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.

De Port's Kitchens

De Port's Kitchens,
oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm

Yesterday, three fifths of Artikinesis visited Basing House as part of our Basingstoke Project. I have visited this fascinating site several times, but always with children in tow; I have long had a hankering to paint there. Specifically, to paint the kitchen fireplaces in the ruins of the Norman Castle (built in the 12th Century by the de Port family).

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

Corfe Cirrocumulus

This is Corfe Castle in Dorset, painted this afternoon from a photograph that I took last year.

Three watercolours of Corfe Castle

I actually made something approaching a New Year's resolution this year: to improve my watercolour skills.

To that end, I have resorted to photographs from the family album of our holiday near Corfe Castle last year. The photogenic ruins of the castle itself are the common theme.

Detail of the second sketch

Bigger LEGO Minifigures: Evil Wizard - SOLD

A second commission on a bigger than usual canvas - this one with added magic sparkle.

Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 cm

 SOLD

Corfe/Kirrin

This is a view of and from Corfe Castle. Corfe Castle is the name of the splendid ruined castle and of the pretty village; together, they guard the entrance to the isle of Purbeck in Dorset.