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.

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.

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.

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.

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.