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).

Arctic Corsair - painting from a sketch and believing in the sketch

The best thing about painting from a sketch is that you've already made most of the decisions about what to leave out.

The worst thing about painting from a sketch is that you've already made most of the decisions about what to leave out.

When I made these two sketches, I wasn't really thinking about whether or not I would use them for a painting, I was just enjoying sketching. Which is what I usually do. Still, with detail in the line drawing, focussing on the boat, and colour in the drawing of the buildings alongside it, I thought I would be able to do a passable job of recreating the scene.

The following is a description of how I painted this. I used a painting knife with oils on a clear-gesssoed linen canvas.

Arctic Corsair

The Arctic Corsair is the last of Kingston-Upon-Hull's side-winder trawlers, efectively the last remnant of the city's fishing fleet. She currently lies on the mud in the river Hull by the museum quarter and is a museum ship herself. She has been there since 1999 (after the time I lived in Hull) but there is talk of moving her to a dry dock in the near future.

The painting is based on a couple of sketches that I made in January 2016. There is a little artistic licence in a few places - the riverfront warehouse on the right, for example, is a complete fabrication! The jagged red brick edifice in the background, in front of the cream-coloured Shotwell building, on the other hand, was there and was in approximately that shape when I drew the Corsair and her surroundings. It was partially demolished and looked rather like a post-industrial castle.

Arctic Corsair

Oil on canvas, 55 x 46 cm

£200

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.

Ghost

Ghost. Oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm

This, a different angle on the ruined chapel at the Holy Ghost cemetery to that seen in my last post, was painted for Artikinesis' Basingstoke Project. I posted it on the Artikinesis site, but not here. It uses a very limited colour palette - there is no red (this is offset a little by the warm brown of the linen ground). I used only Phthalo Blue, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White.

The painting was based entirely on pen sketches made on site and memory.

Not Just Roundabouts

I've always liked the old railway posters. A "Travel" theme prompted this attempt at evoking their spirit, drawn in Molotow One4All Markers on A5. Since Artikinesis did The Basingstoke Project, I have a wealth of source material on Basingstoke (less than ten miles distant and, one could argue - as indeed we did - in need of an image adjustment). This is from a line sketch of the ruined chapel in the Holy Ghost cemetery, not far from the railway station.

Man in a Tree (Robin Hood)

Man in a tree (Robin Hood)

Looking back at the work in progress post, this one has changed even more than I remembered. But it's a lot closer to the concept than the version posted there, although - unfortunately - the opportunity that I was painting for has since vanished into thin air.

So I have shelved my Robin Hood project for the time being, but this fellow is now happily ensconced in his tree, awaiting a rich, unscrupulous (and unsuspecting) abbot to pounce upon - or is it the sherriff of Nottingham he's lying in wait for?

Man in a Tree (work in progress)

This one is going to change direction, but I quite like it as it is, for what it is (which isn't what is was meant to be).

It's based on one of a series of sketches of a friend who cheerfully agreed to climb a tree for the purposes of this picture:

Violinists and Piano

This was based on a couple of line sketches made of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra rehearsing in St. Nicolas' Church, Newbury - part of the Open Studios / Newbury Spring Festival collaboration. It was a far more complicated subject than my usual fare, but I enjoyed the challenge.

Oil on canvas, 40 x 80 cm

UPDATE: I wasn't entirely happy with how I had painted the pianist; here is the revised version (slightly wonky photograph):

Cigarette Break

Lino print, 20 x 15 cm

I don't condone smoking in the slightest, but these two characters appeared outside a building on a business park while I was drawing the building and what could I do but include them? They spent a long time smoking their cigarettes - I was able to "zoom in" and sketch them on their own.

Wayside Wheel

Wayside Wheel, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm

This (above) is the painting that I did on Sunday, the second day of Hampshire Open Studios 2015.

And this (below) is my source. Along with a bit of memory and imagination...