Leaving St.Mary's

Oil on Board, 11 x 24 inches

This is the first painting that I'm submitting for the Royal Society of Marine Artists annual exhibition this year. Based on a couple of photos I took when we were leaving the glorious Scilly Isles last October. I loved the overall grey tones, punctuated by that flash of yellow light near the horizon. And the lovely orange and blue of the lifeboat provided a gorgeous touch of colour - put your thumb over it and it would have been a very boring seascape!

Painted entirely with Titanium White, Cad.Yellow Light, Permanent Rose and Ultramarine Blue, it was mostly about getting the mixes right, especially for the choppy sea, and changing those subtle variants accordingly.

Beech Spring

Oil on Board, 12 x 17 inches

This is the second in a series of four commissions I am painting for a client, all from the same spot, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, this being the spring version, as if you hadn't guessed!

Beech leaves are a spectacular sight at any time of year. Here, in May, they are fresh acid green, getting a deeper green tone in Summer, before transforming into the orange of Autumn - quite looking forward to painting that one! There is always a bed of composting old leaves at any time of year beneath beech trees, and I suggested these with lots of palette-knife work over a sticky underpaint. the same technique was used for some of the leaves nearer the viewer, too.

Birches and Bluebells

Oil on Board, 6 x 8 inches

The Bluebells are all gone now for another year, but just can't resist painting them each year. These were in Barnsdale Wood on the banks of Rutland Water, a beautiful woodland, carpeted with these glorious flowers. I used a bit of artistic licence, adding the two Silver Birches for interest. 

Most of the painting, aside from the trees themselves, was done with my trusty 1" decorators brush and a large fan brush, which can load sufficient paint on and apply in the right manner to depict foliage and flowers.

Oaks Under an Indigo Sky

Oil on board, 6.5 x 10.5 inches

I was playing golf a couple of weeks ago when a thundery storm was brewing all around us, and looking to my left, there was this magnificently dark sky, with sunlit Oaks and a yellow Rape field set against it. I took a quick snap with my phone, then this fabulous light effect, where the foliage of the trees was lighter than the sky (so rare that it happens) was gone in a few seconds. But I had enough to make a painting from, fortunately, and here it is.
Now SOLD

Beech Trees in Spring

Oil on Board, 9.25 x 13.25 inches

 

This beautiful wood is part of an ancient woodland called Bedford Purlieus in Cambridgeshire. Beech trees are beautiful at any time of year, but in Spring, their acid green leaves are just an emblem of the season. With a few Bluebells on the woodland floor, a painting subject is made.

January Light, Wakerley Wood

Oil on Board, 6 x 8 inches

I did the underpainting for this little oil a while ago, and have another big one on the back-burner of a similar subject - very much looking forward to finishing that one. 

I just love the muted tones of Winter, here with blue frost still in the shadow of the mid-distant field, providing a lovely complement for the orange of the leaves still left on the Beech trees and the russet-toned carpet of leaves on the ground. Lots of impasto dabs to depict the leaf carpet - delicious! The sunlit bright yellow-green headwear of the tree stumps were also a delight to paint.

Daffodil Wood at Manton

Oil on board, 7.5 x 10 inches

I passed this wood a few weeks ago in the car and spotted Daffodils, and thought this might make a painting. So, I popped back when I had more time. Someone had obviously planted them, along with some Fritillaries, neither of which grow wild in woods, but what a sight they looked - cue the oils! There was just a distant haze of Bluebells,which provided a nice foil to the predominant yellows and greens.

Now SOLD.

Sun Reflection

Oil on Board, 10 x 14 inches

Orange and blue are complimentary colours and always sing together, and there are plenty of both in this painting, which again started life as a demo last year. It would have made quite a nice composition without it, but the reflection of the sun glaring full power off the water really was the obvious hook.

 

Teasels by the Welland

 Oil on Board, 9 x 13 inches

 

I'm rattling through all these demo paintings I've had stacked in the studio for months, and here's another one finished off. There's a common theme in nearly all these recent efforts - contre-jour, ie, facing into the sun. This tends to create strong highlights and shadows, so that there is plenty of contrast in the painting, giving it interest and often more impact. I love a Wintry subject for this light effect too - pale blue-greys for the distant trees, getting ever darker and warmer towards the foreground

Winter Grazers near Gretton

Pastel 13x 19 inches

 

Yes, another demo painting I did last year, at Peterborough Art society I think. I finished back in the studio today. I reserved the pure Titanium White Schmincke Pastel stick, the softest, most buttery stick, to knock-in those gleaming jewels of sunlight. I say knock-in, because it is exactly the noise it makes, banging in those spotlights with the edge of the stick, rather like an impasto blob of Oil paint, after brushing off a tiny bit of underlying pigment with a Hog brush. Hmm, a bit more info divulged...I'll have to kill you all.

Rising Sun at Wakerley

 Pastel 13 x 19 inches

 

From the bridge on the Wakerley Road between Barrowden and Wakerley, I've painted this view a few times, and with a little artistic licence, I moved the dawn orb a little to the right of centre. Who can resist painting such a subject? Not me!

To Pastures New

 Pastel 13 x 19 inches

 

Yet another demo I painted last year from a 14 x 20 Oil painting, shown here. I changed a couple of the postures and plumage of the cattle, but otherwise, painted it pretty much as was - interesting to compare the two mediums. It would be even more interesting to compare a Watercolour to the Oil, but I've not had the courage to paint a Watercolour for a goodly while...watch this space!

Banks of Frost

Pastel 13 x 19 inches

 

I'm ploughing through a few demo paintings I did last year, just refining them to exhibition standard, beyond the two hours of the demo.

 

Almost a monochrome painting, with a lot of close tones, it was an exercise in capturing various subtle greys to achieve the desired result. I find using the Pastel medium tougher than Oils for this kind of subject, because you need so many close colours, and finding them on my extensive palette is no easy task, especially being an untidy painter - I get so into the painting that I put a stick down, grab another one and before I know it, the colours are all mixed up, which is fatal, and it stops the flow. 

 

I love the 'softer' look and feel of Pastels, but Oils will always be my preferred medium for most subjects, although using Pastels also makes the desire to grab the brushes again even stronger!

Winter Reedmace

Pastel 13 x 19 inches

 
Yes, I am still alive, and this is the first painting for 51 days - I've been doing work on the new PBFA gallery in Uppingham which has kept me from the easel, but it's good to be back in the saddle again!

This was the final demo I did last year, duly polished off in the studio. Winter can be a somewhat monochrome season, but when it snows, then there's sunshine, the beautiful, subtle, complimentary colours are a dream to paint - lots of greys, browns, oranges and blues - scrummy! 

Describing the background trees set against the distant backdrop is the most challenging, and in this case, it's firstly choosing the right colour, then applying the stick using its point for the trunk and on its side with the most gentle pressure for the feathery tracery.

Passing Car

Oil on Board, 3.625 x 5 inches

I do love the sparkle on water when the sun is straight ahead of you. This painting was all about tone - that progression of darks to lights, judging that very pale backdrop of distant woods. As I always say in my demos, you must keep the painting going at an even pace - if you dwell too long on one passage, adding detail, and don't place adjacent tones down first, you may find the tone you thought was right first, is actually too dark in all likelihood. Every tone and colour you place down will change as soon as that adjacent one is placed next to it. If you then plough on without getting the lightest tone right, everything else will be correspondingly darker, and the finished painting will lack the depth and impact you desired.

The delightful finishing flourish to a panting like this, is to place those tiny dabs of pure white to simulate the twinkling jewels of refected sunlight on the water.