Inspiration from the past

I have been busy with a renovation project at home and have been neglecting both my painting and blogging. But it is time I got back to both!

I decided to take inspiration from some of the artists of the past, not by copying either their techniques or compositions, but creating a contemporary equivalent of their subject matter.

This one is inspired by Édouard Manet's "Déjeuner sur l'herbe (Luncheon on the grass)". There is still a lot of work to be done to it, but I am happy with the composition. The original "Déjeuner" is usually taken as showing two young, fashionable, parisian males with their mistresses. I wanted mine to show an intimate family group. The images are not of anyone in particular, I drew on a variety of sources for help with the detail.

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!

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.

Small Skyscape Series

I have started work on a series of small skyscape studies. Three finished so far!

"Small Skyscape 1", November 2013.

Oils on canvas, 25.5cm x 30.5cm

"Small Skyscape 2", November 2013.

Oils on canvas, 25.5cm x 30.5cm

"Small Skyscape 3", November 2013.

Oils on canvas, 25.5cm x 30.5cm

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

New painting!

"The Ruin on the Hill", June 2012.

Oils on canvas, 25cm x 31.5cm.

Just finished this a few days ago!

"Forest Sunset"

"Forest Sunset", March 2012.

Oils on canvas, 60.5 cm x 45.5 cm.

Just finished this painting last week. Most of it is quite dark, giving it a feeling of strangeness and mystery.

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.

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.

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.

Downpatrick Exhibition

The exhibition in the Downpatrick Library Gallery opened last Wednesday (6th February) night. It is in support of the Harmony Community Trust, Glebe House, Strangford, and was opened by one of the local politicians, Margaret Ritchie of the SDLP. It went well, but I was a bit disappointed with the attendance, only about thirty or so. However, two of my five paintings are sold, so that is a start. It is a good exhibition space, basically one large, well-lit room, at one side of Downpatrick Library. Hopefully, because of its position next to the library, this will help there to be a reasonable number of further visitors.

Because of the need to get my paintings ready in time, I went for producing five small landscapes. They were quite successful (and I am pleased with them), but the exhibition made me aware of how many others are producing work in a similar format. I think that I need the larger formats in order to stand out. Also, paintings of towns and buildings are relatively rare, so I think that my paintings of town scenes also stand out for that reason.

The more that I see work of local artists, the more convinced I become that the truly memorable work is nothing to do with either skill or technique. It seems to me that most of the work which has reached the history books has done so because it encapsulated something personal about the artist's life and times. Much of the work I see is attractive, some of it is highly skilled, but I am not convinced that it rises above the decorative. It is not that I am knocking decorative work as such, but I feel the need for something more.

For more photos, see ArtMagic; Downpatrick Exhibition.

Two new landscape paintings.

"Corner on the Newcastle to Ballynahinch Road",
December 2007.
Oils on canvas, 25 cm x 30 cm. (11 hours working time)

There is a small, local exhibition coming up and I agreed to submit five paintings. Just got the last two finished, to my relief! There are, I think, quite nice, although not what I would consider major paintings. The weather has been poor recently and does not encourage much work outdoors. I am very much looking forward to warmer weather, when I can start spending much longer outside working on paintings.

I have quite a few paintings I want to get finished. At the beginning of January we had - for us - heavy snow (i.e., about 16 cm, which fell in the one night and lasted about a day). As always, it caught us unprepared. My wife and I were travelling to Ballynahinch and were about 15 miles away from there when it started. So, naturally, when we were just a few miles from Ballynahinch we got stuck (with a lot of others) at the first serious hill. It was only when some of us drivers got together to give cars a push that we were able to get moving again. No chance of help from the police or the road service as they were all snarled up around the town itself, nobody able to move on any of the roads leading in or out of Ballynahinch. The one good thing about being stuck where we were was that when, after several hours, we got moving again, at least the traffic chaos in Ballynahinch itself was beginning to clear and we were able to get to our destination! The other good thing was that the snow was still there in the morning, so I took several canvases up into the town and was able to sketch layouts on to them. I think that I should, potentially, have a couple of good paintings, although they will have to be completed from the photographs that I took at the time.

"Horses in a Field", December 2007.
Oils on canvas, 30 cm x 25 cm. (14.5 hours working time)

Preview Night

The Preview of my Art Exhibition was held on Thursday, 11th October. It went very well, approximately 20% sales on the night, but more important was the feedback I got (very encouraging) and the general "buzz" (which was excellent). I also got several commissions for new work. All in all, a very successful night!

My Art Exhibition

I have been very busy this last couple of weeks. I am putting an exhibition of my art work for the last eighteen months. Hard work, but also quite good fun.

On Thursday, a photographer from one of the local papers came to get some photos for an article on the exhibition! I have put up posters around the town and, of course, a lot of individualised invitations have been sent out, but getting the local press onboard is likely to be critical to the success of the show.

Slieve Croob sunset, Co. Down, N. Ireland

“Slieve Croob at sunset, from the Saintfield Road, Ballynahinch."

Oils on canvas, 20” x 30”.

It has been awhile since my last post, but I have been thinking a lot about what I am trying to do with my painting. In one sense, my aim is completely straightforward, I am trying to record what I see as "realistically" as I can. But the realism is the one of my perception and experience of the scene, not as a camera would record it. The above example illustrates the point. I decided to create this painting after seeing the sunset from this spot whilst driving between Bangor and Ballynahinch. I took photographs to assist - but these could not actually record the play of light the way I was seeing it. If I photographed the sky, the ground was under-exposed, and even if I allowed for this so as to photograph the land, the contrast was still too great between parts which were illuminated by the setting sun and the areas of shadow. However, I could see details within the shadow, the highlit areas and the sky as I scanned the scene. Hence my experience of the scene was as a whole.

I started the painting by, as is my custom, sketching in the composition from observation - but under normal lighting conditions. Some of the filling in was then done with the assistance of photographs - but modified by my memories of the scene. When a similar sunset occurred, I returned to the site to attempt to check details from observation - but I found that the way the light fell on the canvas was so extreme that it largely made this impossible. In the end, I simply used the experience to refresh my memory of the colours and shading and then completed the painting in the studio.

In fact, I am very pleased with the result. I believe that it portrays the "truth" of my experience of the sunset in a way that is impossible for photography to do.

Latest paintings!

I have been rather busy since my last blog, so this is primarily an exercise in displaying my latest paintings! They are all on 24 x 18 inch canvases, as I find this a very convenient size to work with. I am continuing to get requests to do paintings, but it is going to be more difficult to work from observation now that winter is approaching. For one of the paintings that I am working on at the moment, I found that I had to work from the back seat of my car, parked on the opposite side of the street from the building which is my subject. I have a variety of lightweight shelters (the most useful of which is a large fisherman's umbrella), which can cope with rain quite well - but not when combined with strong gusts of wind!

“Charles’ Papershop, Ballynahinch”, September 2006.

“Market House, Ballynahinch”, September 2006.

This last one was a commission from the Ballynahinch Regeneration Committee.

“Ginesis Café, Main Street, Ballynahinch”, August 2006.

Thinking about painting!

“38 Main Street, Ballynahinch”, July 2006.
Oils on canvas, 24” x 18”.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about the "why?" of what I am doing. Initially, when I started painting again, it was simply to get myself, without stress, back into the habit of working on my own art. But, as I became involved with the mechanics of what I was doing, it became clear that straightforward "observational" painting is really not either straightforward or simply to do with observation!

A normal photograph of a scene will do three main things:

1. It will record the scene with strict regard to linear and aerial perspective - the view is recorded from one precise point, straight lines will appear straight, objects will diminish in size with mathematical precision according to distance and more distant objects will appear to be hazier and bluer.
2. Colours, because of the limitations of film design (or printing ink, if using a digital camera) will be be distorted. Some colours, usually the most vivid, will "out of gamut" and cannot be reproduced exactly - and so will be muted.
3. There will be variation according to the depth of field. Anything at the same distance as the object focused upon will appear to be sharp. everything in front or behind will appear to be blurred. (By using a very small depth of field, a photographer can deliberately use this to isolate his subject from the background, so that his subject appears sharp and everything else will appear hazy.)

But this is not actually the way that a scene is viewed in reality. We move our heads (and we have two eyes, giving us stereo vision, which means that sometimes one eye can see what the other can not), our eyes can appreciate a much greater colour range than the camera can record and we look at different parts at different times, mentally blending our observations into the one perception.

Although not intentionally distorting what I am seeing, when painting, I quite automatically incorporate this way of viewing into the result. Perspective - whilst appearing to be essentially correct - will be "adapted" so that vertical lines may no longer be precisely vertical, angles may change to make the view more dramatic or to reveal a greater area (as from a different viewing point). One of the rules of human observation is that one "notices" more that which one is interested in. So colours can appear more vivid - and the perceptions can then be reproduced by using the full range provided by good quality paints! Everything is painted in focus because one automatically focuses on the part which is being observed.

The final result of all these adaptations is that, I believe, a painting can be much more "alive" and truer to actual perceptions of a scene than a photograph can ever be!

“Kitties Entry (Harmony Way), off Main Street, Ballynahinch”, July 2006.

Oils on canvas, 24” x 18”.

The start of my Ballynahinch Art Project.

A couple of months ago, after leaving teaching, I decided that I needed to get back to my own art work. Since I was spending a lot of time in Ballynahinch (Co. Down, N. Ireland) I decided to create a series of drawing and paintings about the town, working from life.

My first painting was only a quick study in oils on canvas, completed in an afternoon, a view along High Street towards Dromore Street. However, the response to my working in the street, even for such a quick study, was very encouraging.

My next painting was a view along Main Street. The big shock here was that it was bought by someone, as a present, before it was even finished! In addition, I got a commission for another painting whilst I was working on this one.

“Main Street, Ballynahinch”, June 2006.
Oils on canvas, 30” x 20”.

“Stewart & Gibson, Main Street, Ballynahinch”, June 2006.
Oils on canvas, 24” x 18”.