Merry Christmas!

Christmas Lights

(Acrylic on mountboard, 9 x 9 in, greeting added digitally)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my Reader!
 

Merry Christmas!

Snow on Bath Lane

(Acrylic on board, 8x8 in. Text added)

Sketch Crawl - The Hancock Museum and McKenna's Cafe

Bardon Mike @ McKenna's

(Pitt fine marker in A5 sketchbook)

Saturday dawned grey and snowy, Michael was sensibly in bed with a cold, but I braved the chill wind and met the other members of Urban Sketchers Tyne and Wear huddling in the entrance to Haymarket Metro.

The plan had been to draw in and around the campus of Newcastle University but the weather made that deeply unattractive, so we opted instead for a return to the Great North Museum : Hancock. 

This would be our third visit to the Hancock and for me yet another chance to draw pots. Annoyingly, I discovered I'd left my pencil case at home, but found a pack of Pitt pens in the bottom of my bag.

Attic Amphora and Funerary Pots

(Pitt fine marker in A4 sketchbook)

Cypriot Jug with Sphinxes c 600 BC

(Pitt marker in A4 sketchbook)

Sadly, the Hancock has a policy of closing its cafe at 3.30 so while some of us managed to snatch a coffee and a scone before they closed, Richard was reduced to drinking my little jug of milk. 

In need of further caffeine we upped sticks and moved to McKenna's Cafe, just across the road. There we were able to sit and watch the snow being blown around outside, draw the Students' Union Building or simply draw one another.

Unusually for me, I opted for the latter and Bardon Mike, who'd joined us for the day from Berwick Sketchers, helpfully sat very still while I obsessed over the folds in his hoodie to such an extent that I can't help feeling he looks a little like a character drawn by Dürer (see top of post).

I thought the time round the table in McKenna's, laughing and sketching one another was a lovely way to round out the day and Kim even managed to get a photo of me smiling with Jenny (but then it was nice to see Jenny back with the group!).

(Photo: Kim Willis)

Next sketch crawl : 28th April, venue to be decided.

Caps and Bags

Caps and Bags

(acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 cm)

A problem with my recent reliance on composing subjects with the aid of Photoshop was highlighted this week as the snow came down. Although I still had access to Photoshop,  I find working from a screen impossible and I couldn't print anything off because my printer gave up the ghost at the beginning of the week.

Snow-related setbacks meant my replacement printer didn't arrive until yesterday. In the meantime, to stave off cabin fever, I pulled out a printout I'd worked on a while ago and produced this small painting over a couple of days.

I like it but am interested to see that it's mostly painted in the way I would have painted it were I using oil paint.

Winter's Jar

Winter's Jar

(acrylic on board, 24 x 24 cm)

In an effort to get some things done before the next meeting of the Newcastle Painters Group, I pressed on and completed this small winter landscape, featuring another of the pharmacy jars I saw in the Fitzwilliam Museum. The landscape itself is a view of hills in Little Langdale, where I went on one of my painting trips ten years ago. The snow, of course, is pure invention.

I'm really quite pleased with this picture and was glad to find it met with a favourable reaction at the Painters group meeting.

Winter's Jar WIP

Winter's Jar WIP

(acrylic on board, 24 x 24 cm)

One of the problems with sticking too closely to Gateshead Art Society's programme of suggested activities is that I seem to be ending up with quite a few unfinished paintings. This is certainly not a new situation for me in that I've always liked having several pictures on the go, but the number of unfinished ones is growing.

This came home to me yesterday when I found myself starting yet another. The suggested subject this week (and last, but I wasn't there last week) was "Winter". Using a photograph of a hillside in Little Langdale, adapted to show a covering of snow, I've added another of the pharmacy jars I saw in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

There's a long way to go with it and I'm not entirely sure it will work the way I thought it might, but for now I'll take it forward.

My Dad's Diary : Tues 8th April 1947

"Started using bike for work. 

Raining.

Snow in afternoon."

My Dad's Diary : Fri 21st March 1947

"Letter from Alan. Nora ill in hospital.

Snow practically all gone."

Nora was Dad's sister-in-law (my Aunt) in Australia.

My Dad's Diary : Tues 18th March 1947

"Raining (with sleet) all day.

Took Doris to Essoldo at night to see 'Janie Gets Married' and 'The Letter'.

Snow disappearing fast."

The Essoldo, along with all the other old cinemas in Gateshead, is long gone.




Janie Gets Married (1946): 

Married life isn't as blissful as either Dick or Janie had hoped. Dick is hired to write filler for his father-in-law's newspaper, but is never allowed to prove his real worth. Janie has to do housekeeping while dealing with a "well-meaning" mother and mother-in-law. When Dick invites an army buddy to stay with them, and that buddy turns out to be a girl, the situation takes a turn for the worse.

The Letter (1940) starred the wonderful Bette Davis and was directed by William Wyler:

The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter in her own hand may prove her undoing.

My Dad's Diary : Sun 16th March 1947

"Raining this morning - continued all day. End of snow?"

My Dad's Diary : Thurs 13th March 1947

"Six inches of snow this morning. Traffic stopped.

Over 24 hours snow fall. 

Communications paralyzed."

My Dad's Diary : Wed 12th March 1947

"Annual General Union Meeting.

Doris arrived home - went to arrange about nurse.

Snowing again."

My Dad's Diary : Thurs 6th March 1947

"More snow this morning.

Mild all day but freezing at night."

My Dad's Diary : Tues 4th March 1947

"Coldest morning yet. Snow still lying and freezing hard.

Trolley taken for repairs."

I'm assuming the trolley is a work trolley.

My Dad's Diary : Sun 2nd March 1947

"Baby christened today. 

Lovely day but cold. Snow still lying . Freezing at night."

My Dad's Diary : Fri 28th February 1947

"More snow.

Snow has lain all month."

My Dad's Diary : Thurs 27th February 1947

"More Snow.

Received back money (pay).

Gave Doris Xmas box - overdue."

Times were hard.

My Dad's Diary : Wed 26th February 1947

"Milder today but snow still lying in big drifts.

Wrote to Spicer."

I don't know who Spicer was.

My Dad's Diary ; Tues 25th February 1947

"Snow still lying, freezing hard at night.

Snowing at night."

My Dad's Diary : Sat 22nd February 1947

"Doris got Baby's coal.

Heavy snow storm.

Got 12/7 P.W.C. from India."

I haven't figured out the last line yet.