'Breezy Afternoon on Arcadia of Henley'

20 x 16 inches, oil on canvas

So, it's been a while since I've done a blog......

Basically a 3 session painting (around a day's work). I was most interesting in trying to capture the sense of movement. It was quite a breezy day and I loved the way the duster was been blown around. Painted as always from a photo. The boat belongs to a good friend on mine and I was actually working on it doing some painting, cutting in the gloss work around the windows. The location in on Henley Reach. Temple Island is being hidden behind the flag. 

Anyway, thanks for dropping by...enjoy!

Kind things,

Steve

Morning on the Thames

If the conditions are right you get that sort of low laying mist across the surface of the river which the sun burns away with great speed. But for a few short minutes thee most wonderful effects can be seen. 

16 x 20 inches Oil on canvas

Flooding on the Thames

Two paintings of the recent flooding on the Thames. Both pictures are 20 x 30 inches. Oil on canvas.

Close up to a painting

How to spot an artist at an art exhibition?

They'll be the ones with their noses about half an inch away from the pictures.

It's not a great way to see a painting but artists want to be able to get that close because then they can see the technique. For the non artist it can be a bit of a shock to see just how crude it all looks when you get near to even the most famous of works. It just becomes a mass of blobs and streaks and you begin to wonder whether you might just have been better to have stuck to looking at them in books. But the painter gains much from such chances. They get to understand how the artist built up the work. What came first? Was it quickly painted, wet paint into wet paint or does it become clear that days elapsed between those various layers. One of the great myths about impressionism is that the pictures were hurriedly executed out in the field, all in a rush. Close inspection soon shows that for most of these pictures it simply wasn't so.

So here's one of my own with some close ups included. Early(ish) on a June morning about a month before the start of the regatta. The new floating grandstand is in place and the pontoons that make up the work platforms are still to be seen.....and it's horribly, horribly splodgy! : )

Take care.......

Two landscape paintings of Marlow

Wandered downstream from Henley last Friday to the next large town which is Marlow. It took about 2 and a half hours to get there, the ground being a little muddy in places. Saw a bloke painting and so I went and had a chat with him. Turned out to be Roy Connelly, he has an exhibition coming up at Island Fine Art on the Isle of Wight at the end of the month. I've also got some pictures at the same gallery, so it was nice to meet him and talk art for a while. I don't think he minded being interrupted as it gave him an excuse to put the brushes down for a bit.

Anyway as you can see I got a couple of paintings from the trip. They'll be more to do once Spring gets underway and there's a bit of green on the trees.

A larger landscape painting.

It tends to be the case that, after a time, most artists find a size of canvas that they are comfortable with and thereafter the bulk of their work will be to that size. When I started painting about 15 years ago I nearly always worked at 10 x 14 inches. Gradually I've found myself painting larger pictures and now use 16 x 20 inches for nearly all of my landscapes...but every now and again......

I've had this canvas hanging around for about 3 years. Because of it's size it's been stored under the bed, but I knew it was there. All 30 x 40 inches of it!

So how to approach it?

I decided the easiest way was to repaint a 16 x 20 picture that I felt had worked well enough to be scaled up. This made things rather easier and I could have a degree of confidence about it that would not otherwise have been there.

It took about a week to paint. It really is a case of just using larger brushes at the start. There were not really any problems and it compares well enough to the smaller version. Of course the distance that the picture needs to be viewed at is such that I have to open a door a stand halfway up the stairs to get far enough away from it, but I could do with the exercise.

Shall I paint any more large pictures...perhaps...we'll have to wait and see.

Painting 'en plein air' part 2

So, here we go again! Off for more painting in the great outdoors! I decided for my second trip out to go to my beloved river Thames. Going downstream from Henley, there are public footpaths on both sides of the river but one side is far more heavily used than the other. I took the quiet side. My destination was a series of large, very low lying meadows, which are sometimes used for grazing sheep or cattle. One field in particular had always suggested itself; it contained several dead trees, their trunks stripped of bark - they would stand out, almost white against the green of the living trees.

I collected my things together and off I went.

The trees had been cut down!

Not only that but the field had been recently mown and now looked a million other fields.

I decided to stay!

It started raining!

I shouldn't have been surprised; the signs had been there. The forecast was for good weather and I had set off in strong sunshine only wearing a shirt. I was in England!

I decided to stay!

The painting went OK. There were sheep, which always add something and there were still some stacked tree trunks in the middle of the field.

It rained some more and I started to get cold!

I had been wise enough to place myself under a few trees in the corner of the field, so I was under some cover. The sheep realised this and began to move closer... Would they try to claim the trees for their own? Should I embrace one for bodily warmth? What would my father say when confronted with the news 'son found dead clutching sheep'?!

'I'll just get his mother, I'm sure she'd like to have a word with you!'

The rain stopped and on I went. I finished after about two hours - the canvases are only small, 10 x 8 inches - so I packed up and started back. But the day was still young and I had another canvas with me, so I found a view across the river and did a second picture. I include both here for you to see as well as the fully worked up picture from the last blog.

Now what's the forecast for Thursday?

Two new landscapes

I thought it might be nice to do my first real blog on here by showing you a couple of my latest paintings. They're both from near to where I live here in Henley-On-Thames. The first is from about two and half miles downstream at Hambleden Lock...

The second is down near to the finishing line of the famous Royal Regatta. The work towards preparing the course and all of the associated marquees, grandstands etc. has been going on for about three months now. This painting is a view across the river and on the left, shows the floating platform which is being used for much of the work...

Both pictures are oil on canvas, sized 20 x 24 inches. Please feel free to ask any questions that you want and I'll be happy to try and answer.