A NEW KIND OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING

As eccentric as it is, I actually prefer my multi coloured painted lawn as opposed to the rather dull and now partially dead lawn that we have. This lawn looks like it has been designed by Dali or Miro and has the aspect of coloured marquetry. I could replicate this and would probably use coloured broken pots to create shapes. If this is how the rest of my garden paintings are going to play out then there is a great deal of scope for some interesting paintings. This painting is finished.

The manicured garden

A GROSS EXAGERATION

Even my best attempts with a few litres of Weedol would not produce a lawn that looked like a Jimi Hendrix album cover. If it were true I would be quite proud of myself and I would make no attempt to return it to its natural colour. I am not sure how my title of ‘The manicured garden’ sits with how the painting has turned out. I shouldn’t worry, Picasso did far worse to his sitters. Heading towards a finish.

The manicured garden. Day 4

MATISSE'S GARDEN

Due to my efforts with litres of Weedol the lawn has a paper cut out pattern of various shades of browns and greens. Only an artist could find beauty in such a lawn, if anything it could do with some more browns to balance things out. It has created a lawn which is quite interesting. Hopefully that will be evident as the painting progresses.

The manicured garden. Day 3

BLUE SKIES

Have I got over my loathing of blue skies?, I think so, I am liking the way this sky is appearing and I don’t think its going to change much. It seems like a sky suitable for a manicured garden, sharp, crisp and a bit artificial.

The manicured garden. Day 2

DOOMED TO FAILURE

Just like my intervention with the beech hedge, having to give it a severe pruning, my attempts at achieving a manicured garden are doomed to failure. I have inherited this garden 50 years too late, certain areas have gone out of control, or died off through neglect and can’t be turned around. I have to work with what I have got. What creates the interest for me is this struggle between my attempts at creating the perfect garden and the reality, plus my pigheadedness, which means I will never give up. As well as all of this, this painting will highlight my disastrous attempts at killing the dandelions leaving discoloured patches all over the lawn and the general imperfections of the rest of the garden.

The manicured garden. Day 1

INTERESTING DEPARTURE

This painting has turned out much better than expected. The subject was a confusing mass of tiny tangled branches which I had no interest in. I knew there would have to be a lot of invention in order to make this painting work. These last 3 paintings have been a consistent departure in terms of a style and I am enjoying this free style approach to painting, it creates surprises and interesting solutions. I feel like I have taken a new direction and there is still a long way to go. This painting is finished.

The pruned beech

SLOWLY COOKING

Its not often that my manual labouring in the garden is called off due to the heat, but that is what has happened today and tomorrow looks the same. Extended days painting in the studio and the temperatures were bearable. Good progress, I think the painting is going in the intended direction.

The pruned beach. Day 4

FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD

Silly attention grabbing headline, but that seems to be what I am now doing. I have no idea where this is going but it has been a gradual transition for some time. Its a simplification of what I am seeing with the emphasis on colour, shape, rhythm and design yet still retaining most of the characteristics of the subject. I could never go fully abstract, tried that before and I just lose interest. I like the tension between the subject and how I translate it. Its really this process that creates the interest for me.

The pruned beech. Day 3

TRAVEL POSTER

Come to St Tropez, this painting is starting to look like one of those travel posters from the 1930s. The beech trees substituting for the Mediterranean pine. It has a flowing graphic quality and I like it. I also like the beech hedge in shadow and the acid green grass and drought afflicted soil, which I have turned pink. One thing it doesn’t have, which I was expecting, was the unsettling quality of the hedge being butchered. My aim is to make the bright stumps a decorative feature rather than a Goya horrors of war.

The pruned beech. Day 2

A TREE THEME

A view from the garden, but not the view to show visitors. This is the ugly side of the hedge, at the back, where I have given the hedge a severe pruning. I have also taken about two feet from its base as it was grown along the ground and it branches were acting as a ladder for lots of ivy to grow through its centre. Now it looks like a manicured poodle, a bit like the rest of the garden.

The pruned beech. Day 1

ITS A YEW TREE

It would be a major fail on my part if the tree was recognisable as anything else. I made sure at least that the silhouette against the sky could not be mistaken. Some artistic license within the body of the tree but I was responding to the mad shapes that existed. I don’t know if I have crossed the line stylistically, I seem to have been pushing in this direction for some time so there is no going back. Next painting is from the garden but the subject contains so much information I needed a bigger board to paint on. Not sure if it is going to be dry enough to start tomorrow.

Yew tree

AS PLANNED?

Probably yes, as planned as any painting can be. I think the hope is always to go ‘off piste’ and be lead by the painting as it develops. It has probably sent me more towards a naturally modelled form that I was intending. I like a modelled form, I don’t think I could ever reduce it to a Matisse paper cut out. I must follow my intentions and make the next painting of some garden hedges, the forms are much less complicated and it will be interesting to see how I can pack the same level of intensity into them that I have here.

Yew tree. Day 7

A DAY DEDICATED TO LEISURE ACTIVITIES

Cycling, painting and checking the roses for greenfly. A summers day that was deemed too hot for manual labour. The way this Yew tree is going I am quite motivated to turn to the garden for a few paintings. I have found in the past that subjects that seem too banal for painting always yield far better results than expected. This painting has required intense looking and slow painting. Whether this is the right approach I don’t know but I am liking the way it is progressing.

Yew tree. Day 6

A GRABBED HOUR

All these non painting distractions will be over in 4-6 weeks after two years of hard labour on the house and garden. Anyone interested in why I am struggling for painting time check out my ‘Landscaped Garden’ page, it will start to feature in my paintings. This includes the discovery of the only thing of interest, two plant fossils on a rock. Doing this post because I am quite liking how this painting is progressing. I should be able to get a proper painting session in the next few days.

Yew tree. Day 5

SHIFTING TONS OF MUD AND VEGETATION

is a good use of my time. This is what I have been telling myself for the last two years. It has all come out of my garden and I am on the final project of a pathway and patio. The garden has been transformed and will start to feature in these paintings. I see this Yew Tree painting as a test piece, although it is not in my garden, only a 1 minute walk from where I live. I can see a lot of potential and I have created quite a formal, landscaped design, some of it looks French chateauesque, with shaped beech trees and beautifully manicured old hedges. All coming soon.

Yew tree. Day 4

SOME INTERESTING SHAPES

That doesn’t sound like an ingredient to produce a compelling painting but I can see there is a stronger focus towards shape that has been ongoing over the last few months. It makes me wonder what kind of paintings I would make using the same subjects that I have been using. They must be different paintings. There is almost like a stained glass effect where the shadow around the forms is like the lead in the window. I am finding that this focus has only been realized properly in this and the previous painting. Interesting times.

Yew tree. Day 3

GAUDIS CATHEDRAL

Thats what this reminds me of, I wonder if Gaudi took inspiration from a Yew Tree, I really like the structure of it. Within the form there are three or four main columns of growth and hopefully I can make these clear as it is an important and impressive part of the trees shape. Its going well but the tree is so intricate and complex that following the photo takes a lot of concentration. I often lose the point at which I am painting.

Yew tree. Day 2

THE END OF ILLUSTRATION

Not that my type of illustration was too literal but I am going to remain fairly faithful to the drawing with big simplified shapes, especially for the foreground which is a mixture of various types of grasses. How tedious and dull.

Yew Tree. Day 1

A FOREST WITHIN A TREE

Thats the peculiarity of the Yew tree, it has the appearance of a mountain side densely forested with pine trees. This tree also has some other darker trees growing through it which create an interesting constrast. I like the drawing it has really emphasized all the random and crazy shapes within the tree, this is something I want to keep.

Yew tree. Day 1

LESS ILLUSTRATION

I like this bolder more graphic approach it has an energy that reminds me of early Hockney landscapes around the Hollywood hills. I think I have been trying to wrestle myself free of the more illustrative landscapes of 2024 and this is probably the first one that I think has done that successfully. I still like to retain the character of the place, to the point that it is still recognisable but to paint the rhythms and light of the landscape but in a more powerful and simplified way. This painting does rely on the these big shapes being present and I will seek out more of the same, maybe a few more forest paintings coming, there is no end to them around here.

Edge of the forest, Northumberland