A PROPER MORNING

Everybody knows when they have had a ‘proper morning’. It doesn’t involve doom scrolling or watching hours of how to repair vintage hifi on YouTube, a current favourite of mine. I always have to go through a phase of sticking too closely to the original photo, pausing, feeling disappointed then realizing this is not what I want. I’ve gone through the disappointment phase and I’m once again on track. I like this time in autumn when the sun is low and just catching the tops of the trees and casting long raking shadows. The temperature of the picture is also suitably autumnal. Apologies to all those who were expecting an oversize golf flag to appear, I think I prefer it without it.

The golf course in autumn. Day 3

BLUSTERY CONDITIONS

Not good for golf, but it was a windy day when I was taking the photos. Liking the way this is appearing. The course itself seems quite acid green, and of course the grass is sharply trimmed so I want to get the contrast between the freely growing trees and the tightly manicured grass. I’m also liking the long shadows moving right to left across the course, this also adds to the right to left movement of the wind blown trees.

The golf course in autumn. Day 2

I LIKE GOLF COURSES

This is my second golf course painting of the year, the first being in Mexico. This could be a theme that allows for limitless international travel. This one is a lot closer to home and is on the side of a steep hill which gives me the chance to apply my naïve Byzantine perspective, an opportunity I rarely miss. The other amusing aspect to this scene which appears quite natural is that all the trees are leaning right to left due to the persistent westerly wind. I will make sure this is apparent in the painting. I have erased the ‘golf house’ but it has left a ghost image and a flag that now looks like a flag for a golf hole but its way too tall. Not included in this version but stay tuned for the next instalment.

The golf course in autumn. Day 1

BASHED AND RESCUED

My painting style is becoming more coarse, I think because I am seeing something quite powerful in the way Roualt built up his paintings. They seem to be scrubbed into existence with worn out brushes over a long period of time. You can see the evolution in layer upon layer of roughly applied paint. I am using worn out brushes with no fine points and scrubbing the paint on. This opens the way for accident and keeps the painting open. Wasn’t sure I could turn this painting around but I think its finished.

Evening on the reservoir

THE SKY ISN'T BLUE

Once you’ve made this decision you have left reality behind and so your journey into the unknown begins. Often I turn the tonal values on their heads so white clouds become darker than the sky behind them. Sometimes instinct, sometimes more random and the whole thing seems like spinning plates trying to make a painting that has its own reality and works spatially, the forms are fully realized and the mood of the painting is as you intend it to be. I feel I am on the right track with this painting despite the green sky and orange and red clouds.

Evening on the reservoir. Day 2

CAMERA CARRYING FISHERMAN

I might be the only fisherman in the UK who carries a camera and doesn’t take photos of fish but the landscape. This reservoir is situated on a hill and the weather often rises up from the valley so you get the strange phenomena of the clouds rising up from below the horizon line. This is a spectacular scene of a dramatic cloud formation, the top of a hill with odd looking trees on it and a still reservoir reflecting the drama.

Evening on the reservoir. Day 1

UNPLUGGING FROM THE MATRIX

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there is a growing trend of logging out of social media: Facebook, Instagram, Tic-Toc and Snapchat. I’m fully on board with this trend, you could find me on Facebook and Instagram, but no longer. I view this website as a tiny satellite orbiting the atmosphere, not exactly a pioneer but I’m quite happy to exist in isolation picking up the occasional admirer from all corners of the globe. How you found this site I have no idea, but your very welcome. I listened to a podcast on YouTube today (YouTube is the only intelligent format of social media), and what was said was, its better to do something different rather than something slightly better than everybody else. This is the direction of being different that I am taking. This painting has gone well, vaguely resembling its initial starting point but quite different in its interpretation. The painting is finished.

Cloudburst over hills

I'VE GOT MY LIFE BACK

Two weeks of disruption in the house turned into six. No dinning room, no lounge, and three quarters of my studio full of furniture and household bric a brac. Today, all cleared and back to normal. Immediately followed by a declaration to the wife that the rest of the year is mine. Straight into the studio this afternoon to continue with the proper work. Its curios how subtle the changes to my painting style evolves even over just a few months. This and the previous painting are quite consistent and yet different to previous paintings I’ve made this year. Lesson is, as long as you paint consistently your style will continue evolving. This is the tantalising aspect to painting, you just cannot predict how your paintings will look in the future, and if you can maybe your doing something wrong?

Cloudburst over hills. Day 5

THE PARADOX OF PAINTING

I’m no philosopher but there was a time during the 20th century when it was suggested that painting was dead. Fast forward to the 21st century in a world that is flooded with images, most of it mundane or dross, and by contrast, painting seems to be more alive than ever. I think good painting only highlights how vacuous and transitory a lot of the images we see on social media are. Most of it is just to record a slice of someone’s life, imagined or not. Rant over, painting is going well

Cloudburst over hills. Day 4

USE THE FORCE LUKE

Normally I switch on my tv monitor at the start of a painting session but this time I started without it, and it never got switched on. The reasoning is I am trying to rely less and less on the photo and more on the feeling of how I want the painting to look. I see myself gradually detaching myself from the landscape and moving towards a painting of invention but still trying to create a landscape that operates with space and a sense of a realistic lighting scheme. Liking the way this painting is developing.

Cloudburst over hills. Day 3

HOW CAN YOU PROGRESS

When you’ve spent 3 weeks painting and decorating the house, that’s another 3 weeks I will have to chalk off and never get back. There’s only so much you can do with a paint roller and 10 litres of white emulsion. Another week of interruption ahead but today was a proper painting day. Pleased with the start of this painting. The sky has plenty of dynamism. Its always interesting to see the interaction of colour and shape within the sky when you set out to simplify and emphasize shape. Its the same process Matisse went through with his cut outs and its good to keep his work in mind.

Cloudburst over hills. Day 2

DRAMA IN THE AFTERNOON

Its amazing what is going on if you just step outside your front door. This very dramatically lit drama was going on just minutes outside my village. A very expansive and dramatically lit sky, dark with bursts of high contrast clouds but curiously the landscape underneath was evenly lit and didn’t relate to the sky above. I’m not sure if I will artificially light up the fields and trees or not. Had to nearly double the size of board I am painting on just to do the sky justice.

Cloudburst over hills. Day 1

BARELY CREDIBLE

These paintings even baffle me, and I am the one producing them. I have abandoned any sense of conveying weather conditions, time of year or even time of day. A few things remain, the importance of space and sense of light falling on the landscape. The forms and shape of the landscape. I like the way the successful paintings operate in terms of space, and that’s a space that is hard to pin down. Shapes, especially in the sky float around and this gives the paintings a sense of life, like objects are actually moving. The painting is finished.

Rain clouds on the horizon

ROSE TINTED GLASSES

I think there are more than roses in my glasses. I have managed to retain two grey clouds on the horizon just so the title makes any sense. However, if the painting ends up bearing no relationship to the original title it does not concern me. It shows the journey that I go on from the original idea, and what changes is always the colour/light, the composition hardly changes at all from the original drawing. You can recognise the actual place from the painting but if you think the colours are the same then you are taking something stronger than Colombian dark roasted coffee.

Rain clouds on the horizon. Day 5

TWO RAINCLOUDS ON THE HORIZON

Almost missed the brief here, but I like the contrast between the serene upper layers of the sky and the grey clouds on the horizon in the centre of the painting. Missed the brief with the monochrome sky but I believe sticking to the brief is the job of carpenters, electricians and plasterers, not the job of the artist. Definitely gone off piste with this one but the road less travelled is the one I often take. Good progress.

Rain clouds on the horizon. Day 4

I'M WRESTLING

with it, trying to steer it away from being a nocturne and keeping it in daylight hours. The foreground becomes brighter and has more saturated colour so I think it will be turned around. I like the way it is developing although the last two paintings have a different feel to the earlier ones painted this year. I think the space is more easy to read. That doesn’t necessarily mean I prefer the more recent ones. I do actually like the more chaotic landscapes where they are slightly more difficult to read, more Soutine than Constable.

Rain clouds on the horizon. Day 3

I CAN'T PAINT

a monochrome sky, as I suggested I might do in the previous post. I actually knew this as I was writing it but I thought maybe this time will be different. Its because, the use of black and white is a missed opportunity to explore the endless possibilities with colour. Are black and white a colour?, not in my book. I still want that sense of an area on the horizon of dark forbidding cloud and high contrast lighting you can get with stormy weather. Good start.

Rain clouds on the horizon. Day 2

RECYCLE YOUR GLASS BOTTLES

and don’t forget your camera. I managed the first one, the second one meant a hurried walk home after spotting a dramatic landscape at the edge of the village. This has happened several times, sometimes I have returned with camera only to find the dramatic lighting has changed. Not this time. The photo has recorded the sky in a grey scale whilst the the rest of the landscape has strong greens and golds. I like this effect and will start the painting with this in mind.

Rain clouds on the horizon. Day 1

JOHN CRAXTON ESQE

This landscape has a hard defined geometry that reminds me of the work of John Craxton. I like his work although I find the hard edged geometric compositions a little awkward. I don’t think they have aged well. This painting has a more subtle and better thought out sense of space than the previous two, I think it is a more successful painting for it. I am liking all the stylised forms, not sure where they are coming from but I like their particularity and peculiarity. The painting is finished.

The landscape is alive

THE LANDSCAPE IS ALIVE

Is this Northumberland?, it looks more like a desert oasis. I can’t even say I have captured the spirit of the place. I’ve gone off on some tangent, maybe that will lead to more interesting ground, I suppose it must do. I’m keeping an open mind about where this all may be going. It has certainly piqued my interest, and that’s the only way I’m going to continue painting. I still like the way it is evolving, just needs a bit more work to finish.

The landscape is alive. Day 4