Walking - progress

Images of a work I am doing at the moment which will form part of a larger group of paintings. This painting started with me working out the ratio of space from top to bottom. I wanted to split the board into 3 equal lines - the sky, wall and pavement. This was then overlaid with drawings of the figures. I did the figures first building up the detail on them and making up the skin tones by building up layers of washes of colour. I then did the detail in the wall.

Finished images of the painting to come soon..

Public Art Erfurt

Here's some pics of public art from Erfurt, Germany

A pretty excellent use of a tree I'd say and rather witty too!

Sketches from Paderborn

Greetings all!

I have been busy working on several new painting projects but thought I would upload the last of the sketches I did in Germany that are worth looking at in this stage.

A drawing of the Cathedral in Paderborn drawn from a park on the lower side. The whole town of Paderborn was revolved around the cathedral (at least in some aspects). The cathedral is the resting place of the relics of St Liborious who draws massive pilgrimages once a year when they are removed from the crypts for public display. It was very interesting looking in the cathedral which was very badly destroyed during the second World War. You could not tell it was refurbished, apart from the stained glass a lot of which was designed by modern artists. In this sketch I wanted to capture the cathedral from a lower angle which got in the Palace of Charlemagne in the mid-ground and the park in the foreground.

When in Paderborn we were staying in the glass workshop of the company Glasmalerei Peters. Peters is a well established and worldwide glass company that produces modern glass project from various buildings, from embassies to renovated churches. They also restore glass. They were very welcoming to us and we enjoyed staying in this building which was full of mad glass everywhere. I wanted to sketch this to capture the original building with the modern glass attachment.

This sketch is of the medieval city wall of Paderborn. I liked the way it was incorporated into the modern world, history peeking out of the cracks in the city.

More Sketches From Erfurt

Some more of the sketches I made whilst in Germany,

This is the view from our window in our tower block in Erfurt. It did however feel cosy and I enjoyed drawing this view from the window on the hot and sunny days.

A quick drawing of the Krämer bridge in Erfurt across the Gera. In German its called the Krämerbrücke and means 'Merchants Bridge'. It has houses across the entire length of the bridge and has shops etc. on the bridge itself. It is a very interesting example of what no doubt many ancient bridges might have looked like.

A very quick sketch I made whilst in Gotha (mentioned in an earlier post about Lucas Cranach) of the view down into the old looking town centre. The architecture was sort of reminiscent of the architecture of the old town/royal mile edinburgh. The shapes were not perfect and parts of buildings bulged as if they were full of rice and ready to explode. The view interested me because of the large fountain in the foreground, the huge (it was really huge) crane in the middle ground wrapping wreath around the May pole, the old town hall and of in the distance the huge numbers of wind turbines.

Sketchbook Erfurt Cont.

Another page of drawings I made while in Erfurt. I worked on these using a mechanical pencil with small lead width.

This is a drawing I did directly after the last one in which I drew Roz sleeping. The odd shape of the tree intrigued me as its small branches all pointed vertically upwards towards the sun like an anemone. This was also drawn in the Ega park Erfurt.

This is a sketch of the view from the steps of the cathedral of the Domplatz. I just roughly drew in a couple of the timber framed buildings to give myself an idea of scale in comparison to the massive obelisk in the centre of the square. The oddly shaped roofs of differing sizes and heights is a good example of the older architecture of the city. The outlined building on the far left is a more modern building and marks the passage through to the Rathaus (town hall).

Sketchbook Erfurt

I have been doing some sketching in Germany, which with the photos I have taken and the various mental notes in my head will become paintings when I get back to Scotland. This is the first page of sketches I did in Erfurt in the first week we were staying there.

This image is a view from the Schlösserstraße across the Gera towards the Anger. The mixture of traditional buildings and newer ones interested me. We were told by people we befriended from Erfurt that much of the city was quite run down until recently and that when unified with the West the city had been refurbished. I also found out that it was largely because of being in East Germany that Erfurt has so much historical and ancient buildings in it. In the west they would have sold the land to developers.. surprise, surprise and they would have been knocked down.

I used pencil and watercolour for this, drawing it out in pencil first and colouring in details with the watercolour before adding more pencil in top.

This is a drawing I did of Roz sleeping in the 'Ega Park' a large botanic gardens in the city. The weather was so hot we sat out most days in the parks or drank beer in the beer gardens.

Vertical Buildings

These two small paintings in progress are both finished pieces in their own right and studies for future paintings.

I am interested in the idea of perspective and using it at a street level looking up so as to give a sense of alienation. Figures will be distorted, and with one person on a separate perspective to add to the sense of disorientation. The paintings are also studies for future paintings in that I would love to produce them on a much larger scale, say a metre by 80 cm or bigger still and on copper or steel. In that way the perspective would have a greater effect and the metal would act as a ultra smooth surface for me to play with subtle textures on.

The Tube

'The Tube' (Unfinished state) (27/5/2009) Dimensions 8ft x 8ft. Oil and acrylic on board.

A massive painting (certainly for me) which hangs opposite the 8 'War on Terror' paintings. The difference in scale was important to me, I wanted the viewer to see the small paintings and this large one and draw comparisons

I can smell ammonia..

'I Love the Smell of Ammonia in the Morning...' (May 2009) Dimensions 250 x 70 x 2.4 cm. Oil and spray paint on copper.

This big painting represents the city, how buildings connect in an abstract way, and how despite this beautiful geometry citys can be alienating spaces.

High Riggs

'High Riggs' (February 2009) Dimensions 30 x 45 x 2 cm. Oil and pen on copper

High Riggs

'Rooftops' (March 2009) Dimensions 30 x 45 x 2 cm. Oil and enamel on copper.