September Project

As part of the ongoing monthly project series that I share with my friend Peter, he selected this image as the subject matter for September. At first sight I found the task quite daunting then Having thought about it, I decided to heed some of the advice I keep giving myself and get rid of much of the intricate detail in the picture. The job then looked a lot more manageable.

Boats at Beer - Photograph

The first decision I made was to attack the figures as they are difficult in themselves and I'm not sure this was a great idea as I'm somewhat disappointed with the way that the central character sits against the boat. If I did it again I'd do something about the light direction and the colours used to give that figure a little more prominence. Another good learning experience.

Boats at Beer - Watercolour on Rough Paper 16" x 12"

The next month is going to be hectic, painting wise as Sheila has finally persuaded me to display some of my work at a local Art Fair and I've taken the plunge and booked a stand. However, this means that I've got to get on with lots of framing and organising how the pictures are displayed. The big problem I now have is selecting pieces that people might like and not hanging on to those pieces that I feel quite possessive about. The show is towards the end of November and I'll update the blog with news of how it goes.

The Heart of It

Now that I was getting a little experience I began to think about what it was I wanted to make the core of my work. In one respect it was not a difficult question to answer. I have always loved the outdoors and many of the pursuits that I've followed have been in the country or on the coast. This made it easy to decide that whatever else I did, working en plein air would be at the heart of it and that a core of that would be spending some time along the wonderful NE coast which is where I live. Within a few miles of home there are some fascinating sea stacks left by cliff erosion and they make interesting subject material. The following images are all 12" x 10" Oil sketches that were completed on site within seven miles from home.





Whitburn Rocks



Lizard Point

Souter

The Next Big One

Taking to heart some of the lessons learned by posting work on Wet Canvas, I thought it a good idea to post a piece as a Work In Progress hoping to get advice on some of the more subtle ideas that contributors have about acceptable work. The first image is the one that I posted. It is a view taken on a trip along the Madison River in Montana. The purpose of the trip was catching trout and what a day it was, brown trout, rainbow trout and whitefish rising to the fly all day. However, back to painting. I thought the piece was nearing completion and already had some ideas about work that needed to be done. The response on WC was really helpful and lots of the adjustments suggested were indeed more subtle than major surgery.



The second image shows the painting after adjustments and they do make a difference. Notice the differerence in the collar of cloud around the mountain, value changes in the mid ground and more work in the foreground. The clouds now look a little more like clouds rather than the balls of cotton wool on the first picture. This exercise certainly emphasised for me the benefit of other eyes viewing our work. It always prompts further thought on our part. Learning occurs.




Madison View - Oil on canvas board 20" x 16"

Total Immersion

The time had come to put myself in front of some real painting so I headed for London to spend three days 'doing' the galleries, but not in the usual cursory way. The particular galleries and indeed paintings were planned before going. I was delighted to have guidance for the trip from Martin Kinnear.

On the first day I spent the day doing the special Rothko and Bacon exhibitions, both of which blew me away and left me with intense feelings about some of the more negative aspects of the human condition. However, both exhibit wonderful mastery of the medium. Rothko - glowing glimpses of colour that are not immediate. Even his black compositions take on a colourful life of their own as you view them. Bacon - with meticulous preparation of grounds, thin stains of colour on unprimed canvas on which he builds effects with various densities of pain, followed by the tension and violence that his drawing and brushwork evoke. Whilst this work would not represent styles that I would wish to emulate, the beautiful application of paint, colour control and glazing certainly would be. Both exhibit that quality that seems to elude most of us, the ability to create fascinating brushstrokes full of texture, colour and light.

Second day - to the National Gallery and a langorous journey along a path suggested by Martin. On arrival I noticed that there was a special exhibition of Sisley paintings so I made a small diversion to investigate. What I found was inspirational for plein air working. Bold brushstrokes, impressionistic highlighting of colour, strong underpainting - lots of food for thought there for me.

On to my intended starting point. The wonderful arrangement of canvases, specified by Turner in his will. Two of his flanking one of Claude's - Bliss. Turner and his sun and vapour, layer upon layer of delicate colour in his sky. Claude, contre jour in differing glows that infuse the rest of the painting with light coloured in pink, yellow, red and orange. It would be possible to spend most of a day with this glorious trio. Dragging myself away to luxuriate in more Claude - feel the glow.

Then off to the Dutch, that I have woefully neglected in the past, Cuyp, Dubbels, Hobbema, Van Goyen, Van Ruysdael, Van Ruisdael and Van der Poel. Skies that go on for ever. The impact that their wonderful landscapes have had on generations of painters is clearly evident when one places them into historical context. For me the two most impressive are Meindert Hobbema ....

and Jacob van Ruisdael.

A weary walk to the hotel and dinner punctuated by a continuous parade of mental images inspired by the day's viewing.

Last day and another store of visual treats. To Tate Britain for Turner, light, and more light as well as an enjoyable colour experiment exhibit. The exhibit gives a great insight into Turner's technique and the colour theory that informed it. On leaving I had a much clearer understanding of the reasoning behind things I had heard and read about complementary colour and shadow colour. Then on to the list of English notables, Constable and others. I couldn't resist an interesting diversion to enjoy the Pre Raphaelites, a bit of a weakness of mine. A piece of Millais eye candy to close this post. One guy I picked up on that hadn't crossed the radar before was Francis Danby - one picture of a Norwegian fjord that had a big impact on me, mostly because of the beautiful highlights on cloud and rocks with lovely detailed shadows.

Time to go home. Spent a fortune on books, wore out my knackered knees and got on the train exhausted but content that I had had a deep immersion in some of the finest picture making that was available in our country.