Red Rock Crossing

Well, here we are again, back from a two month round the world trip and chomping at the bit to get back into the painting rhythm. I had little opportunity to paint whilst away but returned with lots of sketches and photographs for source material. If you are interested in the itinerary for the trip I wrote a blog on the road and you can find it at www.carneysontour.blogspot.com . In there I mention a couple of painting related tales, like the day I was painting in the Cathedral Square and people started to put money down next to my palette, must have looked particularly in need of TLC that day.

This is the first effort since returning, a quick oil sketch of one the many beautiful places we visited.

Red Rock Crossing - Oil on canvas board 12" x 10"

Winter Hiatus

Little to report on the painting front, Christmas has a momentum all of its own in the Carney family. But that is not the main reason for the lack of brush action. We are taking a significant break and spending some weeks travelling in the Far East, Australia, New Zealand and the States.

The planning for this trip has consumed most of my spare time in recent weeks but now the trip is almost upon us, I'm facing the dilemma as to what to pack in terms of painting gear. Weight restrictions on airlines are the background to selecting anything for packing. This has lead to me coming to the almost inevitable conclusion that the oil kit must remain at home. Tripods and palette boards are just too heavy for a long trip along with adequate paint and supports. I could probably have got away with it if the trip was about a week or so but this journey is just too long to skimp on other essentials. And so the painting equipment that is packed is the trusty watercolour box and a couple of blocks of my favourite paper, Saunders Waterford. Hopefully, there will be some pieces that are worth posting as we travel and it is my intention to try doing that.

So till there is something to post I'm on weather watch in the hope that our plans are not disrupted by the current cold snap.

Gallery Visit

Applying paint has been low on the list of priorities this last few weeks for one reason or another. Last weekend I had the opportunity to get away for a couple of days, good boys get pass outs! I'd been keen to see the Turner and the Masters exhibition that is currently at Tate Britain.

The basic premise on which the exhibition is based is that Turner was an artist who publicly engaged with artists of the past as well as contemporaries in producing his work on his journey to the unique works that result from his innovative approach and desire to explore the very nature of Art.

Suffice it to say that the experience of seeing Turner's work hung next to that of his influences and competetive contemporaries is fascinating and the best I can do is to urge anyone who can to get there before the exhibition closes at the end of January. For those who can't the catalogue is a worthwhile buy from the Tate web site. The text is well researched and insightful, I won't try to emulate it here but advise that it is well worth your time and money to investigate this exhibition and its curation.

It was interesting to visit Tate Modern after a first viewing of the Turner exhibition. Here the main exhibit is called Pop Life and explores the relationship between art and art as a business. The theme was inspired by a Warhol quote, 'Good business is the best art'. Artists as brands underpins the selection of exhibitors, Warhol, Hirst, Emin, Lucas, Koons, Murakami are some of the people represented. Work varies from obvious commercialism to some challenging pieces that question taste and morality.

After that visit it was fascinating to return to the Turner exhibition and soak in his work along with the Poussin, Claude, Van Ruisdael, Rembrandt, Girtin, Wilkie and others.

The pictures I have posted are a very limited glimpse of the contents of the exhibition.

My reason for choosing the first one is twofold. Firstly, the building is one of my favourite places on earth and secondly it demonstrates the exquisite draughtsmanship of Turner early in his career.

Durham Cathedral - J. M. W. Turner

The next is one of the most influential pieces that Turner used for the purposes of learning, emulation and as a yardstick for his own work. The lessons from Claude's work prompted the exploration of atmosphere that was to become a Turner hallmark. (Apologies for quality of image).

Seaport - Claude Lorrain

The remaining images exemplify Turner's growing command of the atmospheric effects and vagaries of weather and it is easy to see the continuing influence of Claude as well as the work of the great Dutch painters of the sea, Van Ruisdael, Cuyp and Van de Velde.

Abingdon - J. M. W. Turner

Squall - J. M. W. Turner

Dutch Boats in a Gale - J. M. W. Turner

Sun rising through Vapour - J. M. W. Turner

Regulus - J. M. W. Turner

My final selection is the painting that is used in the Tate publicity material and is one that never fails to transfix me when I stand before it. It grabbed me for a good hour on this trip. The progression that took Turner from being a precise draughtsman to the visionary that could represent the elements in such a rendering is one of constant fascination. It does my soul good to have the chance of wallowing in such visual delights.

Time to get out the paints.

Snow Storm, Harbour Mouth - J. M. W. Turner

Madeira Coast - Adjusted

Today I had another session with this canvas. In the wake of comments left here and on Wet Canvas I have made some adjustments. Some of them are subtle, probably as a result of my tentative efforts. For the record the first thing that I tried to do was to reduce the impact of the rock in the middle ground on the left. I mixed a bit of the base burnt umber with a touch of gray and white then judiciously applied it, then added a few highlights to help with the modelling. The next job was to soften the horizon line, done by adding a lighter mixture of sea colour and then blending it in. Other jobs done include the addition of some extra light wave colour, soften some rock edges and deepen some shadows. There is no doubt that these changes have been improvements, whether they go far enough or not I will decide after sitting on it for a few days.


Madeira Coast - Oil on canvas board 20" x 16"

Madeira Coast - Work in Progress Part 2

I had another session with this and began to introduce some more detail as well as adjusting some values, in particular in the rear cliff. Hopefully the next session will see it finished but it will have to wait a day or two as domestic duties are about to intervene. It'll give some of the paint the chance to tack up. Anyone with suggestions as to ways to improve the image are welcome to make their comments.

Madeira Coast - Oil on canvas board 20" x 16"

Madeira Coast - Work in Progress

This image will be familiar to regular readers in that it is a result of 'sound practice'. No, I'm not being boastful but making reference to the sort of process that most of us should go through prior to committing to a studio piece. The sound practice that I refer to is providing oneself with the best bank of information on which to base the ensuing effort. The first and most important stage for me is creating in the field sketch information that reflects observation on the day and the watercolour sketch that I made on site was published in previous post. The other thing I did was to photograph the scene and the shot is published below.

Getting into what I laughingly call a studio, the back kitchen at home, my first job is to create a 'block in'. Here I attempt to establish relationships between the various elements in the picture that reflect the relative values and colour hints for later detailed work. Therefore what you see here is a Work in Progress. I posted it as such on Wet Canvas, hoping that colleagues there would make suggestions as to how to approach the detailing. One comment that emerged was from a very helpful artist, who has made many positive contributions to my development, Michael McGuire. He spotted that the value shift between light and shadow sides of the rear rock are not great enough. So when I start work tomorrow the first thing I will do is try to darken slightly the shadow side. This will be a delicate task as it will be easy to overdo it and ruin the effect. After that the detailing can begin. I will post the results when they are nearer completion.


Madeira Coast WIP - Oil on canvas board 20" x 16"

Backhouse Park

After a few weeks without much opportunity to dip into the turps I managed a couple of hours in the local park hoping to produce my autumn masterpiece. Foolish me. What a struggle? Whilst not my usual subject matter I thought lessons learned elsewhere might aid the process but to no avail. Choosing such a complicated scene without simplifying and editing sufficiently well did not help the progress of the piece. However there are signs that some of the lessons along the way have not been totally forgotten. I am starting to achieve better feelings of depth in some of my work. Painting is like many other activities, the more often you are able to do it the more comfortable you are with the tools. Moral - get out more often and if not possible to get out then paint indoors.


Backhouse Park - Oil on canvas board 12" x 10"