Tuesday 12 December 2017

Seth comes home this weekend..

...so I'm going to have to clear out of his room.
In the meantime, things change..


Untitled
Oil on board.
30 x 30cm


Saturday 9 December 2017

Connections

I’m reading a good book by Joanne Harris at the moment, ‘A Pocketful of Crows’, which is a bit of a modern fairytale, and right up my (escapist) street. I was thinking about it today as I walked the dog at Quarry Moor, listening to Fairport Convention. I realised that it reminded me of Reynardine, a traditional folk ballad, or rather, Reynardine reminded me of the book, when it started playing.

I have just bought (unusual for me), a new album; Freedom Highway, by Rhiannon Giddons, which is a fabulous jazzy, folky, bluesy album. There’s a song on it called Birmingham Sunday. It’s a very moving song about the 1963 ku klux klan bombing of a baptist church that killed 4 teenage girls in Birmingham, Alabama. Yes, that’s the same kkk that endorse Trump, and who he has refused to condemn. Anyway, when I listened to this song I recognised the melody ( and I can’t overstate what an achievement that is for me), as being the same as another favourite folk song of mine, The False Bride (great Fairport version).
Driving over to Harrogate this morning, to take some paintings to Silson Contrmpoaray (great gallery - you should go), I was alternatively thinking about  painting, and trying to remember the word that describes creatures that are active during twilight. It wouldn’t come. After delivering the paintings, walking with Hector at Quarry Moor, and a lovely lunch with my lovely in-laws, I drove home. It was getting on in the afternoon, and the sun was starting to wipe its feet before retiring for the evening, hiding behind a bank of cloud,  sending out rays of light through them. As I saw that, I remembered the word - crepuscular ( light beams through late afternoon clouds is called crepuscular light). It would work as a title for this painting I suppose, except it would be s bit pompous. Plus it’s a horrible sounding word to my ear. It’s sounds like it ought to describe a scabby boil.
Anyway, ramble over.
I painted when I got home... but not this one.

Oil on board
30 x 30cm

Tuesday 28 November 2017

Sunday 26 November 2017

Hurrying Home....

Painting this weekend has been squeezed in between walking the dog, and undercoating the eaves.....and has been about working into unresolved paintings.


In The Gloaming.
Oil and cold wax on board
25 x 25cm

Thursday 23 November 2017

Tuesday 21 November 2017

The Looming Hiatus..

The studio is coming along nicely, and I’m really looking forward to all the work being finished. Before then, however, we will be moving into it; three adult sized people and a dog. There won’t be any room to paint, so I will no doubt have to have an enforced break, hence the title of this post.
Until then I am painting in Seth’s bedroom, which means I’m working on a small scale.
Still, it’s better than not painting...

Copse
Oil on board

Monday 20 November 2017

Ides of October

Okay, fair enough. I can’t remember the exact date this was painted, but it was around the middle of October..


Ides of October
Oil on Board


Tuesday 14 November 2017

Painting In The Bedroom

With the old studio gone, and the new studio being built, I am now painting in Seth's bedroom. Thank goodness for kids going off to University!
The new studio...

Painted in the Seth's bedroom.

Heavy Weather
Oil on board

Sunday 3 September 2017

Back to reality tomorrow.

...so it's probably an appropriate moment to post this.

Elysian Fields.



Oil on board
50 x 50cm

Saturday 26 August 2017

Unfinished?

I  might lighten up yet. Not sure..
A little reworking.
Finished.
Oil on board
20 x 20cm

Wednesday 23 August 2017

Friday 18 August 2017

Drying


...and then off to Silson Contempoaray Gallery, via the framers.

Oil and wax on board.

Monday 14 August 2017

Making Do.


Packing all my painting gear into storage, thinking that we would be well on with the building work and that I wouldn't be able to paint, was a mistake. I have managed to get some of my things back out, but only bits, so I'm having to make do with minimal equipment. We're taking (yet another) load of stuff to the charity shop in Thirsk again today, so I hope to get some linseed oil. Yesterday I bought some panels from B&Q, and primed them with emulsion and diluted pva. 
At least I'm painting again, and not just (constantly) thinking about it!

Oil on board
50x50

Friday 11 August 2017

River Skell


A small drain running into the river Skell, at Hell Wath, Ripon.


Detail. 
Oil and wax, on board

Sunday 7 May 2017

Reminisce


 One of two new paintings taken to Silson Gallery in Harrogate yesterday.


 Reminisce
Oil and wax.
25x30cm

Monday 24 April 2017

Easter

I managed to dedicate some time to painting over the Easter break. It was the first sustained period of painting that I've managed in a long time. Various reasons for this, including dissatisfaction with my own painting, being in the middle of exam season at work, questioning why I paint, having an idea, which always remains frustratingly out of reach, of how I actually want to paint, and a dog called Hector. The list could go on.
Anyway, I'm hoping that (for the time being at least), that is behind me. At least until we have to move out of the house whilst ours is re-modelled...

Oil and wax on board

Sunday 15 January 2017

Another Re-working


Seeing lots of these at the moment.
Wren

Blue Tit

This painting has been stacked in my studio for some time, so I ecided to work some wax into it. As it was an oil painting on stretched canvas, this meant cutting the canvas off and glueing it onto a board before I could work wax into it - the substrate needs to be rigid. I've read somewhere that the wax is supposed to go onto a porous surface. I hope this holds..