I think this process is necessary for the making of a painting. The risk of failure is part of the attraction. Overcoming the odds would hardly be attractive if the probability of bringing home the dry cured bacon was pretty much a certainty. Which brings on the thought that before setting out on a painting I must unconsciously assess the risks of failure or success. It is always very difficult to observe your own inner workings, but thinking back this is probably true for me. Before starting a picture I run through in my head how I will tackle each stage. Some times a subject will present no new challenges. This does not mean the picture is not worth painting, only that I have dealt previously with similar problems and am pretty sure how to solve them. If I fail on such a painting, mind you, it throws me into a deep pit of despondent gloom garnished with self pity!

Sometimes however the picture you are contemplating is far from certain to succeed. There are some hurdles either technically or conceptually that are hard to assess until the process of painting the picture is well underway. Also when you start a picture then all that gung ho confidence drains away as the first few marks you have made stare back at you from the paper. There is an immediate mismatch between the glowing vision of your imagined masterpiece and the reality these very prosaic initial marks. At this point your careful plan for scaling the north face of Mt Parnassus becomes more like a wobbly tightrope walk over a vertiginous chasm.

Managing these expectations is I feel a large part of being an artist especially in the commercial arena. You need the optimism and confidence to get started. You need the risk and possibility of failure to progress. If you cannot manage the disparity between how you imagine a work will be and how it seems to be turning out then you will shortly have a cupboard full of half finished paintings! It is not a problem if you can’t summon up the optimism as you would likely never start a picture in the first place… We all suffer is some degree from this it can be quite hard to set to and start.

My method of dealing with this initial stage is what I call the “Head in the sand” method. For the initial stages I don’t assess progress I just try to carry out the actions without forming an opinion of their success. At the end of a key stage such as drawing out or blocking in. I re-engage the critical faculties and re-plan the rest of the work as necessary. It is hard to describe but what I think I do is mentally let go my glowing imaginings that prompted me to start in the first place and using what I have on the paper before me re-imagine the final result. I then use this as a guide to the next stages. As a picture progresses I might do this several times, each time the imagining of the final finished work becomes easier as it is based on more and more concrete evidence of progress so far. It is often in these last stages the magic happens, you once again have a mis-match between the imagination and reality but this time the reality is an improvement!

My this is hard to explain! I will try metaphor. I am at the foot of a mountain, I see before me the peak in the distance and imagine the wonderful view from it. From where I am standing in the valley I can see the first part of the path that will carry me to the summit. However once I have climbed some way my vantage point has changed. The summit looks different and further away, also the path towards it takes me along a ridge that I could not see from the valley. Still I can see my way forward and set out on my new path. As I reach the top of the ridge it all looks quite different. What had I thought was the peak was merely obscuring the actual top. Once again I must redraw my plans in order to climb the next stage. You could imagine all sorts of hardships and set backs here that might delay your progress, the way forward obscured by clouds etc. Eventually you reach the peak and look around. The view is very different from the one you imagined while still far below. To extend the metaphor (already creaking under the strain) even more, sometimes you find your progress blocked by an unexpected crevasse and must retrace your steps! Or you get to the top only to find the view is rotten…

There are a few steps you can take to make falling off a cliff less likely. Firstly take the time to break the painting down mentally into stages, a sort of route map. You might abandon this later but you need one to make a start. Next, draw the damn thing out properly! If you have a photo ref there is no excuse for not to getting the drawing right. Use a grid, print it out and trace, project, whatever it really does not matter. Better still draw it out in a preparatory sketch and rearrange it until you are happy. Then grid and transfer that. You may see artists, I am occasionally one of them, who just leap in with the paint, but that is the result of decades of doing it the long way. After a while with much practice you develop a sort of mental grid so that part of the job is not really skipped over. Don’t jump to conclusions part way. Just because your original aim is not possible anymore do not give up. Reassess, re-plan, build a new dream from the ruins of the old. Many, many times I have painted quite a different painting than the one I initially intended, many times probably a better one. The last and hardest one is to stop when it is finished, if something does not add to the whole don’t put it in, however much fun it might be to paint.

There are also things to help you advance. Don’t just paint “safe” pictures, take risks both measured and the occasional “long shot”. The list of artists who sank into repeating safe formulas for success is long and to my mind terribly sad. If you are painting a landscape don’t paint a stock tree in a manner you have done a hundred times before but paint that particular tree in that moment. If you always paint in a the same methodical way, experiment, throw the dice, you never know it might come up a six. Be aware though it will probably bounce off the table and end up under the side board!

Hey ho, I only intended to write a few words on the subject, but I find I have gone on at length once more, here are some pictures where you can spot me not taking my own advice!

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I am trying to get some studio paintings done based on my recent visit to Cornwall. This is Mousehole. I assembled the view out of a few photos which

required a fair few adjustments. It is very rare that a photographic image is directly suitable for painting either in colour or composition. Taking advantage

of todays technology I roughly put the bits I want in place and then sketch over the top in photoshop. This way I can try different arrangements until I am happy.

Cameras especially on a wide angle setting distort badly at the edges of the field of view so I usually take a series of snaps with a 50mm setting. This gives a more

natural feel in my opinion, though it is quite a lot more trouble. Tonally I had to rearrange things so that the eye ran around the foreshore to the focus, also I wanted

a diagonal band of interest with quiet areas top left and bottom right. As you can imagine this means a slight redesign of Mousehole but I hope each adjustment is

subtle enough to keep the scene completely plausible! 1/2 Sheet Arches Rough.

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This is Sennen Cove on a beautiful evening. The light was cross the beach in this way for only about 2 min, so no chance of a sketch! I am still exploring

the balance I want between loosely painted areas and detail. It is interesting how the different finishes can be made to sit together. Small ares of detailed

interest trick the eye into believing the whole thing must be detailed. The intention in doing this is not to save work but to avoid the stiffness that too much

overall specific detail causes. It is very much the fashion to paint everything in a frenzy of wet into wet and though I often like this style it is quite limiting

in the moods and qualities it can express. Bold bravura brushstrokes etc are superficially exciting but have difficulty in expressing quiet subtle moments unless

they are completely amorphous. Also I ask myself does the world require yet another Zbukvic, Wesson or Castagnet? I add this aside because I get weary of

people telling me I must be more loose, be more free etc. I am perfectly capable of painting in that style, I did so in my twenties for a while, but don’t choose to

nowadays unless the subject is appropriate. This one put me through the mill rather. I drew the whole thing out only to have the sky wash reveal a sizing flaw

that made a bit of paper very absorbent… after a certain amount of cursing I had to redraw on a new sheet! 1/2 sheet Arches Rough

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An old one, it is always interesting how your style changes, there is much I would do differently if I repainted this. I may indeed revisit old paintings to

see what I make of them now. It’s Cornwall from a previous visit, I was painting the church when ambushed by bullocks! 1/2 sheet, Saunders rough.

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A few life paintings from the last session. I was experimenting with pre-toned paper here using acrylic white along with watercolour.

Interesting but a little gloomy, so after half an hour I tried the same thing in pure watercolour.

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Here is the result of another half hour on the same subject, much better though it is a struggle to get enough described in that time

due to drying. Wonderful fun to do though.

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A sucker for punishment I tried the toned paper again but this time was more liberal with the acrylic white. Once mixed with watercolour it is very similar

to gouache but easier to overlay. I took about 45 minutes to get this far, but much better.

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Last one of the session. A lovely pose so I reverted to pure watercolour again. I used a few bits of white to clarify. I find it is important

not to try and conceal this sort of edit it works much better if done obviously as it integrates with the drawing. Life drawings are a sort of

history of observation and the signs of that exploring add to the qualities of the end result I feel. Off to France next so there may be a delay

before next posting!

Packing for such trips is always perplexing. What media should I take and how much paper, boards and canvas? Will it rain, blow or be hot as an oven? With these eventualities in mind I usually start a week before, assembling stuff to take on a sofa. By the time the trip is a day away the sofa is creaking with the weight of painting sundries and I am considering hiring a small truck! Severe editing then has to take place… three easels, two must go. Pastels, acrylics and sundry media are discarded. Four pochade boxes of various dimensions, again one is enough! Will I really cover 30 boards and ten canvasses with oil paintings in six days? The canvasses go and half the boards too. Do I need six kinds of watercolour paper? I shall not go on, you get the idea. I was sharing the trip with Steve Alexander of the Wapping Group so two painter’s sundries had to be accommodated in a single vehicle… fortunately Steve paints smaller than I do!

We took a leisurely journey down looking to paint a bit on the way down. The weather looked like it was not going to play fair. Severe storms were forecast and when we got as far as Somerset and arrived at Berrington Hall, where we thought we might paint a bit, we found all National Trust properties were shut in case trees landed on people! Out of sheer stubbornness I did a quick watercolour anyway to cock a snook at the uncooperative elements. Real painters laugh in the face of hurricanes. As is often the case with dramatic weather the light effects were beautiful with sudden breaks in the hurrying clouds allowing the sun to light up swathes of countryside and making fantastic contrasts. All of which is, due to the conditions and the brevity of the effects, hard if not impossible to paint. All you can do is take a few snaps and hope you can remember how it really was. I’ll just start with the paintings this isn’t a travelogue after all.

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This is the quick sketch I snatched from our abortive visit to Berrington Hall. The sun was flickering in and out like a strobe light so I had to fix the shadow

patterns in my memory. You can’t really consider composition in such quick paintings so I just try and catch the basics of the scene as directly as possible.

Nonetheless I don’t shortcut the process and do a quick pencil layout to get everything placed correctly. The one thing I do differently to a more leisurely painting

is that I often lay in the darks first and overlay the mid tones and finally do the light tones, the reverse of my usual watercolour process. This is very fast as the

darks establish the structure immediately. The downside is that you have to lay the next two layers very carefully in single strokes so as not to stir up the work

already done. I finally restate the darkest darks, the whole process takes only about 20min at this 7in by 5in size.

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The first morning. Having looked at the forecast the best light of the day looked to be early. So full of the joys of spring and fuelled by misplaced confidence

I set out at dawn. This time of day is very often the most beautiful but also the light is changing at its fastest. The only hope is to just set to and paint as fast

as possible, ignoring details and trying to get the basic tones true to what you are seeing. To make the whole thing harder the light on your painting and palette

is far from ideal and the final work if you are not careful can look wrong when seen in good light. To this end it is important to mix your colours using experience

as well as eyesight! If you are mixing Cadmium Red or some other beast of a colour into your tones then caution is advised. This is Sennen looking over to Sunny

Corner Lane. 14in by 10in oils.

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After that I went down to the shore and painted this. The light as dawn progresses moves faster and faster so I had only 15 min to splash this in. It is very

rough and ready but combined with a photo it will be invaluable for a watercolour I have planned. 12in by 10in Oils.

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Steve and I then set out after breakfast to see what might be painted on what was becoming a grey and rather breezy day. We ended up at the Levant tin

mine which clings to the cliffs near St Just. This is the second painting I did as an oil of the main mine and engine house went horribly wrong! I am much

more likely to miss the target with oils alas as I just don’t have the command over the medium that I have in watercolours. It is something that frustrates me

but the only way to get better is to work at it and accept the catastrophes that inevitably occur. That doesn’t stop me from cussing and moaning though!  I did

this to cheer myself up, it only too 15 min or so and is probably the best painting of the trip. Watercolour 1/4 sheet arches Not.

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The end of the day looked like this… and the forecast for the next day looked a bit mixed to say the least. This is looking down to Sennen from the window

of Atlantic Lodge where we were staying. 7in by 5in watercolour. I have been using a Liquitex acrylic white marker which is rather useful. It seems to sit better

in the picture that chinese white or gouache and can be washed over to tint it. Here I have used it to put in the buildings and washed over with a soft grey blue.

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We headed to St Ives in the hope that should the weather turn bad we could paint from shelter. I had terrible trouble with this. It is not a very “me” subject

too much like the millions of standard seaside boaty views that infest the many galleries in the town. It is quite changed from the original plein air as it was

reworked on a following wet day. As I was with other very experienced painters all tinkering with their minor masterpieces much advice was given! The result

is even less me I’m afraid, though I learnt a fair bit from the process that will help with further efforts. Oil 14in by 10in.

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After doing the previous one twice and leaving it unfinished I took advantage of a brief spell of sun to do this sketch. Much happier with this, the

composition has much more going for it. St Ives 7in by 5in watercolour.

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Last St Ives one. The weather was deteriorating severely with showers coming in quick succession. As one of these was clearing I did this. The conditions were

very difficult with the wind trying to blow away anything that wasn’t nailed down and flurries of rain interfering with the washes. My palette ended up

completely covered with sand. Still despite the obstacles probably the best of the day. 7in by 5in watercolour.

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Last one of the day the clouds cleared for a decent sunset and the light was fabulous for a brief while. This is from Sunny Corner lane looking across

to Sennen Cove. It was terribly windy and I had to grip my pochade with one hand while painting. Oils. 12in by 10in.

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The next day was pretty grim. A completely flat grey light. At least the rain had abated so Steve and I set out to Lamorna Cove a popular subject of the

Newlyn School of painters one of whom changed his name to Lamorna Birch… I shall be leaving my moniker alone though as Deptford Rob sounds like

a bank robber not a painter. These outrageous plants whose name I forget were growing by the stream so I painted them as an exercise. Such sketches are

never going to be art, but fun to do nonetheless and technically quite difficult. 7in by 5in watercolour.

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It wasn’t worth doing an oil or large watercolour so I contented myself with another sketch. Then the rain started and we headed off a little down cast by

the conditions. 7in by 5in Watercolour.

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We headed back via the Levant tin mine where the light had perked up a bit. Not to last alas. 10in by 8in watercolour.

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We had a look along the coast as we headed back looking for spots to paint on the following days. This is not far from St Just, the rain was coming in, so done

sitting in the car with the wipers on! Very tricky. 7in by 5in watercolour.

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The next day was a washout. 70 mile an hour winds and driving rain. So we all titivated out previous paintings and to fill

in time painted this interior. Great fun to try and paint the subtle flow of light from the window. I must do more interiors

they are rather fun and hard to do. 1/4 sheet watercolour.

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There was a lull in the rain so I went out shopping in St Just and went down to Cape Cornwall to see what was there. The sun had come out and lured me

off down the coast path looking for potential subjects. It was still and sunny but I could see a huge squall approaching across the sea. These are the Brisons

which stand out to sea near the cape. On my way back to the car the squall hit and I was nearly blown over by the wind. There is no doubt wild weather is

very trying but it also makes for wonderful moments of light. 7in by 5in watercolour

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I told Steve of the delights of Cape Cornwall, so as he was desperate to get out we headed back to catch the last of the light. Far to windy to paint outside

so we worked from the car. As we worked the subject slowly became invisible until Steve muttered, “I can’t see the subject or the painting, or the palette, but

still I paint!” After a fit of the giggles we retreated to the warm and dry. 7in by 5in watercolour.

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This is Mousehole, an eye-wateringly pretty fishing village. I am kicking myself now for just painting one of the standard views. I’m afraid I hate the

result. I got it far too busy initially so I simplified it a fair bit once home, I might try and make it work better once dry. I think some coloured glazes both

warm and cool cold unify and make it hang together better. It’s not bad exactly but just boring. I was a bit cast down by this, so the only one of the day.

oils 20in by 12in.

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For our last day we went to back to Cape Cornwall. A lovely sunny day. The light was very dramatic and eminently paintable. I got the distance in without

mishap but lost my way slightly with the boats. Once I got it back I could immediately see that the contrasts on the boats was not strong enough so I darkened

 the shadows and suddenly the whole thing worked. I don’t think it took more than 5min. It is so easy to miss the obvious when painting plein air due to the

intensity of the involvement required to get the whole thing composed and painted before the light moves on. 14in by 10in oils.

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Last one. We moved down the coast a bit and did the Brisons. The light was gorgeous and the sea changing from moment to moment. Steve and I

painted two pictures that could have been from different days, but they were both there briefly! 10in by 8in oils. That’s it I have put in both good efforts

and bad as that is the truth of painting. No matter how long you practice and whatever level of skill you achieve failure is only a breath away!

I wasn’t going to do a travelogue but seem to have done so, ah well never mind…

With life drawing and charcoal it is the same story. Somehow me and the medium doesn’t click! So out of sheer bloody mindedness I have been trying to get to grips with the stuff. What I did not want to do is emulate how others use the stuff. That is I feel what causes the unconvincing stiffness in any drawing done with that sort of ambition. The fact that I have trouble with the medium makes me suspect that there is a weakness in my drawing that it exposes, which means that struggling to find my way with the stuff should bring dividends.

The plein air season is well and truly started and I have been enjoying the sunny days painting in good company. So not much verbiage this post… straight on with some daubs.

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First another studio watercolour. I painted this twice the first one going horribly wrong when I got a bit of pure Cadmium red on my brush!

There was never going to be any disguising the streak so I had to start again. 1/4 sheet Arches rough.

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The second Wapping day of the year. The venue was Vauxhall and it delivered some fantastic subjects. This is terribly iconic but I just couldn’t resist!

16in by 10in. Oils.

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I am often at a loss in the middle of the day. Many subjects look far from their best when the sun is high. So I went looking for

a subject that had good contrasts. I only had a short time to do this as the tide was rushing in but a good exercise.

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Yes I know the same subject again! The light had totally transformed it though. This was wonderful to paint and I was completely engrossed so that it was

almost a shock to step back and see it done. I still have to adjust the wall so that the river doesn’t try to climb over it but that will have to wait until it is a bit

dry. A great day though and I felt I had earned my pint in the pub at the end of the day.

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Graham Davies and Tony Lawman invited me out to play by the Medway near Rochester. The day didn’t disappoint with great light. I messed up my first

effort and had to wipe it off, but did this straight after which went much better. This bit of the Medway is called Strood and is full of tatty boaty clutter.

No doubt they are at this very moment planning to sweep it all away and build vile flats. 12in by 10in, oils.

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After a bit of a hike we found a boat yard that would allow us to paint. So thanks to Strood Yacht Club for making us welcome! We painted away happily

here, I wasn’t quite sure where this was going at first but it all sort of fell into place as I went along. It is always hit or miss with plein air and each of us

had paintings that went awry. One of the great things painting in company is that you have people to listen to your despairing cries! 16in by 10in.

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This is the graveyard of All Saints Findbury which sits high on a crag overlooking the Medway. Last of the day and getting weary but a nice relaxing subject

to finish the day. I don’t know why I paint graveyards, I know no one will ever buy one, but I just love them as a subject. 14in by 10in oils.

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Here we go with the charcoal… I know it is brown but I found these sepia charcoal pencils that I rather like made by Derwent.

Also I am drawing on rough newsprint by Strathmore which has a nice tooth.

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Ordinary charcoal too here. I am using thick sticks to block in and thinner to do the line work. A little progress here I feel.

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Less of a success this one, but I am beginning to get a mixture of marks from the stuff that I like. I am lifting out here with a putty rubber. I greyed

the whole sheet with the side of a chunk of charcoal before starting. I think I will make sure I leave the whites next time.

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At last I am getting somewhere with this one, it feels more “me” somehow. The red and the black charcoal is an accident really but I rather like it. I am

trying to just suggest the surroundings with big broad strokes.

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Not as good on this one. I rather over defined the surroundings.

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Didn’t like the pose here, it looked awkward and well… posy! I am starting to enjoy the media a little more though.

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Another one I am quite pleased with, only about 15 min but has a delicate feel I rather like. I am off to paint for a week in Cornwall so be prepared for

cliffs and sea garnished, I hope, with sunshine.

I have been looking at cityscapes in particular, there seems to be a style used by many where the street level is shrouded in an inchoate gloom with small highlights and canopies cut of it to indicate life and movement. All very well and I freely admit I often think such paintings are lovely it looks very atmospheric but can be if used too often perhaps a little lazy. The lesson for me here is that it is no good looking for subjects that fit my technique, this will only result in potboilers, find a subject that stirs you and then paint it to bring out whatever it is that took your eye in the first place seems a better route. In my researches I came across a painter who paints amazingly adept if slightly over finished watercolours… but they are all of busty ladies in white dresses lurking about on the sea shore. He has a great eye for light his drawing is spot on, the compositions very well organised… but irredeemably crass in content and imagination. Which show that however well painted, a picture of sweet kittens with bows around their necks will almost never rise above the subject matter. Another lesson in there somewhere! I thought about adding a link but best not, the curious can PM me.

Other painters through history have found a good trick and stuck to it. Russell Flint springs to mind with his oddly coloured spanish ladies in various states of undress. Boucher, Fragonard and Watteau all wonderful draughtsmen but the paintings are in large part insubstantial froth. The orientalists could be consigned wholesale to the potboiler draw and the history painters too. Poussin I never warmed to and find his classical fancies lacking in spirit… Tiepolo however does wonders with more or less the same subject matter. I went through a pretty severe Preraph longtressed maiden period myself, so I know how it happens. If my demure ladies had been well enough done and met with any success maybe I would still be churning them out!

There was a quite interesting program with Graham Dixon about the Dutch and Flemish painters. He is relentlessly on message in art historical terms with the history of painting seen as a neat progression of breakthroughs leading to the holy grail of abstraction. One interesting thing he passed over very briefly was the way the Dutch art market was organised. Artists were organised into guilds and paintings were organised into a hierarchy. Of first importance was history painting, followed by portraits, scenes of everyday life or genre, then landscape with still life at the bottom of pile. There was a apparently thriving market with people collecting works avidly, not just the rich but up and down the social scale. There is not a lot written about it but there seems to have been an economic bubble with prices rising and then crashing due to the sheer number of works painted. I read that at the end a completed canvas was worth less than a blank fresh one. Rembrandt and Vermeer owed their later poverty to this calamity it seems.

Our situation now is quite different with far too many pictures being painted compared with those that might wish to own one. The relatively small top of the heap is supported by a truly immense pyramid of the unsuccessful and eager hopefuls below them. What is an artist to do in such an age? I could I suppose set about a relentless campaign of self promotion. I do do a fair bit of this using online avenues etc, but more out of curiosity as to the changing scene rather than any ambition. My main ambitions these days are focussed on getting as good as I can by my own lights before I pop my clogs!

Which brings me back to watercolour, I must I think have a period of experimentation to broaden some areas of my technique. It is always somewhat traumatic doing this as there are inevitably quite a few fatalities. The areas I want to focus on are controlling the tightness and looseness across the painting. There is the interesting method of soaking your paper and then laying it on a sheet of perspex, flattening it on with a roller as it expands. Once the paper has done all the stretching it is going too and any excess water is mopped up you have to finish your painting as it goes through the drying process. Re-wetting can be done at need with a spritzer or wide brush. The paper should grip the plastic and the painting dry flat… which I haven’t tested yet but seems plausible.

On with some paintings.

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A painting I have been meaning to do for a while. Most Saturday mornings I go down to Deptford market to do my weeks shopping. The market is a

vibrant place with every culture in the world represented, but everybody seems to rub along together amicably. At this time of year in the morning the

sun shines right down the street which on a slightly hazy morning looks wonderful. I have hundreds of photos and a fair few sketches but last week

I got the last bit of the puzzle a leading character. A small man immaculately dressed looking out of place but still at home! 14in by 14in.

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I saw this gentleman in Green Park last autumn. I drew him out on the board but never got round to painting him!

I must do more individual figures. I love figures in a landscape but don’t do enough where the person is the subject.

London’s people are after all the heart and soul of the place, not the buildings and parks. Oil, 10in by 7in.

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An all day painting session held by fellow painter Arnie Dobbs was a chance to get out the oils to paint the figure. I had not done any oil painting from

life before only acrylics. The oils were so much better! Also faster so I only took about 40 min on each of these. 10in by 8in.

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Slightly easier on the second as the initial colour mixing was already there on the palette. All done with a 1/2in filbert. 14in by 10in oils.

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The introduction of a green really improved the skin tones. 16in by 10in.

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Last painting of the session. There were some charcoals but I intend a life drawing post next dealing with my struggles

with the ‘orrible stuff! 10in by 8in.

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My first days painting as an official candidate for the Wapping Group of Artists. Handily the venue was Greenwich so I got there early to catch the light.

By the time I had finished this I was surrounded by hoards of tourists! 1/4 sheet Arches.

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Here is one of the less obscured moments. Odd but people will stand in a bunch right in front of you! You can see my set up, watercolours

are so light weight. Even with the tripod everything is very easy to carry. I must make myself a bottom tray that matches the size of the

board a little more space would be good.

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Next I did a small sketch in the old graveyard behind the church. It is hidden away so the tourists can’t find it! In my Moleskin 7in by 5in. The Moleskins

have odd paper in them I hated it at first, but am coming to rather like it.

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This is the old power station in East Greenwich, the light was rather dramatic and I was taken by the shape against the sky. I painted the whole thing with

a 1/2 in flat sable which rather suited the subject. By using the edge you can tap in lines very crisply but with a pleasing variation. 1/4 sheet Arches rough.

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Another wee sketch, the light was gorgeous. I will do a studio one of this. 7in by 5in.

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Last one a very quick 10min sketch. Then I was off to eat whitebait with the Wappers, a convivial end to the day!

So does anyone ever learn from these things? I somehow doubt it. I have learnt a great deal from specialised books, such as anatomy for figure drawing. I didn’t really learn drawing though just the information about what goes where etc… I never did manage to learn all those names! You can get a book to draw almost anything “How to Draw Marmosets by Candlelight” animals are very popular generally. Also ones about the state of mind, “Drawing From the Bottom Left Of the Brain”. Expressing yourself is very big with everything from portraits to egg timers covered, “Expressing Your Navel in Acrylics Made Easy” etc.

One unifying thing is that it always seems to be easy. There are no “Watercolour Disasters” or Oils Are a Bitch to Get Right” or “Repeated Failure Made Harder” titles. Often it is quick too “Quick Easy Effortless Watercolour in Seconds”. The complete reverse of the reality which is it takes years and years of sustained effort to learn how to paint a watercolour that looks as if it was easy! I might write a book “How to Spend a Lifetime to Learn Painting and Still Not Ever be Satisfied”. Why do I get the feeling that if published it wouldn’t fly off the shelves?

Much turns around the question: How do you teach art? There can be no one way obviously. I have difficulty believing though that either the art school madness of the last 60 years or the teach yourself manuals are really up to the task. The first of these was The École des Beaux-Arts in Paris Founded by the urbane Cardinal Mazerin. It was created to address the shortage of craftsmen needed to work on Louis XIV’s vast decorative and architectural projects. Though it gained real artistic muscle under Napoleon. We wouldn’t perhaps like the structure today based as it was on fierce competition to gain the Prix de Rome which was the chance to study in Rome itself. There is an impressive list of alumni in Wikipedia but for more than 350 years of history it is actually rather short on stars and the ones that are there mostly rejected its values later. It also fostered I feel one of the truly awful periods of painting in human history with the academic style of History Painting with its bogus classicism and tedious Orientalism. It still raises its ugly head today with revival movements such as Classical Realism today. Ateliers are reappearing as well teaching a stilted formalised method which is not entirely without merit, but far to narrowly based in my opinion.

On the other hand we have the all conquering art school movement started with the Bauhaus which had the admirable aim of combining Fine Art and Crafts, except the traffic was alas all mostly one way with the fine art being introduced to the crafts rather than the crafts to the fine art. It was in many ways a bold bid by so called “fine” artists to hold sway over the whole spectrum of creative activity. They also, along with the Vkhutemas in Moscow, were at the cusp of the arrival of factory produced products which needed a new approach to design to make the mass production process possible. The old craft/artisan approach plainly being impractical to adapt. In order for the factory production to work deskilling was required with each of the steps to produce a finished thing broken down so that a worker could be taught the bare minimum needed to produce their particular part of the whole.

The sad fact is that this process passed over into the fine arts too. The old idea of mastery and laboriously built up skill was for the most part progressively abandoned. I am not wholly averse to this as overly restrictive reliance on method can be debilitating too. However I would feel the process has gone way to far. Visual artists as taught in art schools are of little use in supplying the artistic needs of either industry or society in general. The original idea of supplying the visually erudite to add style and beauty to the products of the factory has failed. Colleges that teach design are now separate and produce specialists narrowly focused on specific areas. The wide pollination of ideas disseminated through society and industry has as far as I can see been more or less been abandoned. Rather there has been an increasingly ghettoised artistic landscape with fine art producing people to teach art to those who in turn will teach art. While the areas of human endeavour that need visual expertise mostly draw their talent from elsewhere.

It is only uncritical state funding that could have produced such a conundrum. It is not that we don’t need the high intellectual works of the conceptual and the abstract or the artists that produce them. It is just that we don’t need so many and such work cannot speak to any other than a very small elite. The current system where we attempt to teach the unteachable to droves of students for whom the vast majority will in turn be fated attempt the same quixotic, sisyphean task and so on ad infinitum seems to me an insanity.

There is I think a simple truth: that you can teach the how but not the why. Practical skills and methods can be taught and historical context, but not the reason for things, for that is something none of us truly know and so cannot be passed on or in any way taught. Part of this idiocy has come about from the tendency to think that skill and craft are short on intellectual content. Scholastically challenged students are regularly put on to variously named courses that teach “handicrafts”. Anyone who has mastered any artistic medium or truly mastered any craft will tell you how far that is from reality. All such mastery requires a degree of understanding and curiosity about the self, it is part and parcel to being skilled.

Mostly small sketches this time I have been off on my travels visiting Dorset and Worcestershire. I only had opportunity for quick watercolours as I try not to be rude and make friends hang about as I paint. I have also been elected as a Candidate by the Wapping Group so will be joining them by the Thames every Wednesday for the rest of the year, which should produce plenty of paintings and also hone my plein air skills.

The last expedition of the year for the brass monkeys. Mansion House and the Bank of England on the right. Yet another wet day so only subjects that could be painted from the dry!

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This is St Steven Walbrook. People with red brollies really did walk by… who could resist! I hated this on site but once home I saw I had got two very simple things wrong. The tone of the road and the tone of the office block. These needed to relate because the colour structure is made up of these cool areas contrasting with the warm buildings. I did a bit more to the left hand building so in the final one it is not quite so heavy. It’s odd how just being away from the subject can help you to see a painting more clearly. All that reality can be rather overwhelming.

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Same area a few days later… and still raining! I saw this view as we were leaving on the previous visit. You can’t really do a finished watercolour in these conditions, though it had actually stopped raining long enough for me to get this down. For this sort of sketch I try to break every area down to two washes a base wash and one dark. Then in the final pass I add the final darks across the whole sketch.

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I was kindly invited to Dorset by my good friends Richard and Kate. Not much chance for painting as it is nice to put aside painting and just enjoy being social! I did make a few quick sketches just to fix the places in my memory. This is Wells cathedral in Somerset. 7in by 5in.

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I saw this as we were walking along a high down in Dorset. A farmer had parked his Landrover making this very simple composition. Possibly one for a larger painting. 7in by 5in.

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I do like my Moleskin sketchbook, it has lousy paper that is in an odd way just right! No real chance of wet into wet as the paper is too thin, but it dries very quickly which is just what you want for small sketches such as this. Dorset again near Pimperne. 7in by 5in.

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A rather fun scene. I shall definitely do a studio one of this. Still in Dorset. 7in by 5in.

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I painted this standing with my paints on a blanket on my car bonnet, the blanket being to stop them sliding off! It is a lane near my brother’s house near Hanbury in Worcestershire. 7in by 5in.

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This is the first studio watercolour I have done in a while, based on the sketch. There is always much about the sketch I prefer but they are different beasts really. On a computer screen they are given even billing but framed on a wall the studio work tends to have more presence than a quick plein air.

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Hanbury church which sits very dramatically on a hill. The wind was pretty dramatic too and also very cold! As with many churches you can’t get a mid distance view you are either too close or two far. I tried to exploit the closeness here and get the feeling of it being high on a hill. Actually the only real thing making you feel that is the lack of middle distance. 7in by 5in.

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Back in town again, this is Greenwich park looking towards the masts of the Cutty Sark. Odd diffuse sunlight gave a strange feeling I ended up using black to try and catch the effect and also some body colour. I have started using white acrylic premixed in a pot instead of the traditional chinese white it has the great advantage that it can be washed over and seems to sit  better with the watercolour.

Portrait study pen and ink 15.5 x 13cm 1949

Portrait study pen and wash 28 x 18cm 1940s/1950s

Portrait study pencil 30 x 30cm 1960s

Girl in a dark coat chalk 62 x 40cm 1960s

Jeanie chalk 46.5 x 30cm 1964

Woman drawing pastel 31 x 32cm 1960s

The life model oils 30 x 41cm 1970s

Two female heads oils 43 x 37cm 1960s

Kingsgate Bay, Thanet oils 29 x 39.5cm 1970s

Blowy day at Botany Bay oils 33 x 44cm 1960s

Watercolour from a 1978 sketchbook (15 x 20cm)

Christopher Alexander drawing in the 1960s

On to more pleasant matters though. I have been trying to get some studio work done. I have been trying a new approach , which is to work on a set of 4 or 5 paintings at a time and maybe reworking old stuff. This means I can work at a painting for an hour or two and then set it aside and do some on another then returning to each a few days later when some drying has taken place. After a bit I have found it is quite an effective way of working. One of the big plus points is that when working away at one you can turn and consider another. Because the cunning old brain is full of the painting to hand you suddenly see yesterday’s one in a new light and a way of improving it leaps to mind. It also seems to help with overworking as you don’t get carried away with less important factors and can keep the bigger picture, as it were, to the fore. So here is the first batch!

This is a reworking or more like a finishing off of a picture painted last year. It is in the City of London near Mansion House. I reworked the tones from left to right so that the flow of light was more unified and generally richer. Below is how it got left for a year nearly. As the picture was dry I could glaze broadly to enrich the colour without effecting the underlying brush work. 24in by 18in Oil on canvas.

The old version looks very palid!

This is the Royal Exchange, I have painted this many times. It was based on a very quick plein air done early one morning on the way to a client. The little sketch had a magic I wanted to catch. I decided to alter the mood to winter but other than that I let myself be guided by the sketch. I went up and photographed again and also I had some snaps of traffic and cyclists taken on the day of the sketch. All together quite a lot of information to glue together. 36in by 18in oil on canvas.

Here is the wee 5in by 7in sketch. I really tried hard to keep the feel of this.

This is Charing Cross station. All from photo ref this one no chance of setting up an easel here! I have done a few of these, there is something fascinating about railway stations both in the rush hour and in quieter moments. Not quite finished but needs to dry before glazing.

Another one from a plein air sketch. I am really pleased to be getting some work done from plein air sketches that keeps the mood. It is something that has always seemed to elude me but I seem to have found the beginnings of a way forward. This is Mary Le Strand looking up the Strand towards Charing Cross. 24in by 18in oil on canvas.

Lastly here is the original sketch that is a tiny 5in by 7in painted standing holding my wee pochade.

This is Trafalgar Square in a moment of magical lighting. I did a very quick lay in on site after a mission to buy paint. Getting it all in was hopeless so I deliberately just tried to get the basics in place. I took many photos of the passers by so that I would have plenty of reference. The main thing I wanted to nail was the blaze of light on the paving as that was what set the scene for me. I also had the idea to use foreground figures to describe the flow of light, the problem with this is that the figures will dominate so they would have to be carefully chosen.
Next day I adjusted the photos in photoshop to have as much of the tonality and colour of my block out as possible. Then readjusted to how I would “like” it to be. The result was nor quite what I wanted but looked very promising, so on the next fine afternoon I went back do try to pull the thing together on site. I was so lucky that the light was far better than my first visit, it had rained a little which lifted the pavement and there was a slight haze that pushed the far side of the square back. 40 mins rather rushed work completely lifted the feel of the picture. All I did after that session had dried enough was to tidy up and unify the handling. 17in by 10in oil on board.

This is a finished off plein air of Henley. Prompted by my recent visit I dug this out which was just a set of silhouetted shapes. I spent a pleasant hour finishing it off. 12in by 10in oils.

An outing with the Brass Monkeys in Rotherhithe. An absolutely gorgeous day and Tony Lawman and myself painted away while the going was good. The tide was low allowing access to the foreshore of the river. I probably should have used a bigger board but might well do a larger oil from this. 10in by 8in.

This is the view from the other way. I would have done another as the light was getting fantastic, but I had folks coming to dinner! 10in by 8in oils.

This one has appeared before but it is of Rotherhithe again. I saw this view as we were leaving the previous day, so when the next evening looked good I popped back as it is near to me. This was such an easy picture to paint the light at that time of day reduces everything to simple forms. I spent more time mixing the tones than I did smearing the stuff on the board! 12in by 6in.

Another Brass Monkey day. This is Faversham Creek a favourite haunt for daubers. The weather forecast had been flat and grey so this was an unexpected treat! The foregound needs something on it a lobster pot or some such as the eye tends to drop off the bottom of the picture. Something more substantial than a shadow anyhow. 12in by 10in oils.

Another up Faversham Creek, we painted this in a group which is always very pleasant. There was at least an hour of companionable silence as we painted away! 16in by 10in oils.

The same scene but a water colour sketch from earlier in the day. I must give the watercolours a re-visit soon as I have been rather concentrating on the oils.

Last of a very fine day. Mike Richardson was still hard at it as the light faded so I joined him for the very last of the day. Only about 30 min but that’s enough to give an impression. 10in by 8in oils

Even though I was meant to be sticking to the studio, I couldn’t resist taking my paints with me when I went up to get materials. This is the Strand the light was gorgeous. This needs a bit more doing to it but I might make a bigger picture of it. I want to do a few more in the way I did the Trafalgar Square painting mixing plein air and studio. 10in by 8in oils.

Done straight after on the embankment from near Blackfriars. I only had this 7in by 15in due to forgetting to put in spare boards. Something not right about the ship, though when I look at the photos it looks odd in that too, still will need changing nonetheless. Due to the odd size I had to carry the wet panel on the train at rush hour. It got “Tonked” a few times by other passengers, fortunately none of them noticed their clothes being ruined…

A left over from Hammersmith, I got this mostly blocked in but ran out of time on the bridge when the sun came right into my face. I need to go back and do a bit more on the bridge as the photo ref I finished it off with is not too good so the structure is too fussy.

A visit to Westerham in Kent. I couldn’t find anything that took my fancy so I walked a little up the hill. This tree against the light was fun.Not sure about the tree itself, needs simplifying in some way. This is the first outing for a larger size so this is 20in by 12in. The new gizmo worked fine though.

Here is my set up. Quite simple a palette box with lid, so that I can leave the paints out and don’t need to clean up between pictures. An easel attachment for the tripod. Out of sight is the 20in by 12in panel box. It’s no lighter than my previous smaller box, the only downside is that the panel box has to be strapped to my pack on the outside as it is too big to go within.

This is towards the end of the day on the charmingly named “Hogs Trough Hill”. The light was super, though once I stopped it was very cold! 20in by 12in.

I don’t usually go for those “I wos really there honest !” pictures, but this shows the pack and under the brush roll the panel box.

Last Westerham, a quick sketch done while it drizzled on me of Westerham church.

I feel I ought to post the misses as well as the hits. This is Windsor from Eton it was a great subject, but I just didn’t catch it… one for the scraper!

Another stinker, the light was poor but that is no excuse I just couldn’t seem to see how to make it into a picture, horrid figures too!

Slightly better this one, a very wet day, we were all struggling I think, except Mike Richardson who painted a great one nearer to the town. It just goes to show there are good pictures on any day, it is just spotting them that is hard.

The last day, these were all done on a visit to Steve Alexander who very kindly hosts “Painting Fests” and puts us all up in his house, so big thanks to both him and his partner Anne! The weather was so dire we painted in a local church, this is Hartley Winton. This was fun but very cold and I should have spent longer on it, but the nearby cozy pub needed visiting.

Very hard to do this crouched under my brolly with the rain chucking it down… the dappled effect in the sky is from the rain blowing in!

Henley again, I was about to head home but started this, again it was raining hard, I must be mad!

A few charcoal life drawings and that will have to be all, I have still not caught up, I seem to be painting faster than I can post.

The first charcoal ones, I stuck to hatching but I need to explore stumping etc…

At the bottom are two value scales. The bottom one the full range of possible values the top the ones actually used. Below is a diagram to show the spread of values.

As you see the lightest possible lights and the darkest possible darks are not used in the painting. The space between the lines is the Value Range or Key. The top strip is just the area between the lines stretched to fit.

Here is the same image in grey scale. So how would the painting look if I had used the full range? Below I have done a photoshop adjustment that gives some idea.

Here it is. As you can see the picture is more contrasty and the two range strips more or less match. It still looks fine because all of the values have been stretched to fit and the relative positions are unchanged. This is rather using an elastic ruler. You are stretching the whole thing but it still has twelve divisions equally spaced. Here it is in grey scale.

As you see this looks fine and probably about how I would choose to draw the scene in black and white. See that the two strips now more or less match. So what happens if we go the other way? This time we will narrow the value range rather than expanding it.

It takes a moment to adjust your perception so look at the image above in isolation for a few moments. The mood has changed but the picture still works we have no difficulty in believing such a day and mood of lighting is possible. Below is the same thing in grey scale.

As you can see it has rather the feel of a foggy day, but is still perfectly plausible. In fact faced with this subject you could have painted in any of the value ranges above and it would have been perfectly valid.

So remember, when you start a painting first make a decision as to the Key. Put dabs on your canvas of the lightest and the darkest you intend to use and then stick to that range of values and place your other tones between those extremes. It is your decision as the painter not necessarily set by the subject, though some subjects obviously lend themselves to a particular range. On advantage of this approach is that if, when your painting is almost done, you need to punch an area up you will have the means rather than being stuck in the position of needing a white that is whiter than white!