Summer & Winter

Just finished two paintings...two big paintings; both are soft pastels on 100 X 70 cm pastelmat (the largest size available), before these I’d only done one painting this size (The tryworks) which was such a trial I didn’t think I’d ever have the stones to try again. Anyway, there we go, enjoyed doing these as well

Unusually these are re-visiting concepts that I’ve already tried (The cold road and God’s own country). Both were large landscapes with roads leading in and where the feel of the season was the idea (bright, sunny and unsettled in the summer and freezing, ominous and dark in the winter).

Gods own country (summer)

Cold road (winter)

‘Back of the squall’ is as much of an epitome of the Falklands summer that I can realise. Based on a view in Fox Bay looking north over the quarantine station fence and the stud paddock;  broken cloud, glaring sunshine, a summer squall moving off to the north over the Home flock with the rays   of the afternoon sun converging through the haze.  In this composition the road is parallel to the skyline and old fence rather than leading in as in Gods own country.

‘Cold road 2’ is very close to the original ‘cold road’ concept, so close that it keeps the title. The road  leads in and around in Chartres horse paddock, the snow covered Hill Cove Mountains behind and a dark winter sky. 

These two paintings are meant to complement each other and side by side in the studio they work pretty well. I doubt though that they’ll ever end up in the same place again, Back of the squall is off to be auctioned at the Falklands Conservation fund raising ball in September.
 

Cold road 2 is staying here until I can find someone to buy it.

Big studio, big painting

Well it's been an interesting time, I've been working in shearing sheds, doing building work, laying our fences, designing signposts, travelling, catering...

Anyway I'm back in my studio, or rather I'm now in my new, larger studio where my former business once existed. It;s a big room so deserved a big painting to break it in. A stormy summers day in the Falklands, bright sunlight broken by fast moving clouds and breaking through abig squall on the horizon.



...and it's big, 100 X 70 cm.




Ref:

Blocking in:

 First blend:

Filling in detail:

Nearly finished:

Pens and pencils

Last week I got some new toys, a set of Copic multiliners. Drawing with pens is something I've been meaning to tackle for a while now, now I can have a crack at it with some decent pens rather than any old biro which has been the limit of my ink drawing equipment up till now.

Here's a few birds drawn with these, I'm rather enjoying drawing in ink, an interesting discipline.











In the last few days I've also made a start on doing some work based on my Antarctic trip, I'm planning quite a body of work on this subject so these graphite drawings are going to be the first of many.

Leicester Bridge, finished

Finished my Leicester Bridge painting. The composition worked and it's got the mood that I wanted so I'm quite pleased with it.

Must do more of this sort of thing.

Leicester Bridge

Months ago I composed the reference for this project, probably about time I started painting it. This is a ruined timber bridge out on a farm called Leicester Creek, the owner expressed an interest in my painting a picture of the bridge some time ago so I've been meaning to have a crack at the subject for a while.

A departure for me as this is the first time I've attempted a large, architectural subject like this. Got off to a good start but still cna't be sure how this's going to turn out.

Charcoal sketch, 50 X 35 cm grey pastelmat:

Filled in the highlights with white pastel:

 Some detail and colour filled in, the colour is quite washed out so was not sure whether to make this a greyscale painting or to use some colour, descision now made:

Tinkering with new mediums....

For a long time now I've been meaning to dig out my almost unused oil pastels and neocolour water-soluble crayons to have a play with. It's not that I'm wanting to get away from soft pastels, just want to try something a bit different.
Rummaging around in my supplies I also unearthed a treasure I'd forgotten about, a gift from my mother in law that I'd never got round to using, a brand new set of Derwent inktense watersoluble ink pencils. Bonus.

It's odd working with such mediums, very different to use than my soft pastels, very fast to use and very responsive when shaped with a wet brush...I still don't like not being able to layer light on dark though and it's simply impossible to get the intensity of colour of soft pastels, good fun though and a far more portable medium.

Here's a silvery grebe, A3 cartridge paper:

Last week I also finished my second large settlement commission.

Hill Cove, soft pastels, 50 X 70 cm grey pastelmat.

Déjà vu

Glad to get that commissioned landscape out of the way last week, now I'm working on....a commissioned landscape....and it's almost fecking identical, 50 X 70 cm (again), foreground, sea, background, sky (again), settlement on West Falkland.....OK, it's a different settlement, Hill Cove this time.

Charcoal underpainting:

Progress so far:

Clearing the boards

For a long time there's been a couple of unfinished works occupying two of my drawing boards....for the best part of six months as a matter of fact. Christ knows what's been holding me back with these, both are fine ideas and there's no reason not to finish them.

One is a simple painting of a nesting goose in the long white grass, illuminated by the low sun. The other is a larger landscape, a sunrise over Stanley looking east from the battle monument, the lights of Ross Road reflecting in the water of the harbour.

Both of these have been lurking in my studio, continually catching my attention almost in reproach at their unfinished state. Well, no longer. Over the last two days I've completed both of these malingering works and both have been incredibly rewarding to finish. Maybe there's some advantage to leaving paintings on hold. I've completed both of these without my usual fiddling with pencils and conte sticks, for the first time I've really found soft pastels working for me. Most satisfying.

Stanley Sunrise, 50 x 70 cm grey pastelmat.

Goose inthe white grass, 35 x 50 cm white pastelmat

Charcoal drawings

Been doing a bit of work in charcoal recently. I find charcoal is a very rewarding medium, you can't mess about with it, got to keep very much in control but I love working with it, much more interesting than bloody graphite. I use stick charoal and charcoal pencils for any fine detail.

Little boy:

Little Girl:

 Blasted tree (3):

Gnarled roots:

Nearly done the 'scape

Nearly finshed, good thing too as I have to drop this off for carriage to the UK the day after tommorrow. Better crack on with it.

Getting there with the Landscape.

Feeling better about this now, think it's going to be pretty cool once it's done. Odd that I ended up doing it in colour, as the reference is an old photo I'd intended it to be almost black and white, just a hint of colour. Funny how sometimes a painting just goes it's own way, I've learnt now that when that happens one has to go with it, to try to force it to go the way you originally intended will ruin it.







Just finished this one too, commissioned portrait of two labradors. 30 X 40 cm grey pastelmat.

Landscape progress

Been cracking on with my Fox Bay landscape commission, going....alright. Can't get too excited about this one. Still, it's working so far so that's OK then.

Fox Bay in the old days.

A tough nut this one. Painting of Fox Bay West Settlement forty odd years ago, having trawled many old photos looking for references I narrowed it down to two, showing the view of the settlement from across the bay at Fox Bay East. There is often a problem with panoramic vistas here in the Falklands and that is getting enough going on outside of the narrow horizontal strip that is the middle distance to the horizon (which is where most of what's recognisable will be), I find there's only so much one can do with sky and featureless foreground but by combining these two photos there was a composition that answered.

Original photos:

Combined reference:

That was the easy bit, now just need to do a 50 by 70 cm painting of it. Progress so far:

Something new...

We had three old biddies...ahem...that is to say three retired teachers host a craft day in our house this Friday. They were teaching various crafts, sewing patchwork, flax weaving, felt making, watercolours & pyrography. The wife and I were supposed to be on our way to Stanley but were stuck out here; ferry delayed by poor weather.

Thought I'd have a crack at something different from my neverending pastels.

Pyrography:

Watercolours:

 

Interesting experiments, may well try expanding on these new mediums. Many thanks to Myra, Heather and Wendy for all their hard work.

Christmas commission challenge....

Now that Christmas is out of that way I can post about the three 'Christmas present' commissions I had this year. What made these interesting was the increasing difficulty and decreasing notice of the three. For the first I had a couple of months notice, nice, straightforward child portrait. No problem at all. A single, lovely reference photo that just about jumped off the screen and plenty of time. The next was a double portrait of two collies in late November, multible reference photos and a bit of compositional jiggling needed....Still no problem, a harder subject but a few weeks was still enough time to get the job done.

In mid December came the real test though, a big landscape commission (I find landscapes to be the toughest subject)...and I only had a matter of days...a very few days...to get it completed. It was a sunset view of a local range of hills called Rincon Ridge, fortunately they are right here in Fox Bay so I dashed out to get some references for the hills and foreground, a quick sort through my sky ref photos for a suitable sunset sky and a bit of photoshopping produced a workable composition so there I was, ready to go but it had to be finished, sent to towm to get framed and be back here before the big day. Really wasn't sure if I could achieve it.

But I did, Jane in the Pink Shop pulled out the stops to get it framed and sent back in time.
:-)

So here are my three Christmas commissions in order of increasing difficulty and tightening deadlines:

Ashleigh, soft pastels on 30 X 40cm yellow pastelmat.

Marni & Zia, hard pastels and pastel pencils on 30 X 40cm grey pastelmat. (really enjoyed doing this one)

Rincon Ridge, Soft pastels, hard pastels and pastel pencils on 50 X 70cm grey pastelmat. (This was tough but in the end rewarding, I didn't get stuck and it turned out better than I dared hope).

I learnt a lot from doing this painting, if I'm being honest with myself I was afraid of attempting large landscapes, the few I'd done felt like flukes. In finishing this commission I've managed to lay some of that fear to rest, I'm now quite looking forward to the next one (which BTW is already in the pipeline...and involves painting buildings as well as natural features....ulp!)

Blasted 2

Another example of what the weather can do to trees in the Falklands, this example is based on a photo taken on Carcass Island. Happily this feeble specimen is not typical for trees on Carcass, that island is a real garden spot in our harsh climate.

There's palm trees there even...

....well....cabbage palms anyway.

For once I recorded the stages of this charcoal drawing, usually I'm in too much of a hurry.

Got another two commissions finished last week too. My lips are sealed though, they're both Christmas presents so can't be shown on here yet.

The Tryworks

Way back in April I did a commission for a client of a sheepdog against a backdrop of mountains, Here it is, Bruce the Huntaway. I mentioned then the possibility of another, bigger commission of a historical scene of the old industry of harvesting penguins for their oil, a grisly and largely unknown practice that had been overshadowed by the larger and more emotive whaling and sealing industries.

I have now completed the painting, This is by a long way the largest, most complicated and most difficult piece I've attempted so far in my fledgeling art career. No photographs of this activity exist (that I know of) just accounts and some rather fanciful illustrations so the entire scene is a creation of my imagination based on what is known about the process. It boils down to this (if you'll pardon the pun):

Penguins were driven into a rough corral on a beach using dogs to keep them together in a flock. There was a large trypot that had a spout running into a smaller pot for refinging the oil. The penguins were clubbed inside the corral then passed out to be bled and gutted (to remove as much water and bulk as possible), the carcases were then thrown in the trypot which was heated initially with wood or coal but as the rendering proceeded with the oil soaked remains of the penguins that were fished from the pot with a long handled scoop. the refined oil was casked and shipped away.

Here's how the painting progressed:

This is the initial concept sketch I knocked out to get the elements together in a way I felt worked. On the right is a full size study that helped me to finalise the composition.

 

This is the initial sketch on 70 X 100cm anthracite pastelmat and the first roughing in of colours and light/shade.  

 All the detail coming together, at this stage I didn't know about the refining pot, fortunately there was room to fit it in where it was needed.

The finished painting. I was trying to get a dirty, hellish feeling to it to reflect the grisly nature of the activity while not portraying the protagonists as wicked people in any way, just men at work with a dirty job to do. I'm pretty pleased with it.