Friday 14 November 2014

Strangers

My latest piece. Again a stranger in the street, deep in his own thoughts. 
Beyond pushing the paint around and enjoying the act of painting, I think these latest pieces are about not knowing. We come into direct and indirect contact with so many people who we never really know, and we never really understand to what degree we don't know them, even when we become familiar and we think that we do. Similarly, we never know what life has in store for us, or the impact we make, directly and indirectly, on others.
Even people we pass in the street.

 Simple blocking in and establishing tonal areas.
Pushing the paint around a little and suggesting buildings and windows in the background. 


The finished piece.
 Detail.

 This is it in progress in the corner of my studio.

Saturday 8 November 2014

Street People.

 I've been intending to paint people for quite a while now. My interest lies in painting strangers that I see around in the streets. These are about the people, not the streets. I don't know them, and therefore don't bring any previous knowledge of them to bear. I can impose any kind of atmosphere or suggestion that I like, but am not restricted by the 'need' for a likeness. That said, this does look very much like the guy who I surreptitiously photographed. I like the idea that the people I paint are unaware that they are being looked at, and so I'm looking for those unconsciousness expressions and poses as people go about their business. I suppose that we are all people watchers, one way or another.
I still want to push the paint around and enjoy the act of painting more, as I said in my last post, but felt that this painting needed a little more accuracy than the last piece.

Early stages. A ground and initial drawing.

 Detail.
 Pushing the paint around.

 Time to start looking at the figure.

 Modelling the face. The composition needs something else..
 Detail.
 Loosely suggesting a street scene. Detail.

 Details.
Finished.

Sunday 2 November 2014

Untitled


Pushing The Paint Around.

Like most people I'm probably my own harshest critic. I have been frustrated by my painting for a while, both with the results and with the process especially. My last painting is a classic example of this. It ended up looking nothing like I'd wanted it to, I didn't paint it in the way that I'd intended, and I didn't really enjoy painting it. To be fair I was feeling a little stymied on ideas.
I've been thinking about painting people for ages. Not so much portraits, just strangers in interesting poses, and with interesting expressions - so there is no immediate association for me. It gives me the opportunity to start enjoying the process of painting again, and to push the paint around making more expressive marks.
The painting below is the first attempt at this. It's the second painting (of three) that I did over half term. I probably won't be posting the first one, but the second will be posted later.
Anyway, here it is. It has no title yet....

 Salvaging an old canvas.

 Detail.
Done.

Friday 22 August 2014

Taking On A Life Of It's Own

River Ure Backwater
This painting was going to be different to how it turned out. I had intended painting in a much looser style, allowing the paint to run and dribble. The edges were going to be much darker and indistinct, but somehow it didn't end up like that at all. I  think I got a bit carried away drawing it out with a rag wrapped around my finger, and painting the water in the foreground. Perhaps I started painting that area too early.
The image is a little backwater created when the river level is low just below Hewick Bridge, just outside Ripon.
 Blocking in.
 Lifting out some of the under painting. Probably overdid this stage.
 Starting to work in more colour. 
Putting in the lighter shades. 
 Starting to get there.
 Detail.
 Detail.
 Done, but I didn't see it looking like this at all.
River Ure Backwater.

Sunday 17 August 2014

Scarborough Harbour.

This was painted after our day at Cayton Bay & Scarborough. It's a view of the harbour in South Bay, pretty much looking into the sun. This was painted in the studio from a photograph I took on my phone. Painting on location seems a distant memory now. Looking out of the window as I write this it is blowing a gale. Are we in to autumn already?
Blocking in the dark masses.
 Starting to establish tonal values.


 Ditto.
 Adding more suggested details and a little colour, before..
 Scarborough Harbour.

Friday 15 August 2014

Cayton Bay

Changing Light.
I've been out painting a few times since we broke up for the summer, with mixed results.  I abandoned one the other day after about an hour of painting. It was a picture of a boat on the river above Linton Lock. I hadn't given it enough thought, rushed it, and started with more drawing than I would usually do. Normally I would block in masses, which helps me to avoid outlines,  handle edges, and helping make the picture look less 'wooden'. I don't like outlines. I probably drew on this occasion because boats are tricky shapes, with odd perspective. I would have been better off roughing it out and keeping things looser. I didn't give it enough thought. 
I rarely abandon paintings.
Others recent paintings have been more successful, to differing degrees, including this one done at Cayton Bay near Scarborough.
I approached the scene in my usual way, and slowed down the painting, working from dark to light. The beach was quite quiet, which is always good, and the light was changeable, which is always a challenge.
Here it is..
 The view.
 Starting with a neutral grey ground, I blocked in the main shapes.
 ...and then started to add colour.

 ...slowly building it up.
 A quick comparison. You can see how much the sun had moved by this point.
 ..adding the sky and building up the details.
 Standing back.
 The finished painting.
Cayton Bay.



Saturday 9 August 2014

Crayfish and Leeches

The following painting was done last week, on a day that we spent playing in the river Ure, just outside Ripon. Archie and Hugo spent hours riding down the 'rapids' in inflatables, and catching crayfish...and a leech.
The painting was done quite quickly sat next to the car, before I joined them below the (Hewick) bridge. I didn't want to paint the bridge again as I did it twice last year (http://richardspainting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/hewick-bridge-and-hewick-bridge.html), so chose instead a quick study looking across the fields towards Ripon.

 The view towards Ripon.




 One of the (American Signal) crayfish
The finished study.
Across The Fields Towards Ripon.

Wednesday 6 August 2014

One For Sorrow.

Magpie


Pica Pica


One for sorrow,
Two for mirth,
Three for a wedding,
Four for a birth,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret, never to be told.

This painting has been sat in the garage since I started it towards the end of May. I started it, but then stored it in the garage whilst we got the house ready for open studios. I have been meaning to go back to it ever since, and have done so twice since we broke up.
The magpie is a much maligned bird. We have a family of them who visit most days. I could say that they are a charm, a congregation, a gulp, a murder, a tiding or a tittering, but I'm pretty sure that it's a pair with young, and I'm not sure that that qualifies them for one of their many collective nouns.
In flight they tend to look ungainly, they have those stubby wings, but on the ground they are very elegant. I really like them.
Our Magpies, like our nervous crow, tend to stay down at the bottom of the garden. I still managed to get some decent photos of them though, and this painting is from one of those.

 The usual blocking in.
 Working into the early background.
 Detail.
 Session 2. Reworking the shape of the head.
 ..and slimming down the body.
I thought about stopping here, and did for a week or so, but it is too 'clean'.
Session 3. Working into the whole bird and background (detail).

I added a leg and called it done.
One For Sorrow.