January 18, 2017 19:00
Last summer I did a few days painting at nearby Langley Dam. A passing fisherman asked if I'd caught anything, mistaking my easel for a fishing rod stand. Later a homeward bound fisherman asked me if I liked trout? I said yes and he gave me three! I painted them over the next two days and we ate them over the following three. There's more than one way to catch a fish.
This is one of six paintings I have put in a new "Still Life" featured collection on my website homepage.
January 11, 2017 18:51
Some recent paintings produced at a life drawing group in Hexham. All paintings 50cm x 40cm in oil on canvas. See "The Figure" on my home page to view more life paintings and drawings.
January 11, 2017 17:59
both paintings 50cm x 40cm
December 11, 2016 17:27
In August and September I went on a one month road trip through France and Italy. It included a friend's three day birthday party in Burgundy, where I was one of the musicians, a one week family camping holiday in Provance and a drawing/painting trip in France and Italy. The sunflowers were painted in Umbria within a few miles of Lago Trasimeno in Umbria and in my studio in Northumberland upon my return.
The paintings are now being exhibited at the M1 Gallery in Greenwich, London.
November 18, 2016 09:12
Oil on canvas with handmade frame. painting size 50cm x 40cm
Following a painting and road trip through France and Italy in late summer sunflowers have recently become a new theme in my paintings. When I got to Umbria in September I found many fields of sunflowers had gone black and dried out in the sun looking like a scene from "The Walking Dead". Fortunately some strains of sunflower were still in bloom.
The sunflowers in this still life were from Waitrose in Hexham, far more reliable than rude nature! It was another way of exploring the subject before completing the paintings I had started in the fields of Umbria, the first few of which I am just finishing.
Shortly after finishing this still life I was at the National Gallery in London and saw some of Van Gogh's still life paintings of sunflowers. Having just tackled the subject I can appreciate how fantastic Van Gogh's paintings are.
This still life and the sunflower fields painted in Umbria will be exhibited at the M1 Gallery in Greenwich, London, in December.