Cannon Heath Down revisited

The Vale of Kingsclere, oil on canvas, 60 x 30 cm

I have been neglecting this blog recently in favour of building an all-new Web site on another platform. This site will remain as an archive.

However, it only seemed right to post today's work here.

The boar tree - SOLD

The boar tree, ink on A3 paper

The roots of this roadside beech tree reminded me of a wild boar - I could see its head and one giant piggy trotter. I haven't deliberately enphasised either feature, not least because the tree is a beautiful sight in itself, with the large, sinuous branch to the left curving up like the muscular neck of a herbivorous dinosaur (I'm thinking diplodocus or brontosaurus), set against the sundappled screen of leaves.

Hanger: two drawings

Hanger, ink on A3 paper

Square Hanger, ink on paper, 29 x 29 cm

These two pictures were drawn to investigate the way that the beech roots cling to the steep slope of the hanger (a hillside wood). I had no intention of introducing fantastic beasts, but they crept in, nonetheless...

Downed

Downed, ink on A4 paper

I found this dragon lying between two roadside beech trees on Nuthanger Down, its tattered wings spread on the ground, looking intently up. Was there a squirrel up there? Or was it remembering its days of flight?

Let Sleeping Dragons Lie

Let Sleeping Dragons Lie, ink on paper, 29 x 29 cm

More serpentine beech tree roots, this time on Nuthanger Down, and this time in Noodler's Walnut Brown ink (which I think is based on the colour of walnut ink, but probably isn't made from walnuts).

Blue and Gold

Blue and Gold, oil on canvas 46 x 55 cm

A reprise, of sorts, of 2016's Gold and Grey, this is a view from a local footpath. These distinctive trees are visible for miles around and are a welcome landmark as well as a favourite subject.

Blue and Gold

oil on canvas, 46 x 55 cm

£340

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

Embankment: Beech Wood at Danebury Hill

Embankment: Beech Wood at Danebury Hill, oil on canvas, 40x50cm

Earlier this week, I visited Danebury Hill, where there is a large, well preserved, iron-age hill fort. There is also a very lovely beech wood on the side of the hill. Here, the beech trees are growing over the outer ramparts of the fort, their shallow root systems rising from the ground as the trees cling to the earthworks.

The painting is based on photographs that I took at Danebury.

Embankment: Beech Wood at Danebury Hill

oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm

£210

Blue Twist (Wolverton Blue 3)

Blue Twist (Wolverton Blue 3), oil on linen, 46 x 38 cm

Last Friday, I revisited Wolverton Woods to catch the end of the bluebells. I was attracted by the fantastic contortions of the large beech tree that became the focus of this painting.

Blue Twist
oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm

£160

Beech Hedge - SOLD

Beech Hedge, A3 (420 x 297mm), acrylic inks on paper

This is one of the pieces I did for Artikinesis' exhibition We Are Forest. These beech trees are growing in a line between two fields and are part of a grown-out beech hedgerow.

SOLD

Downland beech - SOLD

Molotow acrylic marker pens on paper, A4 (21x29.7cm)

Another monochrome beech tree, albeit with a CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) sky. It makes it look rather cartoonish, I think - or is that the "googly" face that I keep seeing in its trunk?

This tree is part of a grown-out hedgerow on the ridge of one of our local downs.

SOLD

Bluebell Stump (Wolverton Blue 2) - SOLD

Wednesday's short painting session in Wolverton Wood gave me enough material (on the canvas and in my head) to refine the image in the studio yesterday.

Bluebell Stump (Wolverton Blue 2)

Oil on natural linen canvas, 30 x 40 cm

£120 SOLD

Market Day (Basingtoke)

"Market Day", acrylic on canvas board, 40 x 40 cm

This is one of the paintings from late last year that I never quite managed to get a decent photograph of. The light was good today and I had my camera in the studio, so I did a bit of catching up.

The subject here is Basingstoke's bustling market at the "Top of Town" - the older bit of the town centre, a little uphill from the roofed-in modern shopping precincts. The large white building was once the town hall and is now the Willis Museum (run by the Hampshire Cultural Trust for the town).

This image was based on one of my pages from the Artikinesis colouring book, and painted for the upcoming North Hampshire Art exhibition, to be held at the Willis Museum in May.

Painting local churches...

I'm not terribly clued up on the way the Church of England organises itself, but there are three churches in our local group. There's St Mary's (Kingsclere), St Paul's (Ashford Hill) and St Peter's (Headley)

It sounds a bit like a 60s folk trio.

But these are the churches. Norman St. Mary's, squat and sturdy; Victorian St. Pauls, elegantly be-spired; and miniscule St. Peter's, also a Victorian building, represented here by a pair of sketches.

On Saturday, I was at a charity event at St. Paul's, and I was there to demonstrate my knife-painting techniques. I had a gazebo, which was fortunate, as it rained quite a lot.

I had my acrylics...

40 x 40 cm, painted in the morning, when
there was a glimmer of blue sky and sunshine

 ... and I had my oils ...

41 x 33 cm, painted in the afternoon, when
the sun had disapeared but the roof was shiny

Both paintings were auctioned for charity on the day.

St Leonard's in Oakley

It was raining, so I sat under the lych gate to make this sketch.

Curious about the unusual name of this church (many a church is named for saintly Peters, Pauls, and Marys - although I'm not aware of any dedicated to Puff the Magic Dragon), I discovered that Leonard was a sixth century frenchman known for freeing prisoners.

Given the dedication, I was assuming that I would find a definite assertion that the church building was (underneath all the additions and alterations) of Norman origin, but there seems to be no such statement to be found online. It is, however, believed that a Norman chuch stood on the same site.

The history of the building seems vague until the 16th Century, so it seems reasonable to state that the church is medieval with distinctive Victorian additions. It is, however, charmingly quirky.

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.

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

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

Looking forward to tomorrow's Bank Holiday...

... when I might finish this local church. If you're in the area, why don't you pop in to ssee how far I've got? I'm open 11am to 5pm.

Harriden's Blue

It's spring, and the bluebells are coming out. Time to go painting...

This was painted,on Wednesday, on the edge of Harriden's Great Copse, a hunting wood with a public footpath through it. Despite the fact that Wednesday was far and away the best day of the week, it was cold out there. Sitting in the shade didn't help. I did as much as I could and finished the painting from memory in the studio.