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..

Pillbox - in progress

Arsenic Mine Part 2 (progress)

Below are images of part of a triptych I am working on for a forthcoming exhibition. The images show progress from initial marking out of the painting on the ground to the blocking in process. More images to come and info on upcoming exhibition!

Redruth and the world of tomorrow...

Having just finished my last exhibition at the Whitespace gallery and I am now in the process of making work for the next one I am having in June. This exhibition will be quite an exciting event involving artists from a wide variety of countries and backgrounds/styles. Watch this space for more info...

As part of my proposal I plan to show a quadriptych of paintings with the each showing a different aspect of the others paintings in some respect. I am examining what I think of large scale utopian dreams with the often harsh reality of these movements. The obvious ones being nazism, communism and 60s building programmes. 

Despite this I am an idealist! I love both the run down gritty side of the city but also find the architecture of various utopian dreams fascinating as well.

To this end I am painting the images below as part of the series of 4:

Redruth, Cornwall. This image is a painting of a building that stood next to the main station in Redruth, in a twist of fate the building apparently no longer exists. I like the idea that my painting shows a ghost image of what was and that in the duration of painting this it ceased to exist.. With this image I am looking at the anomalies that exists within a culture such as our own in Britain, at once vastly wealthy and yet deprivation and ruin still exists. A non-utopian ideal.

'The world of a past-present, today', collaged imagery. This painting is taking various images and collaging them together. In this picture I am looking at the utopian ideal of clean lines, straight buildings and huge plazas. But even in this image I am looking at creating a sense of unease, the image is empty - no people or any nature either. And the building could just as easily be a prison as a modernist housing block.

The sky was an important element for me in this painting - lifting the eye above the area at the bottom of the painting but also heightening the sense of emptiness of the city. 

I hope to show these paintings plus 2 more and one large piece (space permitting!) in the next exhibition.

Arsenic Mines

Here's some pictures of a large scale painting I am working on. It's of Tin Mines in Cornwall and is based on the strange structures left behind on the landscape after the centuries of mining in the area.

The remains of what were arsenic mines and processing buildings were dotted all over the landscape close to Lands End. Cornwall was once the world's biggest producer of arsenic, besides copper and tin. See http://www.cornish-mining.org.uk/story/earlymod.htm for more info if you are interested. Now all that is left are strange structures rising out of the orange soil like standing stones. The landscape is bleak but beautiful with a strange mix of windswept cliffs and half buried mines dotting the cliff edges. The soil too has a weird colour, the heavy metals present prohibit any type of farming.

In this painting I am working on it in oils, ink and gouache. I intend to have it finished in the next week or so ready for exhibiting and will buy a few more canvas/board of a similar size to do a few more. The subject matter fascinates me, a 'wild' landscape that when viewed closer reveals centuries of heavy industrial activity.

A close up of the concrete pillars. The weathering effect of the Atlantic Ocean made these very beautiful and aged. More detail to come..

Works in Progress

Hello! Sorry for the long absence between posts, between moving flat, working full time and getting logistics ready for our 12 months traveling it has been difficult to do much painting! Despite my excuses I have been working on a few paintings, 3 of which aren't far on enough to warrant being posted on here just yet..

It's always interesting I think to look at your/other paintings in progress, for example I saw a painting at the recent 'Spain' exhibition in the Nat Gallery Edinburgh (whose title escapes me) which I thought looked very good (if not better!) for not being finished. It was also very interesting in a historical sense as you could see how the artist built up the layers of the painting.

Here's a work in progress, probably 80% finished. Very precise percentage I know but thats how I roll..

The painting is part of a series I am doing on forests, a subject that I have always loved. I think I share Max Ernsts interest in the forest, their enchantment and the strong sense of place that I feel from them.

With this painting I am interested in trying to capture an idea of 'Night and Day' in the forest, one third bathed in sunlight the other two thirds in darkness. The idea came about from a couple of ideas, firstly my own experience investigating forests in Scotland and throughout Britain. The way in which the trees can create a sort of nighttime feel during the day under the canopy. It also came from fairytales, I was interested in the way stories throughout history have portrayed forest as being 'dark' and 'light'.

Another unfinished work, this one also looking at the forest. I am only just starting to build up the layers of trees in this one but I will again be looking at aspects of light in the forest.