Thursday, 29 December 2016

A few recent paintings.....

I often feel I should be out 'Plain Air' Painting but, in reality, the reference for the work does not necessarily make a lot of difference. Sometimes I paint 'plain air', sometimes from photographs; sometimes from the imagination.

Painting seems to be even more providential than fishing. At least with fishing, the chances of success  can be increased by study of the fishing ground; care in selection of bait and gear and studious research in to the best methods and practices. Painting, however, seems (to me at least) a little more elusive and, in the long run, very little can be done to achieve success. Research and formulae seem to do little to guarantee a good painting and one's only option is to keep going in the belief that, somewhere along the line, there will be worthwhile results.




These two 'skyscapes' were painted on canvases that held landscapes that needed improvement. Sometimes it amazes me how long it takes to do something that looks a bit 'slapdash'..The end results


 bear little resemblance to the work underneath.



A painting of Manhattan in New York. I had my first visit to the US in Spring '15where I took a number of photographs and did a little sketching...


A 'Still Life' (painted yesterday) ... I'm very often disappointed with my Still Lifes but, for some reason, the Green Bowl in this painting seems to work quite well..


Sunday, 30 October 2016

A few paintings from a recent trip to New South Wales in Eastern Australia... I wasn't able to get my French Easel in my case so I ended up taking photographs and painting from the computer screen back at the Farm...









Thursday, 14 July 2016

I quite like the idea of these larger sized portraits so I've been trying a couple... not sure that the image is as big as I would like but I keep redoing the drawing and can't seem to increase the size much..