt it had become too literal and a bit ... dull. I took it out of its frame, did some extra work on the landscape and painted out the sky. And there it stayed, incomplete, until today.

I painted the sky using a painting knife and the paint left over from working on The Gate, and touched up the landscape a little more. It strikes me at the moment as being overly busy, but that impression might fade in the next few days. Whether it does or not, I like the new version better. (As usual, my monitor is emphasising the reds in the picture; if yours does the same, please make allowances for that).




The Creel Inn, Catterline (Oil on canvas, 12 x 12 ins.)

A Useful Day

At the River's Edge (Oil on board; 24 x 12 ins.)

I guess that's about enough on that one (although I may check the lower part when the paint is dry and add a a bit of a darker glaze to bring it down a little). Then it's up on the wall at the Club to see if I might win something.

I figured it was about time I started on some work for next year's show in South Shields, even though we don't have a definite date for it yet. This is the subject I liked best from my first foray into Sandancer country. Now that it's under way, I think it looks very promising.


Metro (start)

To round off the session, I played about with the sky on one of my small landscapes that have been troubling me for some time. They just seemed a little dull, so I've been adding dramatic skies. I put a new one on this last week, and again a couple of days ago, but I still wasn't satisfied. Today's looks more likely to stay, although in different light I find the green I introduced as a reflection of the landscape itself has turned out to be somewhat strident. So I'll probably be having another go at it some time soon.

Catterline Sky (ongoing)