A PAINTER’S PROGRESS
If I was a bricklayer with 30 years experience I would build the perfect wall first time every time. Why doesn't this transfer to painting?
If you want to struggle for the rest of your life I would highly recommend painting. Still, it's a self imposed struggle. More positively, as I struggle, so the painting improves, there is redemption.
Northumberland landscape 1. Day 5
I love a dramatic headline, I should have worked in theatre. The reality is my painting is heading toward a long period of suspension. House move preparations have already started and that is time consuming. Then there is 4 months in Mexico this winter. Returning in March the house goes up for sale. I'm not sure when normal painting activities will resume maybe late summer 2022? Perhaps I should take that opportunity to do some landscape sketching that is small and portable.
It was clear to me as soon as I turned on my tv monitor and started playing my ABBA Gold lp that the trees were an integral part of the painting . I have always had this irrational fear of illustration. But I am slowly reconciling myself with the style of paintings that I am making. My previous painting has an inordinate amount of trees and I am very happy with the final look of it. It's time to move on and forward.
Northumberland landscape 1. Day 4
It was one of those starts where it feels like nothing will be achieved. After half an hour of wading through treacle things began to turn around. Once you get past that point its remarkable how decisions tend to be the right ones. Some of the colour has been shifted towards a more ‘naturalistic’ tone and the space is working a bit better. I am looking at this painting and thinking, it may be better without the trees! dammit, I was looking forward to doing them. Maybe a reason for 2 versions?. Also, the dark area of the sky seems a bit flat and featureless to me.
Northumberland landscape 1. Day 3
Yes it looks like it, but I think that has already started. Its clear I like the decorative, flattened effect of viewing the landscape from a high perspective. Its also becoming clear that I don’t take a naturalistic approach to landscape painting. These more graphic elements in the sky are interesting and will develop over time. Wisely, I stopped at lunchtime. I am faced yet again with a lot of trees to paint in, but they add an important element and characteristic to the landscape.
Northumberland landscape 1. Day 2
This new painting is based on an area that, fingers crossed, will be my new home next year. It just makes sense to invest my energy in a landscape that is close to hand. Especially if I am going to all the trouble to move there! I seem to be favouring these aerial views , I am thinking maybe I need a drone, if I don’t do that it means climbing up hills, not so appealing.
Northumberland landscape 1. Day 1
I don’t know. What interests me about the landscape is how the land gets changed by man. The curious shapes and decisions that occur when dividing up fields for housing and agriculture. I have put these shapes into the sky, exaggerated shapes and colours on the land and painted other areas more naturalistically. I find this ever changing mix quite interesting. Although this painting has some curious elements it seems to gel. I could keep adding more detail but I think this painting is finished.
An Italian landscape 2
Do you remember them?, with your back to your painting, its image reflected, trying to work out what was wrong. I never used them, what I use now is my iphone. As I have a website I spend as much time looking at my painting on the phone as I do when I am working on it. Not looking for faults, but for subtle insights in how the painting may be improved. The backlit photo gives an enhanced image which increases colour and contrast. I can often see a way forward by looking at the phone rather than the painting. This is new tech, and along with Photoshop, my way of working at art school does indeed seem like last century.
I have not done this before but I thought it would be interesting to show how far removed my painting is from the photo. The reason that I strayed so far was firstly to introduce a greater sense of dynamism and space to the painting. The trees in the photo produce a rather uninteresting green blanket effect. The houses produce a similar effect in that they are a flat tapestry. You can see I have retained the high contrasting and more interesting elements, the skyline and yellow cornfields.
Once again I have gone off piste as my source material is not giving me the image I want to make, but its never that clear what image you want to make. As my style is turning back towards illustration you then have the problem of convincing the viewer that what you are painting is observed. That is to say that the space and forms that have appeared are convincing. I think that needs a little bit more work but this version is a step closer to completion. This kind of painting is like taking an imaginary walk through a landscape that only reveals itself very slowly.
An Italian landscape 2. Day 5
This happens when you don’t have the mental energy to take on the more difficult aspects of the painting. In this case, once again, its the trees. I haven’t finished with them yet. So I started with the sky. Freeform clouds are a lot easier to deal with. The day started slowly but with a solo recital in the background from Pavarotti some good progress was made.
An Italian landscape 2. Day 4
The photo to this painting is populated with hundreds of houses, I was going to include a handful, curiously none have appeared and I think it is better without it. I always find that I am contradicting myself when it comes to my own painting. When I am sure I am heading in a certain direction my painting says otherwise.
An Italian landscape 2. Day 3
I recently received a book on Graham Crowley, within the second paragraph there is a line: 'painting is the artists defence against anxiety'. I use painting to switch off from the world, which may be the same thing. That doesn't mean to say that painting is always a pleasurable experience but it focuses my attention enough so at least I can get lost for a while. This painting is starting to improve, and when that happens the world seems a better place.
An Italian landscape 2. Day 2
An Italian Landscape 2, not very imaginative but better than Untitled.
Being disappointed is no bad thing if your willing to return to a painting and make the adjustments. I had decided that the painting needed to be calmed down. I felt there was a relationship between the two buildings and that a sense of silence would suit the scene better. Or a stillness?
These are the grey and desolate skies of Lowry and the north of England, and really don’t have a place in Italy.
Even the most observant of you may not have noticed that this photo was shot on my new 21 mega pixel camera as opposed to my 12 year old 12 mp camera. Despite the advancement in technology the new camera is still not recording a 100% faithful image, and by that I mean colour. Maybe I need to do a bit of research.
An Italian landscape
Whenever a painting disappoints I just consider it as a picture that must be painted. There is a mixture of doubt and self belief that if I just continue things will inevitably get better. Then I give myself a metaphorical slap and tell myself if this is the only thing I have to suffer then I should be grateful for that. I always hold out the hope that something will come along to replace painting, after several decades this has not happened!.
Lovely Amazon, has just delivered me a book on John Craxton. I have no doubt that somewhere in this biography these same thoughts will be repeated.
An Italian landscape. Day 6
Two things I don’t posses are an Olympic Commitment, or the ability to channel all my energies in one direction. I do posses the ability to keep plodding away, a quality that one of my early art teachers noted. If he is still around his assessment of me was disappointingly accurate. Still, my progress is unrelenting and I think this painting is almost finished.
An Italian landscape. Day 5
A wet day only leaves me a few options, and it normally means a painting day. If I wanted to paint more I suppose I should move to a wetter climate, maybe the west coast of Ireland. Anyway, I forgot all about the rain and made some more progress with the painting. I have come to the realisation that I can’t paint empty landscapes anymore. By that I mean uninhabited.
An Italian landscape. Day 4
I can’t sort out these stylistic shifts. I would like to say I am in control but I seem to be a like a magpie picking up shiny objects. I am enjoying the journey, and for me that is the most important thing. These stylistic shifts will sort themselves out. I would say 12 months of painting would fix it, but what do I know!
An Italian landscape. Day 3
There is an unnatural light in the photograph that I am using and I have been in two minds whether to pursue this direction or not. There is a sharp yellow green on the far hills that really flattens the space which I like. Also a curious pale lavender green in the foreground that almost looks like an exposure error from the camera. Out of curiosity I am going to follow this path and see what develops.
An Italian landscape. Day 2