After my last canal scene and the trouble I had with it, I decided to get back in the saddle and have another try. I am moderately happy with the outcome on this one. It is made up from three photographs which also allowed me to present it in a long format. With precious few paintings in this format it allows me to use up one of my long frames.
As you can see this stretch of the Leeds Liverpool Canal outside of Burscough is quite wooded, but the lack of leaves in winter allows the morning light to filter through. In summer it takes on a completely different feel.
On Wednesday I was able to get out painting in the open. A lovely sunny day and quite warm. Looking back over my watercolour sketchbooks this is the earliest date I have ever painted in the UK – before that, the earliest date was around the 30th of March. So there, Donny Dump – irrefutable proof of global warming. In hindsight I should have put the horizon line lower. If I try it in the studio it might make a big sky painting. What caught my attention was the bare branched oak by the house looking like some enormous marsh devil coming for the power lines.
I managed two on this trip – these are farms and dwellings under Clieves’ Hills – an old favourite haunt of mine. The light was coming onto the buildings so the mystery of contra jour was missing. Still, it made me pause and spend a pleasant half hour or so painting.
Yesterday was also a good day, but I had a dental appointment, so we’ll see how today pans out and maybe I’ll have some more sketches to show.
In the name of replacing stock I decided to have another go at this scene. This will be the third time I have tried it and I have never been satisfied with the outcome. So I shuffled the main players around, and decided upon much darker reflections in the water. In the end, after a very promising start, his turned out like the others. In fact I prefer my previous attempt to this. I dont think the colour/tonal balance of the photo helps, but I am not happy with the actual painting anyway. So it is back to the drawing board on this one – that is, if I ever decide to try it again. Meanwhile, I’ll try a different scene.
Crashing back to earth after my holiday I realise I need to replenish paintings sold over Christmas. Here is one I did this week. It of the beach I’ve painted many times; a morning scene when the sun comes up over the landward side and casts a warm glow over the marram grasses and the high dunes cast a shadow over some of the beach. Hopefully just a picture of calmness that someone might recognise who visits the place.
Another in my big sky painting series – one that I managed to slip in between planning demos. I could drive for more simplicity in the lower portion, but I want to keep a sense of place. This is a road that runs across the Moss away from north Southport. The wind sculpted trees grab my attention under an imagined sky.
A few years ago I took a version of this painting, along with more traditional ones to a floral demonstration I was doing. The lady who organised the programme was interested in the painting, the materials used and the process employed. She hoped I could do a demonstration on how I painted it. As the first two stages need to be done flat I couldnt paint it on an easel in front of an audience. Also each of the first two stages took a day each to dry – so it didnt fit into the usual 2 hour slot – including a tea break – that you are given for these demonstrations. At the time we left it there.
The lady wasnt to be deterred and last year contacted me to say they had an overhead camera and could film me as I worked on a flat bench and would that allow me to try the demo. After a bit of thought I decided that if I pre-prepared the two early stages I could give it a go.
So I have been busy creating two canvasses I can use. You can never fully control the way the paints and inks will flow, but it is the process that I really want to get over. I will start with a blank canvas and do a copy of the painting on the left. When complete I will wipe it clean and replace it with this actual one on the left and then apply the linework to it with acrylic inks to finish up with something like the one on the right. When that is complete I will wipe off the inks and put the painting on the right up on an easel and finish using heavy body acrylics to bring it to something resembling the painting at the top.
I hope you got all that – simple isnt it?
I will also talk about different acrylic paints, mediums and additives and, if there’s some time, do a small poured acrylic demo.
So that’s the plan, but it has taken a bit of time to get it all together. There still are a few loose ends, but I think I’m basically ready for next week. I just hope the club I am doing it at is also ready.
I had this idea for for a painting as I sat for long hours on the plane coming home. In the end, now it’s painted, I feel I’ve overcomplicated it and may try a more simplified version. Still, it’s getting back into painting and looking at the weather outside I may even start venturing out there again.
On Monday I went to my framers to pick up my unsold paintings as arranged. I needed some paintings to show at the demonstration yesterday and, anyway, I had occupied his window since before Christmas.
In that time I had sold four paintings which is quite good for that venue and I was happy enough. When I went into the workshop to announce my presence, Ian, the assistant said you’ve sold four. I thought he was referring to the four I knew about but he said that during the week someone had come in and purchased four others. So, eight in total. Three of these were painted December/January with the big sky approach which I showed in earlier posts and am reposting here. As this style is something I have only just started with it puts a little lead in your pencil.
So, there may be more coming. Yesterday’s demo seemed to go well but I have another tricky demo to do, so that might take up my time in the coming weeks and slow my venture into big sky landscapes.
On the plane home from my holiday, the thought occurred to me that I had to give a painting demonstration of the painting above in three days time. As I had done some prep before departing on holiday I wasnt too worried, though I was conscious that I had very little time to fine tune. Also, as I take some paintings to show, I needed to get them back from my framer’s window very quickly as all my framed paintings were there.
Anyway, I neednt have worried because the demo is this week – the following week – this Wednesday, so I was able to do a calm run through and arrange to get my paintings today.
The group leader of the club I’m doing this at requested I demo this view of a local park. It’s going to be a tall order as there are plenty of small details, especially at the end, when I generally am running out of steam, but we’ll give it a go. As part of my prep I did this version above, but I still have the original – which I posted a long time ago – as I haven’t found a buyer.
graham mcquade 
