Second New Painting

Rookery Rock (work in progress)

Another new painting begun today, continuing the Rock and Tree series.. This one is based on a sketchbook drawing I did last year at The Rookery in Bishopdale:



Sketchbook drawing.

New Work

Log Figure (work in progress)

Even though my two man show is currently running at Alnwick right now (still time for you to get up there and catch it!), I'm working out some new subject matter for my next show, which will be a solo effort throughout August in Newcastle .

I've been thinking about my Rock and Tree series and how that might be enlarged and expanded upon. The shades of Graham Sutherland and Paul Nash are sitting in the studio right now giving me advice and this is today's freshly started painting.

Private View at Bailiffgate

Across the mezzanine.

Three small paintings in a display case.

Three Prague  Tram paintings.

Guests.

A while ago the Private View for the Bailiffgate show was changed from last Tuesday night , when the weather was as decent as we've come to expect for summer, to Friday when the forecast was for torrential rain and flood warnings were out for just about everywhere you could think of. As a result the turnout of guests was not all we might have wished for. Even the solid gold I'll be theres I've come to count on called me up and apologised for their absence.

Luckily, the  Bailiffgate Museum is run entirely  by volunteers who do a sterling  job and many of them turned up to help dispel any feeling of abandonment. The chairman made a splendid speech and overall we had a good time.


In keeping with the zeitgeist, my camera batteries failed on me and I had to keep taking them out and turning them round just to take these four photographs.

Thirty Paintings

I spent three and a half hours on Sunday with Pat and Tony Montague setting up the Harry Bell & Tony Montague show at Bailiffgate in Alnwick. It looks good, if I say so myself, and with thirty of my paintings on display (Tony has twenty-nine), it's easily the biggest show I've ever put on.

The exhibition has started, but if you'd like to come to the Private View, it's on Friday at 6.30pm. I'll be there and happy to talk to you.

My Next Exhibition

Poster for my next exhibition. Make a note in your diary!

Staithes Harbour Office

Staithes Harbour Office (Oil on canvas, 12 x 12 ins)

I'm not sure this has gone in the direction i thought it would, but I'm satisfied with the end result.

Boat, Trogir Marina

Boat, Trogir Marina (Oil on board, 30 x 30 cm)

This needed only a little work to finish it, so it was a good way of easing into the day's work.

Seven Cakes and a View of Glasgow

Seven Cakes and a View of Glasgow (Oil on canvas, 16 x 16 ins)

I've worked on this one off and on for some time and finally decided today to just have a good go at it and pull it together. I think it works now.

I'll be taking it to a meeting of the Painters Group on Saturday where I'm unsure of its reception. The tutor and several of the painters seemed to find the concept puzzling last time I showed it to them. I find that puzzling.

First Staithes Painting

Harbour Office (work in progress)

This was one of the subjects I'd like to have tackled while I was at Staithes, but standing on the beach with the wind howling against my back made it impossible. Once I got back, however,  I really wanted to have a go at it, so trying to shake off the current mood of "what's the point of it all", I got down to it today.

I think it's working out well. It would be possible to leave it as it is, I guess, but that's not my way. Having said that, there's not a lot more I need to do to it - some railings, a bit of defining of boat shapes and some lightening of the sand areas here and there.

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.

A Week in Staithes (7)

Stone and Brick Wal, Staithes Beck 
(Pentel Brushpen in 21 x 26 cm sketchbook)

Although I'd been happy using the fine line marker for some of these drawings, it did seem to need quite a firm hand. Last year, I'd so enjoyed exploring the qualities of the Brushpen that I'd been a little disappointed to realise it didn't easily lend itself to the depiction of buildings.

Sitting on one of the concrete stepping stones that cross the Beck, I decided that this crumbling old wall was just what I needed to get out the Brushpen again. It really is a joy to use.

A Week in Staithes (6)

Round the corner, Staithes (0.8 fine line marker in 21 x 26 cm sketchbook)

You can probably begin to appreciate how much I was trying to avoid standing in the wind still blowing through the town when I tell you that this subject was quite literally round the corner form the front door of our cottage. Having said that, it wasn't out of desperation that I decided to draw it; I walked past it every time I went down to the Beck and was always taken with the way it seemed to fold in on itself.

A Week in Staithes (5)

Chimneys, Staithes (0.8 fine  line marker in 21 x 26 cm sketchbook)

As the freezing wind ate away at my confidence to do work of any duration, I went back up the path I'd used the day before. This time, however, instead of concentrating on what lay across the valley I decided to draw what was closer to where I stood.

You might think that the lines in the background represent a cloudy sky, but they are, in fact, a basic delineation of part of Cowbar Nab, the grass-covered rocky outcrop to the west of Staithes. The Nab is covered in nesting seagulls, but at least one of them has settled on the smaller chimneys to the left.

A Week in Staithes (4)

Yellow Houses at Staithes 
(Disposable fountain pen with watercolour pencils in 21 x 26 cm sketchbook)

No wind abatement, so by now I was looking for places where I might get a bit of shelter. Half way up a path that climbed the south side of the valley, I found I could look across the roofs to the other side.

I really liked the yellow houses over there, so I was disappointed when the lines from the disposable pen ran into the yellow pencil and spoiled its purity

A Week in Staithes (3)

Houses above Staithes Beck (4B pencil in 21 x 26 cm sketchbook)

Some of the best subjects in Staithes are concentrated on and round the Beck which runs through the bottom of the valley. This drawing was done at the upper end of the town where a set of concrete stepping stones allow you to cross the Beck.

What attracted me was the diagonal arrangement and I'm keen to see how it works out as a painting.. At the time I planned to make more of this area but I soon came to realise that standing still in the bottom of the valley with the freezing wind blowing in my face was bearable for only a short while. A visit to the warming atmosphere of the Royal George was soon called for.

A Week in Staithes (2)

From Westgate, Staithes (Watercolour and crayon in A4 sketchbook)

Later in the day, after I'd been on the valley top, the weather turned wet. It wasn't the torrential rain we'd been told was coming, but wet enough to make us stay indoors for the rest of the afternoon. While the others worked on things they'd done earlier, I stared out of the window from my chair by the dining room table. Eventually, I figured I might as well have a go at drawing what I could see.

I have to say I didn't much care for this drawing when I'd finished it, but I'm coming round to it now. It started with a 2B mechanical pencil, then had watercolour washes added. Finally, I tried out some crayons I'd bought years ago and not used and which I discovered this time I don't really like at all.

The box says they're "Special Guitar Artist's Crayons - especially made for tropical use". I guess the reason they're suitable for tropical use is that for wax crayons they're horribly short of wax which makes them go on in an unpleasant dry manner. I think I might get rid of them and accept that the "24p" price still visible on the box is something I can afford to lose.

A Week in Staithes

Staithes Roofs (0.8 fine line marker in 21 x 26 cm sketchbook)

As I do every year, I went off at the beginning of the month for a week's "painting" with some of my mates from the Art Club. I put that in inverted commas, because it's rare for me to get anywhere near some paint. Mostly, it's a couple of sketchbooks and some favourite pencils and pens and maybe a slosh of watercolour and a smudge of coloured Conte.

I honestly thought this year might be different.  For one, in Staithes  I'd be amongst buildings, which should mean I'd not be hunting for the odd twisted tree to provide some structure. Buildings, after all, are my thing. So it did seem as if I might at least get out the tubes of gouache I take along every year.

But I'd reckoned without the wonderful British weather. The north easterlies blew straight in off the North Sea and up the Staithes Beck valley. Although the torrential rain we'd been promised in the forecast didn't materialise, and the sun shone quite a bit, it was bitterly cold - one night saw temperatures drop to -6C!

But I set off with a good heart the day after we arrived, climbing up the side of the valley to look down on the town. From there I could see Westgate, the house we were staying in  That's it in the centre of the drawing, just across from the former chapel now housing the Captian Cook and Staithes Museum.

Surprisingly, the wind wasn't too bad at the top of the valley, so I was able to spend a couple of hours working on this drawing. I thought about adding colour, but I was coming to the view that I might do without colour or tone in the sketchbook on this trip, so I left it as it is.

Hard Drivin' Man

Had I opted for a new hard drive to be fitted in me, as I joked last time, I might now find myself with several fingers (or worse) missing. My backup drive has let me down and I've had to painstakingly restore much of my data from a CD of my paintings up to October 2011, the photographs I still have in my camera (luckily I haven't wiped most of those in the last two years) and from elsewhere on the web.

What I'm unable to replace are the bits and pieces of work I'd done with photograph modification, collaging etc, but I'm taking the optimistic view that sometimes a good clear out  and a fresh start can be invigorating.

Hang on while the invigoration takes hold.

Hard Drive Blues

Please bear with me for a while. I've had to have a new hard drive fitted - in the PC, of course, not in me, although I sometimes wonder if I could do with a new one too. It's going to take a while to get everything loaded up again and back to something resembling normality.

Very First Sketch Book ( #2 )

Monastery above Naxos 26/9/85
(Fineline marker and grey felt-tip in A5 sketch book)

After Athens I moved on to Naxos and made this quick sketch of a monastery above the town. The felt-tip was a  rather clumsy tool, I found.

Cathedral Work

Cathedral (work in progress)

Back to the Club on Friday to spend a short time working on the Cathedral painting. The foreground is coming along, but the more distant view will take some time to get right, I think.

[And as an aside, can I just say how irritating I find the new Blogger posting system  It wasn't broke; it didn't need fixing.]

Preparations for a Show

Madonna of the Toboggan (Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 ins)        
                                

Magic Mushroom (Oil on canvas, 28 31 ins)

Passing a Palazzo (Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 ins)

 Central Hotel with Cars (Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 ins)

Train with Prickly Pear (Soller)  (Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 ins)

I'm beginning to put together some pictures for a new Figure8 show in Bishop Auckland Town Hall. There won't be any new paintings from me in the show, but I'm trying out some combinations of old and new ones to see what resonances they might draw from one another. I rather like the old Hoppings paintings (the two at the top) with the more recent vaporetto, car and train images. 

The Hoppings paintings date from 2004 and show that even then I was intrigued by the idea of  "people in containers".

Hot Cathedral

Cathedral (work in progress)

I had some good news today which made me want to get on with some fresh painting. So it was back to the Art Club where I set about painting what seems to be a view of Newcastle-en-Provence but is in fact St Nicholas's Cathedral in Newcastle upon Tyne. A good start on what was actually a very wet day.

Very First Sketch Book ( #1 )

Opposite Hotel Pythagorion 16.9.85 (Fine marker in A5 sketchbook)

I'm still finding a reluctance to get work done right now, but it's always been my policy to try to keep blogging through these flat patches.

Previously, I posted from my series of Old Drawings but those are all posted here now. So what I've decided to do is work my way through my sketchbooks. I've mentioned before that the sketchbook habit has evaded me over the years, but I do have quite a few sketchbooks and some of them even have drawings in them!

In 1985 I decided to try to get into the habit of sketching and bought an A5 spiral bound sketchbook to take with me on a trip to Greece. This is the first sketch I made, looking out of the window of my room at the Hotel Pythagorion in Athens. It was done quickly as I'm sure you can tell and I used a rather unsympathetic marker, but I was happy with it at the time.

I've often thought that I might use the sketch as the basis of a painting, but that hasn't happened so far.

Back to the Cakes

Glasgow Cakes (WIP)

I figured it was time to move this painting to a conclusion. It's not quite there yet, but it doesn't have far to go. All I have to do now is find the reference material I was using and which I seem to have mislaid during my break. Tsk.

Sold

Shark Rock (Oil on canvas, 12 x 1 2ins)



On the Wansbeck (Oil on board, 9 x 16 ins)



Bigg Market Buildings (Oil on board, 5 x 7 ins)

As an interesting corollary to the previous post, I thought it worth mentioning that during the Month of Short Retirement, I did in fact sell these three paintings to some good friends who can now add them to what, in my mind, qualifies as a Harry Bell Collection.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Corridor 1990 (Watersoluble marker in A5 sketchbook)

A month is a long time in the Blogosphere. If that isn't a famous quote, it ought to be. It's just over a month since I posted anything here; I feel I should act before the inertia really builds up and starting again becomes a chore. I'd hate to think you'd all given up and gone for good.

Hello? Hell - ooo?!!

There's a reason for the pause in my blogging, one that's relevant to the pause in my painting too (for the pause has manifested itself there as well), but it's one that I'm only now coming to terms with.

I turned 65 at the end of January and became the grateful recipient of a State Retirement Pension. Suddenly, I'd come out of a long dark tunnel and a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders. For the last ten years I've been beavering away trying to earn a crust from my work and now, well, I don't have to. I've never painted anything I didn't really want to paint, but there was always the thought at the back of my mind that I needed to sell it.

And now that thought has evaporated. I can do whatever I like, including doing nothing. which is rather what I've been doing for the last month, at least in terms of making art. I have been visiting friends, I have been entertaining friends who paid a return visit; and I have been seeing exhibitions, most notably the wonderful David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy in London.

But now I feel it's time to get back in the studio and make art again. There's another Figure8 show coming up, and I may want to do something new for it (or I may not - the power of the new freedom!). The great thing about how I am now is that I can do anything and everything, without considering the consequences.

But there are a couple of paintings I think should be finsihed before I launch into anything fresh. So watch this space. Oh go on. Just to please me.

Interviewed Again

I'm not one to talk about myself much, which must seem a strange thing to say here, given that this blog is all about me. But what I really mean is that in person, I don't like talking about me.

However, now and again I like to take the opportunity to answer written questions about my art. In the past, I've answered questionnaires from 'A' Level students tasked with writing a study of a local artist. Some contained quite searching questions, some were more basic. I finally gave up agreeing to them when the promised copies of the eventual studies didn't materialise.

But recently I was asked by Joanna the Mad if I'd be prepared to answer some questions for publishing on her blog, facebooklet.ca . I agreed and found the experience interesting as usual. I hope you'll check out the interview on her blog. You can make up your own mind about the pencil drawing she's done of me. I'm afraid I'm rather averse to being photographed or drawn.

The written form of interview is helpful, because it provides the opportunity to consider and rethink the answers and in time, I think those answers may be helpful to me when it comes to working out where I want to go.

"Where I want to go?" Oh, more on that vexed question in due course, I'm sure.

Biscuit Factory Show

I was able to spend a little time at the Biscuit Factory, photographing my paintings hanging in the Figure8 show. They looked good, I thought - better than these photographs might suggest - and were very well received at the Private View, but sales were absent. Depressing though that is, it's made more bearable by the general absence of red spots throughout the gallery. Obviously the financial climate isn't favourable to fine art sales.

The show is finished now and I'm faced with the usual problem of bringing the pictures home. Taxi again, I suppose.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh Churchyard (work in progress)

Sorry for the pause in blogging. Pat and I went to Edinburgh at the beginning of the month and I came back with a three-week cold. Writing came a poor third on my list of priorities, after coughing and wiping my nose. And painting stalled altogether until yesterday.

The trip to Edinburgh was a birthday present from Pat and timed to coincide with the exhibition of FCB "Bunty" Cadell's work at the National Galleries of Scotland. A wonderful show! Not a poor picture in the whole collection; his work during the 1920s was particularly exciting yet at the time he didn't find much commercial success with it.

We also paid two visits to the Open Eye Gallery to look at Kirsty Wither's new work. Previously known for her figure paintings and flower still lifes (both of which were represented here), she's recently turned her hand to landscapes and I thought these were really successful. Lovely subtle passages of colour laid on with a painting knife, with some of it scraped through. Gorgeous.

The cold started to show up on the last day in Edinburgh and by the time I was home I was ready to vegetate. But by yesterday I felt I should make the effort to get working again, so went off to the Art Club. Inevitably, the last person there was just about to leave as I arrived, so I spent the afternoon in splendid isolation, working on this small painting which you may remember from its last appearance in August.

I think I still have reservations about the lighting in the studio at the new Club premises. It's a combination of natural light diffused through ceiling panels together with some strip lighting. On an overcast day like yesterday the light coming through the diffusion panels seems poor and I was uncertain of my tones while painting. As a consequence, this painting looks different when photographed in the Club's common room, where the light comes through big windows, than it did in the studio.