START BEFORE DARK

and if your working in an outside studio in the countryside, maybe take a torch?, something I keep forgetting. The street light outside our cottage barely has enough light to justify its own existence. Somehow, despite its closeness to our property it doesn’t throw any light in our direction. These trees in the left foreground of the picture were going to present a problem. They consist of a million tiny shimmering leaves that make the trees look formless. A pointillist approach seemed to be the obvious answer, but of course, I don’t do obvious. I am still grappling with them and its a case of trial and error to find an equivalent solution, I think a suggestion of leaves will work.

Evening in the Coquetdale Valley. Day 5

WASTED PAINT

The worst thing about being inconsistent as a painter is the amount of expensive paint that is wasted. Its the first thing I think about when considering my commitments for the day. After a couple of missed days, I go into the studio and prod my piles of paint with my finger, knowing that most of it is unusable. And then for my sins I have to scrape the whole lot off and spend half an hour mixing up enough paint to get me started. This painting has had quite a bit of work but most of it is at the start, or half way stage, I like the way it is progressing though.

Evening in the Coquetdale Valley. Day 4

A PYSCOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH

I was wondering how easy it would be to paint through my first winter in an outdoor studio, I’ve never done this before. The trick, as I have discovered today, is to start before it gets dark. In this case at 3pm. It was only when I was starting to feel the cold did I look at my watch, it was 7pm, obviously now dark outside. I hadn’t even noticed the sun going down. Painting is the only activity I do where I lose track of time, I love the fact that it totally absorbs my concentration. It slows the mind down, something that is so necessary in the 21st century. This painting is progressing well, these curious shapes are emerging, the difficulty with that is to make them look integral to the landscape.

Evening in the Coquetdale Valley. Day 3

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

My aim to withstand the cold until it was winter has failed within 24 hours, a proper test of my character. More importantly though is my determination to paint through the winter, hardly a real test, I am always within touching distance of my electric heater. If I hadn’t done the insulating of the studio myself I would start to question whether there was any, money well spent? I don’t know if I have the mental strength to paint winter scenes in the winter, better to carry on with my deluded summer landscapes. I am liking how this is starting to appear. I don’t know if its the effect of the photography but it does throw up some odd shapes in the landscape.

Evening in the Coquetdale Valley. Day 2

WINTER IN THE STUDIO

Heading towards the first winter in the studio, yet I am still painting bucolic pastoral scenes of my local landscape. Just goes to prove that I really am a studio based painter. Not that I am benefitting from any summer warmth, had a hat and a scarf on today, resisting the temptation to use the electric heater. Hope to keep a positive mindset as winter really sets in, I’ve always had the comfort blanket of a studio in the house. Good start for this painting.

Evening in the Coquetdale Valley. Day 1

HOW MANY TREES

does an Italian landscape have? I don’t know, but I have painted enough of them. I am discovering that what I am painting are souvenirs of the local landscape that I love. Is that the right way to put it? I think if a painter has a strong connection to the things he paints then, in the case of a landscape, he wants to bring back a strong memory of the thing he has seen, in that moment. When a painting is finished the effect is to remind me in a compelling way how I felt looking at that landscape.

Whittingham, an Italian landscape

MAKING IT FIT

My decision to sandwich in another sky from a different photograph was the right one. There is a real potential that the 2 won’t gel. I had a bit of a wrestling match with this and its not quite there yet but the risk was worth taking. The bottom right of the sky has not photographed well, it is quite reflective. The one thing I am trying to avoid is making pretty pictures, the landscape here is beautiful, but it also has a toughness to it, it can be wild and bleak. I am trying to give these pictures a worked and tough quality, not just for the sake of it, but as a result of trying to carve out the landscape as I see it.

Whittingham, an Italian landscape. Day 5

21ST CENTURY PAINTER

Being a figurative painter my work would be regarded as fairly conventional, I would argue most abstract painters today are also fairly conventional, its been around for over 100 years! Anyone applying paint to canvas is following a very long tradition. However, I do use technology a lot to prepare source material for paintings. I had to take a break yesterday, but also I wasn’t happy with the sky in the photo. I went out into the garden as the skies were a lot closer to what I was looking for. I then went into Photoshop and overlaid these onto my original photo. Haven’t decided which to use but both are better.

V2

V1

Original photo

ALCHEMY

This is basically what every artist is trying to achieve. One definition is ‘An attempt to turn base materials into gold’. I often trawl through all the photographs I have taken of the landscape and I am left feeling uninspired. Its only when you start to draw out the composition do the possibilities start to emerge. I find myself stretching out the ‘truth’ as far as I can and yet still retain the essential characteristics of the place. This is where the real excitement of painting lies for me.

2 STEPS FORWARD

Yesterday was 2 steps forward, 1 step back, so things are improving. Sometimes I will almost do the opposite of what I did yesterday in order to find a solution. Its a shame I don’t have total recall, I could simply avoid making the same mistakes and my progress would be a steep upward curve. You would think there would be an incremental and straight line to improvement, just keep painting? Then I think of a concert pianist still practising 6-8 hours every day, its just the way it is if you have any kind of ambition.

Whittingham, an Italian landscape. Day 4

RIGHT FIRST TIME

A philosophy I like to apply to all aspects of my life, apart from painting. Firstly because I rarely achieve it, and secondly, when I do I am suspicious of how easy it came about. You have to be prepared for disappointment and frustration if you change something that works. Am I happy with things that are ‘ok’, that is a question I am always asking myself. Today was a wrestling match, points were one and lost but overall I am still ahead. Feels like I am about half way with this.

Whittingham, an Italian landscape. Day 3

SHIFTING PRIORITIES

Funny how something so important one day is not so much the next. I have pushed my painting further up the list of my priorities, no one has noticed and no one is upset. I think this is a permanent shift, its certainly more enjoyable than mixing cement. This painting is progressing nicely, I have no idea where my painting is going, isn’t that part of its appeal?

Whittingham, an Italian landscape. Day 2

AN ITALIAN LANDSCAPE?

This view always reminds me of Italy. It is the 2 hills and all the trees, often in singles dotted across the landscape. Quite a bold start and its high summer, not this summer! the photo was taken last year when we actually had decent spells of dry weather.

Whittingham, an Italian landscape. Day 1

SUNDAY PAINTING

More than a week without painting, that’s not good, even with a long list of other pressing projects and shortening daylight. If I was a bit more focused I should be able to paint twice a week, and I want to. Anyway, this painting is almost finished. Its looking like a John Nash from the 1940’s but I don’t have a problem with that, I like John Nash, I have a book on him. Its my belief that you don’t choose your style, it chooses you and so I will continue. The best thing to do is not to think, just paint, as simple as this sounds its not always so easy. I am liking this painting, I like the very particular and contrasting trees, they look at odds with the landscape, they also look observed. The question is now, where does this lead me, with the choice of the next painting?

Springtime in Edlingham

RESTORATION PROJECT

We have been in our new home for a year now and its not a newbuild, built in 1760. There are going to be jobs that I don’t want to do but need doing. This is one that is now underway, curing a damp problem. Turns out the wrong kind of plaster was used which is why I am taking it all off. Its turned into a restoration project and the wall will be kept bare as a feature in the house. Stage 1 complete, needs repointing with lime mortar which I will do myself. Also replacing the brick in the bottom right corner, cowboys have been around forever.

QUALITY OVER STYLE

I used to worry a lot as a student about the infinite styles and subject matter available. I used to worry a lot about being contemporary and not looking conventional. What I came to realise was that none of that mattered, what mattered was being true to yourself and developing a focused approach, painting awful pictures for years, in my case, in order reach a point where you felt you were on solid ground and was unaffected by all the noise going on around you. This may sound like it was decades ago, its not, its ongoing and I sometimes move forward with trepidation. This painting gives me hope there is a lot more to come. A few more sessions to go with this.

Springtime in Edlingham. Day 7.

MORE RAIN, MORE PAINTING

There has to be an upside to a summer that never arrived, I think autumn started in June. However one activity that the rain can’t stop is my painting. As I live on a big hill the floods can’t get me either. This was an unplanned painting afternoon. Slow start, my mind was on the backlog of outdoor jobs that need doing. Anyway, things gradually started to flow and more progress was made. This painting is still waiting for the fireworks, a lot of small trees in the foreground in white blossom. Day 6, this may go into double figures which would be a record for me.

Springtime in Edlingham. Day 6

SLOW IS OK

I don’t really believe this, because I don’t want things to go slowly. However, with the way I am painting this its really just going to creep along, unless I can find some effortless facility. I am pushing the decorative effect but I don’t want to go too far. Van Gogh and the Impressionists were much braver in this respect. Maybe I will have to adapt it to my own style, but I am happy with progress so far.

Springtime in Edlingham. Day 5

ON COURSE?

This kind of painting is slightly against my nature, because it requires patience and restraint. The temptation is just to block in and many painters work like that. I can’t. I like to see at least something that is defined and has a bit of good painting in it. It offers hope and an insight into what the painting may become. This is going to take a bit of time, but I keep telling myself I have all the time I need, I don’t do the 9-5 any more! I’d like to think this style of painting is the way forward, it follows on from 2-3 paintings I have done this year that I am happy with.

Springtime in Edlingham. Day 4

ALWAYS IMPROVING

I often look at the work in progress and feel disapointed. That’s because my expectations in all things have always been unrealistic, accepting the fact that I am only average in all things is ok with me apart from art. Its always been that way, maybe because it matters. Anyway, the thing that keeps me going is that things can always be improved upon. Today’s session is a case in point, slowly and patiently the painting is improving and I think it will be better than the previous one, though it doesn’t always work that way.

Springtime in Edlingham. Day 3