Cornwall May 12 - Preamble

At last I have had time to sift through the 31 paintings and 9 postcard studies I made in the 8 days of another brilliant trip to Cornwall organised by David Pilgrim. This time I persuaded my painting pal Michael Worthington to join us and we drove down in my old 'van with windows' Berlingo. As David and Mike Richardson have already reported the weather was mixed but we made the best of it. My 'bag', was also mixed but I was quite pleased with some of them and others that did not quite come off will still be useful as reference material. The biggest change for me was in adopting a long thin format for many of the beach scenes and in starting the 'postcards'. The latter are little 6x4 inch studies that I now do before or after a bigger painting - maybe to capture detail or more often the 'wholeness' of the scene including the average tones of the big shapes. I will do a 'main post' of the better paintings next time - probably during the Jubilee weekend, between parties! For now, here are two examples of 'long thin' and postcard.


Figure on Beach Sennen - Postcard




Sennen Beach, Incoming Tide (8x15 inches)



Dorset Coast At Easter

We had a great time based at Jackie and Dave Hall's house near Blandford - David Bachmann, David Pilgrim, Valerie Pirlot and that old chap with the glasses.  The weather was either lovely or lousy but we made the best of it, each doing a dozen paintings over the 4 days.

On Good Friday, David P (our driver), Valerie and I dumped the kit at Jackie's and headed straight for Handfast Point and Old Harry rocks.  I worked against the light for the first one, looking towards Swanage and then had a less successful attempt at Old Harry with the tide out.  The others plunged straight in with Old Harry, which was probably a better decision.

Handfast Point Against The Light

Valerie working with the light.  You need the umbrella to shade the canvas, otherwise there is a danger that the painting will be too dark.

David Pilgrim at Handfast Point - note the use of the umbrella for shade, again



The next day I led us on a fruitless trip round Holes Bay and Poole, until we decided to cut loose and head for the car park above Durdle Door.  Just as expensive as Lulworth but a much shorter walk.  Two paintings later we decided that this would be a great location for Easter Day, so headed back there on the Sunday with David Bachmann who had arrived from Seville on the Saturday.

                                            Back of Durdle Door - Saturday Afternoon

                                            The Downs above Lulworth, Holy Saturday
We blitzed the place on Sunday, each doing 5 paintings.  The crowds were amazing.  I had not realised that this part of my beloved County had become so popular.

                          Swyre Head and Bat's Head from above Durdle Door, Easter Sunday

                                                           Durdle Door, Easter Day
Easter Monday was a washout but we each struggled with an oil sketch of Lyme harbour.  I felt like throwing mine in the sea afterwards: the others fared much better.  We headed back to a big log fire and Richard Pikesley and Ken Howard on DVD in the afternoon. 

                                          David Bachmann and Valerie sheltering at Lyme
At this point the others were probably becoming bemused by the possibility that I might be related to half the county.  I still have loads of relatives in Dorset.  Dairy farmers and dairymen moved round inside the county but not generally outside it, inter-marrying all the time, so that by my generation we were connected to dozens of Dorset farming folk.  A few escaped to the New World: I still get e-mails from Deb Palmer-Redfern in Kentucky, with whom I share a GGGGG Grandfather.  There are no lords and ladies in any of my lines: I am a true paysan!

                                            Dorset Peasant Painting In The Rain, Lyme

On Monday night, whilst packing, Mr Pilgrim and Mlle Pirlot made the brave decision that we should head off very early in the morning, not home but for Old Harry because the weather would be fine until lunchtime.  What a brilliant choice.  The 4 of us did two paintings each of the brilliantly lit stacks with chalky water swirling beneath them before rain threatened. 

                                                     Old Harry, Tuesday Morning

Old Harry, Noon on Tuesday

We dashed back and just got Valerie onto her train from Salisbury.  David, who had driven at least 500 miles already, then took me home.

Long Time No Post!

The sap is rising: it is time to throw off the Winter blues and welcome the Spring.  I have had a patchy start to the year but sometimes that gives me the impetus to knuckle down to some worthwhile stuff once the weather warms up. 

I have been keeping my hand in with the pastels by doing small nudes as exercises.  Here are two of them:

Also, I have been attending the Brass Monkey sessions that the Wapping Group run in the Winter.  The one in the Inns of Court was very enjoyable.  Here is the second of two panels painted that day (I am following Valerie's advice and putting in titles):

Middle Temple Gardens 23 Feb 12

Sonning Lock was excellent as a venue and although I did not do it justice I had two honest attempts at it from different viewpoints:

Sonning Lock Looking Downstream 22 Mar 12

Sonning Lock Looking Upstream 22 Mar 12

I have been painting in the village in the fine weather, too:

Beckley High Street 26 Mar 12

 

The Postman, Beckley 28 Mar 12

 

Walkers, Beckley 28 Mar 12

 

Sorties to surrounding areas have been unusually few for me - probably because I am desperate to rescue my garden from 10 years of neglect.  However I have managed the odd oil sketch:

Oxford From Shotover Plain 21 Mar 12

Oxford From Shotover Plain II 21 Mar 12

Burning Hedge Cuttings, Eaton 10 Mar 12

Elsfield Churchyard 3 Mar 12

Sheep, Elsfield 1 Mar 12

 

I am now looking forward to painting with my pals at Easter, in my native Dorset.

What Happened To January?

Suddenly it is nearly Valentine's Day - a significant one for Maddy's family as it is a family name and birthdays tend to be concentrated around it (my family name is Gaius) - but where did January go?  I seem to have spent far too long in the studio fiddling about and not enough time outside.

I did manage a short burst at the beginning of January and on some days the weather was kind as this little 8x6 inch panel shows:

I worked some of the sketches up into pastels - some more successful then others:

 and:

I have also been working steadily on several larger oils of the Venice sketches.  I tend to start with a charcoal and acrylic underpainting - to see if the composition is likely to work.  I find scaling up very difficult, especially if I change the aspect ratio of the panel or canvas, so charcoal and acrylic is a quick way of shuffling the main elements around before I commit to oils.  This 12x16 of the Redentore and the Dogana shows how they are started.  I then add acrylic until I can see how the shapes and tones will work and then launch into oils to finish:

I have also been having fun with monotypes in oil paint on an acrylic-primed paper.  I am just feeling my way at present but eventually I hope to develop a reliable technique and perhaps then add further work into the basic print (in the same way that Miro used to add colour after a print had been pulled from the plate, thereby creating a unique piece):

Among The Angels

Fuchsia (after Mervyn Peake)

Yesterday I had my first decent day of the year - bitterly cold but fine, looking out over Otmoor from various locations.  First I just had to join the other villagers on our 'piste' - a favourite part of the hill on which we live that becomes a 'run' in winter.  The ice was perfect and I broke the village record.  No-one has ever reached the stile at the bottom end of the field (where the slope finally runs out) in the 29 years we have been here but yesterday at least 3 of us managed to bury ourselves in the hedge next to it.  I was using an old, wooden Bavarian toboggan, quite long with narrow runners: the other two had modern plastic things.  After all that excitement I walked away from the crowds to paint 3 panels throughout the late morning and afternoon in cold sunshine:

Towards Otmoor Range

Beckley Park

Middle Park Farm and the Oxford Plain

Olivia

I had a very enjoyable Thursday painting at the Mall Galleries during the ROI 'art event' evening.  I was still catching up on sleep from the Venice trip but thought I would give it a go anyway.  One of the 3 models was Olivia Wileman, Peter's daughter.  Her father was also a model that evening - as well as running the event - but I chose to sandwich myself between Lucy McKie and David Curtis in front of Olivia, so I could see how it should be done whilst painting my version.  I made her narrowish shoulders a little too narrow and had my usual problem with over-stated shadows (as noticed by David, inevitably) but at the end of the session felt that I had made a reasonable stab at it.  Actually one of the best things about the evening is the chance to meet up with members and non-member friends over wine and mincepies before we all become buried in the Christmas extravaganzas.

Venice

We had a fantastic time.  Eleven of us went and most of us stayed 5 nights, so we had 4 full days and one morning before the journey home.  As we had nothing to do but eat, drink, sleep and paint each of us seemed to get through quite a few painting panels!  I did 17 small plein air paintings, which was probably just above average.  Fanatics like Roy Connelly and Karl Terry did many more.  Others such as David Pilgrim hit the happy mean of about 14 and probably benefited from the less frantic pace.  The trouble is there are things to paint everywhere you look so you just keep going!

I was quite pleased with some of my efforts and there were no complete duds, so I went home happy.  The others all seemed to produce lovely work, which was displayed temporarily on racks in Ken Howard's studio where 4 of them were staying.  They were a great gang and it was a privilege to be with them.  The abiding memory for David and me is of Roger Dellar painting on the Accademia Bridge with Lynn (the world's only plein air knitter?) sitting beneath him making a jumper.  We also caught a 'brain worm' (a tune you can't get out of your head) from some old guy playing an accordion in Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo.  He played it for most of the 4 hours we were there, each having two gos at the Colleoni Monument.

I want to leave most of the sketches completely alone to retain their freshness.  I might risk adjusting some of the remainder but one often loses more than one gains.  Here are a few of them:

My first effort:

Later that day:

More Accademia-Salute the next day!

Into St Mark's the same day:

Finally we reached the Riva, looking at the San Giorgio Maggiore:

Two more in Dorsoduro that day and then it started to rain, so on the third day I tried Campo Santo Stefano:

Even heavier rain in the Piazetta:

The traghetto stop at San Samuele allowed me to get in the obligatory palazzo across the Grand Canal:

Finally that day (still on my own), the Redentore from the Zatterre:

On the fourth day we did the Colleoni but I became rather tired of it!

Then down to the Molo for this view of the Dogana with Redentore behind:

A final go at the Salute from the Molo finished off the last full day and on the morning we left I had another wet 6x8 session in the Piazetta:

By this time I was 'painted out' and David and I spent the rest of the day Christmas shopping.

With The Wappers

Michael Richardson, who is a member of the prestigious Wapping Group, invited me to join in the 'Brass Monkey' sessions that they have in Winter.  Last Wednesday the venue was Green Park.  I set off from Oxford at 6am on a cold and overcast-but-dry day and for 3 hours appeared to be the only painter in the park.  Then John Killens came by and reassured me that I was indeed painting with the Wappers, even if only he and Rob Adams had turned up for the morning session.  I guess others came later as the weather brightened but I had to head off after a particularly enjoyable pub lunch in Ye Grapes, Shepherd Market.  The Market used to be the red light district of Mayfair but now has an air of respectability - at least in the daytime.

I managed two small panels.  This was the first one:

And this the second one:

I could have done with another inch on the bottom of the second one as the foreground figure is too near the lower edge.  I tend to add the figures after the rest of the composition has been developed (and so risk this sort of problem) whereas one ought to include them from the start.