Favourite 15% May Boldbrush Contest

I haven't posted anything new in a while.. mostly because I haven't complete any new paintings. I have been working exclusively on a large 40"x48" painting for what seems like forever. The painting has had my full attention since late April (with the exception of my full time job which does slow down considerably the speed in which i can complete a painting this size). Little by little, brick by brick, I am getting there... with a bit of luck it will be finished this weekend.

In the meantime, some good news, my painting "The Equestrian" was selected in the Favourite 15% in May's boldbrush online art competition

http://faso.com/boldbrush/fav15/110

RBSA Exhibition

Today is a v disappointing day after rejection from the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Prize Exhibition. 

Hopefully better news to report in my next blog post whenever that might be..

Surprises from the WWW

This was a nice little bit of recognition for my recently completed first large scale painting of London.  I had no idea this selection process even took place until i noticed a strange spike in visitors to my website on saturday.

http://faso.com/fineartviews/59587/staff-picks-from-the-faso-daily-art-show-thomas-w-schaller-web-bryant-david-cressman


I just discovered that there is a pinterest  collection of paintings consisting of a selection of paintings uploaded through fine art views each day.  I had no idea this existed and was pleasently surprised to find a few of my paintings had been pinned up.

http://pinterest.com/clintavo/faso-daily-art-show/

London View

As well as gaining some plein air experience this year, I am also determined to produce a collection of relatively big scale paintings - big scale for me, being north of 30inchx30 inch. 

The larger scale painting project was meant to happen in 2012,  ('best laid plans of mice and men'..), but for reasons I won't dwell on, I had insufficient time at the easel in 2012 to contemplate this scale.  But 2013 is a new year and the plan has beeen reset..

I started a London Thames view 30 inch x 48 inch back in January, and have worked on this on and off about 6 sessions in total.

 

Initial block in - I normally work off a mid toned underpainting to begin, but I tried working directly from the primed white surface for this. After covering the canvas quickly and loosely to begin, I wiped off some of the paint in the sky and water so the highlight on the water at this stage is simply the primed canvas.

 

 

 

A bit more work on the darks  and shaping the building a little more.  I tend to develop the drawing aspects as I go along, 'drawing with the brush'.

 

 

 

My view stepping back from the canvas - I found myself stepping back from the canvas a lot more than when working smaller scale. Its important to keep seeing the painting as a whole.

Started to add some warmth and depth to the painting.  After this point, I didnt take any progress shots until quite an advanced stage..

 



 The only significant change from the original block in was the removal of the foreground boat. In the end it 'got in the way', I painted it out and thought about reinstating a boat in the foreground, perhaps coming into the painting from the left edge, but after I removed it, I liked the shape of the painting without it.

 

Final touches...

 

 

London Thames Afternoon Light - 30"x48" signed

 

 

 

 

 

Salon International

Salon International Update

My painting Venetian Sun has found a new home at the Salon International show in Texas.

Venetian Sun 14"x11" Oil - SOLD

 

 



Weekly round up

Brighton plein air

 

Early morning light - mixture of sun and mist

 

Late morning - turning rather grey and cold now, fingers a little numb

 

Mid afternoon - started to rain quite heavily, had to abandon this one after 45 min as i had half an inch of water swirling around in my paint box making it impossible to mix oils

 

A bit brighter the next afternoon...

 

Venice

 

A quick 1hr painting one evening after work - sadly not on location in Venice

Plein Air Painting Trip to Essaouira (Morocco)

Essaouira Plein Air March 10-March 17

On March 10th I embarked on a week of plein-air painting in Essaouira, a small but lively coastal town in Morocco.  This was my first real plein air painting experience.  Painting alongside Ken Howard (Royal Academician and master of tonal painting) and a group of 11 accomplished artists, this was, without doubt, a good introduction.  Ken was not formally offering tuition as such, but just painting alongside side him and observing his working methods provided a lesson in itself.  At one point, Ken also shared some lessons in perspective to a few of us painting an archway with him and with Ken being professor of perspective at the Royal Academy, it was of course good value!

 

Ken showing us how it should be done

 

 

 

Working away...

 

 

Farewell on the final morning



The Challenges of Plein Air

Plein-air painting, as I found out, is a real challenge (not that studio painting isn't challenging!) Not only do you have to paint rapidly due to light constantly changing (within 60-90mins of working on a painting, the view in front of you is typically quite different to what it was at the start unless its a dull day with more constant light) , there are plenty of other obstacles that can confront you. Some noteworthy examples I experienced on this trip included:

- Day 1, first plein air painting - 3 children were playing near to an archway where 3 or 4 of us were painting. Seemed harmless enough to begin with, watching us paint with interest and curiousity, but shortly afterwards they started poking their fingers into my palette, not only disrupting the colours i was mixing, but also removing significant quantities of the pure paint pigments laid out. By the end of the painting, i had lost half the paint, but more importantly, they disrupted the flow and focus as you only have 60-90minutes to capture the effect.  Ken, with all his plein air experience, started poking them away with his brushes and dabbing a bit of paint on their face, which seemed to work as shortly after they left us alone, probably fearful of the explaining to their parents of why they are covered in paint.   Unsurprisingly, I never managed to finish this first painting with all the distraction.

- A drunk Moroccon man was hovering over my shoulder for a good 20-30mins during one painting.  Again, like the children, harmless enough to an extent, but a constant distraction when you only have 60-90mins to get a painting done.  He also kept trying to talk to me, despite the fact he could see i didnt understand a word he was saying (not even sure if he was speaking French or just drunker gibberish) , as well as kissing my head (fortunately covered by a sun hat) and shoulder 5 or 6 times. Not so easy to take Ken's 'poke them with your paintbrush and paint their face' approach with a fully grown drunk moroccon sporting a beard and a mouth full of decaying teeth.

- Essaouira is on the Atlantic Coast and the wind can pick up at times. The one morning I was about 3/4s through a painting when suddenly my box off flew off my tripod, narrowly missing falling over the edge with a 15ft drop below. The painting was a write off after i recovered the easel, but then again the painting was going that well so maybe the wind did me a favour on that particular occasion.

- The archway above, was one of 3 main views that I painted all week, and there several occasions where Vans would pull up to the side of the road slightly in front of where we had set up, and block the entire view through the arch (the main area of interest in the painting!).

I guess these challenges, and the unexpected happening at any moment are what makes the plein air painting experience interesting and exciting, and at the same time  a little frustrating. For me, having only really worked from the comfort of my own 'studio' (a small corner of my flat), the benefit of the plein air experience is that it forces you to make quick decisions and get something down without fussing and making lots of adjustments. 


A selection of paintings from the trip

I focused on painting 3 views of Essaouira throughout the week. Whilst the views remain constant, the real subject, being the light effect, is constantly changing. I found this way of working to be beneficial, as with each painting you get closer to the subject and understand it a little more.  Monet, being one of my first influences, worked very much in this way, particularly in the second half of his life, in fact he devoted over 20 years of his life to painting the waterlilly pond at his home in Giverny. By the end of his life, he was completely at one with it, and produced some incredible large scale works housed at the Orangerie in Paris.  Ken actually said one evening during dinner, " If I had my life again, I would only paint one subject".

View 1
This was the view I typically painted first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

 

First Light - 645am

 

Afternoon Light -430pm

Sunset - 6pm

 

View 2
An archway. This proved to be a tricky but good subject to try and paint.

Ken seemed rather fond of this one with its subtle tones ;-).

 

 

 

This was the unfinished first attempt, during which I lost half my paint to children's fingers!

 



 

View 3



This was the view i tended to paint around 1.30pm-4pm. 

 

Strong afternoon light on this day

Overcast and rain

 



Looking forward to catching up with Ken and the rest of the Essaouira painters at his London studio for drinks in the Autumn...