After some more time in the studio....

So I took advantage of a bright and sunny afternoon by going to the studio.  I get a great light in there in the afternoon.  After a very hectic month including a completing a comission that I'm really proud of (here it is).....

I got back to work on the newest piece in my Essex series.  It's taking a long time to paint and I'm still working on the underpainting!  Its a LOT of straight lines which although time consuming I'm insisting on painting free-hand rather than use masking tape.  I'm enjoying painting it and as I'm working on it I can see the painting it's going to be, like nothing I've worked on in a long time.

I think it was Michelangelo who said he freed the scultpture from inside the stone, with this one I feel like I'm uncovering the painting from the canvas.  I'm painting it like I know exactly what everything is going to look like, ordinarily my work changes and adapts whilsty I work on it, but with this I know absoloutely what it will look like.  Even though I will be using lots of differnet materials, some of which I've never used before - I am totally confident of how it will look when finished.

Here's how it is looking so far...

Taken once it had already gone dark which is why it's a bit shadowy and on my phone's camera.  I'm waiting for a new phone which should have a much better camera and so make my "in progress" shots better in quality.  And before I have people saying "well why don't you just take a real camera to the studio?", I use my phone because it's a lot quicker to get the pictures on the computer and yes I am THAT lazy!   More work to do at the weekend so more pictures in a few days, make sure you keep coming back.

No sketchbook!

I'm sorry it's been a bit quiet on here over the last couple of weeks, unfortunately my day job has somewhat taken over my entire life it seems.  Evenings have been spent doing extra work and so my opportunities to get on here and hammer out a post have been non-existant.

Anyway....I'm here now.  So this weekend was spent down in Weymouth, visiting family.  It was a great weekend and it really is a very beautiful part of the world, especially with it's Jurassic coastline.  The weather was meant to be grim, however, apart from a few small showers, we were treated to some moments of glorious sunshine and dramatic skies. 

I had intended to take my sketchbook, but in the whirl of getting home from work on Friday, getting everything into the car and getting on our way - I left my sketchbook behind.  No sketchbook certainly does not mean no inspiration.  With the cameras on phones now being what they are, the fact that I also left my camera behind (I know, I know!) proved to be no problem either.

I managed to get some great shots, a couple of which I've included here, and some walks along the coastline have certainly given me some great ideas for work.  I think that as a landscape painter it's really important not to just observe or record or place, but to stand and just absorb it.  Experience the moment you are there, the quality of the light, the effects of the weather. 

Standing on a very windy Portland just as a weather front was moving in, gave some wonderful colours in the sky, but to look down at the rocks beneath your feet and see the remenants of prehistoric sealife, frozen in the rock for millions of years certainly adds to the sense of being very small standing out there.....very small indeed.  I have had some great ideas for the next series of works once I've finished my "Essex" series.  So it seems that to be an artist in a great landscape without a sketchbook, isn't such a problem as I'm sure it once used to be.

Only thing is.....I might need to make quite a few more trips back down to Weymouth!!