river « Rob Adams a Painter's Blog

May 6, 2013

Painting in the Sun and battles with charcoal.

Filed under: Drawing,Kent,Life Drawing,London,Painting,Thames,Uncategorized — Tags: Air, boats, drawing, figure, Landscape, Life, london, nude, oils, paint, painting, Plein, river, Thames, Watercolour — admin @ 6:56 pm

I have never got on with charcoal or for that matter pencil. Which is a pity as I love drawings done in those media by others cleverer with them than I. I think it is because I never really drew with pencil as a child as I discovered pen first. Later on pencil was for the planning stage of a painting not a finished stand alone work. I love seeing adept pencil sketches of landscape but have never managed to produce many myself. I know the basics of course, hatch and avoid shading or smudging, indicate rather than define. When I do it however it looks rather laboured, without that bravura dashed off look I would like.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nude, life drawing, charcoal

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.

Life drawing, nude, charcoal

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.

Life drawing, nude charcoal

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.

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.

nude, life drawing

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

life drawing, nude

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

nude, life drawing

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.

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February 28, 2013

It never Rains but it Pours

Filed under: Drawing,Kent,Life Drawing,London,Painting,Surrey,Thames,Uncategorized,Watercolour — Tags: Air, drawing, figure, london, nude, oils, paint, painting, Plein, river, sketch, Thames, Watercolour, winter — admin @ 11:48 am

I had the vague idea that giving up full time work would cause an increase in leisure activities. Reclining on the sofa, listening to music. Sitting in a cafe in Greenwich and sipping a coffee whilst reading a book. Meals out with friends in restaurants etc. I’m not complaining there has been an occasional bit of that, but a great deal of sitting under an umbrella trying to paint. Also all the stuff you need to do in order to paint. Finding subjects, buying materials, stretching canvasses, framing pictures, priming boards, blogging and building various ingenious plein air gizmos.
The gizmos in this case are a method of painting larger plein airs. Just a modest increase to 20in by 12in. The trouble with pochades is that this means a whole new box. So I decided to make an easel attachment for the tripos and a hook on palette, then team that up with various sized wet panel boxes. I have in mind that I am going to France with the Wapping Group again this year, which means getting the luggage for a holiday and also all the gear needed for painting and then getting the resultant wet paintings home again. In previous years I have ended up with a case entirely filled with painting clutter and only room for one pair of trousers and some underpants/paintrags!
I really have to start painting some more ambitious plein airs, 20in by 16in at least. This is of course going to require more carpentry though I won’t need a carrier that holds more than two panels at that size. I can also paint four 10in by 8ins on such a panel and chop them up after!
I have at last got down to some studio work and have several paintings on the go at the same time. I am a bit uncertain about posting work partly done but I suppose it is of interest. I like seeing work in that state by other artists myself so I suppose I should. This working on canvasses in rotation is very new to me we shall have to see how it goes, with oils though I find “a la Prima” too limiting as I wish to use glazes and such. In the next post hopefully.
Life drawing is another area in need of a revolution. I have got too cosy with the pastels on toned paper. It is too easy to get a beguiling effect without enough substance. In effect you need to do less looking which is on reflection a bad thing. So I am going back to basics, white paper and charcoal. First results are not promising… I’ve put them below for you all to laugh at! One thing I hit straight away was that dealing with the medium needs a new set of technical skills. I have to explore the mysteries of “stumping”, I will report on the hows and how nots once I have got a reasonable handle on the process.
Enough of that I have quite a backlog of pictures to post.

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.

gizmos

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 wos ere

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.

Westerham Church, drawing

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.

Henley