Chimera

Chimera (Oil on canvas, 24 x 18 ins)

Another one finished for the new show.

Spectre

Spectre (Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 ins)

There's a lot of reflection on this, so I may have to wait until it's hanging on the gallery wall before I can get a good photograph of it.

Near The Rookery

Near The Rookery (Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 ins)

The first of the new Rock and Tree series paintings is finished. Titles are always a problem, and I'm not certain I'll keep this one, but I'm very happy with the painting.

And one more ...

Chimera (work in progress)

I wasn't planning on doing another piece for the upcoming show, but I came across this while I was in the studio. I drew it onto canvas a few weeks ago, but put it to one side. Trying to see if it would work, I got some colour onto it this afternoon.

Part of it is based on a sketchbook drawing from our first trip to The Rookery in 2010:

I'm unsure of it at the moment. It may work out, but whether it'll go into the show ....

Further Work

Log Figure (work in progress)

Not a good photograph, but decent enough  to demonstrate the addition of the forest in the background. A little more work on that background and some fiddling here and there, and it'll be done..

Third New Painting

Baroque (work in progress)

This is the third new painting for next month's show and probably the last I'll be doing for it. It's a fairly small picture, only 16 x 16 ins, and is edging into slightly strange new territory for me. I'm intrigued to know where it might be leading me.

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.