4 inch squares

Three "Crashing Wave" squares

It all started earlier this year when I got my hands on a supply of square mounts, eight inches square with a four inch square aperture. They were a nice size, but I didn't have very many pieces on paper to suit them. Then I realised that some bigger pieces, which didn't quite work as a whole, would look great if they were cut up and the choicest parts presented in these mounts. It seemed to work especially well with pictures done in acrylic ink, with trees and waves being good subjects.

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

Forest cathedral

Forest Cathedral, A3 (420 x 297mm), acrylic inks on paper

This is one of the pieces I did for Artikinesis' exhibition We Are Forest. It is based on the overhead branches of the Cathedral Oak in Savernake Forest.

Forest Cathedral
A3 (420 x 297mm), acrylic inks on paper
£75

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

Savernake Beech

Molotow acrylic marker pens on paper, A4 (29.7x21cm)

There are many wonderful old trees in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire. Oaks tend to dominate the selection (they do get impressively old and gnarled), but there are other trees as well, including many beech trees. I encountered this particular example when I visited the forest earlier this month, and this picture is worked up from a photograph I took then (it was a bit cold for lengthy studies).

This is an exercise in the use of limited tone: black, white, and a middle tone (grey).  I used three Molotow acrylic paint marker pen colours for the drawing, deliberately keeping each shade separate and distinct. (I used a fourth colour for my signature).

It looks a bit like a lino print to me, albeit a rather complex one with two printing plates. I like cutting lino (and wood) to make a plate, but have limited patience with the printing process itself and have yet to master the art of registration (printing multiple plates / colours accurately to build up layers). This was rather simpler to do, and very nearly as satisfying.

Savernake BeechMolotow acrylic marker pens on paper, A4 (29.7x21cm)
£50

Winter trees

Winter Oak (detail)

Winter is the best time to capture the structural essence of a tree. On a bright, clear day, the branches are dramatically stark against the sky, the patterns in the bark are unobscured by the shifting shadows of foliage (and any undergrowth will have died back a little, affording better access to that elusive perfect vantage point...).

These two pictures have been created as part of my preparation work for the Artikinesis exhibition at Sticks Contemporary in Gosport.

Winter Beech (detail)

Winter Oak

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

£75 

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

£75

Recorders and Lute: Palisander and Toby Carr (triptych)

Recorders and Lute (triptych), before framing

These three pieces were painted using inkjet printer inks (without the inkjet printer).

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.

The George and Horn: painting a line and wash

The finished painting is at the end of this sequence of in-progress shots, showing you how I painted the local pub...

Our printer was out of magenta and yellow, so I printed my photograph out in rough monochrome.
I used a mechanical pencil (beause it was there) to sketch in the construction lines freehand.
I used my Noodler's Creaper flex-nib foutain pen, loaded with Koh-i-Noor document ink, to ink in the line work. The document ink is wateproof and claims to be safe for fountain pens. Waterproof is important, because the wash is wet! Usually, I use acrylic ink or India ink with a dip pen.

Pen work (almost) all done
(can you spot the missing bit?)
and a few bits of masking fluid in place.

That fantastic moment when you remove the masking fluid...

Most of the watercolour wash is done...

Finished!

Blazing Trees

Acrylic inks on watercolour paper, approx A4

This is from a photograph taken last autumn, near Milestones in Basingstoke.

Unframed

£50