Love Story
Bedroom view, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 30 inches, SOLD
Barnes View, Oil on Canvas, approx. 60 x 30 inches
There’s one week left to see a group show in which I have a few recent landscapes, including this one painted from my bedroom window. I don’t usually spend so long on a landscape or paint a landscape in such detail because of the logistics of going to the same place and setting things up each time, but given that this set-up was only 3 feet from by bed, I really had no excuse. I started it in early spring, in sunshine. It then rained non-stop for a month, which made it hard to work on, so in the end it’s a mixture of early and late spring. The little black dog, confusingly, is called ‘Bridge’, not Bridget, and belongs to my neighbours Jan Pieńkowski and David Walser. Bridge, a streetwise mongrel from Battersea, and my dog, Woody, a pampered high pedigree beagle from the Home Counties, who sadly died in 2009, fell in love at first sight. Although they couldn’t have children, they had a strong and enduring platonic relationship, and were ‘ever the best of friends’.
To to see the original painting, do go along to Gabriel Fine Art in Waterloo. The exhibition runs until June 8th. Here is the flyer:
Hawthorn
Hawthorn, Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches
Hawthorn, Oil on Canvas, 20 x 24 inches
Painted on Hampstead Heath last Sunday, with the City in the background.
The Importance of a Path
Country Lane, Suffolk, Oil on Canvas, 19 x 12 inches
I have a vague memory of reading a story in which the narrator stays in a guest house or at a friend’s country home and sees a picture on the wall. The picture fascinates him because it has a path in it, and he imagines walking down that path – and so the story kicks off… What happens afterwards, I don’t remember – and I don’t remember anything else about the story – neither the author, nor the title. So that’s not very helpful…
However, I’ve always thought a path was a useful thing to have in a landscape. Monet, Pisarro, Sisley, they’re all very keen on them. It draws the viewer in imaginatively. It’s also nice to have a mysterious figure in the middle distance.
Orford quay, Oil on canvas, 20 x 12 inches, SOLD
Orford Quay (Suffolk), Oil on Canvas, 14 x 23 inches
Terracotta
Terracotta figures, Oil on Canvas, 31 x 40 inches
For some time now I’ve been going to a sculpture class every Wednesday evening at Heatherley’s School of Art (tutored by Gil Whyman). I’ve done so many of these terracotta figures that they’re taking over my house. The terracotta is bright orange when fired, which bothers me a bit, but I thought it might work in a painting. I like their bored/bemused expressions and the languid poses. I placed the water bottles under the counter to complement the orange colour. They were empty, and I had to fill them up to get the right blue.
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