Trees with attitude: Altitude and Solicitude

When you are walking through a wood, and you look up, it's then that you realise the sheer magnitude of trees. 

The Woolhampton Green People

 

Green Man; Green Lady
Acrylic ink on A3 Bockingford rough watercolor paper

Nearly 18 months ago, I posted some pencil sketches made of two carved faces from a local church, St Peter's in Upper Woolhampton. These pictures are based on those sketches.  The faces are Victorian (the church was rebuilt in 1857) and, with their surroundings of leaves, the gentleman's leafy moustache and the vegetation emerging from the lady's mouth, are in the green man tradition. I fancy that they might represent the local landowner and his wife.

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.

Artikinesis set to exhibit in Reading

17 September – 1 October 2016

"Not far from the hustle of central Reading there is Blake’s Lock. Along this quiet backwater, five artists and a poet came, saw, recorded their findings and expressed their feelings.
"Now at the Riverside Museum’s Turbine House gallery, you can share their experiences and discover hidden Reading for yourself."

Riverside Museum at Blake’s Lock, off Kenavon Drive, Reading, RG1 3DH

(access through car park of the Bel and Dragon restaurant)

Exhibition opening times:
Every day 17 Sept – 30 Sept: 10.00 – 18.00
Final day 1 October exhibition closes at 15.00

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Artikinesis is a group of five artists: Adeliza, Brian, Elinor, Rose and myself. We're very excited to have Duncan writing poems as part of this project; the interplay between location, visual art and words promises to be very interesting.

Two Finished Paintings

St Paul's Churchyard (Ashford Hill)

Oil on box canvas, 20 x 30 inches

Exmoors on Greenham Common

Oil on standard width canvas, 60 x 50 cm

Botallack Count Houses and Newbury Lock

Botallack Count Houses

Two more - rather watery in theme - line and washes. Both were done from photographs using dip pens, acylic inks (sepia and white) and watercolour.

St. Nic's Art Exhibition

St. Nic's in Newbury is holding an art exhibition on Saturday 27th June, into which I will be putting several pieces. I am hoping to inclde this one, (the church tower does belong to St Nic's) if I can manage to get it framed in time!

Line and wash, approx 12 x 20 inches

Treeshine

A further development of the idea kicked off by Avebury Roots, this is based on images from two locations in Berkshire.

Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50 cm

(I'll be taking this to the Reading Contemporary Art Fair.)

Evergreen (Newtown Common)

Evergreen

Oil on canvas, 50 x 100 cm

The title may be something of a misnomer, as there is scarcely any green in the painting (there was more in the source photographs), but the trees on this part of Newtown Common were pretty much all evergreens.

The colours weren't the only thing I changed; I also added a second path, to give you a choice of which way to go...

Outside The English Barn - SOLD

This is based on a monochrome photograph that I took over a decade ago.

Gold and Silver Birch (Snelsmore Common)

Snelsmore Common is a little oasis of nature between Newbury and the M4. It has fascinating wildlife and geology - and its silver birch seem to have turned orange. I wondered if it was some sort of lichen, but it's too fine for that. Tristam Belstaff, from Reading (around 20 miles from Snelsmore) suggests on his blog that it is an alga called Trentepohlia sp. I'm happy to go with that, even if he was talking about a tree in Reading.

Icy Day on Wokefield Common - SOLD

"Wokefield Ice"

in-progress shots

It has turned cold lately, but this is from one of last winter's photographs. The iced-over pond on Wokefield Common has been on my list of subjects for a while.

Oil on linen canvas, 30 x 40 cm
21 November 2013 - SOLD
(I put the wrong date on the canvas!)

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

Greenham Reflection: Spotted Bullock

Greenham Common is particularly wet at the moment. There are a number of ponds, pools and (possibly) lakes (I'm not sure how big a body of water has to be before it is called a lake) that are always there. There are also a lot of big puddles that occasionally dry up - if we have a hot, dry summer.

Trees, Gorse and Heather

I spent the afternoon on Greenham Common today, and this is the result. I wanted to show that the Common isn't just about the old air base.

Fire Hydrant - new pictures

Above, a new photograph of "Fire Hydrant", taken this afternoon.

Fire Hydrant

The UK doesn't really do overground fire hydrants. Not on streets, anyhow. We may have them on airfields, I suppose, but I don't tend to hang around on many airfields... except for this one.

Trailer Park

Technically, I suppose these aren't actually trailers. They don't have wheels. They are shipping containers, stacked up in New Greenham Park, the industrial park that was created on the built-up area of the former USAF base at Greenham Common, Newbury. The view point is from Greenham Common itself, from the heathland area that used to be the runways.

The painting was done from a photograph; I liked the contrast between the bright, artificial colours of the containers and the scrubby greens and browns of the heath. I've brightened the colours a little compared to the photograph (which was taken on a cloudy day) so that they reflect my memory of the scene better.

Oil on canvas, 50 x 20 cm

Sluice on the Kennet and Avon

Time for another old painting?

Fire Plane and Tree, Greenham Common

Greenham Common is a funny old place. It's been open to the public again since the late 1990s, but most people will remember it as the site of an American airbase, the home of Cruise missiles, and the notorious Women's Peace Camp. The Americans took their cruise missiles home (and eventually the women left, too). A small peace garden memorialises the occupancy of the women but the Americans left a lot behind, including several massive missile bunkers (still fenced off), a small township of military buildings (now the site of a thriving business park), and a collection of airbase detritus. Most of the latter is small stuff - fire hydrants and chunks of concrete runway that didn't get broken up - but, tucked away in a corner, there is this.