WIP - Holy Island Water Tower

 

WIP - Holy Island Water Tower

(oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in)

Not a great day at the North of England Art Club yesterday. I put this painting back on the easel to resume work on it and squeezed out some fresh paint onto my palette.

Then I noticed that a bottle of Liquin had fallen over and leaked out quite a bit of the contents into the bottom of my paint box. Liquin sets like a particularly sticky toffee. So, scraping out the Liquin as best I could, I started to clean the residue with white spirit and soapy water.

Almost done, I knocked over the inside tray, spilling all my brushes and tubes of paint onto the floor. My back is giving me real trouble at the moment, so by the time I’d dried off the paint box and picked up all the brushes and paint, all I was fit for was storing the painting back in the racks, putting away the easel and going home.

I haven't been back since, which is a situation in need of remedying.

Up Pink Lane

Up Pink Lane

(Acrylic on board, 10 x 10 in)

In doing this small painting I was reminded what it was that put me off painting Newcastle: all those neoclassical windows and other details! Give me wonky vernacular any day.

 

WIP - Dietz

Dietz (WIP)

(Acrylic on canvas board, 8 x 10 in)

I’m working away on two different paintings at the moment, but Friday at Gateshead Art Society tends to signal the start of something fresh. And so it was today: I’ve been meaning to make something of a photograph I took many years ago of a butcher’s shop on Gateshead High Street. It’s no longer a butcher’s but still retains the interesting Art Deco character that set it apart from the surrounding vernacular buildings. Just blocked in so far.

Forth Lane

Forth Lane

(Acrylic on canvas board, 10 x 8 in)

A small painting, finally finished bar the varnishing. My first painting of the year and the first of Newcastle in quite some time. It's a lane just round the corner from Newcastle Arts Centre.

 

Say Cheese

 Say Cheese

(Acrylic and collage on board, 8x8 in)

I like to start the New Year with some cheese.

Nine Satisfactory Paintings of 2022

 

It’s been an unusually quiet year for me, but here are nine paintings produced in 2022, all of which satisfied me in one way or another.

Merry Christmas 2022!

 

Late for the Match (Snow)

(Acrylic and digital colour)

This year’s Xmas card (also available from LoveFromTheArtist).

Merry Xmas and a Very Happy New Year to all my friends and followers! Thanks for your support.

Nine Textured Paintings

 

Nine textured paintings on a continuing, if occasional, theme of distressed doors and walls.

The Pontificator (and his Successor)

 

The wonder of social media! Someone in the north west has just posted on Twitter the first photo above. It’s a painting he bought in an antique centre in Skipton and it’s one of mine. Here’s the story: I painted the version below (later cut down for a smaller frame), but then decided to revisit the subject in a less descriptive manner. Ian Bambro, whom some of you may remember (he blogged as Will Barrow), bought that second version from me and following his death, I guess it was auctioned off by his executors. Haven’t seen it in years!

alla prima 2022

Still Life alla prima

(acrylic on watercolour paper, 7x7 in)

One of the annual challenges at Gateshead Art Society is for everyone to paint, alla prima, from the same photograph. This is where I got in just over an hour last Friday, trying to share a photo with someone else. 

I can do better under less stressful circumstances, and this isn't how I might ordinarily approach the subject, but I'm not displeased with it. Indeed, I might go back to it at some point and make it more presentable. If you'd be interested in buying this work of art when it's done, please get in touch.

George and the Dragon (SOLD)

 

George and the Dragon (2004)
(Oil on canvas, 16x20 in)

Spent the afternoon parcelling up this painting so I can send it off to its new home in the USA in the next few days.

Gateshead Art Society’s Xmas Exhibition (Part 2)

 Three more new paintings in Gateshead Art Society’s Annual Exhibition, opening on Saturday at 11 am:

At the Maritime Trust

(acrylic on canvas board, 12x12 in)

Horchata for Two

(acrylic and collage on board, 9x9 in)

The Last Ice Cream of Summer

(acrylic and collage on board, 9x9 in)

Gateshead Art Society’s Xmas Exhibition (Part 1)

Three new paintings in Gateshead Art Society’s Annual Exhibition, opening on Saturday at 11 am:

Flowers in a Green Vase

(acrylic on canvas board, 12x12 in)

Still Life with Presents

(acrylic on canvas board, 12x12 in)

Lindisfarne

(acrylic and collage on board, 30x30 cm)

Aberdeen Trawler (WIP)

Aberdeen Trawler (WIP)

(acrylic and collage on board)

A detail of something new, almost finished - watch this space.

Untitled (Bologna)

Untitled (Bologna)

(mixed media on board, 30x30cm)

I started these two Textured Wall Series pictures together in July and quickly finished the Bari painting below by August. The other fought back and it wasn’t resolved until Friday last.

Untitled (Bari)

(mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

Looking at Paintings

Exhibition time rolls round again, so I’m starting to look at paintings, some unfinished, to see what might be submitted where. I usually find this process kickstarts the creative process too (not before time!)

From Odyssey Studios Balcony

From Odyssey Studios Balcony

(markers in A5 sketchbook)

It’s months since I sat down with a pen and sketchbook (I blame Covid), but today I made the effort. Obvious mistakes, but I’m out of practice. Still, I’m not dissatisfied.

Me in a Bar

 

Bewitched, Bothered & Bemildred. A pre-prandial Aperol Spritz, with some solid funk, in a bar round the corner.

From a Window

 

From the window at Odyssey Studios, Chania. Good to be just chilling out in such a lovely apartment, with wonderfully friendly hosts.

Back to Chania

 

It's four years since we were last in Chania; three since we were out of the UK at all. It's great to be back. Rather than choose somewhere to visit that would make us feel we'd have to explore, we decided to go back to Chania (definitely our favourite place) to just amble about and soak up the sun and atmosphere.

New Wall Painting (WIP 2)

 

Wall (WIP)

(Mixed media on 30x30cm board)

Despite a determination to make progress with this painting, I got caught up in the hectic “fun” of having a new kitchen fitted, and that inevitably definitely meant a delay.

However, yesterday I felt able to move along this textured wall piece with some watercolour paper, some paint and mark making.

New Wall Painting (WIP)

Wall (WIP)

(acrylic and collage on board, 12 x 12 in)

It’s early days but I hope this start to a new painting indicates an end to the post-Covid malaise that hit me a few weeks ago. We'll see how things go.

Untitled (Bari)

 Untitled (Bari)

(Mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

Now that the painting is finished, I find myself yet again surprised at the way a random layer of paint and torn papers can influence the eventual appearance of a painting.

New Beginning

 

Prepared panel

(torn papers and acrylic ink over abandoned painting)

The recent unusual heatwave made it very uncomfortable in my attic studio and that, coupled with lingering Covid symptoms, precluded any real work. But there are always ideas struggling to surface and by today I'd prepared this panel so that one of those ideas (see photo below) could inspire some kind of creativity.

At the Maritime Trust

At the Maritime Trust

(acrylic on canvas, board, 12 x 12 in)

This is a painting I’ve been working on over the last week or two. It’s based on a sketch I made on an outing with the Tyne & Wear Urban Sketchers in 2017 (see below) and the repeated circles fascinated me.

In the Shed 
(2B mechanical pencil in A4 sketchbook)

 

Still Life with Presents

 

Still Life with Presents

(Acrylic on canvas board, 12x12 in)

This has gone through so many changes. I initially followed the sketch I posted here, but as I suggested would happen, changes became inevitable once I began painting. The cup and chair vanished and the old sweet tin that originally made an appearance last Xmas, found its way into this picture. Finally, the chair returned to balance the composition (together with an escaped chocolate).

You might also notice my new stencils being used most obviously on the table, but also on the vase, in a similar way to the vase on Flowers in a Green Vase.

Water Tower on Holy Island (WIP, second pass)

 

Water Tower on Holy Island (WIP)

(oil on canvas, 12x12 in)

A little more progress on this oil painting yesterday, mainly making changes to the foreground and developing the tree and foliage, but it feels slow.

Water Tower on Holy Island (WIP)

 

Water Tower on Holy Island (WIP)

(Oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in)

An afternoon with my oil paints at the North of England Art Club, concentration only interrupted by a man installing a blind directly over my easel. 

Rooting around in my paint box, I uncovered a tube of Mars Red and have now remembered how pervasive the colour can be. I'll have to remember to exclude it when I return to work on this.

Sketch for Still Life Painting

 

A pencil sketch, with some digital tone added, for a potential still life painting to follow on from the Flowers in a Green Vase. This is at least less busy than a previously discarded sketch. I might go with this one and see how it looks when the paint's applied, changing it as it progresses.

Flowers in a Green vase

 Flowers in a Green Vase

(Acrylic on canvas board, 12x12 in)

Finding myself a bit adrift this year, I fell back on the old maxim, “When you can’t paint, paint something else.” I did a few very small still life paintings during the Lockdown and quite enjoyed them, but scaling up to even this modest size proved difficult. What I expected to take a couple of days or so has taken the best part of a week. I wonder if the next one, should I give in to temptation, will be so difficult?