Rob Adams a Painter's Blog painter's progress

Almost back to real time and I will be able to write about art again. Though since I have had all this time to research I now know that art history is all fake news. You tell me Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel I say, you prove it… were you there? Rembrandt’s self portraits were probably painted by the lady next door. I have all my paintings done for me in China, I am really a chartered accountant and not an artist at all. I am of course joking but when I was in France in a famous painting village there were artists sitting in galleries who had done just that. What is more they did better that the artists who did their own. I’m afraid the ones below are all done by me personally, but now I am getting a pension I might be able to afford to get them professionally painted in China.

The wonderful beech avenue on the way to Kingston Lacey. I have painted this several times but never been pleased with the result. I did this one after painting a terrible picture of Badbury Rings. Only 15min and more about rain and cars that trees but I went home feeling a wee glow of success. 6in by 6in Oils.

Chapman’s Pool, such a difficult subject to make into a decent painting. It is spectacular when you are there but that does not always translate into a good subject. Not entirely happy but easily my best attempt. 12in sq. Oils.

We have organised a small art trail of open studios in the village. I make the map and we publicise it. I am pessimistic but to my surprise it is a great success. I make my studio into a comic strip with pandemic paintings and captions, this is so popular visitors spend too long in there and I get queues. I do paintings like this of my yard to amuse the public. 12in by 10in Oils.

Summer moves on and I paint a local field of barley. I really don’t paint close to my house enough. 14in by 10in Oils.

The same field ready to harvest. I blocked this in but when I went back next morning it had been harvested overnight! 16in by 10in Oils.

I went to Paintout Norfolk at the kind invitation of James Colman to be a judge at the competition. I had never really been to that part of the world and was very smitten with the subjects on offer. I camped in my van and the weather was blazingly hot. This is Great Yarmouth and I nearly died from being baked. I had to slink off to the shadows for the final touches. 12in by 8.5in Oils.

In the evening a local man brought some of his car collection to paint. Who could resist… I even sold this one. 10in by 8in. Oils.

Norwich Cathedral I made sure I was in the shadow for this one. 10in by 8.5in Oils.

Norwich again a great place to paint. It was very nice to meet up with friends I had not seen since the plague hit. 12in by 8.5in Oils.

More Norwich I took my pens as well which meant I could wander about with very little kit and still get something done.

I did my Judging and went home pleased, I shall return next year.

Shaftesbury, I painted this very near a cafe and could hear the diners commenting on my progress. There is always that gratifying point when people notice that the picture is not completely pants… or mostly there is. 14in by 12in.

The famous Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, I painted it looking up this time, slightly distracted by being interviewed by local radio as I painted. 10in by 14in Oils.

A little girl was making a collection of seashells on Studland beach, she kept going to and fro with her treasures all the time I worked. As you might guess this one instantly sold. 8in sq. Oils.

Portland from Castle beach on a very bright day. 10in sq. Oils.

Those rocks in Kimmeridge bay again. I had not painted this bit at low tide before. Lovely light and a nice comfy rock to sit on, what’s not to like? 12in sq Oils.

Autumn by the Stour at Hanford, I didn’t realise that this bit of the river was easy to get to. My visit was in torrential rain, but having soaked me it it then cleared. 16in by 12in Oils.

That’s almost up to date. In the next issue I am struck down by illness that interrupts painting… no not that illness another one…

As a person of advanced years the pandemic was particularly irritating. I don’t have all that much life left and wasting three years hiding under the rug with a mask on was not on my agenda. Still mustn’t grumble, here I am whining about it so it could be worse. So summer was here and I was time for Dorset Arts Weeks, the last one had been cancelled due to art being the risk of a super spreader event so this was a sort of a bonus one for still being alive. I was a little nervous of having probably virus ridden strangers in my home but with alcohol loaded hand washing goop and other germ warfare gear I should be survive. Would anyone come and buy stuff? We had all been avoiding each other for so long we had forgotten how to socialise let alone randomly visit artist’s studios of dubious hygienic quality.

We were going out painting again. I hadn’t seen the sea for well almost a year. Chesil bank where it hits Portland a tiny little painting and I remember no concentrating properly as i was just enjoying the feeling of being out and about. 10in by 5in Oils.

A few days later at Osmington Mills. I just had to paint the surreal sight of all the cruise liners parked in Weymouth Bay. Some bits had to be invented as the pub had put up a vast marquee that filled the foreground. 36in by 12in. Oils.

Wareham I was still nervous of members of the public with their masks jauntily positioned well beneath their noses. Others walked the streets with fear in their eyes heavily masked and taking their shopping home to disinfect it with a flame thrower. I had got a bit rusty at this sort of scene and had a brief moment of panic. Town scenes are so complex you have to leave out a lot of clutter, the trick is to do undefined stuff that might be clutter if the artist had been better at painting. 14in by 10in. Oils.

More sea. Demonstrations were coming back too, this was for a group who were particularly elderly more than half were fast asleep by the time I had got this done. I did my best with jokes and chat, but obviously the experience was akin to those dreaded slide based lectures about art history. I have only given demos since moving to Dorset, I quite enjoy the process, there is always the possibility that you will do an epic fail in front of an audience which add a frisson of fear. 19in by 12in Oils.

More Wareham, the best views of the main street are from your car. It had a great variety of buildings and the Vikings deliberately laid it out at an angle where the street should be well lit for painters in the morning. 16in by 10in Oils.

Old Harry from Studland. Last one before the open studios. To my surprise lots of people turned up to do art appreciation, the weather was lovely, people actually bought stuff and I didn’t get infected despite some dubiously sneezing children. 12in by 16in Oils.

No rest for the pensionable… I had just started to receive the state pension. A bit surreal, the government takes money away from people who probably need it to give to a fairly well off artist in Dorset who doesn’t. Autumn is here and so is the threat of the Art Trail, another bijou open studio event to happen next year just in the village. More framing I never seem to have enough frames, a good sign I suppose as it means people are actually buying paintings. Bulbarrow in the background. 14in by 10in Oils.

The Stour at Hammoon, the river is getting full so floods are in the offing. I am determined to paint them this year. 14in by 10in Oils.

Floods! I had to take off my boots and wade through knee deep water to get in position to paint this. The artist suffering always improves a picture I think. 12in by 8in Oils.

More floods, Hanford this time. Boots off again and standing up to my shins in very cold water. I kept an eye out for otters they can be dangerous this time of year. 10in by 8in.

That is 2021 almost dealt with. One more and we will be back to real time.