Well this blog is called paintings-art so some paintings should appear here once in a while, it is somehow inevitable.
I have painted three pictures over the course of the last few winter months of 2010. Two of them are landscapes, the first being a view on the beach of Sidmouth looking west towards Higher Peak and the second being a view from the Peak Hill side of Ladram Bay looking west towards Budleigh. Both are painted in oil and measure 40cm by 40cm.
At one time I thought that the first painting was finished and hung it on the wall indoors to have a look at it. In the low winter light it appeared to be almost completely black and it was fairly obvious that I was going to have to lighten it considerably. In the end it became a sort of very early morning in winter scene, as if it was only just starting to get light. It still looks a bit dark in the photo but is actually a little bit lighter than this.
The second painting came out a lot slower, and I watched with some dismay as the tide rolled out and back in again as I attempted to get the large cliff to work. The first big cliff would somehow overpower the rest of them, so the famous red cliffs of East Devon are now in part a murky Paynes Grey due to a shadow falling on them, but it did seem to work and you have to know to walk away if a painting seems done. Sometimes I have gone in to just alter a tiny detail and somehow ended up mucking the whole thing up, which is all part of the fun.
Seeing as winter (which seems to start October/November, looking at watch..March) is almost gone I am hoping to be able to paint for longer again, as the 'studio' will not be so much of an icebox. Hurrah for spring coming soon and more painterly stuff and also other things.
11 comments:
Don't worry. More photos coming soon.
John, keep showing your paintings. They are both simply wonderful. I have one of those laptop screens that when you bend it back slightly, it lightens the image, so I see what you are saying.
But man, you got the touch alright. I would love to see more. And if these are the only ones you want to show for now, okay, they both will stand the test of time and memory.
Thanks. And thanks again.
They look wonderful John!
Cheers Nina and thank you very much. I will try to put up more paintings as they happen as I am painting more again now, it usually takes me along time to finish paintings though so it is slow going.
I should organise an online gallery of my work somewhere and then I could link it on the front. I have plenty of old work, some of which is scattered through the pages of my blog but it would be nice to round them all up.
Cheers for now and thanks again.
Hi Skye and thanks.
It has been nice having a go at painting some of the coast around here. It's not something I have tried a lot before though my older work did attempt it in a more abstract way. Cheers for now and many thanks.
So glad to hear that your studio will be warming up after that LONG COLD winter. I just simply can't imagine what it must be like surviving in such a horrid climate, what without even enough snow to build an Igloo,(Brrrrrrr).
But enough of the sympathy stuff, I must be off to pick my crop of pineapples and mangoes before the sweltering heat of the day and
torrential monsoon rains start.
Sorry to rub it in John but it really is just wonderful living in this tropical paradise we homeys like to call MANITOBA.
Oh and by the the by, do Yuh have any really great recipes for Pina Colatas, Yuh know the ones with the little umbrellas and lots of crushed ice? I hear that they are so refreshing after a long hard day of catching some rays on the beach.
Hey John, never mind the Silverfish, I felt cold just looking at them. Also I second Nina - more please.
Ha! The freeloading public demands more!
Otherwise I can see your dilemma with the second pic, but it's nothing too dreadful is it? I'd happily put it on my wall, ha ha. Otherwise, that first one... gee whiz, it's so good for so many reasons. I think I'll have to put it on my desktop and admire it for a while.
Cheers Silverfish. It certainly sounds nice in Manitoba, if I want a nice hot winter break I'll know where to head for!
I made an igloo once many years ago, just out of compacted snow, it was a proper round domey one big enough for two people to get into and toasty as anything inside. Hope the ski-ing is going well there, downhill is the best direction I reckon, though I'm not an expert.
Thanks Nobody. I'll try and get some more paintings up as they come along.
I did have another which popped out at the same time as I was doing these.
Sometimes I like to take myself on and paint portraits or faces. I had a little Burne-Jones in a book and quickly sketched the face out roughly, then painted for about four hours, went back the next day and tidied it up for a couple of hours and it seemed done. Normally when I paint nothing happens at anywhere near this speed.
Oh, John.
Given that most of my snow is gone now, thank goodness, but I am further south then Silv and Skye, so it is practically tropical ;)
I liked the second one also.
Luckily for me, my mother in law used to paint, so we have a house full of paintings,some outdoors, some indoor, some animals, all different.
We are one of the few people we know of, who actually have paintings.
The paintings get alot of compliments when people come in.
It's nice to have something unique and also uniquely yours, you know what I mean?
Hi Penny and thanks. It is nice to have paintings around the place, sometimes I get to swap work with other artists which is a nice way of getting stuff, bartering works well for lots of things.
It was interesting to see Mr Stanley III turning up at your place, it would be nice if he would come back as I'm sure he would have plenty of things to talk about.
I've not had much time on the internet lately as we have a bit of spring weather here so I have been out fixing some of the winter damage.
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