Thursday 25 June 2009

Back to Norfolk - Part 1

Fortune strikes from time to time. Sheila was to head off to Lancashire for a reunion with friends from college days. The fortune lay in the fact that there was a course at Martin Kinnnear's Norfolk Painting School taking place the same weekend so I enrolled and had the benefit of a couple of extra days in the area. My first two days there were spent looking around the fascinating range of creeks, bays, beaches and little harbours scouting out venues for future painting expeditions. Of course the opportunity was not lost to unload the paints and have a go.

Readers will know that recent weeks have been a bit difficult and that I have been trying to assimilate some of the lessons from friends in the on line community as well as reading the works of some eminent paractioners and teachers. What a way to get confused. Never mind it's all churning around inside and hopefully will emerge fully formed in a 'Carney' style at some stage down the line, although reading some of the greats would seem to suggest that I may not live long enough to get there. Nevertheless the journey is fun and stretching and keeping me thinking.

The two paintings below were done whilst investigating the North Norfolk coast and were put down in fairly short order, more as a record than as completed works, although both will be used to inform other work. More of that later.

Scolt Head - Oil on canvas board 12" x 10"

Morston Creek - Oil on canvas board 12" x 10"
The next post will be based on the work done at the Norfolk Painting School.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mick, so glad to hear that you had the opportunity to go back to the Norfolk School. I must admit there was a time in my artistic journey that I had to completely disengage myself from everyone else’s art but my own. It is easy to get confused and way laid by such a lot of meaningful advice on the Internet and in books..... and so many different ‘styles’ and techniques. Every time I wander off on a tangent I usually end up back very quickly painting like ‘me’ again. Do you use Gamblin oils when you take your classes there…and do you know if they are the regular artist grade? I shipped quite few Gamblin colours over with me from the States, but can’t seem to find them here….and they produce some really nice transparent colours. I’m having fun (and angst) with my own new journey in oil…but I really like underpainting and glazing. Takes forever, though, but then Rome wasn’t built in a day! I left a long message for you on one of my blog post comments about making panels. Looking forward to seeing what you painted on your weekend.
Maggie

Unknown said...

Maggie - Thanks for visiting and in particular thanks for your very helpful comments about panels, which I have saved till I can get round to buying the support material.

I will post more about the course later, but yes the paints we used at the School were all Gamblin Oils, but a mix of their Artist Sketching Oils and the Artist Grade, depending on the pigment used. You are right, they are good and certain of their colours have become permanent in my box.

At the moment Martin is the only source of Gamblin paints over here. Robert Gamblin is coming over to visit the School in September. I'm sure Martin would welcome specific enquiries about the range that he stocks or indeed be willing to fulfill specific requests for materials from the Gamblin range. I came away with a tube of the Torrit Grey that is produced when the machines are cleaned at the Gamblin factory.

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Mick,
Both of these are good solid paintings. The work in the sky is really well done and you've gotten a lot of real estate in these two paintings. On the lower one I'd watch taking things like roads/rivers/or any sharp edged color changes right to the corners...as in the lower left corner. Painting any element into a corner tends to lead the eye right along with it. If you do find running a stream or anything else off into a corner it is best to break it up using other objects like bushes, grass etc...you can also break it up using softer brushwork at the edges or even changing the color up a bit...anything that tends to soften the line working it's way off the picture plane.
I've been wanting to try some Gamblin paints myself but have yet to try them. I envy you for the great landscapes you have over there to work with. Keep up the great work Mick.
Ron

Unknown said...

Ron - Thanks for the advice, I'll certainly try to remember it when the next one comes off the production line.