Two quickies from the sketchbook at yesterdays life class. The model brought along her small son so we drew them both.

Way to the Sea finished. You may not be able to see the changes from the previous pic, but they are there, and I think it may be finished, but I will let it sit on the wall of the studio for a bit to see.

This is a pochade paintingof a piece ofwaste ground opposite Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. I was using gouache paints for this, as I want to get to grips with them as I want to take them on a short holiday soon. The colours are a bit garish, I will have to work on this to get a bit of subtlety in. I may have a go at this view with my oils,but the light was so good that day that I fear I would not get a day as good a day again. Steve Strode and his wonderful views of Liverpool has nothing to fear yet!

This is stage 2 of the Way to the Sea painting. Work done all over, painting between the tree shapes to make the sky and generally painting more intuitivley than of late. Then lots of marks down on the forest floor simply for the joy of doing them really....Trying to get that dazzle you get when you look directly into the sun..

The second painting is another woodscape. This has the working title "The way to the sea" and is of a wooded area just off the Wirral Way leading down to the Dee estuary. It is being done in the studio from drawings and a black and white photo to give me more idea of tones, without getting too hung up on colour. The thing that impressed me when I first saw this view was the low winter sun glowing through the trees giving a contre jour effect. I tried for most of the session to achieve this by using darks against lights and then in the final 5 minutes rubbing a rag over it in exasperation. Suddenly there it was!Now the difficulty will be to keep this quality in. will post progress on both of these paintings at regular intervals.

Wirral pen Studios

Ok all over now. Had a good time over the weekend and thanks to all the people who took the time and made the effort to call around. Made lots of new friends and sold some work, so I am pleased with that. Here are a few general shots of my front room "gallery"

Wirral Open Studios.

On the weekend of 12 14 November I am taking part in the Wirral Open Studios.
For more information see http://wirral-open-studios.com

Caldy woods paintings

I thought I had posted these already, but it turns out I haven't. Here they are, Caldy Woods 2 and 1 respectivly.

Caldy Woods 3

Latest woodland painting of the nearby woods. I am really using these as a way of experimenting with marks and finding a different way of painting, which I hope will feed back into my other work, still lives and portraits. I feel I can take more liberties with these. Good fun...

Kim

Two drawings of alternative model, Kim. I have been wanting to try something new in life drawing, so we had a session when she brought along some of her clothes. Sne is a great model, I am planning a painting of her soon.

A charcoal drawingof Amy, done in the LiverStudio. Looking against the light.

I have spent most of the summer on this, an oil of a student in my life drawing sessions and her daughter. Size is 100 x 60 cm.A not very good photo of it, I will have to try to take another better one.

Off with the family to North Wales on one of our infrequent fine days up here. Eventually fetched up in Llandudno where everyone set about playing on the beach, eating ice creams etc. while I got out my pochade box and had a go at Little Orme. (A large outcrop of rock on one side of the town. On the other side is an even larger outcrop, called not suprisingly The GreatOrme.)
Anyhow, after about an hour this was the result.

Just come back from a few days at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which we try to get to every other year. It was the usual blend of fun, wonderful shows and the simply baffling as usual, with small rooms in the backs of all sorts of buildings being pressed into service as temporary venues. One of the highlights for me this year was Naked Splendour, presented by the life model and Julian Clary's straight man, Philip Herbert. Philip gives us (an audience of about twenty people on the day I went) a funny and at times moving account of his experiences as a life model . As we went in we were given paper drawing boards and pencils and we drew him in a variety of poses as he talked, naked except for when he draped himself in a scarf to do a wickedly accurate impersonation of a lady life drawing tutor talking to a new class of adult learners. His warm presence made us all relax and afterwards we were encouraged to look at each others drawings and talk about them. It was a wonderful hour of relaxation in the hurly burly madness that is the Festival and I would urge you to seek him out if you intend going. Drawings above.

Other highlights were the Impressionist Gardens exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland, Joan Mitchell at Inverleigh House and Martin Creed's exhibition and ballet.

This is a portrait of the daughter of a student of mine. I painted it on a clear primed linen canvas and found the paint got absorbed into the linen too much, I abandoned it at this stage. Not happy with hair but I am doing a double portrait of mother and daughter at the moment which is going much better on a properly primed linen canvas.

A quick pencil drawing ofthe life class done with a propelling pencil, which is great for quick drawings.

A small life study. You know when you do a painting and it goes OK but it turns out nothing special? Well, this is one of those . There is nothing to get excited about, it is just a painting. oh well, can't win 'em all..

In the absence of anything else to post today, a page from a sketchbook. On the train between where I live andLiverpool I frequently draw the other passengers. The nude was not sadly on the train,but was a sketch from the life class.

A sunny day, so I took the new larger pochade out for a spin. This is the Wirral Way a former railway track that is now a long distance walking and cyclepath. It runs from West Kirby to Hooton, near Chester. This took about 1 1/2 hours I suppose, until the sun got too hot and I beat a retreat into the shadows.Size 14"x10".

This painting has been chosen as the Editors Choice to be featured in the September Leisure Painter magazine.

Oil painting done at the Liver last week of model Iris. I love painting backs!

On Sunday we had the first of hopefully many art fairs in some public gardens in West Kirby. The wall has these alcoves which are sheltered and ideal for showing art. About 20 artists showed, I sold a couple and despite the blustery (but fine) weather a good time was had by all. Next one August 1.

Two bowl paintings, both recently sold.

A small oil done at the Liver Sketching Club, using a limited palette of white, venetian red, yellow ochre and utramarine blue.

Two "quickies2 from a drawing session,each no more than 45 seconds. Drawing quickly is a wonderful exercise for seeing the whole pose and getting it down quickly.

A quick drawing of a male model, probably no more than 90 seconds

A new model at the Liver Sketching Club. I arrived late so, having only 90 minutes I decided to use just 3 colours venetian red, french ultramarine and white and go for tonal values.

These two sketch drawings were to illustrate how perspective affects the human body. The lines through the hips, nipples and shoulders show howthey would all reach a vanishing point if carried on. It also emphasises yesterdays idea that the body is a solid rectangle in its simplest form, and obeys the laws of perspective like any other solid body. (Of course you don't have to draw it like that, if you don't want to!)

I run life drawing classes in a hall near where I live, and part of the teaching involves doing small quick drawings to illustrate certain points. Two here show how I was demonstrating to a student how light & shade can be used to give solidity to a form. If we think of the body as a series of solid shapes, we can see that the planes facing the light source will be brightly lit, while the planes that face away will be in shadow. For instance in drawing 1 only the top is lit while most of the back, from where this student was, is in shadow. In drawing 2 the light was on her front, so the sides of the body,legs, arms etc are in shadow.

A drawing of Arthur, one of the models at the Liver Sketching Club. Done in sanguine, it took about 3 hours (including tea breaks).

This is a painting of some random objects that were lying about on a shelf. I had just changed a dud light bulb, the mask is a souvenir from Venice and the toy ambulance is one I used to play with when I was a kid. It must be one of the oldest things that I still have that is mine, now I think about it.

Model posing in the studio. Her hair was being blown by a fan heater, but it looks as though she is sitting out in the open by the sea!

A portrait ofShell,nearly done, just needs a few tweaks.

Heard today that this painting has got a prize in the local art exhibition.

my model, having a rest.

I decided I would set myself a difficult task with this nude, so set up at her head to give some extreme foreshortening. Quite pleased with the result.

Another sunset, this time mirrored in the perfectly still water of the marine lake at West Kirby.

We had our first (of many, I hope), Art Fairs in West Kirby on Monday and one of the pics I sold was this small nude. I worked on this for months trying to get it right and in the end, let it go a little bit too cheaply I think. But the new owner loves it so she got herself a bargain.

Painting

Painting of Emma done at the Liver Sketching Club in Liverpool. It took about 2 1/2 hours in total I suppose.

Another sunset

Another sunset, seen from West Kirby looking over toward Wales.

After the sunset yesterday I turned round and there was a fantastic moonrise. Had to grab it quick.

Sunset pictures

I have been going out in the evening lately to capture the last glimmers of light on the horizon. Sometimes it gets so dark I cannot see the colours I am putting down. I use a small pochade box from Abbeyeasels (http://www.abbeyeasels.co.uk) He makes great little boxes.