A PAINTER’S PROGRESS
Its no wonder I never took to watercolours where you need an easy facility to achieve right first time results. This painting has finally bended to my belligerent, pig headed determination. A Trump like approach of no surrender has finally seen this painting showing some promise. Only now do I think I can make a decent painting of it, I hope this isn’t a pattern for the future. There is some pleasure in seeing my dolly mixture trees finally appearing.
Heavy Spring weather. Day 5
If you lack any natural talent then you need an ability to keep plugging away. I’ve been doing it for 40 years so my ability is unquestioned. Moving in the right direction today with a significant level of frustration. I think it is this particular painting as it is not always this way. Despite all that I am liking the way it is emerging. Reaching a point where the next move is more obvious. There is some pleasure in seeing my dolly mixture trees finally appearing.
Heavy Spring weather. Day 4
Progress is not a night and day revelation, its a long slow drag, at least as far as my painting is concerned. I get an idea and then a few months later it will materialize. How tedious, but as long as it does materialize I can’t grumble. I think that’s how progress manifests itself, its there, but you have to work slowly and diligently towards it. This painting is heading in the right direction in terms of a more chromatic palette. I will always hold onto my tonal painting, why?, maybe it the British weather, which is looking particularly heavy in this painting.
Heavy Spring weather. Day 3
Attempted to work from the black and white photo but my cold turkey from using colour photos failed. Maybe its one for the future. However, the result to a brighter use of purer colour has been realized which is what I wanted. I suspect the darker colours will lose their brilliance but its a good start.
Heavy Spring weather. Day 2
So what has changed with my approach to painting after 3 months in Mexico? Well one thought that has been on my mind for several months. What if I just worked from black and white photos and relied on my instinct for colour? I have had this fight between conventional landscape colours and how I want my paintings to look for many years now. Just looking at this drawing I can visualize a much more vibrant painting but as soon as I look at the photo it becomes a straight jacket. Just as Luke Skywalker turned off his computer when approaching the Death Star, maybe I should do the same. Otherwise I am just painting the same paintings? and I hate convention.
Heavy Spring weather. Day 1
There isn’t a lot in it between this and the five others but this one gets my vote. I think it is more unified stylistically across the whole painting. It has more impact as an image, my strong diagonal cheat certainly helped that. Also, it is the most unconventional, in my opinion, it is simply the side of a hill with three artificially realised clouds adding to the slightly surreal quality overall. Question now is will it dry in the two and a half days I have left here in 30C heat?. Debatable. Next painting, the beautiful green rolling hills of Northumberland but not until end of March. Adios for now. Update: back in the UK, with the painting, dry and perfectly preserved.
Hillside, Mexico
The longer you stare at something the more you see, and the longer you work the more appears. Of course you can overwork something and it all goes pear shaped. This painting may seem finished but I can see a little bit more in it that will improve it. The witching hour for good photos seems to be when the sun has dipped below the horizon and there is still light in the sky rather than total darkness outside.
Hillside, Mexico. Day 6
Which means a lot of the wild landscape consists of muted browns and greens. I wanted to capture that feel in this painting but not at the expense of creating something drab and uninteresting. I think I have got the balance right although I want to inject some vibrant bursts of colour here and there. Taken quite a bit to pin this painting down but its going in the direction I want it to.
Hillside, Mexico. Day 5
I always like to be ahead of schedule it gives me a sense of order and control. I had toyed with the idea of another painting but that just ties me to our apartment for the few remaining days here, too selfish, even for me. Liking the energy of this painting, it had started off in a bit of a vague fashion but the longer I work on it the more certain I have become. Maybe two more sessions and it will be finished.
Hillside, Mexico. Day 4
I took for the previous stage of this painting. It was during the day time and in Mexico, I know I have to wait until night time here to take half decent photos but I was a bit impatient. Today is much more representative and some decent progress was made. Clock is ticking but barring any unforeseen issues I am on track to finish. The slight regret is that if it turns out well I will have to leave the painting in Mexico to dry.
Hillside, Mexico. Day 3
Six good paintings from six attempts, that’s not a bad strike rate. Its funny but you only need to get so far into a painting before you know if its going to work or not. I thought the edge of the hill and the sky was going to be the hardest to get right. Often its that hard edge between horizon and sky that can look awkward. Six paintings this year against thirteen last year, however I think half of last years were not successful so as always quality not quantity is the thing that matters.
Hillside, Mexico. Day 2
I took some photos last year in Mexico of some hills that I thought I could make some paintings of. I had a hunch it would work but I wasn’t sure how to go about it. Twelve months later its a little bit clearer so with nothing to lose its time to roll the dice. Chose this composition because I thought if I can’t get the impact with body of the painting I could get a cheat impact with a strong diagonal.
Hillside, Mexico. Day 1
I made a bold prediction at the start of this painting saying it would be better than last years version. I was confident it would be, but this has turned out much better than I dared hope. It does make you wonder about the power of self belief and consistency even when I know my output has never been stellar (understatement of 2026 so far). Now the pressure is on to get a final painting done before I leave the Pacific coast. This painting is finished,
The blue house, Mexico
This houses on a hill series has just got started and I am really liking it. Its a shame that we now have less than two weeks left before we head back to Mexico City for a week. There are many more options in our local town for more paintings. I suppose the upside is I will return next January with a clear idea of what I would like to paint. This painting is going well and realistically there will be one more after this and as always with the last painting it will be left in Mexico as it will be too wet to travel.
The blue house, Mexico. Day 4
I can’t pretend I knew how to spell kaleidoscope but I know what it means. That’s my approach to colour. You don’t have to know the name of every colour but you do need to know how to mix the colour you want and how colours operate together. I wasn’t sure how obvious I wanted the blue house to be in terms of it being the strongest colour in the painting. This seems a bit one dimensional and limits the decorative appeal of a painting in terms of saturated colour. The blue house is still easily identifiable and I feel it was the right decision not to mute everything else. Painting going well.
The blue house, Mexico. Day 3
the blue house has appeared. I like the way it is the subject of the title but it is not in the centre of the picture. In fact, not even the whole house is within the picture plane. I had this idea that it was going to be very simplified, a sense of a modelled form but windowless. I still like that idea. The sky is a bit Raoul Dufy blue, and I have included some of the blue house colour in the sky, although this needs to be more obvious. I may take a look at Raoul again, something that would have filled me with horror as an art student. Like the way this painting has started.
The blue house, Mexico. Day 2
Houses on a hill, followed by another houses on a hill painting but this time with a different title to relieve the boredom ( still far better than a serial ‘untitled’). Another photo from last year of my favourite blue house and suitably titled ‘Blue house, Mexico’. The colour of this house is so intense that it dominates the hillside, not an easy thing to do in Mexico. Have a feeling this will already be better than last years painting, that’s progress. Just looking at the drawing, it has the aspect of a jigsaw puzzle, I like that.
The blue house, Mexico. Day 1
rather well. Some earlier photos had given it a rather turgid overall light, more night club neon than the warm overall glow that the painting has. What I wanted from this painting is a sense of space receding back even though this space was shallow, being a steep hill. I think that has come through. I also wanted a decorative, slightly artificial quality to the painting, a bit early Italian. I think that is successful as well. Tempted to do some more of these, the town near us has many examples of this type of building. The painting is finished.
Houses of a hill, Mexico
The houses in the photo are more hidden than I wanted in the painting. I think I am getting the right balance so that they can be identified but not all having the strong white contrast of two of them. I wanted saturated colour in this painting but not so much that it appeared like an artificial freeze. I wanted the tonal modelling to be more important and I think I have got that working.
Houses on a hill, Mexico. Day 5
This is progressing as I hoped it would and forms of the trees are coming through with more subtlety. I think I will create more contrast between houses and buildings that actually exist in reality. The white house is standing out as I want it, the others are not.
Houses on a hill, Mexico. Day 4