Townscapes

Sitges: the Transferred Drawing plus Preparation for Next Exhibition

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Transferred Drawing of Sitges

This is the drawing now transferred onto watercolour paper. I hope you can make it out. Obviously only lightly pencilled in as I want it to be covered by the painting.

One or two areas are covered by the blue masking fluid, especially the building on the far left which is sparkling in the sunlight. I want a hard edge there, and likewise in one or two other places which are caught by the sun. I have denoted white foam in the sea where I might otherwise lose it, although I shall have to enhance later with white gouache.

I have kept the foreground figures to two plus dog. Hopefully I should get some pleasing reflections on the wet sand from the buildings which will need some space in the foreground

Spaces have been left amongst the buildings too, for large areas of shade and for trees. Soon I shall have to pick up a paint brush and start. I still get apprehensive until I get underway

As well as this I have been trying to finalise my entries for my next forthcoming solo exhibition, which will be in Guildford, a town near me, in one of the town’s best known venues, the Guildford Institute. Always an enjoyable place to show, albeit not especially busy, but nevertheless because of the prestige of the place, I am able to get good coverage in local papers, which is so very useful

I have been trying to get my framing up-to-date and these are two of the latest

Brewery Dray Framed

Brewery Dray on Guildford Bridge

Corfu Shopping Lanes Framed

Corfu Shopping Lanes in Kerkyra

You may well have seen these in earlier posts, but it is nice to see them framed, and ready to be exposed to an unsuspecting public. I am aiming to show between 12-14 pictures in total. I am almost there.Still time to make some revisions, and certainly if the Sitges painting turns out well, I shall want to include that too. The exhibition, if I haven’t said before has a theme entitled “Watercolour Wanderings”, so every picture will be of a place I have visited. Not just faraway places that I have been to on my travels but also local scenes as well, which are just as relevant. The name is a little bit corny, I know, but you are expected to give your exhibition a name, which I admit does give the show some sort of structure, rather than a motley collection of miscellaneous paintings.

The exhibition runs from 3rd to 20th May, so just under three weeks. We shall hope for a successful show. I shall be following up with another exhibition at the Royal Surrey Hospital starting on the 27th May and running for one month, so two bites at the cherry

Just while it goes through my mind, I get many “visits” to this art blog from all corners of the globe, and I am very grateful for your interest. It is so nice to feel that you are talking to someone. Comment if you want to. Thanks

Few days in Spain

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Just back from a few days in Sitges, not far from Barcelona. We hadn’t been there before so something of a treat. Still cold at night but during the day an agreeable 17-19 compared with our British 6 at the moment. There is nothing like winter sunshine to revive the spirit

As you can see from one of my pictures, all the ingredients for some really good paintings are there. Mediterranean sky, active sea, old churches, strong light, deep shadows with figure drawing thrown in. Some interesting side streets with iron window grilles and some strong colours should make for interesting material to work from.

I have just saved about 50 pictures so should get 2 or 3 at least, worthwhile compositions out of that lot. My next exhibition “Watercolour Wanderings” looms large. That starts on May 3rd and takes place at the Guildford Institute. That sounds a long way off but in painting terms is very close, and certainly Sitges needs to be part of my “wanderings”

Time to get started

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Popular with Hippies at one time I believe. Understandable

Blue Mosque: the finished painting

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Blue Mosque

Alas once again a good painting spoiled slightly by a bad photograph. The camera has diffused the depth of colour in the trees etc in the foreground. This is the best photograph of all those that I took, so will have to put up with it. Shame because the colours of foliage etc are much richer than shown. The mosque is not too bad though, even though the shadows on the building are really much deeper.

Palm trees are tricky. They were done with a dry brush, just hoping that the bristles open out to give that feathery effect. They seem to have done.

For the trunks of the palm trees, I mixed permanent rose with burnt sienna to give, hopefully, the effect of bright sun highlighting the wood. That was the base coat. I used a very dark brown as a shadow over the top as a glaze, just leaving a little of the red showing on the sunny side. Likewise the park benches which were brightly lit in some cases, I used the same mix of rose and burnt sienna. I felt that that had worked

The other trees, some of which were obviously tidily clipped, I had to sort out, otherwise in a painting they would have been indistinguishable. I painted some lighter than they appeared against darker trees in the background so that one defined the other

Small figures, some of them in red, led the eye through the trees, and I hope have given a feeling of distance

The enjoyable part of the exercise was the mosque itself. A lovely drawing exercise hopefully getting the domes and minarets right, and then the subtle shading, which I built up over a period, hoping to get the depth of shade correct. Hard for you to judge, I know, as the camera has bleached everything. So frustrating!

I had to do quite a lot of masking out in order to catch the bright spots where the light fell. So there we have it, the finished result

What to do next. I have some pictures taken on our local canal, which I would like to try. Also going to Spain in the not too distant future, so could be plenty of inspiration there too.

Thanks for reading, if you have done. Hope you enjoyed the result

 

Blue Mosque: First Wash

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Blue Mosque First Wash

Just as an interim, and whilst I think of it, I have masked out several items on this picture before putting down a base wash

The scene was brightly lit from the left and there is interesting sparkle on the trees, on the tiny background figures and on the mosque itself. Whether or not I will be successful in capturing these remains to be seen. I have always found them elusive and welcome any tips.

I have masked along the left-hand edge of the minarets so as to get a hard edge against the blue sky. Likewise some of the domes and the sides of the tree trunks. The colour of the palm tree trunks is brown going towards red in the bright light, so will probably mix some permanent rose in with the burnt sienna, hopefully to catch that richness of colour. Also the park benches are that colour too.

I have put a band of Indian yellow wet-in-wet where the flower beds are so hope that works

The rest is detailing and building up the darks to encourage the brightness of the brights. We shall see. This may well take me a while

Blue Mosque, Istanbul:Tonal Sketch

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Blue Mosque Sketch

I mentioned a few posts back that I wanted a smaller picture for the exhibition as they are popular sometimes. I will repeat the photograph later, which was one that I took when we were there in October

The light was very good and the shadows were long and distinct. I couldn’t make my mind up, whether to use the local colours or whether to try a sunset picture. I think as the shadows are good that I will stick with the local colours, with maybe a mental note to do a sunset picture another time. As we were driving from the airport to pick up our ship,the day before,  the sun was setting over Istanbul, and especially over the Mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent, another beautiful building.  The sky was orange going towards pink and the buildings were violet. Sadly my camera was still packed in the luggage hold. Maybe I will try that shot from memory one day.

I think the sketch will be very helpful. I have moved some trees away from the front of the building, and I think I have sorted out the shaded areas. I didn’t use ink this time for the sketch. Instead I used Paynes Grey watercolour, which I quite like for sketching. You can’t tell from the photograph, but the colour is a blue-black shade, which is quite pleasing. I sometimes think that I prefer the sketch to the finished painting. There is something about a sketch, perhaps because it is done quickly and without inhibition, that the work retains spontaneity and freshness. Easy to lose this, when working carefully on the actual painting.

I now have to transfer the sketch to the watercolour paper, which is the uninteresting part and then start the painting. Colours to be decided, so I will be a little while

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As you can see, some unnecessary stuff left out, and I have moved closer to the building itself

I am hoping on Saturday to get up to London and go to another exhibition at the Tate Gallery. The exhibition is entitled Art and Empire which should be interesting. When we were there for the Frank Auerbach exhibition, we looked in quickly, but this is quite a big exhibition so we left it for another day. If it is good I will write something about it. Certainly it will be as different to the Auerbach collection as chalk is to cheese

Istanbul: Bosphorus Waterfront: the finished painting

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Istanbul Bosphorus Waterfront

The finished painting!

I read somewhere that you have six seconds to catch a reader’s eye before they move on, so I thought I would put the picture first and talk about it afterwards

Once again the photograph has leeched out some of the colour. The painting itself is brighter and fresher than the jpeg, but for the moment is the best I can do

Quite a time consuming painting to do, but rewarding watching the finished view come towards you.

The palette was much as I foretold in one of my previous posts:

Phthalo Blue/ Cobalt Blue mix for the sky and water, with extra phthalo blue on the water

Raw Sienna/Naples Yellow as a base coat for all the buildings etc

Sap Green/raw sienna mix for trees

Transparent Brown/Ultramarine Violet for all shadows

Burnt Sienna for brickwork

Cadmium Red

I did use a little Permanent Rose as a glaze over the brickwork to give it a little zing. The burnt sienna first coat has to be rock hard for this. The result should look as though the sun is catching the building

For the white reflections from the boats, I lifted out the blue back to white paper, and then touched in some White Gouache or body paint, whichever you call it. Still watercolour but opaque

Fun to do, but nice to finish. This painting will go towards my exhibition at the Guildford Institute in May, which seems a long way off but really isn’t as I have much to do. I still need a snow scene for the exhibition and will be working on that next. As we so rarely have snow these days, I shall have to work from a photograph without snow, and put snow in. This is quite a test for the imagination, but it will be interesting to talk about, perhaps in the next post.

The web site has been busy over the last three months, which is nice. The only problem is I am selling paintings which were going in to the exhibition. Can only sell a painting once though, so best get working.

Frank Auerbach at Tate Britain and the Third Curse Of Euston

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Head of William Feaver 2003

Head of William Feaver 2003 by Frank Auerbach

We went to the Frank Auerbach exhibition at Tate Britain today, which is on until mid March. I am not at my best with modern painting, perhaps because I lack perception, or that third eye which may be needed to understand non-representational painting. But nevertheless I like to go to exhibitions like these if only to broaden my outlook

Auerbach is reputedly the nation’s greatest living painter. The exhibition has borrowed his paintings from across the continents, many from private collections, and is the first time they have been shown together. He paints in oils and acrylics, and puts the paint on very thickly. Some of his strokes are in fact furrows in the base paint, so thick is it. I found that I needed a very long view, about five or six metres before the image came together.

His work looks spontaneous, yet we are told that he would sand back 30, 50 or even 200 times before he achieved the image he wanted. Nightmare for portrait sitters who had to keep coming back

His studio is in Mornington Crescent in Camden, that area of London associated with other famous painters from Camden, like Walter Sickert and Spencer Gore. Plenty of paintings by Auerbach of this area of London, but I particularly like this misty one by Spencer Gore

Mornington Crescent by Spencer Gore

John Sutherland writing in the February issue of The Oldie Magazine informs us that this area is under threat from HS2, the proposed high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham. Half an hour will be clipped from the journey time, and in return we lose part of London’s art heritage.

As well as losing Mornington Crescent, the construction of HS2 will have dire consequences for Camden Lock and Camden Market, which is sought out by thousands of tourists each year, not only local but from overseas as well, so famous is it.

He describes this as the Third Curse of Euston. The first was the destruction of Euston in 1837, then the destruction of the Great Doric Arch, over which Betjeman and Pevsner wept in 1962 and now HS2, in return for which we lose an important chunk of London’s art and architectural heritage

It just doesn’t seem right, does it?

 

Istanbul:our condolences

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Our deepest sympathies to the people of Istanbul, for yet another terrorist outrage in your country today

We were there on this spot in October, so makes it feel closer. Crazy misguided people who can’t be reasoned with are a threat to us all. Somehow they must not win

Such a lovely city, Istanbul. People should keep visiting

Istanbul: Finished Drawing transferred to Watercolour Paper

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Not very often that I am moved to include a quotation, but this one in last week’s Painter magazine, seemed very appropriate for artists, no matter what standard they have reached.

” Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art”       Andy Warhol

The drawing has now been transferred onto watercolour paper, seemingly without mishap

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I have left the shading out, and just left the line work for guidance. The image has unfortunately cropped some of the drawing out to the left and right hand sides. I did actually achieve the length of 43 centimetres that I wanted.

I didn’t do very much masking out, just a few gulls hovering over the surface and two tiny windows on the Galata Tower which appear to be reflecting sunlight. The boats, I know are brilliant white, but I have chosen to go with the old adage” the darker the darks, the brighter the lights”. In other words if I can make the shaded sides of the boats dark enough, then the rest will appear white. That is the theory. I have done it before, but watch this one go wrong.

I have chosen the following palette, which if I include the mixes as one colour, then I will have a palette of six, which would be quite effective if I can stick to it

Base colour: Raw Sienna/ Naples Yellow blend which is my favourite hot colour for buildings

Shadows : Ultramarine Violet/ Transparent Brown blend

Burnt Sienna

French Ultramarine

Sap Green/Raw Sienna blend for trees

Cadmium Red for those foreground red spots like flags, life belts etc

Not that I am above changing my mind as I go along but that is the palette that I want to stick to. I shall get some detail done before posting again

Just changing the subject, the Frank Auerbach exhibition at Tate Britain finishes the end of this month, so I am hoping to go on Saturday, unless I get an urgent call from someone, wanting me to do something else

I don’t know anything much about him, other than he is Britain’s most celebrated living artist. He appears to paint unrecognisable portraits which seems to be a contradiction in terms. However, I am speaking without firsthand knowledge, so will go with an open mind and reserve judgement until after I have seen the exhibition. I am not very good at appreciating images that are not recognisable, which could be an indictment of me, of course. It will be interesting, whatever happens

Istanbul, Bosphorus: finished preparatory sketch

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I said that I would publish the finished preparatory sketch, which will be my tonal guide for the painting stage. That doesn’t mean that I won’t change things as I go along. Not thrilled with the way that boat in the bottom right has turned out, which seems to be lost amongst a clump of trees. Still, that is the benefit of the tonal sketch on cartridge paper, which means that you can make and correct your mistakes, without damaging the surface of the watercolour paper.

Galata Tower finished tonal sketch

Now comes the laborious task of moving the sketch across to the sheet of watercolour paper, which will not make for very interesting reading, so the next post, I think, will deal with starting the painting.

Choice of colours will be interesting. There seem to be plenty of reds and greens which is nice. Definitely my old favourite of raw sienna mixed with Naples yellow across the buildings for some reflected sunshine, and brown shadows to heighten the bright bits

If I get this right, could be a nice painting. We will see