"The Valley"

l am rather proud of the pathworking I created based on this painting. It is intended to take the viewer on an imaginative trip into the painting. The video is an attempt to recreate the performance I put on as part of my "Dreaming Reality" art exhibition in 1988. The video is nine minutes long with two pauses of about ten seconds (which can be paused for longer if the viewer desires). It takes the viewer from a hot summer's day in the country into a mysterious and restful shaded valley. If you would like to experience it for yourself, try the link below!

''The Valley Pathworking"

My Virtual Exhibition on Facebook

My friend, John Rubery, and I were supposed to have a joint art exhibition at Bangor Carnegie Library in April, to be called "Thomas Spencer and John Rubery Exhibition - The Class of '76" (since we went to Art College together).

Unfortunately, due to fears over the Coronavirus, that had to be cancelled. However, I have decided to create a virtual exhibition on my professional Facebook page, Thomas Spencer Artist, posting pictures with a short explanation about them.

Please visit!

Painting Labour

After the shock of the Brexit vote, I found myself wanting to become involved in politics. However, it was not until I discovered Jeremy Corbyn's policies that I found anything to really motivate me. So I found myself a part of an anti-austerity Party with the biggest membership in the UK (and still growing), Labour!

I have now been to a few of the meetings of the North Down Labour branch at the Funky Penguin Cafe, Bangor and l started to think that it would be interesting to base a painting on the meetings. If it works out, it will not be to claim that this particular branch is any more important than any other. Rather, it is to celebrate the importance of ALL grass roots members, meeting in little groups like this.

Last night at our AGM I did a few sketches, almost at random, depending on who I had a good view of. There will be a lot more work to be done before I would be ready to paint. For me, this is just part of the process of developing ideas and getting to know the people participating in the meetings. But this is what I have so far!

My most recent paintings!

"Small Skyscape 7", March 2015.

Oils on canvas, 40.5cm x 50.5cm.

"Small Skyscape 6", March 2015, T. Spencer.

Oils on canvas, 40cm x 50.5cm.

"Snowy Slieve Croob Skyscape", February 2015.

Oils on canvas, 49.5cm x 70cm.

"Misty Sunset Skyscape", February 2015.

Oils on canvas, 45cm x 63cm.

"Skyscape near Comber, Co. Down", January 2015.

Oils on canvas, 49.5cm x 69.5cm.

"Mourne View Sunset", January 2015.

Oils on canvas, 49.5cm x 69.5cm.

"Small Skyscape 5", Dec. 2014.

Oils on canvas, 25.5cm x 30.5cm.

It can take a long time to do a painting!

"View of the Mournes from the Dromara Road, near Ballynahinch, County Down, Northern Ireland", 2014.

Oils on canvas, 50 cm x 70 cm.

The painting was actually started in 2007, when I completed the sky and basic layout. Then I got stuck and left it, just returning to it in the last month. As often happens with me - after I have left it long enough - the final stage is quite straightforward!

Recently completed paintings!

Since I have been working in my new studio, I have completed these paintings:

"Welsh Mountainside near Salem, Caernarvon", 2014.

Oils on canvas, 50cm x 40cm.

"Ballygowan Road, near Saintfield, Co. Down, Skyscape", 2014.

Oils on canvas, 25.5cm x 35.5cm.

"Sandy Shore Skyscape", November 2014.

Oils on canvas, 22.5cm x 30cm.

New studio!

For several years I have rented a studio in the nearby town of Lisburn. But this has ceased to be a practical arrangement, so I have been fortunate in being able to get a custom made studio built in my back garden. I have been very pre-occupied with getting everything moved and sorted, but I have been able to paint there for the last month. My productivity seems to be on the increase!

Catching up on my Blogging!

I have been badly neglecting this blog for some time. At any rate, these are some paintings that I have completed since my last entry!

"Landscape with river", November 2013.

Oils on canvas, 81cm x 101.5cm.

This is what I term an "Inner Realist" painting. It is imaginary, a sort of dreaming on canvas, but uses the language of Realism. After that, as you can see, I have been concentrating on my "Skyscapes"!

"Medium Skyscape 1", December 2013.

Oils on canvas, 49.5cm x 69.8cm.

"Small Coastal Skyscape 1", December 2013.

Oils on canvas, 25.5cm x 30.5cm.

"Small Skyscape 4", February 2014.

Oils on canvas, 25.5cm x 30.5cm.

(Since sold and now residing in Germany!)

"Lisburn Road Skyscape", March 2014.

Oils on canvas, 59.5cm x 79.5cm.

New painting!

"Renewal, Market Square East, Lisburn, N. Ireland", June-Oct 2013.

Oils on canvas, 50cm x 70cm.

The painting shows an area of Lisburn from just outside the door to the studios in Lisburn. I worked on this from observation, approximately for two or three hours, three times a week, over the summer. It took a long time to do because of the detail, which I felt was important for this painting.

Because of the depression, many businesses in Lisburn have been experiencing difficult times, reflected in the number of empty commercial premises to the right. But the city has also been going through a process of renewal. Bridge Street, the road straight ahead, was falling into dereliction, but has now had many of its buildings renovated. As demonstrated by the posters, the city has been making considerable efforts to promote itself. However, that was not really why I particularly wanted to do this painting. I am interested in the nature of reality and painting from observation represents a conversation between myself and the subject being observed.

The most common remark I had from onlookers was that the painting was beautiful, that it was just like a photograph! But that misses the point! What is important is why the painting is NOT like a photograph - because of the distortions that crept in quite automatically through the deliberate act of working directly from observation, because of the changing and enhancement of color that came about from the act of concentration! As a result, the painting represents how the scene was experienced, rather than merely being a record of what was there! The same reasoning applies to the most important painting that I did last year, of the "Farriers", who are local musicians.

"Farriers", October-November 2012.

Oils on canvas, 76cm x 102cm.

I attended a concert of theirs, where I was able to make some sketches and take some photographs. But whilst the painting illustrates moments from the concert, it also includes images from a previous performance that I had already tried to create a painting from and which I had to abandon.

New landscape painting!

“Hillsborough Road Landscape”, September 2012

Oils on canvas, 30.5 cm x 25.5 cm

"Waterfall"

"Waterfall”, June 2012.

Oils on canvas, 50 cm x 70 cm.

Just finished this last week. I used the Surrealist method of searching for a meaningful image within random paint marks on the canvas. For me, the painting represents my experiences of waterfalls seen and imagined over the years.

My latest Skyscape!

"Newtownards Road Skyscape", Jan. 2012.

Oils on canvas, 101.5 cm x 81 cm.

I finished this painting, the third in my series of "Skyscapes", last week. I see this view on my way back to my home in Bangor, from the road between Bangor and Newtownards. I intend to create at least one more in this series. As a painter, the wide-angle perspective of these views and the effect it creates for the viewer is what interests me most. The canvas forms a flat plane, but I treat it as if it was curving over me at the top.

Windows and doors!

"Drumlin Skyscape", December 2011

Oils on canvas, 101.5cm x 81cm

I have always loved the rounded shapes of the local hills (drumlins), having grown up surrounded by them. In many ways, the landscape in the painting is very typical of County Down; the drumlin itself, the small fields, the rich greens. But in addition I wanted to create the feeling of the sky extending over the hill and above the viewer. Hence the title of "Drumlin Skyscape".

There are many reasons for creating paintings. But, for me, each one acts as a window and sometimes as a door. As a window, a painting allows the spectator to look inside the mind and imagination of the artist and, more importantly, if they can relate to it themselves then it allows them to look inside their own mind and memories. But sometimes a painting can also act as a door. By this I mean that a spectator can relate to the painting so intensely that it acts as a means of stepping through to another world of experience, leaving them emotionally in a different place to where they were before.

Skyscape

“Slieve Croob Skyscape”, October 2011.

Oils on canvas, 101.5 cm x 81 cm.

This is quite a large painting. The intention is to draw your view into looking at the mountain, but leaving you with the sensation of the sky over your head.

Two new paintings!

“West Street, Castle Coombe, Wiltshire”, 2008-2011.
Oils on canvas, 70 cm x 50 cm.

I sketched this scene, to scale, when I was in Wiltshire from a nephew’s wedding, It was then completed from photos and a colour reference sketch.

"Mountain Landscape", September 2011.

Oils on canvas, 61 cm x 46 cm.

Not of a specific place, this sums up a number of my memories and experiences.

Teaching’s end!

Last night I had a dream. Many dreams are very confused and it is difficult to read them in a meaningful way, but this was different and it appears to me to have had a clear message for me!

I was an art teacher for 26 years. On the whole, I loved teaching. Sometimes pupils, and even whole classes, could be difficult and this created problems to be overcome. But it was a wonderful feeling when you felt that pupils were actually learning – particularly if they were not promising material and you had had to overcome their own lack of self-belief. But the last few years were difficult for me and I was suffering from a great deal of stress, which eventually forced me to retire on the grounds of ill-health. Nevertheless, a part of me was always very reluctant to let go of being a teacher.

In the dream, although still employed as a teacher in my old school, I was being offered a new post as art teacher in the school in which I had been educated myself. The school was an extremely good one and had an excellent Art Department, which I would have been very keen to work within. But, in the end, I found myself going to the Principal and apologising for wasting his time. I explained that I had been suffering from stress and that I now realised that I would be unable to fulfil the post in the way that I would have wished and would have been required.

Since I retired, I have occasionally had nightmares about teaching, but I always knew that I had to put this part of my life behind me and concentrate on making a new one for myself as an artist. As part of this process I even created a painting, which I called, "An Art Teacher’s Memento Mori", which was intended to sum up my experience as an art teacher, both the good and bad. I think that the dream was telling me that it is now time to let go of the last vestiges of myself as teacher, that this part of my life is finally over!

"An Art Teacher’s Memento Mori", February-May 2008.
Oils on canvas, 70 cm x 50 cm.

This painting and much of the rest of my art work is on display in my web site at http://www.artmagic.uk.com/

Painting in my studio at 49 Market Square, Lisburn

I feel really happy and relaxed working in my new studio. There is a really good atmosphere there which is very conducive to being creative. There is an informal gallery area in the building which is open to the public. I will publish some photos of that soon.

"The Long Lake", finished March 2011.

Oils on canvas, 101.5 cm x 75.5 cm.

New painting, just finished!

"View from Saintfield Road, near Lisburn", March 2011.

Oils on canvas, 101.5 cm x 75.5 cm.

Clinton Kirkpatrick's, ‘Through The Eyes Of The World’ exhibition

Clinton with his painting,

"The Road Ahead", oil on canvas, 75 x 100 cm.

Went to see Clinton's new exhibition on Friday, 30th July (missed the opening unfortunately). Very impressed. I like Clinton's abstract work, but his figurative work has more appeal for me personally. "The Road Ahead", with it's image of death on a road under a burning sun, is very powerful.

"Fires Rage", oil on canvas, 100 x 150 cm.

This painting is another one inspired by Clinton's recent visit to Australia. The split between the massive image of fire in the background and the cool foreground with its isolated house, gives the painting a tremendous feeling of threat and fury.

The exhibition is on until 6th August 2010 at the Safehouse Gallery, Donegall Street, Belfast. Open every day from midday, but Clinton will be there in person from 4.30 - 7 pm every evening. Well worth a visit, if you can get there.

See http://clintonkirkpatrick.com/

Change of Studio

A while back, for personal reasons, I decided that I had to give up my studio at Studio 23 and to work at home. Since then, I have made a new studio out in a shed in Ballynahinch, where I stay for most of the week.

It is quite a good space for both 2D and 3D work, although a bit more cramped than the previous one.