Liverpool painting No.115. Speke Hall

21cm x 14cm acrylic on canvas board, £90

This is probably the first of many studies to be painted at Speke Hall. As part of the painting Liverpool project, ‘May I Start, May I Finish’, I have managed to become artist in residence at the hall, so I’m really looking forward to doing some still life paintings of the interiors, as well as the grounds.

Liverpool painting No.111. Earle Road

21cm x 14cm watercolour

Liverpool painting No.98. Parkway

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

The nights are drawing in and the street lamps and signs make the ordinary that little bit different.

Liverpool painting No.94. Canning Dock

21cm 14cm acrylic on canvas board, £90.

Liverpool painting No. 92. Navigation Wharf.

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

Liverpool painting No. 89. Stanley Park

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

Liverpool painting No. 86. Edge Lane .

Acrylic on board. 21cm x 14cm

The corner of Durning road. Companion piece for painting No. 85

Liverpool painting No.73. William Brown Street.

I seem to remember playing in this when I was a kid and the fountain was drier than South Wales on a Sunday. It was full of dust and leaves back then. Thanks to the Seven Streets site for doing a full page spread about the, 'May I Start, May I Finish', project. Take a look at the site on http://www.sevenstreets.com/art-and-creativity/art-and-creativity-profile/history-in-the-making-steve-strode/

Liverpool painting No 71. May I Start, May I Finish. Estuary Coastal Park

Acrylic on card 21cm x 14cm.

When the street names run out I followed a path along the coast just above the Liverpool Sailing Club looking towards Wales. Done in better weather a couple of days ago, I've been busy moving my son and his stuff to Leeds University this weekend. I love these spots where the horizon open up and the city seems a million miles away, and it's right on the doorstep.

Liverpool painting No62. May I Start, May I Finish. Blackburn Place.

Decided to do this one in oils using a limited palette as advocated by the painter Kevin Macpherson. I used four colours, crimson , cadmium yellow, ultra marine, viridian and white. It certainly sets you thinking about how to mix paint without resorting to shop bought tubes. I generally only use a warm and cool of each primary and white which is seven in all anyway, but this made the task a little more thoughtful.

Liverpool painting No.59. May I Start, May I Finish. Waterloo Road.

Looking towards town from the docks. Apparently this Victorian stretch of the dock hasn't escaped the attention of film makers.

SUPERSTAR trio Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr and Guy Ritchie have found a prime location to film forthcoming blockbuster Sherlock Holmes – Liverpool’s disused docks.

A stretch of Waterloo Road has been transported back in time to re-create dirt-covered streets of the 19th century, complete with horse-drawn carts and carriages.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/11/21/sherlock-holmes-is-back-with-stars-jude-law-and-robert-downey-jr-64375-22307808/

They must have filmed looking away from town to avoid the ever rising new additions on the skyline.

Liverpool painting No. 58. May I Start, May I Finish. Waterloo Road.

A little different to the paintings of Liverpool streets, but I came across this scene on a recent walk around the docks. Looking out over the wasteland of Trafalgar Dock towards Birkenhead, I noticed the birds going about their business behind the wire. Right in the town centre dock area I came across flocks of Canada Geese grazing the scrub, I could have been anywhere except the city centre. Apparently the feral Canada goose is on the increase in Britain, (I didn't realise wild animals could be termed feral, but there you go).

By the early 20th century, over-hunting and loss of habitat in the late 1800s and early 1900s had resulted in a serious decline in the numbers of this bird in its native range. With improved game laws and habitat recreation and preservation programs, their populations have recovered in most of their range.

In recent years, Canada Geese populations in some areas have grown substantially, so much so that many consider them pests (for their droppings, the bacteria in their droppings, noise and confrontational behavior). This problem is partially due to the removal of natural predators and an abundance of safe, man-made bodies of water (such as on golf courses, public parks and beaches, and in planned communities).

Contrary to its normal migration routine, large flocks of Canada Geese have established permanent residence. Some flocks in Canada may even choose not to migrate, even during the winter, if food (such as leftovers from human) is constantly available throughout the season.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Goose

Liverpool painting No. 57. May I Start, May I Finish. Hope Place

Another sunny one before the rain sets in. I quiet like the old chimneyed buildings that run along the bottom at Pilgrim Street with St. Nicks in the background. I'm getting to enjoy wandering around the city and noting the places to return to when the light is due to be good.

I think you have to try and make each painting interesting in that although it is a record of the year I still have to enjoy painting it. On a different note, a friend of mine at the studio suggested that I was secretly doing the 'Knowledge' so at the end of the project I would at least be a qualified cabbie.

Liverpool painting. May I Start, May I Finish. Bold Street

Bold Street

Liverpool painting. May I Start, May I Finish. Windsor Street.

I have just finished reading a book on freelance writing by Catherine Quinn, ' No Contacts, No Problem; How to Pitch and Sell a Freelance Article.' and the last Chapter she mentions that Van Gogh didn't die a starving artist because he couldn't paint, but because his painting was not marketed correctly.

I think the slow realisation has dawned that the painter has to be so much more than a painter. It is not what or how we paint, but our persistence and how we market it.

Although Quinn is talking about writers it could so easily be aimed at painters when she goes on to add that in essence it sometimes does take years of practice to become an overnight success. I think it was Greg Norman the golfer who was dismissed as being lucky for winning an open, and he even agreed. He then went on to add that the more he practiced the luckier he got.

Liverpool painting. May I Start, May I Finish. Regent Road

Another place I've never mooched around before, and that's Bramley More Dock, on the Dock road right facing Terry's Timber yard. Unfortunately I could only work from sketches and photos etc as I couldn't get right into the dock. I was told by secuirity to get in touch with the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board and I might get access. There are so many painting opportunies for undisturbed plein air studies that I might just try and get access. These are the parts of liverpool we never see, some of it left and deserted...just waiting to be painted before it becomes something new, clean and business like. I could spend weeks documenting these places just as the sun's going down last thing at night. Painting into the light like this mutes the colours and reduces everthing to multi toned shapes.

Liverpool painting. May I Start, May I Finish. Lime Street Station

Finally got around to doing a painting of Lime Street. I think this is more or less the same view Trevor Chamberlain had for his plein air oil in 1986. It reads,

'Lime Street Station, Liverpool 6in x 9ins. The attraction here was the sweep of the station roof with the enhanced colours of the evening light. Oil Painting Pure and Simple, p27

I think in today's climate, the anti terrorism attitude might have seen him moved on for some reason or another.

Liverpool painting. May I Start, May I Finish. Albert Dock

I got down with the tourist's and began this last night as the sun was getting lower and lower, finishing touches added this morning from photos etc.

Albert Dock is the largest group of Grade I listed buildings in Britain and the Dock was officially opened on 30 July 1846 by Prince Albert.

It was the first enclosed, non-combustible dock warehouse system in the world and the first structure in Britain to be built entirely of cast iron, brick and stone. In 1848 the world's first hydraulic warehouse hoists were installed.

The Dock was built to accommodate sailing ships with up to 1,000 tons' cargo capacity but by the turn of the century only 7% of ships using the Port were sailing ships. The Dock's days were numbered and it was finally closed in 1972.

The refurbishment of Albert Dock was carried in 1983 and the first phase was opened in 1984 in time for the arrival of the Tall Ships Race and the International Garden Festival.

The official re-opening ceremony was performed by HRH Prince Charles on 24 May 1988. The original building cost was £514,475-8s-ld. The present day insurance valuation of the buildings, however, is in excess of £250 million.

http://www.albertdock.com/index.php?page_id=2

May I Start, May I Finish. Pochade painting of Pilgrim Street

Didn't get time to upload this yesterday so here it is today. Spent the afternoon drawing and painting around the back streets close to the studio as I was in town for the day. I painted and drew the street that the Liverpool Duck, (below) retires to of a night, and I thought he slept on the water in the dock.

May I Start, May I Finish. Pochade painting of Penny Lane.

Working from a photograph and colour studies etc this morning. This is the result of work I did a couple of days ago. I always find it harder and not as rewarding doing these studies in front of the computer, but sometimes needs must, mostly lack of real time to sit and paint on site.

I've been looking at another urban painter this week, Andrew Gifford. Andrew works in oil and finishes them off in the studio over the coming months, adding glazes and ,'putting in the art', as he goes along. He always works initially on site but continues to build them up this way.

Andrew Gifford, now recognized widely as one of the most innovative young landscape painters working today, is a headliner of Art London, and John Martin notes,

One hundred and fifty years into the photographic age it is exciting to discover that there are still aspects of reality that only an artist can record.

I think I have enough initial studies at the moments to work from and produce larger versions of the on site paintings in oil...next step I think.

http://www.jmlondon.com/pages/eventthumbnails/20.html