WINTER IS CREEPING

across this painting. I am taking a perverse pleasure in painting a winter scene at the beginning of summer though I don’t expect this theme to extend for long. There is a weak afternoon light that is just catching the top of the hills which are icy cold, I like this effect. There is also a quarry on the left. The whole scene does have a beauty despite it being winter. It depends on your disposition but to me winter can have all the beauty of a summer. These are not the bleak, post nuclear vile visions that Lowry painted. Possibly the worst landscape paintings in art history?

Winter, near Thropton. Day 2

STUDIO BOUND

I don’t think its normal to paint winter pictures at the beginning of summer. It either shows I am completely out of touch with what’s going on or that I am really a studio based painter. My learning from the previous painting is not to stray too far away from the source material (photo), putting myself into a situation that I am inventing random solutions to a self inflicted problem. It still amazes me that I am learning about what I consider to be basic mistakes. Anyway, lets hope for a better outcome with this one.

Winter, near Thropton. Day 1

TIME TO STOP

The process of deletion then repainting then deletion and things never improving is a clear signal to stop. The left side of the photograph that I am using has no information that I want to use and so I have been relying on invention. I have found this will only take you so far and normally any solution falls short of expectations. However I am happy with the final solution even though it resembles nothing of the actual landscape. I feel that this is the direction I am moving in. The truth is I have little interest in merely coping things. There has to be a level of invention or transformation of the subject in order to keep me interested and this is becoming more apparent in my work.

Whittingham

SOMETHING IS EMERGING

from the featureless mass of brown trees and foliage on the left. This is how the photograph presented it and I have been trying to do something with it from day 1. I can now see the solution and some things just need a bit more definition. This picture has been a struggle at times, I am trying to invent a language of equivalents, or a style, that is sympathetic to the landscape but not an illustration of it. This is a mad picture, but I am loving it. At times its difficult to know how to approach it but it seems the more I am willing to struggle the more I am rewarded. That’s how it should be.

Whittingham Day 8

KENNY SCHARF

Is alive and well and continues to influence how this painting is developing. Working on the left side today. It has improved considerably and even though these strange forms keep appearing I am consciously keeping things in check, no blue trees or green skies. There seems to be a large ear in the foreground, and a large brown central figure opening a box of vegetables, troubling. I like the figure but not so sure about the ear. Where is this all going?

Whittingham. Day 7

KENNY SCHARF

Is an artist that nobody should be influenced by and someone who I thought would never figure in any of my conversations. Yet there are aspects of his work that are starting to appear in this painting (lower right quarter) and previous paintings. The thing is I am enjoying the forms. My view is to forget Kenny and just go with the flow. Its only when a painter goes off piste and allows the painting to evolve without prejudice that things become interesting. I am liking the way the right side is working and this needs carrying across to the left side, and the rest of the painting. I think this painting could become quite cosmic.

Whittingham. Day 6

BACK TO BACK

painting sessions just to reassure myself that everything is ok. This is the full fat painting I always thought it could be if I have the energy and motivation to push it on. This painting did stall in the early stages. There is always that problem of getting past the point where it resembles a child’s finger painting and you start to question yourself. For some reason my enthusiasm evaporated. Anyway, I did quite a bit of repainting today, especially the sky and it has moved it on again. My original intention of a delicate spring evening has been blown away by full on Expressionism, more Max Beckman than Monet and rightfully so.

Whittingham. Day 5

CAN IT BE RESCUED?

Not the painting, my enthusiasm to continue painting. This happens to all great artists so when it happens to me it seems a bit unkind. I need all the practice time I can get. My solution to this problem is always to ask a simple question, life without painting or life with. To suffer the agony and ecstasy of pursuing an artistic life or live a life of dull aimlessness. A bit exaggerated but it makes the decision easier. Luckily these periodic periods of ‘what’s the point?’ are infrequent, and to follow that way of thinking leads to nothing. Back to the painting, the challenge with this view is the forms are so insubstantial, like painting ripples in a swimming pool, so I spent my time trying to find some solid forms and making sense of the space. Its improving, and so am I.

Whittingham. Day 4

AN INABILITY TO SUFFER

Bad lower back pain has meant a lot of lost sleep and an inability to sit at my painting without a lot of discomfort. I would have lasted only a couple of days on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. I attempted some painting today, combining a couple of minutes of painting followed by walking around the studio and stretching. Hardly a focused approach but its about all I could do. Despite less than ideal conditions the painting has advanced and is starting to show a bit of promise. Hopefully my condition will gradually improve and a bit more focused painting will appear.

Whittingham. Day 3

A LEAP OF FAITH

I wasn’t sure which way this painting was going to go. Its a mass of amorphous trees, a view through a wood, with only the occasional tip or edge caught by the setting sun. In some areas you can only tell where one tree starts and another finishes by the trunks underneath. However, a brown mess has been avoided and even though it still needs a lot of work it is showing signs of promise. I chose this composition because I didn’t know how to approach it. That may sound like a stupid decision but what I am finding is that the more difficult the picture is, the more creative the solution needs to be. I am finding that the transformational process is where the interest lies rather than the subject.

Whittingham. Day 2

A BASELITZ SKY

I never believed the inverting of figures was anything but awkward. His belief is that you read his paintings differently, as connected shapes. I spend all my time trying to turn them the correct way in my mind. I still like his paintings but they would be better the right way up, why is no one else doing it? The point of this ramble is the sky in this painting seems to be an inverted landscape? This is a lovely spring afternoon with the light filtering through the trees, this is the effect I am aiming at. For anyone who has realized that this painting is of the same hill as the previous painting but seen from the east, I’m impressed, thanks for paying attention.

Whittingham. Day 1

WHATS CHANGED?

Quite a contrast to yesterdays headline. A casual observer might ask, what’s the point? The point is, the only way to advance your painting is to put all your knowledge into your work and a dose of risk taking in the hope you may discover something in the process that moves you just a fraction forward. I have hit a run of consistency in my painting that I have never had before but what I am realizing is that this painting business is a very slow evolution and its all about the journey. For me it seems like I had better enjoy the journey because apart from hope, what else is there? (that sounds like a Francis Bacon quote?). The painting is finished.

Netherton, springtime

A SIGNIFICANT REPAINTING

I knew this needed a significant repainting but I had come to the end of my enthusiasm for it. That was until I saw ‘The biggest difference between bad art and great art by UCLA professor Richard Walter’, on YouTube. His outlook is quite uncompromising and it seems 99.9% of all art produced is bad art. I would agree, but I would phrase it, 99.9% is not great art. Despite my efforts this afternoon I am still not in that 0.01% of great art, and never will be. I hope I have dragged it a bit further out of the quagmire, though I suspect I will always need to be wearing wellingtons when at the easel. Don’t think its finished yet but almost.

Netherton, springtime. Day 7

A LIFETIME IS NOT ENOUGH

If your only doing an hour of painting on a Saturday afternoon. Repainting of the sky, mostly the right half. It has improved and has some interesting effects that deserve a bit more attention. Need to get this painting finished before it starts to drag.

Netherton, springtime. Day 6

A LIFETIME IS NOT ENOUGH

Why couldn’t I have decided to paint the landscapes of Northumberland 30 years ago whilst still living in London?. That would have been a remarkable decision given where I am now. Instead I spent the intervening years heading off down various rabbit holes only too emerge confused and disappointed. My saving grace is that I just kept going but it seems like a long and tortuous path to finally arrive at the correct destination. It seems less of a destination, rather finally finding the right bus queue to join. I suppose it was a personal journey I had to travel. Now I am in the right place I have potentially another 30 years to enjoy the ride. Painting is going well, nearing completion.

Netherton, springtime. Day 5

A FOCUS ON ABSTRACTION

It is surprising when a painting starts to operate abstractly, areas you thought needed more detail now work better as a gestural mark. I think things become a lot more interesting when you are painting on instinct, rather than illustrating what is there. I know Francis Bacon would have backed me up on this. You move into an area of painting that is elemental and mysterious, where it is more to do with relationships of colour and shape and I think my painting has shifted more in this direction. The painting has now got to a point where the focus is now on subtle relationships rather than big changes.

Netherton, springtime. Day 4

A NORTH EUROPEAN PALETTE

I know the UK is not in Europe, I just refuse to accept it, anyway, enough of politics. I have brought my north European mindset to bear on this lovely spring day and have turned down the brightness a notch or two. I have done this quite consciously because this is Northumberland, not the Cote d’Azur. For some reason I can’t accept the Mediterranean palette so far north. Anyway, its definitely springtime and not winter. There are some extraordinary patterns in this landscape so I need to put my illustrators head on if I am to tackle them. The painting is starting to show signs of promise, still a long way to go.

Netherton, springtime. Day 3

DON'T SECOND GUESS

This is a lesson that has taken me decades to learn, and if I am honest I am still guilty of it. When I try and speculate as to how a painting may go I am always wrong. I always imagine the outcome to be no where near as good as it actually turns out to be. You cannot rehearse in your mind what you are going to do in the painting. There was a time when the opposite was true, when I had a brilliant painting in my mind and ended up with a canvas covered in sh*t. Needless to say I am a more content painter now but it has been a long journey getting here. Painting is going well. I am trying to capture what I saw on the day which is a landscape turned up to full volume in every respect. Its a type of landscape that I particularly like which is a random patchwork of brown heathland and grass, that has yet to come through as clearly as I would like.

Netherton, springtime. Day 2

NO EASY ROUTE

As Ben Fogle has said, ‘the hardest road has the sweetest views’. He may not be an ancient Chinese philosopher but he’s not wrong. I purposely never repeat a winning formula, firstly because its leads to nothing new, and secondly I never take the easy option. By winning formulas I mean my estimation of where my painting is right now. Winning for me simply because in my view what I am doing now is so much better even than 12 months ago. Slightly new location, Netherton. It was a day of mixed fortunes, its surprising how a photo is made or lost in a second, simply because of the dramatic changing light. This is one of my lucky shots. Good start.

Netherton, springtime. Day 1

FURTHER DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

Its a tight squeeze but I am going to keep going. My previous painting has set me on an unexpected course. There is definitely a shift in focus. At the back of my mind I always had this ambition of not being a ‘scene’ painter, when it comes to landscapes. That means not following the traditional focus, which is light and space. They are important but it seems no longer my primary motivation. It will be interesting to see how this develops because I don’t want to have a set of preconceived notions of how I am now going to make paintings. Lots of questions around this painting but it is finished.

Road through the countryside