I Collect My Prize

I went into the  W.H. Patterson gallery in London last week to pick up the prize from the Venice In Peril exhibition. The John White Memorial Prize now has my name engraved on the silver plate and is in my safekeeping until the end of the year when I have to return it back to the gallery in time for it to be awarded to the next winner in the 2013 exhibition. Thank God I did'nt lose it on the way home!

The Lost Garden - Finished

Finished it today as planned. It has'nt come out exactly as I envisioned but they never do, do they? I was going to have a lot of broken colour but I painted it in the way that was natural to me which I guess is the right way to do it. By all means absorb influences but you have to paint the way that it seems like your subconscious wants to express itself and I suppose that you have to get out the way and let it get on with it! There will be a companion picture to this but not sure what yet; I am thinking of a snow scene very near to where I live but I will sit on it for a couple of days and see what I want to do then.

The Lost Garden - Fifth day

Put in most of the basic snow underpainting today which now gives me an idea of how the lighting is working. I need the snow to be on the dark side but still looking bright in relation to the light at this time of day. The sun has to be the lightest element of a picture that otherwise should have an atmosphere of palpable freezing cold! Hoping to finish the painting tomorrow.......

Pratiques des Arts - Upcoming feature on my work

Current issue

I have now had confirmation that the feature on my work will be published in issue no. 103 which will come out in late March 2012. I am pleased that they have decided to go with a different step-by-step section to the one that was originally planned and will now be of the painting "Cuckmere Meanders to Seaford Head".

The Lost Garden - Fourth day

I have decided to retain the Caspar David Friedrich feel to the ruins and trees which apart from a little more work on the trees are ready for the blue/violet snow and mist to be added on top. I need to get the foreground ready tomorrow which I have already made a start on; all the pinky grey areas will be overpainted with the blue/violet snow which I will keep on the darkish side as I want the lightest part of the picture to be the sun. The eventual overall colours of the painting will be around the yellow/blue-violet complementary axis.

The Lost Garden - Second day

After my little hiatus away from the studio I have finally been able to get on with the new picture. You will notice first of all that I am not having a sunburst as originally envisioned but I have changed my mind over the intervening days and decided instead to opt for a wan sun low in the Winter sky.  The important thing about this picture is to get across the muffled atmosphere of the snow-covered landscape, it has to look quiet, icy cold and somehow suspended in time. There will be no footprints in the snow for instance, it has to look deserted, forgotten. All today's work has been the acrylic underpainting, putting down colours that will sit under the snow so at the moment it looks a bit messy! The composition should start to come through when the snow is painted in. It reminds me of Caspar David Friedrich at the moment...no bad thing!

The Lost Garden - First day

After a four day hiatus (see previous post) I am up and running again on a new painting. It is set in the grounds of Sudely Castle which I am going make into a cold winter snow scene. There will be a low sunburst on the horizon a third in from the left which will set off some nice yellows, oranges and sienna's on the nearest ruins in an otherwise cold picture made up of blues, blue/greens and violets. I intend to introduce some touches of sienna's and dull oranges into the foreground to give the painting more unity of colour and I see the whole picture being quite dabby in that I want broken lines and broken colour. The strong design will be offset by subdued light (apart from the sunburst) and broken line and colour so that it is more like a pattern. I want to try and evoke that muffled sound that the landscape has when covered in snow. Unfortunately I now have to be away until Saturday so I am unable to get on with it until effectively Sunday - kind of regretting that four day hiatus but I needed it to recharge batteries.