Landmarks

"Also notable are [Amanda Bates'] trio of small works, hung as a vertical panel: Thatcham's Bluecoat School, Donnigton Caste and Newbury Corn Exchange. The subjects are tightly cropped within the frame, with little context, giving them a palpable presence."
Newbury Weeky News: Lin Wilkinson

Three wooden panels, each 15  x 15 cm, painted over clear gesso so that the wood peeps through the thick oil paint. These three pictures were painted for, and are currently on display as part of, the Artikinesis Springtime exhibition at the West Berkshire Museum, The Wharf, Newbury - but only until Sunday 23 April.

The exhibition also features work by Rosemary Lawrey, Elinor Cooper, Adeliza Mole and Brian R. Marchant.

Thatcham Bluecoats / Newbury Corn Exchange / Donnington Castle

Oil on wooden panel

£50 each

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St Mary's, Kingsclere

St Mary's, Kingsclere, oil on linen canvas, 30x40cm

A little plein air oil of the parish church, painted yesterday. It's been much altered, but underneath it all, this large edifice is a Norman church.

Up Swan Street

This is the companion piece to Down Swan Street and was painted just outside of the studio door on Sunday, the final day of Open Studios West Berkshire and North Hampshire, with a few minor adjustments made today.

The sky was ominous for most of Sunday, and, by the time I took the decision to stop, thunder was rolling through the valley. The red kite had been calling most of the afternoon, and made an appearance in the sky at just the right time for it to also appear in the painting.

Oil on canvas, 40 x 60 cm

Down Swan Street

This was painted outside of my Open Studio, yesterday. Just outside the open door of my Open Studio, to be precise.

Oil on box canvas, 40 x 60 cm

The Pier (Royal Pier Gatehouse, Southampton)

Line and Wash on rough watercolour paper, approx A3

This is from an old photograph that I took in 2002. I'm fairly certain that The Pier had been a nightclub when I lived in Southapmton, but the building was unused at the time of the photograph. It's now been restored and is a Thai restaurant.

I used a fountain pen with a flexible nib (the Noodler's Creaper pen), loaded with Koh-i-noor black document ink, for the line work that preceded the watercolour wash. Both of these are new to me; the flexible nib allows for a more expressive line, while the document ink is apparently fade-proof and waterproof and (unusually for inks with the other characteristics noted) isn't going to damage my fountain pen.

Of course, I still like dip pens (which are often more flexible, and can be used with any ink without fear for delicate workings), but this combination is very convenient for working outdoors, and it seems to work very well.

Barns

Oil on linen canvas, 55 x 46 cm

Tuesday was gloriously sunny; a perfect day for painting pretty, disused barns ... and for getting just a little bit sunburnt in the process. Of course, I should have followed my friend's example and set up in the shade.

Pickfords

This - worked up from a photograph that I took just over a year ago - has been a long time in the painting. I started it before Easter, and - because it is such a complex subject - didn't manage to finish it before the school holidays started. I rarely get the chance to paint in the studio during the school holidays. As soon as the children went back to school, I was busy preparing for the Reading Contemporary Art Fair.

The paint was surface-dry when I went back to it today. This isn't really a problem, unless there is a lot of texture that I'm trying to paint over (it's a bit like an acylic knife painting in that respect), and I had been aware that a long interval was a strong possibility, so I had deliberately minimised the impasto.

As it happened, a dry surface was quite useful. I discovered that a colour shaper (effectively a solid silicon paintbrush) would lay down paint very effectively onto a reasonably smooth layer of dry oil; this is how I managed to write the word, "Pickfords" on the roof of the foremost building.

This building and its roof inscription give the painting its name. As far as I can make out, Pickfords no longer occupy this building, which is in Nottingham (the elevated view is from Nottingham Castle). In fact, it appears - from Google's Street View images (dating from September 2014) - to be under development.

Pickfords
Oil on canvas, 55 x 46 cm