In Good Company

Before you read on, checkout this link for artists' www.emptyeasel.com it's one of the best I've seen so far…

On the following pages you will see samples of my artwork in various mediums including 'digital paintings', please take a while to browse. The painting you see in the title at the top of this page is called 'In Good Company' it depicts HMS Cornwall moored on the River Mersey in Liverpool, (Princess Diana) was the Patron of HMS Cornwall). The vessel was the escort vessel for the Royal Yacht Britannia. The event was 'The Battle of the Atlantic Commemorations' which was hosted by the city of Liverpool in 1993. 

"I am selling Fine Art signed 'Limited Edition Prints' of this painting, if you would like to purchase one or more copies of the prints, pleas click on the link".

I surprised myself today January 10th 2013…I actually followed through on a New Years resolution for once. For a long time now I have been saying that I would go and paint 'Plein Air' (denoting or in the manner of a 19th-century style of painting outdoors, which became a central feature of French Impressionism.) but never quite got around to it, well today I did just that. I organised all my equipment for painting outside, trying to keep it as light as possible. I drove fifteen minutes away from my home in Sefton on Merseyside to a location I was familiar with. I set my easel up in a field and started painting. 

I started at one fifteen and finished at three twenty. I was using Atelier Interactive acrylics, painting on 640 gsm Arches 1/4 imperial rough watercolour paper sized with Atelier Interactive Binder Medium. I did not used water except to wash my brushes. The temperature today was two degrees and overcast and the acrylics stayed wet all through the painting process, although I really did not feel too cold considering I was in a field for two hours with my trouser bottoms soaking wet up to my knees, the only thing that was distracting was a load of cockerels near by trying to out do each other to see who could crow the loudest , apart from that it was a really exciting afternoon for me.

Below is the completed painting, which I have called 'The White House on Hall Lane - Inc-Blundell'…some people may think me mad to stand in a field, in temperatures close to freezing for two hours, but I enjoyed it and I will most certainly do it again on a more regular basis. Some people may think it a little to fussy or old fashioned, but the more I do it and get it down to, maybe one hour I am sure my style for painting 'Plein Air' will look a lot fresher and more polished.

This painting below was painted a short distance up the road from 'The White House', it's called 'The Water Sodden Field on Back-O'The-Town Lane, Inc-Blundell". It was the perspective and water that attracted me to paint this image, which was painted two days after the White House Painting.

Some you win and some you lose… I went on my third 'Plein Air' painting trip to day (17th January 2013) in Sefton, five minutes drive away from my home. I was joined by Roger Jenkins, a keen watercolorist and architect. I met Roger for the first time at one of my demonstrations at the Formby Art Society. When I was painting 'The White House on Hall Lane-Inc-Blundell' two women walked by, they stopped and we chatted for a few minutes. One of the ladies said that her husband also paints and then asked me for my details. a couple of days later her husband rang me… it was Roger Jenkins, we chatted and decided to meet up together for a Plein Air session, Sefton Church was the venue. 

Roger brought his easel , a sketching easel which, even Roger agreed was not really up for the job. There was a slight wind blowing, with the temperature at around one degree C, on a number of occasions Roger's easel got blown over causing some marks to his painting, which he overcame and painted over. He ended up with a great painting, but more importantly he enjoyed the whole process even though the cold was trying to wear the both of us out. I was more fortunate as my easel was a little more sturdy than Roger's and I had no such mishaps…until we were clearing up to go home. 

We were painting for around two and a half hours but the cold never put us off, but by this time my finger tips were getting a little bit numb. As I gathered all my belongings to gather, I bent down to pick up my painting which was taped to a drawing board. As I straightened up, the board fell from my grip and landed face down on the soil. When I picked up the painting it had soil and grass on the surface (see below), I was tempted to try to brush off the dirt the paint was still we, even though I painting with acrylics, the cold weather made them like oil paint. I decided to wait for a few hours and then try to clean off the dirt. I managed to get most of the dirt off and re-painted the damaged areas of the painting as you can see in the image underneath. Be ready for anything and everything when you are painting Plein Air, because if it can happen, it will happen. We both left our cars in the car park facing the church, as we walked to the spot where we would start painting, we were chatting, and from nowhere this lamp post ran up to me and belted me on the side of the head…'I didn't see it coming guv…honest;-)

Little Gem's off the beaten track… I have driven through Lunt (which is about half a mile from the 'Church of St Helen' see painting above) on many occasions in fact, if you blink you will miss it. Today, January 22nd between 11 am and 3.30 pm I met up with my painting partner Roger Jenkins and we decided to explore the area in Lunt, it wasn't long before we came across these two gems below. They are on Lunt Lane, which runs through the community, the first image is a Public Footpath which runs through the farmland and down to the River Alt. Roger and I set up our easels and started painting at around 11.15, we painted for two hours, then as the light was still fairly good we went to our next chosen location which was literally ten yards away on Lunt Lane in the opposite direction of what you see here. 

We gave ourselves one and a half ours for this painting and started painting at around 1.30. Every thing was going great, and with thirty minutes left a post office van drove slowly past us and parked a few hundred yards further up the road and parked up, blocking our view. The driver never got out of the van, so why he had to park there was beyond us. There was ample space behind us to park, he saw both of us painting so the only conclusion we both come to was that the driver was being totally ignorant . The light started to fail fairly quickly by this time so we had to bring our session to an end…wouldn't you know it, the driver of the van also decided to move on…I hope his chips go cold.

Although the bottom painting/study took only ninety minutes to paint I felt that it was one of the best painting I have ever done. It was a great day for painting, albeit for only three and a half hours, but Roger and I decided to go back to the area this week and see what other gems we can find. Roger made a comment saying, that the area was a 'painters desert; flat and uninteresting, and I totally agreed with him, but now we have had to eat our words

The two images below are my 'New' stylised way of painting (slightly different from my 'Plein Air' painting above) which I started with 'Gulliver' . On the Las Ramblas in Barcelona there are many street artists vying for the attention of the tourists. Their costumes go from the sublime to the ridiculous, and some of the performers are very inventive, performing feats which, at times appear to defy all logic, checkout the movie.

In the first image below a street artist is preparing himself for his performance for the public by painting himself from head to toe, on this particular day the temperatures were in the mid nineties, somehow I don't think he would be smelling 'Fresh & Ready' by the end of the day. The title for this painting is 'The Painted Man - Las - Ramblas - Barcelona'

Image number two is of the very popular artists' who frequent Las Ramblas, sketching portraits or making caricatures of the tourists, on this occasion the artists were being filmed, possibly for a TV documentary. The seated woman waiting for her friend as she has her caricature sketched stares out at you making you feel a little uncomfortable, or is she uncomfortable with you looking at her? I have called this painting 'The Caricaturists - Las Ramblas - Barcelona'

I have added a movie onto this website showing the effects drugs can have on the human face. This 4 minute 54 second video clip by Sculptor Phillippe Faraut 'Meth-Amorphosis' started out as a family project intended to show the artist’s two young daughters the potential effects that drugs, particularly methamphetamines, can have on the human face. ,