Night Station 2

Night Station 2 (oil on canvas, 18 x 24 ins.)

One done, one still under construction:


By the Tracks (work in progress)

To London

Intercity Traveller (fine-tip marker, A6 sketchbook)

The paintings are wrapped and I'm off to London with them. Handing-in for the Threadneedle Prize is on Saturday, so at least I'll have Friday to get round a gallery or two.

I'm filled with trepidation. I don't enjoy carrying paintings on public transport, so I expect to spend half my time on the train worrying who's going to put their foot through my masterpiece. Still .... soon be over.

Wooden Train at Soller

Wooden Train at Soller (oil on canvas, 24 x 24 ins) Private Collection

Time to stop fiddling and put this one to rest. I'm happy enough with it and I think it fits nicely in what's become a loose collection of series: The Vaporetto Series, The Prague Tram Series and now the Wooden Train (series of one).

I'm quite anxious to start a new painting which will also follow the general trend of these paintings, but it's going to have to wait until at least next week, I think. First of all I have to get the paintings down to London and submitted to the Threadneedle Prize - travelling down on Thursday, back on Saturday - then there's my good friend Christine's Hen Party (+Stags) at Hexham Races Ladies Day on Sunday.

Sometimes it just seems all go.

Almost There

Train at Soller (work in progress)

Finding some time available before going off to the Art Club to catch up on events there, I've put in some of the defining lines in the structure of the town. I've also darkened the sky which I think makes it sit better in the whole composition.

Very little more to be done; more definition to the carriage, one of the passengers to be completed and possibly a change to the colour of the man's shirt, second from the left.

Satisfactory Day

Train at Soller (work in progress)

Things went really well today. The photograph above makes the colours of the town much too bright (too near the strip light), but in reality they're just about right for me and the town has taken it's proper place within the composition.

There are the little details to attend to now, like roof lines, straightening up windows, some glazing here and there, but it shouldn't be long before I can call it finished.

The Train Starts

Train at Soller (work in progress)

I was conscious of the fact that in submitting a painting that hadn't even been started, I was taking a risk, so I figured the sooner I start on it the better. Yesterday I drew it out on the canvas, after toning it with burnt sienna acrylic. Today I began the actual painting. Although there are things wrong with it - the buildings at the back aren't yet in their proper spatial relationship to the train - I think I was right to be optimistic about it.

You should ignore the cast shadow at the bottom right, by the way. That's actually the shadow of the pyracantha in the garden rather than part of the painting. Although ..... having said that, I'm tempted to include it now.

Threadneedle

I'm not so convinced of my own importance that I think the organisers of the Threadneedle Prize would single me out from all the artists listed in Axis to invite me to submit to the competition. But I was rather surprised that the message forwarded from Axis inviting me to do so, showed that it was sent to one artist only - me.

Anyway, I've thought about it - as I did last year - and have decided I've nothing to lose other than the £15 per picture and the cost of having them delivered to the Mall Galleries.

Unfortunately, I find that some of the pictures I might have wanted to include - the Prague Trams - won't be taken down from Preston Hall until 14th June. While handing in at London is 22nd June, the regional pick-up from Newcastle is 13th June. Bugger.

So what to do? I think I'll send them a couple of the Vaporetto Series, but have also decided to do a new one specially for the show. It's based on some photographs I took of the little wooden train at Soller, Mallorca last year and will form a sort of coda to the whole transport thing that's been preoccupying me for the last year.

I started it today. Everything else will have to take a back seat until it's done.

Back on Track

Night Station (work in progress - 1st day)

Finally, I shook off the Xmas lethargy and began work on a new painting today. It's a similar view to one I did two years ago, but this time at night.

From the offices at the back of the building which houses the Art Club, I can see the rear of Newcastle's Central Station and over the last few months I've taken a series of photographs late in the day. It's going to be interesting to see how the reduced lighting affects the colour, but today's effort left me quite satisfied.

Travelling Sketchbook

Elaborate Hair-Do (pencil, A5 sketchbook)

Cold Calling (pencil, A5 sketchbook)

Two people drawn on the Metro, on the same page of my A5 sketchbook.

Return to Cambridge

I wish I could have been here to insert my two penn'orth as the interesting debate continued in the Comments on Truth, but I'll get to it as soon as I can.

I was away in Cambridge at the time. Pat and I spent a few days there with her son Andy and his partner. The weather was much like the last time we went, at least at the beginning, but later it cleared up sufficiently for us to get around and see the town.

The highlight was undoubtedly our visit to the house at Kettle's Yard. It was an absolute delight, beginning with the little old ladies who shepherded us in and explained the rules, their quirky cloakroom arrangements involving clothes pegs and little squares of paper with numbers written in biro. I know I wasn't the first to think, "When can I move in?" because one of the ladies said so. The place has a completely lived-in feel with arrangements of stones and bowls of feathers, lino cuts by Ben Nicholson standing on the floor, Gaudier-Brzeska sculptures everywhere, Winifred Nicholson and Alfred Wallis on the walls, art just everywhere! I could have spent hours in the library alone. Another visit must be arranged, I can see.

And several more visits will be needed to get to grips with the Fitzwilliam Museum. I particularly wanted to see the temporary exhibition of Christopher Le Brun's suite of Fifty Etchings 2005 and I wasn't disappointed. Thought-provoking and hugely imaginative.

Close by was a room containing The Arts of the 20th Century. A huge Alan Davie dominates one wall and opposite is a wonderfully dramatic painting in four panels by Keith Grant, Volcano and White Bird. (1974-75). In addition there's almost a whole wall of lovely small pictures by Nicholas de Staël.

While I was taking it all in, a group of French students came in and their tutor kept them standing in front of the only French painting there, while he rattled on at length. It was a Soulages and for my money the least interesting picture there, but it was French.

But the Fitzwilliam Collection is huge and I had no more time. There's never enough time.

We did find the time to have some good meals there, not least the excellent Thai pork curry Andy made using chillies and other produce grown on the balcony of his flat. I do think he might have made the effort to raise the pork there, too, though.. Bit slapdash really. But he made up for it later by treating us to dinner at the Back Street Bistro, a cheerful little place with really great food.

On Monday, before catching the train home, we spent the day with True Rat and his wife, who lured us into The Free Press, the kind of pub that's so rare these days, at least in the North East. Untouched by modern trends, it bans music and mobile phones and serves a fantastic home made steak and ale pie (or if you're Pat, conger eel and samphire).

Afterwards, we took too long over our visit to the King's College Chapel and wandering the streets, so we were forced to make a sprint for the train home. We had to catch a train to Peterborough to make our Newcastle connection, and got there with four minutes to spare. I think we could have made it, but the jobsworth on the ticket desk had other plans. He confirmed it hadn't gone yet, then insisted on seeing our Senior Rail Cards. Then asked to see Pat's again, after she'd put it away.. I thought I detected a smirk when he said, "Oh, it's gone off the screen now. You must have missed it."

On a long shot we caught a train to Ely then another to Peterborough, but the Newcastle train had gone. This left us faced with buying fresh tickets at over a hundred pounds. Pat must have looked pitiful as she recounted our story to the man on the ticket desk at Peterborough, because after a moment's consideration, he charged us nothing and endorsed our old tickets to allow us to travel to Newcastle on the next train. What a nice man. And how annoyed I'd have been to have had to pay the full whack when no one checked the tickets on the entire trip to Newcastle.