CONSECUTIVE PAINTING DAY

Ok, its just half a day at best, but the motivation is growing. Some more work to make the painting feel cohesive. Really an attempt to balance the light across the painting to give it a mood that is ‘naturalistic’ and ‘credible’. There has been a subtle shift in the right direction and its not far from finished.

These paintings have the proper feel of ‘English landscape’, warm browns and greens, no sign of the Impressionists or Fauvists here. I like the tone of these recent paintings, they have a softness, both in colour and light, which essentially are the same thing.

An Autumn Day, day 6

PROGRESS RECOMMENCES

Its good to be back. Even though it was a self imposed exile, it was unnecessarily prolonged and tortured. That seems to be my style. For a deeper psychological analysis of the situation please see my BLOG. Now resurrected, it comes with a guarantee of optimism and hope.

Anyway, back to the painting. I am liking the way it is starting to look. I had been concerned that my interest in landscape may start to ebb. This is because I have never liked to stick too close to the subject matter in terms of appearance. The idea that you could imagine the finished state of a painting before you actually begin has never had any appeal to me.

However, I am slowly beginning to understand that there is a subtle translation from photograph to painting that is unique to every artist. In my case I would term this ‘poetic transformation’. This doesn’t apply to every painting I make, unfortunately.

An Autumn Day, day 5

An autumn day

This is the last state of the painting before the ‘hard drive problem’. I must get back to this soon before an ‘An autumn day’ rolls into Spring. I must confess, into the New Year I had contemplated quitting painting altogether as even though these landscapes are modest and conventional in their ambition I do like them and who knows what they may look like a year from now. Painting still offers that sense of mystery and potential even though I have been plodding away for decades!.

An Autumn Day, day 4.

NOT MUCH PROGRESS

Not much progress on ‘The Painters Progress’ this year. Computer hard drive needed replacing and I used this as an excuse to take a break. Painting will resume again soon.

A SENSE OF THE ORDINARY

It seems to me that there is more meaning in trying to capture a sense of grandeur in the ordinary things. That is to say that I will not be seeking out mountain scenes or dramatic seascapes. To me these are less impressive, less intimate, if you like. It is trying to get to the essence of an ordinary setting that is more interesting. And these are the subtle elements, light across the landscape, the way you compose and edit a scene.

This painting seems to be edging too far towards the melodramatic! There seems to be a storm brewing! Anyway, I am liking the progress of this painting.

An autumn day. Day 3.

XMAS DAY

With most of Xmas day cancelled there was not much else to do but some more painting. I feel a little out of sync with nature, painting autumn landscapes at the end of December? However, I like the way it is looking, there is a sense of a windy autumnal day.

An autumn day. Day 2.

An autumn day

I thought this title was slightly better than ‘Country Park 2’ though I will have to improve on this limited repertoire. I am quickly running out of original titles that don’t contain the word ‘tree’.

I was going to make painting take a back seat for a while as I have thrown myself into learning Spanish (again). However, spending 5-6 hours a day duelling on Duolingo and battling for supremacy of the leader boards is beginning to lose its appeal. I will find a better balance going forward.

I like the vibrancy of the yellow underpainting and will try and retain this contrast. There is often a cold sharpness to the light in autumn and winter that you do not get in summer. Its almost as if the air was thinner.

An autumn day. Day 1.

FINISHED

Just an hour of unnecessary fiddling and the painting is now finished.

Country Park

BETTER THAN EXPECTED

My enthusiasm for this painting has wavered but it has turned out better than expected. I don’t think it is quite finished yet, but it will change very little. My lack of enthusiasm is due to the fact that I don’t have a vast collection of successful finished landscapes to refer to. This is number 2 in that respect.

Anyway, things will improve over time.

Country park. Day 5.

AN UNPLEASANT MORNING

The first half of the morning was a struggle, every brushstroke seemed to be the wrong decision. I have been here many times before and know that its a case of plodding through until things start to turn around. Often its just a tiny fragment of improvement and your decisions take a miraculous turn for the better. My efforts were rewarded, now I have something to build on and the painting is getting closer to being finished.

Country park. Day 4.

WINTER HAS SET IN

Dark skies and continuous rain outside, I wasn’t tempted to go chasing wallabies today. It must be getting hungry by now.

This painting is progressing nicely. If I continue painting these balmy autumn scenes the winter may be more bearable.

Country park. Day 3.

ESCAPED WALLABY

Its not every day that someone asks me if I have seen a wallaby. I was on the golf course today and apparently one has escaped from a garden. The owner was looking for it. I imagine it will only get caught if it wants to, it has the whole golf course to run around on.

Anyway, happy with the progress today.

Country park. Day 2

A SENSE OF GRANDEUR

Titling this painting ‘Country Park’ is a bit disingenuous, it’s the local golf course. ‘Golf course’ however is not a suitable title for a landscape painting, it lacks a sense of grandeur and ambition. It has none of the romantic and epic connections to the landscape tradition. Now that I have recognised this, I will be looking further afield to a more traditional setting for landscape painting. For now, this will suffice, but you will see no red flags sticking up from the ground.

I am happy with this start, what I am searching for in these paintings is becoming more clear. These qualities are the traditional ones, a sense of light, space and atmosphere with a feeling for the drama of nature. Lets see if I am up to these grand ambitions.

Country park, day 1.

NO IMPRESSIONIST

I didn’t need to drag myself into the studio, I entered with enthusiasm. Just a morning needed to finish the painting. I am still pondering my stylistic direction. I think this painting is close to the direction it will be. It has a touch of John Nash about it, simplified, illustrative and poetic.

Anyway, this is my first successful landscape and as its only the third in many years, it is encouraging.

Line of trees. Finished.

ITS A PAINTING DAY

I don’t know why my enthusiasm has dipped in recent weeks. It could be this new landscape subject. I don’t have a clear approach so maybe this lack of certainty has something to do with it. I should be more optimistic, when I look at this current painting I like where things are going.

Anyway, this painting is almost finished, just need to drag myself into the studio again.

Line of trees. Day 5

PAINTING BY NUMBERS

Today’s painting session bought back childhood memories of painting by numbers. I had all my trees neatly drawn out and now I just had to carefully fill in the white spaces. That was todays objective. Focusing on just getting the colour right and then assessing where to go from there. I am pleased with where I have got to, only problem being, now none of my fine brushes has any sort of point on them.

I like the quality from the individually painted leaves on the left tree, and I will go in and use this more to break up the flatness of the trees.

Line of trees. Day 4.

DAY 2+

I don’t think an employer would regard my days as full working days. Now that I am retired it doesn’t matter anymore. Still, mustn’t get too complacent. This painting is creeping along, but my concern is on quality, not time, and I am happy with how it is progressing.

I can also see a significant improvement in each landscape and this is very encouraging, 2020 seems to be ending on a note of optimism.

A line of trees. Day 3.

IRREVERENT PASTIMES

Painting away today, trying to capture the delicate branches of the trees, I was struck by how irreverent my concerns were in these troubled times. I decided not to dwell on this thought. Painting is a useful distraction from reality, and if you can lose yourself in it, you are a lucky person.

This highly illustrative landscape is progressing, though very slowly.

Line of trees. At the end of day 2.

LINE OF TREES

I am quickly realising that the landscape genre is a whole new language, I have spent most of my time painting still lifes. Understanding what the landscape means to me and learning how I want to paint it is almost like learning to paint all over again. Anyway, I think that landscape no.3 is closer to my idea than no.1 so I am heading in the right direction.

Line of trees. At the end of day 1.

TRANSITIONAL

That is the best way to describe this painting. Like de Koonings grotesque women before his great late abstracts or Pollocks curious early paintings, this has the same feel. I may have strayed too far from the source material but at least it has some strength to it. It also has some charm.

As for the cherry blossom title, that was lost in the process of painting. I might do a little bit more before I leave it.

Landscape day 4.