Sunday 29 July 2012

Paintings from the last couple of weeks


Endeavour at Old Leigh - Oil on board 8" x 10"

I went back and added the finishing touches to this one last week.  I painted it over 3 early morning sessions before my Wednesday class started in old Leigh over the last few weeks.   Some weeks the tide was in so I wasn't able to continue then.  When I went back the last time I had to squeeze my self past a large digger that was sitting in my painting spot and waiting to unload the cockle boats when they returned on the high tide.


Lyndon in the estuary - Oil on board 8" x 6"

Painted during a trip to the beach last weekend with my son Lyndon.   I decided to paint the view out over the estuary as I wanted to keeping an eye him and make sure he didn't drift out to sea on his body board!    After a wile he gave up on the body board and that was the point when I decided to pop him into my painting.


The new flats on King's Road - Oil on board 6"x6"

I was really pleased to get this one completed last week.  It's probably one of the smallest oils I've painted with this much detail and information in it.   It's the view from the window of the Westcliff united reform church where I hold my art classes on Thursdays.   Over the last year the house which had been a care home has had the builders in and has been covered in scaffolding, the brickwork cleaned up and thoroughly renovated and made into flats.   It's taken me a wile to paint and when I started some bits were still boarded up, the trees were only just coming into leaf and the gate posts hadn't yet been created.  I've been painting before my classes starts if I've had any time left once I've set the room up.   Last year I discovered some of the daily painting sites on the Internet and artists  who paint a small new painting each day.   So I was wondering what I could do on a small scale.   I must admit I  found it very difficult to paint a subject like this with so much in it on such a small scale, and particularly as I'm getting older and my eyes won't  focus close up like they used to! 

Friday 20 July 2012

Painting Bath in the rain!


Great Pultney Street in the rain - Oil on canvas 60cm x 40cm

Here's my painting of Bath that I completed over the weekend.   I decided to enter  the bath prize competition again this year as I'd really enjoyed the experience last year.   The way it works is that when you enter they ask you to paint a specific  location in Bath for your first painting and then if you want to enter more paintings they can be from where ever you want.   You can either paint on location or make studies / take photos and then paint from your studio.  My location this year was Great Pultney street, just down from the Pultney bridge.  Here's how my painting progressed....


I arrived about midday in Bath and made a start soon as I could.   I had a wander along Great Pultney street and considered a few different views before initially deciding on the view towards the Holburne museum which you can see I've started here. There was a lovely hexagonal post box that I wanted to include as it added a splash of colour to the image as well as being a lovely feature.

After about an hour and a half of painting though the heavens really opened and in spite of my  umbrella and waterproof jacket  I got really soaked and the painting took quite a battering too so feeling exhausted, ill and wet I gave up for the day.  

When I returned the next day it was raining again and  the composition I'd started felt awkward so I decided to have a fresh start and this time looked in the opposite direction towards the centre of Bath.  


There was something about the slightly miserable view down the street with the scaffolding and blue plastic coverings  that appealed to me that rainy morning so I set about painting for about 5 or 6 hours in the rain from under my umbrella.   The one advantage of painting in the rain was that the light stayed pretty even throughout the day and only in the last hour did the sun come out a little.  I think I must have painted non stop for 6 -7 hours with just a few breaks for conversations with passers by and a very grateful cup of tea from the man at no 60! This is how the painting looked at the end of the second day.



Here's me painting on my third day in Bath, as you can see the sun had come out by then so I had to try and remember how it all looked in the rain!  I completed the remaining sections, mainly in the foreground of cars, railings and people in about 5 hours then took it to the gallery to hand in.

Thursday 12 July 2012

Bath last year and Bath tommorow

I'm off to Bath tommorow for the weekend to take part in the Bath Prize competition.
Heres a photo of the painting I did last year and a couple of me painting it.



Friday 6 July 2012

Essex Open - Plum cottage





Plum Cottage - Oil on board 20cm x 20cm

I'm off to the private view of the Essex Open exhibition in a minute as I managed to get my painting of Plum cottage selected.     I had a great time painting this last year over a couple of lovely sunny afternoons in Old Leigh.   I'd seen these nets in front of the cottage a few days before and loved the juxtapostion of bright colours and textures against the black and white of the cottage.   The fisherman who owned them came up and told me that his boat was being worked on and that that was why they were there but thinking about it I think they are still there a year on but in a slightly different position. 


Freya - Oil on board 20cm x 25cm

I compleated this painting of Freya this week.  I did most of it one morning a couple of weeks ago but when I got it home to the studio there were a couple of things I weren't quite sure about so I took it back with me this week, had another look and made a couple of alterations.  I was hoping to go back to leigh today to work on a couple of others but as it rained most of the day it wasn't to be!

Sunday 1 July 2012

Hadleigh Castle and back to life!


Hadleigh Castle 6"x6" Oil on board

I've not got a lot to show for this week really but here's a little painting I started as a demo piece for my students during a drawing on location session at Hadleigh Castle on Friday and then finished it after they had gone.


Hadleigh Trees 8" x 10" Pastel 

This was the first piece I did which again started as a demonstration piece, this time in pastel and again was compleated after my students had gone.   I was fairly happy with it but not so happy with the greens so I may well see if I can rework them from memory.


These three little studies were done at the Friday evening life session.  They're all from approx 30 min poses and as you can see I really struggle to get anything compleated in that time!  They're all Oil on board 12" x 16". I was fairly happy with the first one and may well just try and finish our models legs from memory.   We had a new model which was great, I liked the pose and I always find it interesting to see what sort of poses people naturally adopt.


I struggled to get going with this one and I wasn't happy with the pose as it was a bit to similar to the previous one.


I really liked this pose but as you can see fatigue and fading light took its toll  as I could have done with getting a bit further on.   Halfway through I started I wish I'd ignored the head and just concentrated on the arms and legs as they made such a lovely arrangement of interlocking shapes rythems.