Swallows

Swallows 20 cm x 14 cm oil on paper

Ainsdale

Ainsdale 20 cm x 14 cm oil on board.

Part of a walk I did last week along the Sefton coast. Following the route from Ainsdale to Formby, this is one of the many paths through the wood to the beach.

Ogwen Valley III

21 cm x 28 cm Oil on canvas paper mounted on board.

All done now I think. I'll leave it alone as I don't want to overwork it with any false recollections of the day.

On The Easel

Ogwen 28 cm x 21 cm oil on canvas 

I've been working on another piece I did at the Ogwen valley in Snowdonia some time ago.

On the Easel.

21 cm x 21 cm oil on canvas paper.

Working from photos, colour swatches and sketches I've revisited some work from the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia. I've made one pass in oils but probably wont add much more when they dry a little. I want to keep that loose feel that says it's just as much about the paint as the subject.

14 cm x 20 cm oil on card.

No.11 Pednandrea St.Just II

15 cm x 18 cm acrylic on paper. 

Another of the views from the back decking. I added the cow at home, as slow moving as they are they're easier to draw quickly than paint.

Cape Cornwall

24 cm x 17 cm acrylic on paper

How big do I paint outdoors? If it fits in the lid of the box I'm good to go. I spent a quiet morning painting at the Cape being serenaded by seven seals in the bay. 

Kynance Cove II. Painting From Photographs.

29 cm x 20 cm acrylic on watercolour paper

SOLD

We were working from photographs in class this week and I used this picture from a much visited site I have painted at many times in Kynance Cove Cornwall.

Why paint from photographs at all?

Photographs are a great reference as to what was actually there and can so often be the only way of recording what may have been a fleeting effect. The subject could be moving so fast, the lighting conditions fading quickly, or the opportunity to paint just not possible.

Use your own photos.

Using other people’s photographs lacks so many other additions to the scene. You were never there and the photograph is all you have to go on, at most your painting will be a competent copy. A photograph cannot call to mind the experience, the smells, the sounds and the weather that all go into the creation of a piece of work. I still recall these experiences from looking at many of my outdoor paintings, but find it hard to remember even snapping a photo

Don’t be a slave to copying.

Lose the detail, alter the edges, colour, tones and shift around the composition to suit the painting not the photograph. Don’t feel the need to copy everything. Shadows and light can be bleached and black. True colours and contrast are easily lost in the cameras effort to record light and dark.  If you are you are using the camera to gather information to paint at a later date, it’s a good idea to make notes or do quick colour studies as well.

Set yourself a time limit

I find this to be one of the most important things to do if I have to use a photograph. If I paint outdoors I know I’m usually done in a couple of hours. However the temptation with a photograph is to keep going because the weather or the light is not changing. The shadows are not going to disappear, or the colour and values alter. Don’t be tempted to take your time, chances are the painting will become overworked with far too much detail and lose any vitality you strived to attain.

Richard Schmid

30 cm x 17 cm oil on canvas

Painting along with American master Richard Schmid. It was a little different painting almost twice the size I normally attempt, but really informative watching how Schmid paints on his video:

 Richard Schmid Paints The Landscape: June.

Llanddwyn Island Anglesey

45cm x 45cm acrylic on canvas.
A Christmas present for my wife.

One week in Cornwall

7 x 5 watercolour and sketchbook drawing at St Ives harbour later in the day after doing the beach drawings.

Marazion, Cornwall.

Marazion 21cm x 14cm acrylic on canvas board £90, mounted ready to frame and postage included.

We spent another scorcher of a day at Marazion, after a walk along the coast from Penzance. This is the first painting that I tried out my new Rosemary brushes on and so far so good, I really like the way they handle. They won’t make you a better painter but I think they make for better painting.

http://www.rosemaryandco.com

Liverpool painting No.111. Earle Road

21cm x 14cm watercolour

Liverpool painting No.104. St. James' Gardens Revisited.

Acrylic on canvas board 20cm x 14cm, £90.

I went back to the gardens behind the cathedral today. I was at the studios working just down the road, besides I can't resist that gothic wintery quiet, very Charles Dickens and Christmas Carol.

Liverpool painting No. 89. Stanley Park

Acrylic on canvas board. 21cm x 14cm. £90.

Liverpool painting No. 88. Mersey shore

I went in search of Oglet and followed Brunswick Street to the footpath that led to the Mersey shore. Talk about follow the path less travelled, the place was empty except for a few startled rabbits and the curlews that lifted from the bank in panic at my approach. Here on a small hill was the graveyard of boats, propellers and engines. I would love to have found this place when I was a kid, hours of fun. No doubt it will soon come to the attention of someone in a suit who will order it to be cleared up or fenced off as dangerous.

Night time galleries in Liverpool

Our Studios at the Leaf Tea Cafe (third floor) are open to all this Friday. It's all part of an event that sees public and independent galleries and studios open all hours and well into the night. The info below is from. Artinliverpool.com

After many long dark nights of behind-closed-doors political manoeuvrings in the interests of stable government (yeh, right) it is time to emerge into the long LIGHT NIGHT in the interests of art, culture and general merriment.

Liverpool Light Night is this Friday, 14 May

Rathbone Hospital, Mill Lane

Another painting of a lane on my route in Liverpool with its turn of the century buildings and cupola. Acrylic on card 21cm x 14cm.

Plein air, on the way to St. Just

Today's picture from Cornwall a couple of weeks ago. Back on the main road from the coast path waiting for my lift to Cape Cornwall later that morning.

Plein Air, Mousehole ii

Two memorial benches staring out to sea. The second study in Mousehole on a fantastic spring morning before I set off on the short cliff walk to Lamorna cove. Not one person appeared in the one and a half or so Hours I spent sitting there. 20cm x 14 acrylic on board.