Backhouse Park

After a few weeks without much opportunity to dip into the turps I managed a couple of hours in the local park hoping to produce my autumn masterpiece. Foolish me. What a struggle? Whilst not my usual subject matter I thought lessons learned elsewhere might aid the process but to no avail. Choosing such a complicated scene without simplifying and editing sufficiently well did not help the progress of the piece. However there are signs that some of the lessons along the way have not been totally forgotten. I am starting to achieve better feelings of depth in some of my work. Painting is like many other activities, the more often you are able to do it the more comforatble you are with the tools. Moral - get out more often and if not possible to get out then paint indoors.


Backhouse Park - Oil on canvas board 12" x 10"

Another Sea Stack

Recent works in watercolour have interrupted my trips to the beach, but true to form I found time to head out and select one of the many stacks along our coast as a subject. The result is below.

Returning to the same subject matter is providing me with a wealth of material from which I can make judgements about any development that is taking place in my painting and this latest example has given me lots to think about. There is a better range of values in this piece and areas like the sky and the foreground read much better than in some earlier works. I put this down to taking a greater degree of care in blocking in prior to beginning the main painting. It was particularly helpful in establishing the value range and foreground detail. Clearly another set of lessons learned.


Sea Stack, Souter - Oil on canvas board 12" x 10"

Joseph Skipsey

If you have been reading regularly you will know that one of the exercises we did when working with Charles Reid was to use old photographs of people to hone our figurative work. Having brought that idea home I decided to start a little project whereby I would continue to practise in similar fashion but to use images that had some relationship with the local area. So off to the library to seek out source material. It was easily found, pictures galore of the working people of NorthEast England. As you can imagine mining features strongly in such imagery and I decided to start with something from that industry. I discovered a rather haunting image of Joseph Skipsey, known as the Pitman Poet, and used it for my first effort.


Joseph Skipsey, Pitman Poet - Watercolour on Not paper 14" x 11"

Holiday Sketches

We've just returned from holiday, a week in Madeira, our first time on the island. It was a strange week in terms of weather. We had the expected sunshine and the first rains since February and boy does it rain when it comes. The combination of warmth and the wet ensured that conditions were humid. This is the first time I have tried painting watercolour in such humidity and found that it presents interesting problems. For a start the paper, once wet, seems to remain damp for a long time making it much more difficult to judge when to apply new washes. Almost everything becomes wet in wet and whilst that is great fun it isn't always necessarily what you want to achieve.



Enough of the gripes, I did manage to get a few sessions where I could sit down with my sketch book and run on some paint. The small watercolour box and a sketchbook were the only gear that I had with me but it is enough when time is tight and you have to fit it in amongst the travelling around to familiarise oneself with a new holiday venue.



So on with the pictures. All of the shots below are from the sketchbook and represent rapidly executed, unfinished pieces. Even though they aren't finished they do represent a much better memory of the experience than the inevitable photographs.

The first picture was painted across the double page spread to encompass the distant headland of Sao Laurenco. Raindrops provide some of the spatter evident in the sea and there are traces of paint transferred from one page to the other as it was rapidly closed to avoid the arriving storm.




Machico - Watercolour on Not paper

Another mixed day, some bright light, some cloud and rain but the anglers, like elsewhere in the world are not deterred by the weather.



Ribeira Brava - Watercolour on Not paper

At last a morning of sunshine and a trip out to the extreme Eastern end of the island. Fabulous cliff top scenery. Regular readers will know this to be a particular weakness of mine.




Porto Sao Laurenco - Watercolour on Not paper

The next picture shows a lady working at lifting vegetation left after cropping. In the background is one of the 'A' line houses typical of the area around Santana.

Santana - Watercolour on Not paper

As painting becomes increasingly important to me the challenge of ensuring that travel incorporates the opportunity to paint looms larger. Next year we intend taking a longer trip over an extended period and whilst carrying watercolour kit is not too difficult, I'm trying to get my head around the logistics of getting oil gear away with me as well. Anyone with bright ideas about the travel problems of oil painters would be welcome commentators on the blog.

Back to the Beach

Didn't have time to load this prior to spending a week away. Went off to the beach again and carried on with my knife experimentation. There are aspects of this that I like a lot and others that still need refinement, in particular the precise tonal relationships between different promontories and the intensity of hue in the sea. Nevertheless many of the values read true so I'd have to consider it a step in the right direction.


Seaham Stack - Oil on canvas board 12" x 10"

Charles Reid Workshop - Final Day

Last day, why does a week like this seem to fly? Daily lessons in the importance of all aspects of technique have a real intensity that tires, stimulates and turns the brain to mush as we try to assimilate the wealth of information imparted by a teacher of Charles' talent.

The final demonstration was to be another still life using many of the elements from the previous day. As in previous days empahasis was laid on correct use of the brush and the first photograph shows the technique of using the middle/ lower part of the brush to make the stroke rather than wear away the point on the abrasive surface of the paper.


Brush stroke

The next sequence of pictures show the progression of the latest painting.

Still Life - Contour drawing, Charles Reid

Still Life - Charles Reid, first stage of bouquet

Complete Bouquet - Charles Reid

Work on other elements - Charles Reid

Still Life - Charles Reid

Another top class demonstration, leaving us all wondering how we can emulate it with our own still life efforts during the afternoon.

The last session was in the evening when the opportunity to purchase the demonstration works was set up. Each work was priced and everyone had the opportunity to express an interest in any of the paintings. Where there were a number of expressions of interest a draw was made to determine who would have the painting. Needless to say all of the paintings attracted interest and none of them were going to be responsible for excess baggage charges on the way back to the States. We then had the opportunity to view all of the works done by students during the couse of the week, an impressive exhibition.

Workshops like this one are fairly intense affairs and can be difficult if they are not organised in a sensible fashion. Fortunately this one had two outstanding organisers making sure that things ran smoothly. First of all, Jane Duke who had assumed the responsibility of putting the whole thing together, ensuring that access to the oversubscribed workshop was done in a fair and equitable fashion and then doing all of the background organisation/ administration that is essential if participants are going to have a trouble - free experience. Suffice it to say that she achieved all of this and managed to deal with the inevitable day to day wrinkles without losing the smile and enthusiasm that are her trademarks. Secondly, Charles' wife, Judy, who organises him so that he can concentrate on what the participants want. She makes certain that everyone feels they have had sufficient and appropriate individual attention, even down to creating rotas for front row seats at the demonstrations. All in all, a formidable back up team.

And lastly, the participants themselves. Getting a good mix of people together is not always an easy thing to do, even in circumstances where it is possible to hand pick the group. In a group like this where they are gathered on a first come, first served basis it should be nearly impossible. This group defied expectations in being cohesive, friendly and serious about their work - a great bunch of people. So a few shots of them to wind up proceedings.

Latifa and Gill

Jane Wright

Suzannah, Astrid, Betsey and Ingebjorg

Emily

Brit

Peter

You will have gathered by now that this was a week to savour. I can think of no more appropriate way to sign off than leave you with an image that encapsulates the experience for me, the palette of the Master.

Palette

No part of this article can be reproduced without permission

Charles Reid Workshop - Day 5 - Part 2

After lunch it was decided to introduce an optional session. Urchfont is not far from one of the most spectacular ancient monuments in the British Isles, Avebury. The fascinating collection of standing stones spread over a number of fields make the largest stone circle known and for numbers of course participants, particularly our Norwegian and American friends the opportunity to visit this monument was too good to miss. Others more familiar with Avebury were happy to spend the afternoon working at their still life.

Charles kits up for Avebury

For me the opportunity to make a light hearted watercolour sketch of Charles at work seemed too good to miss, so I positioned myself behind him as he worked.

Charles Reid at Avebury - Mick Carney

Followers of Charles' work will know the importance he places on his sketchbook work and this was a unique opportunity to watch him at work in his sketchbook. An ability to record landscape in this fashion is a great boon to the artist who works in the studio. The effective noting technique that the sketchbook provides gives the painter more useful information than photographs and should be a cornerstone of our practice.

Peering into Charles' sketchbook is an education and the first piece below is his sketch produced while I sat behind him.

Avebury - Charles Reid

Unable to resist the temptation to look through the sketchbook I came across the picture below. It had a real resonance for me having had the pleasant surprise of the subject sitting down to dinner next to Sheila and myself on a recent holiday in Venice. The subject is of course another painter and a painting friend of Charles. He needs no introduction from me.

Tony Bennett at work in his studio - Charles Reid

No part of this article can be reproduced without permission