Exhibition News

Whilst externally not much has been happening, I have been very busy with two very exciting projects, the first of which I can now reveal is an exhibition of 13 landscapes from the Peak District.

The images have been taking shape for the last 4 years, inspired by regular visits around Kerridge and Tegg’s Nose Country Park.

Shutlingsloe from Tegg’s Nose

All of the works have been completed in Acrylic, which is a bit of a departure from my usual watercolour. This has given me the freedom to experiment and try some colour combinations that would have been hard to achieve with Watercolours. Remixing and over painting until I found the shade I had visualized.

The 13 landscapes are from various walking and sketching excursions that were taken in and around the Peak District during the last 4 summers and have helped me develop a consistency for the colours and light conditions found around this time of year. The often overcast skies and earthy greens being transformed by the stunning heather and the magnificent sunsets.

The exhibition opens tomorrow at Tegg’s Nose Country Park and I’m pleased to say there are a limited of number of works for sale.

If you are around the area and would like to visit, the exhibition is free to view and is open from now till the end of September.

As for the second project that will hopefully be revealed post Christmas 2023.

Thanks for reading.

Watercolour review

I’ve had a few days of throwing myself into painting, it seems a bit of a shame to be sitting in a studio given these fabulous days, but I think the time is coming where we can get back to painting en Plein air.

One thing that has amazed me with the amount of time we now have for painting is how my paint you can get through. It had resulted in me using up all of those squished tubes and trying to substitute different colour combinations.

One of my favourite paintings has been an old rusty bucket that I first painted in 2018 in New Zealand.

This subject does have a lot going for it; it’s a simple enough subject matter but tells a story and has some battle scars to prove it, the subject also emerges nicely from the dark recess it was in and has a rusty metal sibling which helps with the narrative. In the original I had failed to get the dark dark enough and it didn’t blend seamlessly in with the visible detail of the subject. This produced a disconnect in the image. It is interesting that when painting a really dark space it does need to be quite a flat wash and therefore you need to mix up a lot of paint, otherwise you end up with shapes in the not so dark darkness. Both having enough paint mixed up and blending the light and dark seamlessly are challenging in Plein air painting, especially when your art kit is a tiny field box with three small mixing areas. I guess it highlights some of the differences between studio work and open air work.

All kitted out

Amazingly there have been some stunning warm, sunny and not so windy days recently which have allowed me to get back out doors again, bit it’s interesting how easy it is to forget part of your kit, which can be quite frustrating when you’ve spent 30 minutes walking to your location. So I thought I’d make a little list which then turned into this blog.

Here is my kit in all its glory. This is my acrylic kit, the watercolour kit is a little different. A list is shown below:

1. Field easel (Jakar) I chose this because it is light weight and the controls are chunky, it takes seconds to put up and adjust and can tilt the painting which is great for watercolours. It comes in its own bag in which I usually carry my brushes.
2. Brushes, I have four brushes, most of which are Jacksons Shinku synthethic brushes. Number 8 flat, 6 pointed, 6 bright and 4 bright. I also have a scrappy number 6 Crimson and Blake pointed for grasses. Which I guess makes 5.
3. The paints I’ve been using are Golden Open acrylics; cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, manganese blue, french ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium red, sap green and titanium white.
4. My palette is just a piece of white plastic cut into shape. It is very lightweight but needs to be cleaned before it gets packed away. Its also quite small but suits the canvas boards I’m using
5. Three little water containers and a bottle of water for drinking and painting.
6. A couple of canvas boards, its useful to have two in case I have energy for two paintings, but it is also useful as a sandwich board in case the painting is not dry when I have to pack it away.
7. A raggy cloth to dry brushes, wipe the canvas, and clean up afterwards.
8. My sketchbook, clutch pencil and eraser just for notes or a warm up sketch. Don’t forget a couple of clips to stop the pages blowing in the wind.
9. Plastic sealable bag to put paint tubes in so they don’t make a mess of my rucksack.
10. Fleece and waterproof coat, weather on Inishbofin can be fickle.
11. Small rucksack to carry it all in.

I have seen people with pull along (wheelie) bags but as I’m stomping through the peat bogs I’d rather travel light.

Here it is in action. I’m part way through this painting of The Stags. The scraping lines that you see in the painting are actually from another painting that was on the board but didn’t quite work. It’s one of the things I quite enjoy about acrylic painting, not only can I use the board multiple times but the under painting helps with the second painting.

In my next blog, weather permitting, I’ll take you through my plein air process. I hope you’ll find it useful. I find plein air painting requires a different approach from studio painting (when time and weather outdoors are limiting factors).

If you have any questions about painting outdoors let me know and I’ll try and answer them.

Thanks for reading.