Category Archives: New paintings

Landscape paintings in progress

Working in the studio on several paintings, all around 30×60 inches……The technique I am using makes the oil paint behave a little like watercolour and with the right mediums the colour retains it’s vibrancy……The main problem is drying time…..I now have to pick my way around half a dozen large oil paintings that have to lie flat until the paint is dry….. or at least dry enough to have the paintings vertical. And then on top of these will be consecutively placed glazes each needing drying time………It is exciting, slowly watching the paint move around….gently raising a corner to control the flow. It’s exciting waiting to proceed with the next glaze and always the paint does something different…..Not such a good image to go with the text..that’s deliberate though..as I don’t really want to give away everything about how I achieve this effect…….The one on the easel is waiting for me to do the same……..

 

 

Open Studio Exhibition

I have three new paintings just finished to add to my Open Studio Exhibition in St Just

Campions and bluebells in mist oil on canvas 70x70 cm £1200

Campions and bluebells in mist oil on canvas 70×70 cm £1200

 

Campions and mist at dusk. Oil on canvas 70x70 cm £1200

Campions and mist at dusk. Oil on canvas 70×70 cm £1200

 

Campions Gorse and mist. Oil on canvas 70x70 cm £1200

Campions Gorse and mist. Oil on canvas 70×70 cm £1200

New painting ‘Porth Nanven – Reflected Light’

Porth Nanven reflected light oil on Canvas 112x132 cm £3100

Porth Nanven reflected light oil on Canvas 112×132 cm £3100

The second of the stormy sea series of paintings. Painted at Porth Nanven and finished at home. The storms at Porth Nanven can be terrific……terrifying too. Bur it is a fantastic experience to paint these storms. It is different from moment to moment and through every storm I could paint hundreds of paintings…..Well in fact this is what happens on every canvas as the painting changes and evolves through repeated visits to witness the cycle of winter storms

New painting ‘Dawn No.2’

Dawn No.2 oil on canvas 122x107 cm 2016 £3268

Dawn No.2 oil on canvas 122×107 cm 2016 £3268

Since the spring of 2016 I have been working towards a series of paintings about the ancient standing stones and stone circles of West Penwith, for myself this is a long process requiring lot’s of visits, lot’s of drawings, and lot’s of time spent in and around these places. Often with projects like this I will start by painting close to the main subject, slowly through painting, different views in different seasons I will get to know the place. So this is one of those paintings in a series about this particular place, though this painting is focusing on the sunrise and bluebells near to Tregeseal stone circle rather than the stone circle itself……the Tregeseal stone circle painting is in progress and is somewhat larger…….

Here I am just yesterday Saturday 29th Oct 2016…….putting the last finishing touches to the painting. This is the most exciting part of painting for me…..all the months of drawing and painting and thinking and contemplating…..the mistakes…..yep….. lot’s of them.

me finishing the painting

me finishing the painting

All the processes  that a work of art goes through lead to these last moments. In many ways what you are left with at the end is just a final single image but what lies behind that is so much more……the  result of  months or sometimes years long project, throughout which the artwork changes and evolves with every new visit every change in circumstance to the place where it all started…..It might have begun in the summer, spring winter autumn or winter…..it might have been raining, snowing, windy, sunny, or a combination and then there’s the emotional and psychological state of mind…..all these things contribute…the memories the experiences, everything.

Rothko said it best when he was once asked how long his paintings took….he answered with his age. From beginning to end it might take months or years but in terms of experience and knowledge to arrive at that point……It takes a lifetime……

img_9142-copy

New painting just finished. ‘By The Sea’

By The Sea. Oil on canvas. 80x80 cm 2016 £1600

By The Sea. Oil on canvas. 80×80 cm 2016 £1600

Started in the spring just as the wild flowers, bluebells and campions are beginning to show there colour. Most of this summer has been filled with early morning mists and fogs that fall from the Cornish cliffs near where I live, and this is another in that series of early morning paintings started after cycling with sketchbooks along the coast just after dawn, drawing this coastline and then back to the studio to start painting….

Oh and it is painted close to Tregeseal stone circle.