» Listings for June 2017

1. Puffin on a stormy sea

   Posted on 6:50pm Friday 30th Jun 2017

   I always seek to achieve movement in my paintings. To creat depth in works that might otherwise become overwhelmed by the detail.

   I love the sea. I like to see the intense colour of a flat sea. I remember the first time I drank in the liquid turquoise that welcomed me to the south coast of Cornwall, looking down on the water from way above. I was mesmerised. It involked feelings of a tropical paradise, something I had only seen in a travel brochure.

    But I thrive on movement. My brain creates its own  when I am in places or periods of calm. I am more  enthused by a stormy sea, the big waves rolling over  each other as they are whipped up by the wind into  fluffy white tops. Tumbling. Crashing. Churning.  Cleansing. A feast for the senses, as you smell the  ozone, taste the salt spray, hear the orchestra and feel  the power of the elements. Walking on a beach in a  storm is one of my true pleasures and usually I'm one of  the few people taking part in this force of nature.

   I have painted many seascapes, using different techniques and view points. I have found the best way to create the turbulance in the works have been to work quickly, in an almost impressionist way, using colours straight from the tube, mixed on the canvas with brush, brush end, pallet knife, spoon, fingers, stick. Wet paint pushed around the canvas until the desired result is achieved.

   My puffin was a bit different. I decided to create a moving, alive, turbulent seascape using detail. Detail takes time. Particularly when incorporating familiar elements from previous works but in a different setting. So the detail in puffin is intended to move a two dimensional, decorative sea, into the realms of a thriving, yet challenging enviroment. The colour scheme is that of a stormy sea. The whole painting is set off by the grey skyscape, with simple spray details added using a toothbrush. The size of the sea is shown by the rolling horizon.

   The puffin was the easy part. I knew what position it was going to take. I knew how I wanted to paint it. It is impressionistic, but is the reality element of the painting. It implies the challenge it has faced in going to sea on a fishing trip, to return with its bounty of sand eels. It implies a certain bravery in facing the elements to bring up its young. It also demonstrates its place within nature, rather than watching from afar and waiting for the storm to pass.

    As you will learn from my work, it is a celebration of    nature, much of it unknown or unappreciated. It is a      reaction to the human world we have created. We look  on and wait. We have things on a plate. Puffin is          another allegory of the struggles we all face and so  many of us are not strong enough to embrace. Some  things cannot be ignored. Sometimes you have to just  go out and get what you need to survice. I'll let you  decide for yourself what those things are!

    

   Here is a link to a video looking at more detail. Its not great but I'm learning! Click HERE

2. Welcome to my Art Blog

   Posted on 9:50pm Monday 12th Jun 2017

   My home is full of art. Most of it is mine but I also have a few pieces by other artists. I am an artist you see and I generally love the art I produce.

   My new art blog is a way for me to explore the processes I go through to bring an idea for a painting into a finished work. To examine what has influenced me through the design process, to the finished product, with paint on canvas and to help me understand why I paint and create works of art in the way I do. To avoid becoming too self indulgent I plan to write about other artists, art movements, individual paintings and perhaps even galleries and exhibitions I hope to visit.

   What started out as a means of avoiding academic school and college work, became a hobby after a somewhat prolonged hiatus and is now a viable mean for me to create additional income. I have been lucky. In recent years, through my work as part of the T&M Arts and Crafts empire, I have discovered many people who actually like my work and want to buy it in one form or another. Not only is this great for me and my family financially, it has also spurred me on to paint more and better works of art.

   This continually refreshing challenge has enabled me to explore and develop ideas that I would quite possibly have ignored. I am an inherently lazy person you see. There are always more important and less significant things to do.

   Creating, painting and art generally has taught me to focus. In fact it is only really when I am painting that I am truly focussed. Sometimes that focus is more challenging and frustrating than at others. A great idea sometimes doesn't flow and the painting suffers, in my opinion, as a result of a wrong turn at some stage during the process. This is disappointing. At other times, it is clear in the finished piece that a painting has flowed from the mind, through my nervous system, along to my hand holding the brush and onto the canvas. This is pleasing and exciting.

   I currently have a full time job and I spend most of my “working” day planning the next move on the canvas. Art is my life. I avidly look at what other artists are doing. I ravenously consume art documentaries. I read about art. I'm pretty sure my family, especially my two teenage children don't understand, although they do too reap the rewards.

   I also expend a lot of emotional energy trying to fathom out how to truly make my art and the required background work into my life. As my passion and obvious calling in life, I owe it to myself to give it a proper try. Where I live doesn't lend itself to attending prestigious events, so I content myself with my local patrons and making a name for myself in the rural hinterlands of Devon and Somerset. There's a big wide world out there filled with people waiting to buy my art and share my journey. One day...

   In the meantime, our walls become more filled with my works of art. The colours leap out, making our home more energised and welcoming. There is no hiding from my passion. And I love it.