Sentinel: Danebury Hillfort

Sentinel, oil on linen, 70 x 50 cm

I've painted this beech tree before, but this time it is in leaf, and more of the lumps and bumps of the hillfort's earthworks are visible.

The tree stands, tall, proud and solitary, by the entrance to the fort (here, we are looking out of the fort). It made me think of a guardian or sentinel.

Sentinel

oil on linen, 70 x 50 cm

£260

Painted 19 May 2018 in Open Studio

Kimmeridge

Kimmeridge Bay in Purbeck, Dorset is all about the rocks. It lies on the Jurrassic Coast and is a favoured destination for fossil-hunters as well as rock-pool afficianados and snorkellers. It has clear, calm water and a folly on the headland - Clavell Tower, which in 2006-8 was moved away from the crumbling cliff. 

So, of course, my painting is all about the rocks. The flat rocks in the centre dominate the image. I spent most of my time on their colours, curves and cracks, their attendant pools and the wet reflections of the summer sun, but it was the seaweed that worried me most. It was a curious colour - a bright mix of yellow, green, red and orange - and it was underwater, right in the foreground. How could I indicate that with my knife, a blunt painting instrument if ever there was one? In the end, it was all a matter of observation and approximation, as is often the case, and allowing the viewer's visual cortex to fill in the gaps.

Kimmeridge 

Oil on linen canvas, 50 x 70 cm

£400

Windsor Castle en plein ar and a little bit in the studio

I decided that I didn't like the guards in this painting - they were rather hastily put in and they didn't seem to belong to the scene at all, probably because I made them too big for their position.

Windsor Castle en plein air

North Terrace, oil on canvas, 50 x 70 cm

Yesterday (Saturday 16th July), I participated in the Windsor and Eton en plein air event. To celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday, 90 artists were invited to paint within the grounds of Windsor Castle. My friend Rose and I were two of those artists.

It was a very hot ad sunny day, and the castle was thronging with visitors. Every now and then, a small group of red-clad soldiers marched smartly along the North Terrace, where we were both positioned. They were difficult to capture, and I very nearly scraped them off at one point, having despaired of seeing them again and fixing in my mind enough detail to make my image of them believable...

I think I only just pulled it off.



Edit: I changed my mind about the soldiers.

Danebury - SOLD

Hill forts are rather difficult to depict as a whole, and sometimes rather unsatisfying or unrepresentantive as little bits. Dannebury hill fort, near Andover in Hampshire, is a large and fairly complex hillfort, but it does have some satisfyingly significant ramparts, and some very lovely trees.

Here s one of the latter upon one of the former.

From a photograph, painted in the Open Studio last week.

Oil on linen canvas, 50 x 70 cm
SOLD

Artikinesis and the Basingstoke Project

"Labyrinth of Commerce", acrylic on canvas, 50 x 70 cm

Artikinesis is a new artist's collective. Our new collective.

Bedwyn (The Tree in the Yellow Field)

We were on our way to visit the Crofton Beam Engine near Great Bedwyn when I saw this tree. It looked fabulous against the yellow field. It still looked fabulous when we returned the same way, so I stopped the car and went to take some reference photographs.

It's taken me a few months to get around to painting it, and it went through a few stages over the last week ...

Rocky Outcrop (Twisty Tree)

Would you believe that this is just a few miles from the centre of Leicester?