Boxed 2 - Crouch - woodcut

Boxed is turning into a series. Here is the second woodcut - with the woodblock in its clean, unprinted state, then with ink on it...  and finally, a slightly disppointing test print (hand pressed in haste).

Unfortunately, the wood of the block for Boxed developed two flaws and I'm not happy with the resulting white lines across the image. That block has been retired and there are no truly satisfactory prints.

Boxed - woodcut print

Today, I particpated in a multi-artist printing workshop at City Arts. This is a 28 cm square woodcut created for the occasion; I cut the block yesterday afternoon and fnished it this morning. The design was drawn directly onto the block from imagnation.

There will be no more than 10 prints made from this block.

The Hurlers, left and right

This is a "housekeeping" post intended to simplify navigation. It is not a new painting.

The Hurlers is a complex of stone circles on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall.

Long Rock (Waves)

This is based on a photograph that I took last December (2013) at Long Rock, Marazion, Cornwall. It was (I thought) unusually rough that day for Marazion, which is in a sheltered spot in Mounts Bay. It got significantly worse within a month or two.

New Forest Ponies 2

When I painted New Forest Ponies 1 - a 7 x 5" acrylic on canvas board - it was always my intention to reuse the source image for a bigger, palette knife oil. It took me almost a year and a half to do it, but here is the result.

Surf@Portreath Revisited

Available as a limited edition fine art print. Click here for details.

This is based on the same photograph that I used for Surf@Portreath (which, coincidentally, I painted almost exactly a year ago). There's some lovely shapes and texture in the waves in that shot, and I wanted to have another go at it.

It's been painted in frustratingly short sessions, with an interruption courtesy of the half term holiday, but it doesn't seem to have suffered unduly.

Oil on canvas, 30 x 90 cm
SOLD

Imaginary Dancer 1, "Freedom"

Unusually for me, this piece came almost entirely from imagination. It's not that I don't imagine stuff much - it's more that there are so many real things that I want to paint!

20-20 Poppies

This is the first painting completed in my studio.

The Beeches - SOLD

With your back to Watership Down, you are looking down the line of The Beeches and the footpath to Ladle Hill (the footpath is part of the Wayfarer's Walk, a long distance path). You can see the sloping side of Ladle Hill through the trees to the right.

I took a few liberties with fences (largely removal thereof) and I also took a tree out to improve the view.

Oil on canvas 33 x 55cm
SOLD

EDIT (20 December 2013): High quality "giclée" prints will be available of this painting in the new year.

Autumn Soup

The pumpkin isn't going to last much longer, so I had to paint this last night. It's always slightly chancey under artificial light, I find, but it still looks okay this morning.

30x30cm, oil on stretched natural linen canvas.

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!)

Avebury Evening

Well, it was late afternoon, early evening.

Bradgate Heights - not for sale

This is based on a photograph of my two children at Bradgate Park, Leicester. The image stood out from the many photographs that I took; it was full of rich contrast. It was begging to be painted.

Old Harry

Another Dorset picture, also from the beach at Studland, also based on sketches.

Mount's Bay

Is there anything more perfect than sitting on a beach in Cornwall, painting? 

Clinker's Copse (Bluebells on a Sunday Morning)

I've been trying to capture 2013's bluebells for over a week. When the glorious weather was here, the bluebells weren't quite ready. When the bluebells were ready, the winds were too high.

But, this morning, there was a break in the weather. It was dry, ocasionally sunny and just about warm enough. I scrounged some time from the family weekend and headed off to the woods on foot.

The painting took just over two hours to complete.

Oil on canvas, 14 x 18"
FOR SALE [click here]

Cottington's Thistle

Of course, this isn't a variety of thistle called Cottington's - the name refers both to the hill (with the radio mast atop it; a local landmark) and to my previous paintings of poppies in a similar location.

November Trees

There are a lot of heavily wooded areas near where I work. One sunny lunch hour last November, I took my camera for a walk in the woods; this is based on the photographs I took that day.

It's painted on another clear-gessoed linen canvas; the natural linen peeps through here and there, and the edges are deliberately unfinished.

Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm
For sale

Waves Breaking on Perranuthnoe Beach, Cornwall

First of all, forgive the photograph; it was taken under artificial light. I still haven't seen this painting in daylight.

I painted this on a linen canvas that had been prepared with a transparent gesso. You can see the natural colour of the linen. It seemed a shame not to do something with this fact, so I deliberately skimmed the paint so that there were areas where the canvas is still visible. At the bottom of the painting, the canvas' brown surface is the sand; at the top, it is a reminder of the painting as object.

I used a different palette for this, too; two earth colours (Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna), two blues (Ultramarine and Phthalo Blue), and Titanium White.

Based on a photograph from April 2012. Painted yesterday (20 December 2012).

Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm
For Sale

Skyline 2: green field, May

This is bigger and less yellow than the first Skyline painting, and the trees are both barer and clearer. It's also from a different viewpoint - further along the path, higher up the hill, and closer to the trees.