Friday 17 May 2013

Waiting To Be Painted: Saltburn

There are some scenes that jump right out at you, and you paint them straight away. Others, you know you will paint, but they have to wait for you to do it, or until the time is right. This painting is one of the latter. We drove to Saltburn a couple of years ago, in glorious sunshine, only to find a sea fret. It was chilly on the beach, virtually deserted, and very picturesque. I knew that I would do a painting from the photos that I took that day, but just didn't know when.
When we left Saltburn we drove back into glorious sunshine about half a mile in-land from the beach, and it stayed with us all the way home.
It's a long way to go for a bit of mist.

Saltburn: Sea Fret.


Saturday 11 May 2013

Looking Back At The Sky

I started running again at Easter. It's hard work getting going again, but it soon becomes quite addictive. Truth be told it's hard work every time for the first three miles, and then I seem to find my rhythm. Talking to other people they seem to feel the same - first three miles are hard, and then you are okay. I've even managed to drag myself out after school several times each week, and as a consequence have lost a bit of weight and feel a lot more positive.
It's good to get back outside. It's good to see spring develop; it's the best time of the year. A friend once told me that spring makes it's way up the country at walking pace, and I absolutely love that idea. It once formed the basis of a very long story that I made up for Archie, who went through a stage of preferring us to make up stories for him, to reading them to him. This story featured a boy, who's name I forget, who escaped from the Sunnyside Home For Wayward Boys, and embarked on an adventure where he had to get to the very north of Scotland before spring got there. He met all manner of creatures and had lots of escapades on the way. I made up installments everyday for about a month, and boy was it hard work! I eventually passed the baton to Sara. As I recall I dropped it in her lap as we drove to France, "Your mum wants to tell you a story now" (-"Thanks, darling!").
Being outside more, running, has found me looking at the sky again. The Vale of York has big skies, as does anywhere flat, and some of them are amazing. It's little wonder that they feature so prominently in so many of my paintings..

Alne.

oil on canvas

Saturday 4 May 2013

Having Really Bad Hair Days That No One Else Can See.

Do we ever see ourselves, or our own performance objectively? I doubt it.
I've spent the best part of this week invigilating the Y11 GCSE Art Exam. After getting the room (and students) ready, getting all the basic equipment out, trawling through y10 data, getting additional equipment out, as and when they ask for it, catching up on email issues raised at Parents' Evening, getting even more equipment out that the students decide that they also need, I was able to do some painting. I have to confess, sitting with them in their exam is something that I enjoy.
At the end of the final session, I said to G*****, a lovely, talented but under-confident student, "Well done. I'm really pleased with what you've done". She blew out her cheeks and said "Oh thank you for saying that. I've been so worried that this isn't very good". I looked at her painting, a beautiful picture of highly decorative, semi abstract carp, that I couldn't have done at her age, and thought..Why?...Why would you worry about that? I told her her work was beautiful.

It was good to do some painting, but it was great to see G****** leave with a real smile on her face.

This is one of the pieces that I managed to do this week. It is from a photograph taken from my Kayak on the river Ure a couple of summers ago. I love it when the sky gets darker than the land...always very dramatic!