It's been six weeks or so since my last post and in that time I have been working a plein air using oil as much as possible, but also in watercolour and sketching. We have been to Exmoor twice, the second time frequently in unrelenting fog. I have met up with various friends and worked side by side with them, but mostly I have worked on my own in the Dorset landscape and by the coast. 

I realised quite early on that most of my problems came from not having sufficient experience of working alla prima in oil paint. So I  tried some closer to home stuff, the washing in the garden and a bit of still life just to get a handle on how to use the paint.  I read everything I could find online that explained the technicalities and have gradually put together a working method which is beginning to show fruit, I think. 

When I first arrive at a location, I use my camera to try out compositions, a quick snap gets rid of all the peripherals and allows me to see whether my chosen scene really has a good structure. Composition is so important, it is the skeleton on which the flesh of a painting hangs, if the composition is wrong, try as you might, you'll never have a satisfactory image. Next, in an A6 sketchbook I make a quick  tonal pencil sketch of my subject.  I sort it out into four tones. Leaving white paper for the lightest areas, I shade everything else with a  light mid tone, subsequently adding the dark mid tone and finally the dark. I may try out several compositions, keeping in mind the final proportions of the piece and whether it will have a landscape or portrait format. Time spent on the planning stage is never time wasted.

I have been painting on pieces of MDF, primed with acrylic gesso and tinted warm orange which seems to work as a good underpainting colour. I plot the large areas  with a few lines of charcoal, then knock it back to reveal a ghost of an image. 

and on to the paint.. I'm trying to discipline myself to mix all my colours before I start, but I usually forget something. However the basic principle is to lay in all the darks first, then the mid tones and finally the lights, trying hard to only work on each area of the painting once. This is harder than it seems as all colour and tone decisions have to be taken before making the mark. Inevitably I end up with areas that need to be modified and that's when the problems start. Scraping off is probably the only option and I have found a plastic glue spreader to be a suitable tool, slightly more controllable than a palette knife.  A rag tightly wrapped around the handle of a paintbrush is also useful, although I have ended up wiping off more than intended when I lost sight of the other end of the rag.

One of the things Ive noticed is that the paintings all seem to be quite dark, I think this may be due to working in bright daylight and then bringing them into a darker environment to assess. So I'm trying to keep that in mind especially with the light mid tone areas.

Here are the oils I've done so far, most have had to be tweaked in the studio as I'm not fully in control of the paint, but I hope it's coming.

Studland South beach, early evening

Cerne Abbas river, afternoon

 By the free car park in Blandford, morning

Exmoor, Beech roots on the bank

Lynton, Valley of the Rocks

 Exbridge, painted in the pub garden, evening

 Exbridge pub garden again, looking across the Exe, quick 20 mins, as we'd just ordered supper 

Washing in my garden, morning

Weymouth, morning

Weymouth, lunchtime

 Fifehead Neville Ford, evening

 Weymouth, from the bridge, morning

 Withypool, Exmoor, morning

This is the only "untweaked" one. 

Chebbard Hill, on a beautiful Sunday morning starting at about 7.30, only saw three cars in a two hour session.

West Bay, morning

West Bay, lunchtime, very quick as it started to pour with rain. 

Third Plein Air Oil Painting

So this is my third attempt, a bit shimmery as it's still wet. I used all the bits of information I gleaned from looking at Tom Thomson's work. I worked on an orange ground, worked out my composition and pattern of tones in advance with a pencil sketch, drew the outlines carefully with a thin brush loaded with dark red, then mixed the paint to exactly the right colour on the palette before applying it. Am I happy?

Well, no, of course not. This is a boring piece of work. 

But I may know why.

In following all these new rules I've acquired I forgot my usual ones;

1. Never paint a vista, they are lovely to look at but usually end up as tedious paintings. Think hard about the composition before starting. Try to home in on a smaller area and maybe use a challenging angle of perspective.

2. Decide on the main element (s) and emphasise the changes of tone around the edges.

3.  Don't make a psychological block to the distance with strong horizontals, and even worse, a fence straight across without gap or gate (what was I thinking?).

4. If you must use green, and I suppose in current circumstances I must, push it towards blue or orange or yellow even red. I did remember this when I got down to the crop in the field directly in front of me, which was faintly blue green wheat, but I pushed it too far so it looks like water.

5. Never use a tube of green, I didn't use it neat of course but I still have some very unnatural shades in the foreground.

6. The construction of any image should be composition, tonal structure, colour, in that order.

So onward and upward, having reminded myself of my own rules and trying not to forget the Tom Thomson element. 

I've found another painter I like, Peggy Kroll Roberts, Ray Roberts & Peggi Kroll Roberts her work looks plein air although, since there are active figures, she may well be using photographic reference. The images are lively, fresh and full of light. I don't like everything she's done but there are some gems.

Still at the thinking stage

Still thinking about Tom Thomson I realise his colour palette simply will not do for Dorset in high summer. I am going to have to work with greens. My most unfavorite colour.
Meanwhile here are some sketchbook watercolour studies done earlier this year. These take the form of an illustrated journal, although more illustration than journal. They are not intended for exhibition and not really to inform future paintings, just memories of time and place.

Learning to really paint.

I haven't blogged for four years, but this summer, 2016,  I've set myself a task, and I think it would be helpful to document my progress.
Over the last couple of years I've thought more about getting out of the studio and working in the open air, making a direct response to the scene in front of me.
Last summer I worked in acrylic in Weymouth and West Bay and in the gardens at Moreton and I've always used watercolour to record directly, but I don't know how to paint, plein air, in oils.
It seems to me to be a completely different and scary  way of working. I use oil paint all the time in the studio, but the painting develops slowly, layers are left to dry and new modifying layers worked over the top. It takes weeks to produce a piece I'm pleased with. How can it be possible to apply the paint in such a way that it's all wet at once and doesn't get mixed up?
My first attempt, a tree on Exmoor isn't too bad, it's a bit boring, there are no real dark places, the composition is poor, but I have got separate areas of paint, there are mid tones and light areas.
My second attempt in Weymouth is so appalling I wipe it off the board before I have a chance to photograph it. The colours are muddy, no definition. What to do?
I study a couple of "how to" books. The one thing all the examples have in common is that the composition is drawn in with pencil before starting. This is totally alien, I never draw for acrylic or watercolour work, just modify as I go along but, of course, that's wet paint over dry. This can't be done that way. But I also don't like the work, it's too close to reality.
So I go online and look for plein air painters who are producing work that I like. I find Robin Leonard, painting in Cornwall, a wonderfully loose style, I think a palette knife is involved in a lot of them, really economical with detail. This is just what I want to do.  And then, of course, there's Tom Thomson painting in Canada just after the turn of the last century. I saw a beautiful exhibition in Dulwich Picture Gallery a couple of years ago which featured his wonderful, crisp, strongly coloured little paintings of the Canadian Wilderness. This is what I want to do too. Looking carefully at Tom
Thomson's paintings, I can see he uses various coloured grounds and sketches the composition with a fine brush and dark colour before applying areas of premixed paint. Each part appears to be only painted once, so all the tonal and colour decisions are taken before putting the paint on the board. Very little subsequent modification is possible.
I think it will help to have a small sketchbook and work out the composition and tonal structure before getting going with colour, a hard set of new rules to learn.
I will post my progress.
Exmoor Beech, Oil on board, 30 x 30 cm

The first cuckoo of many springs

I'm so excited, I've just heard the first cuckoo since we moved back to Dorset. and, since I didn't hear any when we lived in Bucks, that's the first one for 20 years. Long may they continue to call.

March Mixed Media Course

Four ladies enjoyed the sunshine in Dorset last week, getting out and about to sketch and coming back to the studio to experiment with mixed media. Collage (for texture and colour), oil pastel and water based paints, applied with sponges, obsolete credit cards, bits of card as well as the more usual brushes and palette knives.
We all had a good time, I learned as much as anyone else, here are some pictures of the course and the lovely results.

The first show in the studio

Here are some pictures of my first show in the studio, Simon put out the sign as 11 o' clock struck.

I concentrated on landscapes for this show. The next one, Sunday 3rd April, 11 -5 is about the coast.

Perigee Moon

Last night the full moon was at the perigee of it's elliptical orbit, meaning the nearest it ever gets to the earth. So we set off just before sunset to see it rising in the east. Wow, the photos don't do it justice, first a fine sliver appeared above the horizon and gradually a huge, rich, glowing, apricot, slightly flattened egg shape rose into the dusk. Beautiful. After watching for half an hour or so, we got pretty cold and came home to find it shining through the trees and making fantastic patterns on the ground, which my camera isn't good enough to capture. Technical stuff, the moon appears 14% bigger than normal, this occurs every 18 years or so, the last time being in 1993.

Amaryllis

I found this amaryllis in the cut price bin at Homebase after Christmas, the colour on the box looked so wonderful that I was tempted, and it is the most beautiful, rich tomato red. Although I'm not a flower painter I've had two attempts at it so far, neither has been successful, I'm hoping my friend Sue (who is a flower painter) will come over today and give me some tips.

About 50 years ago, my father was the manager of a hardware shop on Abingdon, he received some amaryllis bulbs, a newly imported plant that no-one knew anything about, and brought one home for mum. She did her usual green fingered job, and after about three months of careful nurturing it came into bloom. She was thrilled, the flowers were huge and colourful, she put it in a place of honour.

The next day it had vanished and a new window display appeared in Timothy Whites.

Mum was not pleased.

After the Event

Sunday was really enjoyable, a steady trickle of visitors, including several very supportive friends and relations, and time to chat about art over a cuppa, what a joy.

The studio is such a great space, I'm privileged to be able to work in such an environment and in such a beautiful part of the world.

Today the sun is shining and we've promised ourselves a day out in Sherborne, wandering round the Castle gardens and visiting the garden centre where there is a water garden specialist. We want some plants for the pond to attract wildlife. It's a bit sterile at the moment, having just been dug, but I hope we can get it to come to life with frogs and dragonflies and all the other pond dwellers.

Ready to Open

Ready for the first Open Studio at Brewery Cottage, Sunday 6th March 2011.

Opening the studio, Sunday 6th March

On Sunday I am opening the studio for the first time and hoping some people will come and see what I've been working on.

I've kept it very low key, only advertising in the village newsletter and putting out a sign on the day. So it'll be my own fault if no-one comes at all.

What I'm hoping is that there will be a few people, enough for me to be able to introduce myself and show what I do, talk about materials, subject matter and influences without being swamped by lots of visitors and not having time to talk to anyone properly.

I remember when Julie and I first did open studios at Wycombe Court House 7 years ago, we relaxed in the garden working away at our projects, chatting to occasional visitors and demonstrating techniques. It was a very fulfilling time and I'd like to get back to that situation here.

I find it helpful to talk to people about what I do, especially non artists who often have a completely different perspective on the work. So, I intend to have a couple of pieces of work on the go, which I can discuss and use as a way of demonstrating. I've got a blood red Amaryllis in the conservatory which is on the edge of coming into bloom, I plan to do some semi abstract watercolours based on this, and a landscape from a drawing I did this afternoon in Aller Lane, again fairly abstract in approach as that's what's interesting me at the moment.

I have tidied the studio (it may be worth opening once a month just for the spring clean element) and filled the walls with landscapes, mostly oil on canvas. I have got out the browsers of unframed work and the cards and Julie has given me some of her ceramics and jewellery so I think it will be a good show, I'll post photos when I've completed the display.

Here's my programme for 2011

Sunday 6^th March Landscape

Sunday 3^rd April Coast

Sunday 1^st May Works on paper

Sunday 5^th June Portrait, life and the Human Landscape

Sunday 10^th July New work in ceramics, jewellery and paintings

Sunday 7^th August Abstract elements

Sunday 4^th September Favourite Places

Sunday 2^nd October Landscape

Abstract, The Rookery and Monument

Abstract

Of course all art is, to a lesser or greater extent, an abstract response to stimulus but for me an abstract painting is one where I have put the pure representational to one side and concentrated on my inner voice. I may have observed something very briefly from the car window, or had a random thought or maybe simply found something latent in a series of marks that were originally made about something else. With abstraction the responsibility for the image is entirely with the artist, it's the most difficult and ultimately the most satisfying way to work.

Snow

We've been snowed in for 2 days now, although I don't think t's as cold as in central England. More expected tomorrow and we have the quandary of what to do about David. He's booked a train to Dorchester tomorrow but if it snows as predicted we don't think we can get there to meet him (8 miles of untreated single track roads and we don't have a 4 wheel drive vehicle). His hall is open for the whole of the holiday so we may have to tell him to stay there and we'll go and get him if and when we can get out. The decision will have to be taken first thing tomorrow when we see how much has actually fallen.

Went for lunch in the pub today and were the only customers for the second sitting at the carvery which is usually fully booked. There was certainly plenty of food.

We are so lucky to have a pub and shop within walking distance.

I've just looked out in the garden, there's ice on the inside of the conservatory windows but outside it's magical, moonlight on snow covered fields, it's as bright as day.

Victoria Sponge

So here it is, a bit baggy, but better than being tight I suppose.

Brushing up my sewing skills

When we moved here in August, everyone we met said

"You have to get involved in the pantomime, that's how to get to know people."

So we went round to the first meeting in September and volunteered.

I offered my fairly basic sewing skills (emphasising the basic bit) and Simon said he'd help backstage.

About a month later, Debbie left a message

"I'd like to come round and discuss a costume with you".

Over coffee, she said she wanted me to make a costume for the Dame.

"Ok, but I'm really a very basic sewer and I do need to follow a pattern."

In this particular panto the Dame is called Victoria Sponge and Debbie's idea was that she should look like a cupcake.

"Do you have a pattern"

Oh yes, and here are some pictures of costumes I downloaded from the internet.

Ok so far. But the pattern is for a woman, and the dame is a man. Debbie has taken his measurements without his false breasts and he is nine inches bigger round the waist than the pattern size. And , of course he is man shaped, wider shoulders, longer body...... so a lot of adjustments have to be made, added to which, when he does put on the false breasts they are positioned remarkably high for such a mature lady (even more adjustments, Debbie says it's because he hasn't had children).

The pattern is for a skirt and top, the skirt is orange with a big stripe of red round (cake and jam you understand), there's an overskirt of buff which is tied up and studded with bright red pom poms (icing and decoration). The top is also buff, fitted and boned (steep learning curve here, boning is completely outside my experience). It is made in three layers, I have no idea why, one of course provides the lining, by this time I've run out of buff fabric so the lining is orange, hey ho.

And finally the outfit is completed by a bright red mop cap, complete with stalk and leaf, to represent a cherry on the top of the cake. Which is fine, and not difficult to make, however, when I completed it, I put it on and went to show Simon. He took one look and announced that it's obscene and certainly not suitable for the matinee. Good thing I attached the stalk with an elastic band, is all I can say.

Last Wednesday I contacted The Dame to tell him his dress was ready to try on but his car was off the road, on Wednesday night we had 4 inches of snow and no gritters, so that prevented him from coming over. The result of all this is that tomorrow is the dress rehearsal and he still hasn't tried it on. So, I'm hoping I've erred on the big side and have fitted it with strategic safety pins, but the main thing is that I really hope I've made it the right shape. They really needed a much better dress maker than me, the finishing is appalling and I've had to make various tucks and pleats where strange extra bits of fabric kept appearing. So finger's crossed and watch this space.

Stuck in the house

Stuck in the house again, a replay of last winter.

When we moved from Dorset to Bucks, 18 years ago, it snowed on the day we moved in (in April), David was delighted because he hadn't seen much snow before,and I don't remember conditions like this here.

Perhaps we need to think a bit harder about global warming. Maybe it's not all bad.

I read somewhere that the start of the new Ice Age coincided with early man's mass burning of the forests to clear the land for farming which created sufficient co2 to stop the big freeze happening.

In the past Ice Ages have lasted anything from 80,000 to 100,000 years, with the intervening interglacials being much shorter, 10,000 years at most. We've now been ice free for 14,000 years.

"scientists used ice cores to decipher past changes in temperature, they also analysed the gaseous composition of trapped air bubbles in the ice. Such analysis revealed that during the last Ice Age, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were significantly lower than they were before mankind began polluting the atmosphere.

In fact, reconstructed records of temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide were found to match almost exactly. Since carbon dioxide is a significant greenhouse gas, it is believed that initial climatic changes resulting from orbital variations were somehow affecting the composition of the atmosphere, to the extent that a lowering of carbon dioxide concentrations was increasing the global cooling."

After the rain

The best thing about a rainy afternoon.. fabulous sky as it clears away.

The New Class and Lemons

Today I'm thinking about my new class.

I've done very little planning as I have no idea who is going to turn up and I want to talk to those who do about what interests them, and plan accordingly.

This is strange for me, I usually like to be very clear about what we're going to do and I feel quite uncomfortable.

I will take a still life and some of the things I'm working on at the moment, plus a few ideas and books by my favourite painters and see what happens.

Meanwhile, we've been enjoying living in our new home.

I have bought a lemon tree for the conservatory. We found it at Sherborne market, it's really healthy, lots of new growth with wonderfully scented flowers and three good sized lemons. It drinks a full can of water every day. I had a small lemon before but it dried out when we went on holiday and died so I'll have to make sure someone waters it every day if we go away.

Gradually getting there

Since it took us two weeks to pack everything I suppose I can't expect to have it all unpacked and stowed away any more quickly.

The sight of yet another box is daunting but there are things which haven't turned up yet, like the marmalade and my trainers, which I'd really like to have. So that keeps me on track.

Today I'm tackling the dining room.

It's raining heavily, which stops me wanting to go drawing. Yesterday Simon went out on his bike, he says the road from Piddletrenthide to Cheselbourne is looking particularly good and I have to get out there before they cut all the corn, so that's the plan for this afternoon, so long as the rain stops.