Last Of The Summer Paintings.

This is a view of the river Nidd at Nidd Gorge in Knaresborough. It's on a fairly small canvas and was painted during the summer, after we had been for a walk in the gorge. Beautiful place.

Nidd Gorge

Peep O'Day.

Before The Summer Holiday.

This was painted before we broke up for the summer. It's just about half a mile from the house that we are moving to in Easingwold next Friday. That was interesting fact number 1. Interesting fact number 2 is that this was the first time that I used my little old lady style shopping trolley to carry my easel. The French easel is a pain to carry so it's worth looking like a bag lady, and to be fair I'm sartorially challenged at weekends anyway so when I'm plodding along in my painting shorts and flip flops it probably just completes the ensemble.

Looking Towards Peep O'Day Woods.

Portrait Of An Old Man

 Portrait Of An Old Man.

Better Out Than In

During the holiday we decided to have a drive out to the coast. We didn't set off until late afternoon. I threw my paints into the car with the intention of painting from the beach. We headed out to Ravenscar, only to find that you can't get to the beach from there - you have to go to Boggle Hole to get onto the beach. It was getting late so I painted this quick sketch (in record time) whilst Sara sat and read. It was a long way to go for such little time. Still, better out than in.

More Market, More Heads.

I started this canvas after adding a few final touches to one of my head (paintingshttp://richardspainting.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/heads.html). I wanted to carry on painting, so started a figure walking in the market, adding very loose stalls in the background. I enjoyed doing it, but knew that I would be painting over it, probably the next day, which I did. I scraped off as much tacky paint as I could, flipped it upside down, and started another head over it. A reminder that any mistake can be corrected, and painted over, even when the under-painting is wet..
This is the result.

A little more tinkering, particularly around the eyebrows.

Done.

Abstract Landscape; The Way To The Sea.

Another abstract landscape from earlier in the holiday. This was reworked on an old abstract that I found when I went through my cupboard.

The Way To The Sea.

Small Abstract

This is based, loosely, on the weir on the river Nidd at Nidd Gorge Knaresborough. Beautiful place.

Heads

I am painting a number of portraits at the moment. They are strangers from photographs taken in Northallerton. I'm taking a slightly different approach with these than I normally do. Most of my paintings tend to be landscapes, and I start off with a notan style blocking in of the main composition of masses, with very little drawing involved, certainly at the very first stage. I then work into the masses, lifting out lighter areas, refining the shapes, before applying values and colours. This works ok for landscapes, and I have used it fairly successfully with portraits, but recently I have done more drawing (with thinned down paint). These are loosely shaded as a grisaille, and then the values and colours worked in, working in decreasing masses. It is good fun. 

Painting portraits is forcing me to look closer at values, temperature and colour. I think this will have real benefits when I go back to painting landscapes, which I'm sure I will at some point. 

I feel like I've made good progress this summer, because I have painted almost everyday. The problem is going to be sustaining this as we go back to work next week, get a German exchange student, a dog,  move house, renovate the house...

 Early sketch..

 Basic grisaille.. 

 Establishing vales and colours..

 Starting to get there..

 Detail.

Finished.

Painting Down The Road

Another afternoon spent outside with my paints. Again, earlier in the holiday and not far from the house.

Archie's Den

Most of the painting that I've done this holiday has been outside. This one was painted just 200 metres from our house, and is the edge of the fields next to the train line. It is also where Archie and Hugo have their den.
I painted this one afternoon earlier in the holiday, when Sara had to go out, and worked more slowly than some of the plein air paintings that I have done recently, which is probably better. It's on a small piece of salvaged canvas (old swing seat), measuring only about 7x5cm.

The view.

Blocking in.

Ready to start adding colours and values.

Archie's Den.