Recent Paintings

The following paintings were in response to the subject 'Winter Scene' at a recent AVA session. After the last lot I posted on here  - including quite a bit of dross - were greeted with a deafening silence I determined to only  post paintings in future that I consider acceptable. In this instance I actually did two in a roughly two hour session, but took the trouble to do both drawings the previous day in my'studio' so I could concentrate on the actual painting. I find when I do it this way I get a better result. It allows me to be rather more careful in my approach rather than slapdash. This includes studying the subject (and guide photograph) at leisure.

'Red Squirrel enjoying a winters meal' - 30 x 40 cm Cornwall 210lb (450gsm) matt surface

I enjoyed painting and drawing this one. One of the main colours was the Graham Quinacridone Rust (PO48), which is a gorgeous paint. Annoyingly Graham is only available in the UK from W E Lawrence of Hove, who offer a good price when you buy 6 tubes but have a fixed carriage charge of  £4.95p. This adds nearly 82p to each tube. They refuse to budge on this citing 'superior service' whatever that means. I find the companies that offer free carriage over a certain value - typically £40 - give a perfectly good service. The same pigment PO48 is offered by Daniel Smith - available from Jacksons and others  as Quinacridone Burnt Orange, very similar  perhaps slightly darker. Although Daniel Smith paints are  dearer than Graham I'll have to bite the bullet and order a tube when I next place an order for the AVA. As for the Cornwall paper it produced a good result and was easy to work on. Being heavier than my normal 140lb Waterford it resists buckling as the blocks are very well made. In any event  I don't find this a problem as I don't use heavy washes. The size is slightly smaller than the 16" x 12" Waterford so I'll probably stick to Waterford. Because it is a heavier weight  Cornwall doesn't work out much cheaper.

'Robin enjoying a meal' - Waterford 16"x 132" High White 140lb (300gsm) not

This was done in the remaining time at the AVA session after I'd painted the squirrel. Less than an hour and as you can see it is a minimalist painting. I'm quite happy with it. If Hercules Brabazon did some of his best paintings in 30 minutes...........!!! I'm not foolish enough to compare my work to his though! Colours are Cerulean, Raw Sienna with the reds Cadmium Red Light and some Quinacridone Rust for the breast with Quinacridone Rose and Perylene Maroon for the berries. I think  that's it

Just a Sketch

At a recent AVA meeting the subject was Xmas cards - possibly my least favourite topic. I must admit I stretched the subject as wide as possible by presenting my effort as representing a design for a card (!) It is a small sketch and I repeated the recent Robin painting, although slightly differently as the colours used were not identical, principally as I forgot to bring the Translucent Orange from Schminke, rapidly becoming a favourite colour. This was done on a small Fontenay block that I discovered amongst my paper stocks.

12" X 9" Fontenay

I first made a drawing of the robin and then painted it using Cadmium Orange and Cadmium Red Pale plus some Quinacridone Gold for the red breast. The blue is Cerulean and the other colours Raw Sienna and Raw Umber. The eyes and bill include Ivory Black.

When  all was dry I added impressions of holly leaves drawing with the brush. I mixed up the colours using Sap Green, Green Gold and Hookers for the greens, adding Cobalt Teal Blue and  Perylene Maroon, letting them mix on the paper.

Brushes were the Isabey and Escoda retractables, mostly in the 4 to 6 range of sizes. Just a sketch, nothing more which took about forty minutes excluding breaks.

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Robin

The `dear' little Robin is one of our most loved birds but in reality they can be little monsters. Robins are very territorial and the male will only allow the female into his territory during the breeding season. Males can be very vicious and fights to the death between two are not uncommon. In my small garden Robins have nested amongst the pots in a cold frame, among the pots in my greenhouse, in ivy on the garage wall, and twice in an open fronted nest box. These are the ones I discovered because on other occasions the first sighting was young robins hopping around. The first two were well advanced before being discovered and at one stage I had young Robins clambering around the greenhouse benches. Unfortunately those in the nest box were predated, by what I don't know for certain but probably Magpies.

 `Where's my next meal coming from?' approx 30cm x 40cm Gerstaeker 200gsm 

I was prompted to do this by my friend Hap, because of an initiative by the artist Jean Haines. This is called `A Robin for Charity', the idea being that you sell the painting and give the proceeds to charity. As I'm not exhibiting at the present time I'm not sure how to do this. In case anyone thinks this is a cop  out we do have two monthly standing orders to charities, one the RSPCC, and usually give to one of the Xmas appeals. 

This is a modest little painting done quite quickly. I first completed the drawing using a mechanical  No5 2B lead. The eyes and beak and surrounding area were painted first with Ivory Black for the darks. The red breast is a combination of Transparent Orange (Schminke PO71), Cadmium Orange (Maimeri PO20) and Cadmium Red with a little Quinacridone Gold (Daniel Smith (PO49). Mostly mixed on the paper.

The lighter areas are various combinations of Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Teal Blue (Daniel Smith PG50), Raw Umber, Raw Sienna and Quinacridone Gold. The ground the Robin is standing on is a mixture of Raw Umber, Raw Sienna and Burnt Umber. I sprayed this area with W & N granulation medium. Brushes were the Isabeys sizes  6,8 and the retractables. I think that's it.