Chinese Bottle

 Chinese Bottle

(Acrylic on board, 8 x 8 in)

[SOLD]

This small still life painted, I think, during the Lockdown, has now sold and on its way to its new home.

Seville Tile Factory

 Seville Tile Factory

(Acrylic on canvas board, 10 x 12 in)

I was fascinated by the Tile Factory in Seville when we went there in 2017. The strange shapes of the bottle kilns with mysterious openings and cantilevered lamps were a delight for someone who revels in the unusual. I was immediately reminded of the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, a tremendous influence on many of the painters I admire from the period between the Wars.

Here's a Photoshop treatment I did of a photograph taken on the same visit. I think it evokes some of de Chirico strangeness, but despite a couple of attempts I've failed to turn it into a successful painting. I may return to it again.

Memory Lane

 Memory Lane

(Acrylic on canvas, 8 x 8 in)

A painting from almost ten years ago. I needed the frame for something else, so took the opportunity to make some revisions. The painting is now darker and potentially more mysterious, and for me that seems right. I'm beginning to realise that changing times and my attitudes to the work, can be reflected in reworked paintings. Something for more thought.

Derry Girls

Derry Girls

(Acrylic on canvas board, 9 x 12 in)

The second of my paintings celebrating my trip to Derry / Londonderry. The Derry Girls mural was quite a surprise.

Up the Walls of Derry

 Up the Walls of Derry

(Acrylic on canvas board, 9 x 12 in)

Completed today, the first of my new Derry / Londonderry paintings. I was there two years ago and had a great time, but sometimes it takes a while for the experience to filter through and become a painting.

Speciality Coffee Bar

Speciality Coffee Bar

(Acrylic and collage on board, 12x7 in)

A small painting begun as a distraction at the turn of the year. It shows one of the derelict doorways I found as I wandered the streets of Chania on one of my many visits there. I enjoyed bringing the textures of the wall and door to life.

After today’s changes, I think I’m done with it now.

St George's University School of Medicine (Urban Sketchers Annual Event)

 

St George's University School of Medicine

Northumberland Road

Newcastle

(markers in A5 sketchbook)

I was really looking forward to the Usk Annual Event when it came to Newcastle. It would be a great opportunity to meet urban sketchers from across the country and even from other countries, I thought. So I cheerfully turned up on Friday afternoon. I'd missed the opening speeches, if there were any, and sketchers had already scattered across the immediate vicinity of the University and St Thomas's Church. I began to get an inkling of how isolating such a big event might turn out to be.

Anyway, I set off and finding a doorway to draw, settled down on some stone steps outside the City Hall and began to draw the doorway of St George's University School of Medicine.

Having an interest in and perhaps a love of cars makes drawing them easier, I'm sure. I have neither, so I struggled. By the time I'd finished, the car had, of course, driven away, and I, sitting on the steps of the City Hall, found myself trapped behind barriers that had been set up to contain the queue for the next performance. A kind man in a hi-viz vest let me out.

Still, it seemed a decent start to the USk Annual Event. However, when I got back to the main event near the university and joined in the Throw Down, I started to realise how lonely I was feeling. Oh, there were people there I knew, some of them even my friends, but they were either involved in the organising or very much wrapped up in their small cliques. I'm not fond of big events if I'm honest, and this proved to be much bigger than anticipated, and quite uninvolving for me.

As people wandered off in groups to different venues (quite a few going off to eat), I found myself standing on my own. I made the decision to go home and not return for the following day's event.

Rooftop WIP

Rooftop WIP
(Acrylic on canvas board, 8x8 in)

Something else begun last Friday at Gateshead Art Society. I'm finding my way with this one, not quite certain where it will lead. I'm interested in the way the shadows may not correspond with the light source.

Work Yard WIP

Work Yard WIP

(Acrylic on canvas board, 10 x 12 in)

The first few hours at Gateshead Art Society today left me with this scrubby start to a new, quite complicated painting of a work yard just round the corner from where I live.

I’m genuinely encouraged and find myself becoming more interested in the mundane urban imagery around me.

 

Night Moorings

 

Night Moorings

(Acrylic on canvas board, 10 x 12 in)

Finished today. This was one of those times when I begin to question if the photograph I'm using as subject matter is just a good photograph and not really suitable as painting subject matter. But I persevered, made changes (mostly to the sky) and ended with something I find satisfactory.

Moli des Comte, Ciutadella, Menorca

Moli des Comte, Ciutadella.

(Markers in A5 sketchbook)

Not the most appealing viewpoint, but the only one that didn't involve being run over. I thoroughly enjoyed my week's holiday in Ciutadella, the old capital of Menorca, but found it difficult to do any drawing. In part because of the usual inertia, but also because like Verona, it's a town of very narrow streets that make drawing difficult.

 

Boats at Night WIP

 

Boats at Night WIP

(Acrylic on canvas board, 10 x 12 in)

After a holiday break, it’s good to get back to some painting, but I’m never happy when I have to break off at this scrubby stage. I always doubt the viability of the subject or composition. “Boats” was this week’s suggested theme at the Art Club, continuing next week.

Whitby Coble

Whitby Coble

(acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 12 in)

For various reasons, mostly to do with the approach I first took to the composition and sourcing of the image, I put off finishing this painting, but now it’s done and I’m happy with it. 

The slightly different approach involved using a photograph that never entirely convinced me because the coble sat low in the water and didn't break the line of the quayside. To extract the information I needed to make the picture work, I tried working from a pen drawing of the photograph, ensuring the coble's superstructure bridged the top of the quay. This is the pen drawing:

(Fountain pen in square Pink Pig sketchbook)

Chicken Shed WIP

Chicken Shed WIP 

(Acrylic on board, 10x10 in)

Begun at the Art Club yesterday, for me a nightmare in green, but I have it under control I think. It's based on an ink drawing I did back in 2019.an ink drawing I did back in 2019.

Tony Montague

 

Tony Montague at Durham Art Group

(Photo copyright Durham Art Group)

I learned today that my old friend, Tony Montague has died. He was a prolific and adventurous artist, freely offering advice and a helping hand. 

He and I had a joint show in Alnwick in 2012 and we went on several group painting weeks together. I last saw him in 2017 when he gave a demonstration at Gateshead Art Society.

He was a fine fellow and I'll miss him.

It Was 20 Years Ago Today ...

 

I've always been interested in writing down thoughts and happenings as a way of reinforcing unreliable memory and interrogating some of my own assumptions. Over the years, I've kept a Diary, a Studio Journal, and this Blog.

My Diary began in May 1983 and I've been good at keeping it going over the years. There are gaps, inevitably, but looking back at entries now and again can be quite surprising. For instance, I recently found an entry from the 80s that detailed a meeting with a friend in a restaurant in Newcastle. I still have no idea why we were meeting (not enough detail, Diary!) but more surprisingly was the description of the restaurant because it no longer exists and without the Diary entry, it wouldn't exist for me now at all.

The Studio Journal has an even earlier start: June 1972. It's progress, however, has been patchy and uneven. Part of the problem is that some things get written up in the Diary which deserve equal space in the Journal and there are indeed times when I make the effort to copy entries from one to the other. The actual function of the Studio Journal has varied over the years, but i still think it's a worthwhile investment of time.

Before the appearance of Facebook, I wrote far more in this Blog. My first approach to blogging was from the perspective of fanzine publishing. In fact, I firmly intended to make this Blog a replacement for the fanzines I used to distribute to science fiction fans round the world, but it quickly became obvious that the intended audience hadn't taken to the idea and I gradually found myself drawn into the Blogosphere, a quite different concept from fanzine fandom. 

Facebook and other social media have, of course, dealt a body blow to blogging. A great number of Blogs are now moribund and, indeed, I let my activities here slide quite a bit. In 2017, I posted 425 blog posts here, a high point because in subsequent years the number declined to posts in the mid 40s. 

I'm now making the effort to revive Boogie Street; perhaps not to its former glory, but at least to something that presents something new fairly regularly. Here's to the next 20 years! And enjoy the celebratory cake (if 2018 doesn't mean it's a bit stale).

Coffee Shop Laptop

Coffee Shop Laptop

(Acrylic on canvas board, 8x8 in)

One of the great advantages of a mobile phone is that, if you always carry it with you, you always have a digital camera available. No need to lug around a heavy camera on the off-chance that you might need it. As a consequence, when I stopped for coffee and a sticky bun recently, I was able to photograph a couple of people sitting in a branch of Caffè Nero in Newcastle, and to do so in a surreptitious manner. This is one of them.

It's a simple picture but the composition is one of the classics - a triangle or pyramid - and I like the colour palette I've used. So I find I’m inordinately satisfied with it.

 

Sketch Crawl : Baltic Front Room

Baltic Front Room
(markers in A5 sketchbook)

My first Sketch Crawl (AKA SketchMeet) with the Urban Sketchers Tyne Wear and Tees in something like three years. It took me a while to find the main body of Sketchers because I wasn't aware of the Front Room. When I was last at the Baltic, that space was a restaurant. I think they made the change when they decided to provide a Warm Space for those unable to afford heat for their own homes. Anyway, a good day out, great to catch up with some old friends and put faces to some of the names encountered on the Facebook Group.

As usual, I found the architecture of the Tyne Quays too much for me and after wandering round the Baltic aimlessly, eventually just sat down and drew what was in front of me. Works every time although it's often necessary to ask people not to sit down across the table from you because they'll block the view.

Heritage/Glasshouse

Heritage/Glasshouse

(Acrylic on canvas board, 10x12 in)

I think it was the contrast between the old (the monument in front of St Mary's Heritage Centre)and the new (The Glasshouse International Centre for Music) that attracted me to this composition. It took a while to get the painting to this stage, but I’m happy with it now (although the photograph is a little inaccurate in the colour of the grass in the foreground).

Bridges of Venice

Bridges of Venice

(Acrylic on canvas board, 12x12 in)

I put this composition together a few years ago, constructing it from several photographs taken slightly different viewpoints. As a consequence, I was left with one or two gaps in the image and in addition there were some figures in the foreground obstructing the view of the buildings. At the time I didn't feel able to make the necessary changes that would make the picture work, so I put it to one side.

Recently, the Programme suggestion at Gateshead Art Society was "Bridges" and the time seemed right to give this image a go. Sometimes I forget that a complex composition takes just as much work at this scale as the same subject at three times the size. The picture took a good deal longer than I thought it might and I found that some of the ideas I had to get over the missing parts and elimination of the foreground figures had to be changed several times.

In the end, I think the effort was worth it and I'm pleased with the end product. I hope you do too.

 

Laying Cable

 Laying Cable

(acrylic on canvas board, 8 x 8 in)

If you're a painter, are you ever surprised by how your paintings turn out? I know my many interests feed into my work and with this I probably detect the influence of children’s book Illustration. A good deal of this must be to do with the switch to acrylic paint which lends itself to bright clear passages of colour.

WIP - Heritage / Glasshouse

 

WIP - Heritage / Glasshouse
(Acrylic on canvas board, 10x12 in)

A new one started yesterday. I expect the sky will become less apocalyptic as it progresses. The mausoleum is in the grounds of the Gateshead Heritage Centre (AKA St Mary's Church) and sits boldly in front of the modernist Sage Music Centre , recently renamed The Glasshouse. If there are moiré patterns on the image, I apologise - it's an effect of the canvas but will be gone in the finished painting.

Kwik Fit

Kwik Fit

(acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 10 in)

So many little changes before I was satisfied, but now I think I am. I wonder if you can tell I’ve become interested in David Inshaw and Tristram Hillier? I love the clarity of their work and acrylic definitely lends itself to that approach.

WIP - Kwik Fit

 

WIP

(Acrylic on canvas board, 10x12 in)

Another venture into local urban scenes. I spotted the potential of this garage on a trip to the podiatrist - it's just across the road from his premises. Early days, but I think it'll work.

Top Tape

 

Top Tape

(acrylic on canvas board, 8 x 10 in.)

My first painting of 2024, a modest subject: a derelict shop I came across last year in Cambridge. 

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!
 

North of England Art Club Exhibition 2023

 

Iron Box

Iron Box

(Mixed media, 12x12 in)

Yesterday I waved goodbye to this textured wall painting, off to its new home with a collector in Germany. I wish every day could be so much fun, but today I'll be doing my tax accounts.

 

Stevens of Boston

Stevens of Boston

(Acrylic on mountboard, 25x25 cm)

Another foray into the world of shops and stalls, this one in Cambridge. When I came to do the painting, I looked up the florist online and was sorry to learn that Adam Stevens, "the Flower Man of Cambridge" had died. I hope no-one is offended by my making an attempt at putting him into this small painting, using a photograph I found in the local newspaper.

 

Chained Up

Chained Up

(Mixed media on board, 30x30 cm)

Well, this one fought me at several points, but I think I won through in the end. Another addition to my “Textured Door Series”. For more of these, please see the Portfolio on my website.