Watching The Salmon Leap; Boroughbridge.

After last week's heavy rain we went to Boroughbridge salmon ladders at the weir. I was painting and Sara was reading. We hadn't been there long when we got chatting to a man and his wife, who spotted salmon fry trying to leap into the salmon ladder (from the bottom left of the picture) whilst we were talking. They were only about two-three inches long, but they kept popping out of the water every few seconds. This was magical enough, but as I started painting, I spotted lots of adult salmon trying to leap the weir in the main part of the river. These were up to 2.5-3 feet long. It was absolutely fantastic, and something that I hadn't thought I would ever see.

The painting was (deliberately) tricky. I didn't pay much attention to the houses at the back - I was more interested in seeing if I could capture something of the churning river, which was running fast and heavily coloured (by peat from the moors?). Anyway, the highlight has to be the salmon!

Salmon Ladders, Boroughbridge. Oil Sketch.

Something Different

I rarely use other peoples photos as a resource, and I don't often paint portraits, but I have been drawn to a certain photo that I came across when flicking around on the net. It has been sat on my phone for ages, and I knew that I would have to have a pop at painting it. I really like the pose, the lighting, and the lacy clothes, all of which which present and interesting challenge to paint. It was painted over several days, with a bit here and a bit there. It will now probably sit in a cupboard until I run out of canvases at some point, at which time I will probably paint over it. Still, it was fun to do.

 It needs 'softening'..

Finished?

The Weather Forecast

..isn't good for the next few days, so I think it's time that I painted indoors...after some back to school shopping tomorrow. The last week or so has seen me painting outside, and time has been a bit on an issue on occasions, so they have generally been oil sketches, done very quickly. Some too quickly...

  The view upstream from the old railway bridge over the River Swale; Helperby.

This was scrapped off at home and painted over.

Old Farm Pump.

Before the Holiday

Tholthorpe Airfield

I did this painting at home after painting the former airfield outside, earlier this year. It's a larger canvas than my recent (outdoor) paintings. I wanted to keep the whole thing quite simple, focusing on the sky and the flatness of the former airfield.

Working From An Old Sketch

This painting is based on an a sketch I did in 2011, which I found after looking through my old sketchbooks. I decided to keep it very loose, textural and semi-abstract. I started off by creating a texture, using (homemade) texture paste, and then working the paint into it.

The sketch from 2011; and invented landscape/skyscape.

 I lived with it like this for a few days, but decided it needed more work. I didn't like the red sky, and it needed something else.

 I reworked the sky, added more water, and added a widow frame. Finished.

Looking Across The Bay.

Milby Lock

This was painted at Milby, just outside Boroughbridge . I chose this scene after talking to our electrician, who had been fishing there a few days before. He had twice seen otters there whilst fishing, swimming with it's cubs. I was hoping that I might get to see them too if I sat there for a few hours painting, but it wasn't to be. Still, I did get to share the river with a heron a few metres away.
This was painted on primed card, which I really struggled with it. The paint didn't key into the primed card very well, so building up any kind of layers was tricky because the brush kept lifting off the wet paint underneath. I've since taken to lightly sanding the primer to allow the paint to key into the surface, which has helped.
I was going to paint a dredger, and it's workmen, which was moored here when I arrived. Unfortunately they opened the lock, cast off and sailed through the lock as soon as I set up.

Milby Lock

Getting Out - 2 Paintings.

Whilst the weather has been okay (not great) I've tried to get out with my paints as much as I can. I love painting outside, even if I don't always like the results, because it is tricky to do and I learn more. Everything is a potential problem to overcome; changing light, which mediums to use, how greasy the paints are getting, how heavily to put the paint on, subject matter, time, transporting the painting, judging the values, getting bitten.....
The paintings that I make tend to be smaller, and are on board or unstretched canvas; they are working studies, so tend not to get mounted. It does make storage easier. Storage has been a bit of an issue as I've accumulated lots of canvases. This should get easier when we finally move house, which looks like being in the next couple of weeks.
These two painting were done on days at the river with Sara, Archie and Hugo. The boys spent the day swimming in the 'rapids' at Hewick Bridge outside Ripon. The first one is a small study of the bridge (again) and given that I've painted the bridge several times before, I opted to try painting the moving water on the second one. I was interested is trying to capture that area where the water starts to speed up over the rocks, coupled with the slower moving water above that you can see through. This painting is 'unfinished', but as it's a study, it doesn't need to be. I struggled in the end with the light glaring off the water... I will have to work out how to do that..

Hewick Bridge.

 The view.

Blocking in. This is actually my favourite stage of this painting.

The 'finished' painting.

River Ure.

Edge of the Field, Edge of the Day.

This was painted about a mile down the road from what is about to become our old house. Looks like our move could happen in the next two weeks.

It was painted one evening last week, on a salvaged piece of linen.

Good fun.

100th Post.

..and it's another abstract.

Given this poor summer, I've taken to painting outdoors whenever the weather allows, and inside when it doesn't. It's leading to very different paintings. I love painting outside (I love being outside), so I'm doing it every chance I get (well, as much as is permissible, which is quite a bit). These paintings are the usual impressionistic landscapes that you find with plein air painting. They're quite tricky to do, which is why I enjoy doing them. There are some amazing plein air painters on Youtube, and my lie-ins this holiday have been spent watching them.  The indoor paintings are leaning towards more abstraction, which I'm quite excited about.
This painting is on top of one of my old paintings of York. I am low on cavases, and I didn't like it anyway. Ever the frugal Yorkshireman..

 I started off by painting a thin layer of gesso over the old painting, to hide it (you can still make it out under the gesso). I then added some texture gel. the web like shape is based on some paths through some wheat that I photographed the day before on a walk with Sara.

 I stuck down some off-cuts of card, that had gold paint on them, and started working some pale blue in the background.

 Next I worked into the ple blue with a rag, and started working some rich cadmium into some areas with a palette knife.

I repainted the background with a mixture of burnt sienna and pthalo blue, before scratching into the paint with my knife, and working in some more cadmium red and a little cadmium yellow deep. It reminds me of a collographic plate, but then the process of producing it was similar.

Abstract