Red Wine and Apricots: a series of three oil paintings

These three paintings were made on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday of the long weekend just gone. I had my studio open as part of Open Studios West Berkshire and North Hampshire on all three days, and it seemed like a useful sort of thing to be doing in between visitors.

I was attracted to the glassy reflections and to the subtly varying colours of the bottle and its dark contents. I also enjoyed the contrast with the duller texture of the apricots and the book, which toned so seredipitously with the fruit.

Each painting is 33 x 41 cm and is executed on clear-gessoed natural linen in oil paint with a knife (more accurately, a selection of knives). Together, they tell a sort of story - a very ordinary story, of things being consumed - but they aren't necessarily intended to be a set. Despite that, I can't help but think of them as being the beginning, middle and end...

Read Wine and Apricots 1 (Beginning), oil on linen, 33 x 41 cm, £140

Red Wine and Apricots 2 (Middle), oil on linen, 33 x 41 cm, £140

Red Wine and Apricots (End), oil on linen, 33 x 41 cm, £140

Just in case you were wondering, the wine was a smooth but unremarkable Bordeaux, the book is Leonardo by Martin Kemp, and the apricots were - well, they were apricots, and they were very nice.

Dancing Trees

Dancing Trees, oil on linen canvas, 33 x 41 cm

Another one from late last year. This is based on photographs taken two Januaries ago in Hamstead Park near Newbury, Berkshire.

Ridge - SOLD

I am very fond of these trees, which sit upon a ridge close to my home and are visible from many local footpaths. I've painted them before (using the title "Skyline"), and no doubt will again.

Ridge
Oil on canvas, 33 x 41 cm

SOLD

Waverley Window

Last Tuesday, Rose and I visited Waverley Abbey in Surrey, and painted en plein air at the ruins. This is my painting (tidied up slightly in the studio).

 Oil on canvas, 41 x 33 cm

Cross-posted with Artikinesis

Corfe Cirrocumulus

This is Corfe Castle in Dorset, painted this afternoon from a photograph that I took last year.

Dappled

The photograph I was working from was too blue, so I was making mental colour corrections all the way through the painting process - I wanted it to be a warm painting. After all, no child would wear that outfit if it were cold, would they... ?

I don't think I will provide a truthful answer to that.

But it was a warm day; a day for adventures. And she does look like she's off to seek an adventure. A nice one, of course.

Oil on natural colour linen canvas, 33 x 41 cm

Godrevy 4

I went back to my photographs again for this commissioned fourth version of the popular seascape off Gwithian beach, with a view of Godrevy lighthouse.

Oil on canvas, 41 x 33 cm
SOLD (with a frame on order from Moonshine)
07/12/12