Liz and myself have just returned from New Wine and so you know--- we had a superb time. We both experienced and leant a great deal; very formative. unfortunately I also came back cooking Covid. Liz seems to have skipped it. We are both fine now, all tested and clear, just a few days taking it a tad easier seems like a good idea to get my puff back.

But now the arts, to give you an idea of the challenges involved in the ink A2 work, above is an A3 drawing, it took about 30/40 hours and worked out very well: but that's not the finnish as it was meant as a preparatory drawing for a larger A2 drawing, firstly exploring the problems in draughtsmanship, tone, contrast, text, etc, etc. The A2 drawing is now well under way and thanks to all the prep work is starting to work our rather well. I feel that it is at the half-way point and so far I have emptied a pen and a half getting there. 

I will show you the finished piece in a few weeks.

 

Just a very quick information piece for today. The flier above is one of two current exhibitions of my work running at the moment. It is a first chance to see some of my new work, which is looking at the great beauty in the gradual decay of old fishing boats around our coasts.

We have been away, lots is happening, lots to do, will send a blog of more substance very soon. Duncan

At the moment life is rather hectic, having just returned from a holiday trip and organising and delivering work for two exhibitions.

But first the holiday, it was on the River Seven on a hotel barge, very nice indeed. One of the places visited was Gloucester and in particular the docks; these ancient docks were amazing. The above picture is of a mooring ring, with goodness knows how many boats tied up to it. I am sure health and safety would like a little impout there, but it does make an interesting picture.

So now two plugs for my exhibitions. 

First;  Guildford Arts at the Lockwood studios, on the Slyfield industrial estate, GU1IRR. A shared, Summer Exhibition, weekends only from the 2nd of August until the 31st of August. This is a first chance to see some of my new ands current project work, based on the returning to nature through decay of old fishing boats around our coasts.

And secondly; St Columbas Christian Conference Centre, Woking GU228AB, week days, office hours. All are welcome, however due to the sensitivity of much of the work done here it would be a good idea to ring first on, 01483766498.

Now I will put my feet up for a while.

Duncan

 

Well at last we are home, that is always so very nice. A few evenings just watching a DVD while being seated together on the settee; we are going through Foyles War at the moment.

We spent a few hours in Tewkesbury and loved the place.

Above is a quick sketch of the West door of Tewkesbury Abbey; it is not a highly polished and finished piece of work. It was produced whilst sitting on a sharp corner of a grave stone, not very comfortable, believe me, but it was the only possible seating which gave this view! It is only two and a half inch's square, but it captures the feeling of a corner of this ancient stone work. Although maybe the smallest and not the cleverest work of this recent trip, my feelings are that it says the most. Maybe it is my favorite.

So clever and big are not always the most meaningful.

 

 

You might be thinking, why has there been no blog for a few days; the answer is simple as there had been before an almighty, hectic few weeks. The culmination of this was a hotel in a barge, holiday on the River Severn, where we had a lovely time, with lots of tales to tell. Amongst the places visited were Worcester; the sun was blistering, perfect for a watercolor painting, so what transpired? See above and below. 

Thankfully I like people of all types.

I sat on a raised curb stone and relaxed, soon my solitude was broken by an unhappy lady whose marriage had just fallen apart. So I listened for a short while and wished her well. Next a friendly chap appeared with an even friendlier, massive, slobbering canine, they decided to come and join me. We chatted whilst I protected the painting from slobber damage. Then lastly a so called commercial expert joined me advising me as to how salable my work was. It was explained to him that I was on holiday and the idea was to relax a little. Others stopped and chatted a while, but no more experts, needy, or canine slobber drip owners appeared. Seriously I had a good time; Liz had been meeting an old friend for the day.

Next a while was spent in the cathedral, a short time to stop and pray was a good idea. I left the place calm, relaxed and ready for my next adventure.

We had a lovely break, more tales to follow.

 

I have said in the past that moving up from A4 sized images to A2 would present a few challenges; well it has. principally has been the digital scanning. having an excellent A4 scanner, scanning is  normally straight-forward, that is in simple terms. Oh dear: computers are not that simple!

The above A2 water colour, enhanced with a little ink work comes to mind. Four scans across the bottom, which were digitally joined. Then four scans across the top which were also digitally joined. Then those two images were digitally joined manually. The computer did not like me taking control. It took me a couple of hours; good grief!! The result doesn't look bad either.

I plan to produce several watercolor images of this size in my present project, Oh Dear! Maybe I will find a simpler way around this scanning malarky. 

The picture is of the coble landing at Filey, which is called "A jolly good read". Note the book worm on the extreme right.

Well my exhibition at St Columba's is over; it is always a pleasant feeling, having had an exhibition ending which was such a success: thank you all.

So onwards and upwards, so to speak; there is now an invitation only summer exhibition at St. Columba's which I was pleased to be invited to show in. Showing are three of my A2 ink woodland paintings, the above is one of them, it is of Hangar Woods near Newlands Corner, just to the north of one of our favorite walks along this ancient pilgrims trail from Winchester to Canterbury. Incidentally a friend of ours has just done the walk as a pilgrimage, I was a little jealous, the walk sounds super. This show is for two months and has just started.

 

When visiting please remember the sensitivity of much of the work being done at St. Columba's, so please give them a ring first. A warm welcome always awaits visitors. The number is, 01483766498.

My current project work now is looking at the British decaying fishing sea craft, which is great fun. At present my struggles are with a coil of chain on a shingle beach; that is realy stretching me a little. Keeps me out of mischief.

 

Well time moves on and my exhibition at St Columba's is coming to an end; in fact the next few days are the last week of this showing. A big thank you to all of you who visited, viewed, past comments and indeed a few of you who bought my work; affirmation is essential, it helps me on my journey.

Next week at the same venue is an exhibition of several artists and an invitation has been given to me to exhibit three of my more recent works. Above is one of them, the Hoe Stream, running through the Mayford meadows, just a few yards of the Edgley Road; basically it is a study of water surface tensions and the conglomeration of all-sorts of items and growths on the surface as it slowly passes by.

 At the present My work seems to be at a junction, image size has increased up to A2, which brings with it fresh challenges; it realy is all rather exciting. A fresh project is underway with a showing planned for next year, but that is another tale and at the same time another idea is floating around in my head, if it comes of that will be awesome.

It is early bank holiday Monday, I am sat in my study,  having painted for an hour and done my blog, so what are Liz and myself going to do today, or where will we go? It might be a lazy quiet day, or we might go somewhere. Let's wait and see.

 

Today was one of those days when with a little spare time appearing, the weather being super, so it was obvious what to do, of we went to Hatchlands for a short walk and a picnic; it proved to be an amazing nature awareness trek. 

On the way there a buzzard flew in front of the car, it was closer that ten yards; with what looked like a rabbit in its talons. Poor bunny.

Then at Hatchlands we strolled to the sheepdip lake and met two Egyptian geese with their young; they were not intimidated in the least by our presence and were happy with us walking not two yards from them. We reached our favorite bench, they followed on behind us, settling only a few yards away; we started to eat and enjoy that awaited  picnic.

Then the peace ended with much screeching and squawking. half a second later a mallard flew off in great haste, with the daddy egyptian goose hard on its tail. The mallard was minus a tail feather or two; a lesson learned the hard way to leave egyptian geese and their young alone.

 A few moments later the goose returned and landed on the water about four yards away, he as high as a kite, all full of testerone, very angry, upset, displaying much agitation, a poor analogy could be,"Not a happy bunny". He squawked and pranced around. Mum came out of the reeds with her two youngsters; she calmed him down a little, I imagined she said some thing like,"Well done dear, now you have done the manly thing, now be grown up and calm down a little" One of the chicks went up to dad, that had a remarkable effect on him, calming him instantly. withing a minuet they all curled up and had a family nap.

We finished the picnic; I also did a very mediocre sketch, which I am not going to show you.

 

Thinking about current events, some years ago I had the good fortune to spend a short time in Rome, whilst there a visit St. Peter's was a must do. Being on a walking tour we crossed the square and then walked on into the central city.

Obviously I wanted to share this image with you because of the events, with the passing of the Pope. It was the passing of a very good man, he was a superb example, who believed in scriptural Christianity, he was loved and will be much missed. Let us pray with compassion for comfort towards all Catholics and especially for wisdom to be given the cardinals as they begin the selection process of the next Pope.

On a lighter side, the sketch above was produced as I walked across the square. Water colour palette and pad in my left hand, with a brush and pencil in my right, this was as I walked with my group. Impossible to carry a water bottle as I had no more hands, so sadly and I apologise for this, spittle had to do for water. No cadmium based paints were used, I think.  Amazing that the picture turned out as well as it did.

Seriously, it was a little heath Robinsonish and the rest of my walking tour did laugh. But we all agreed that we got the picture and it caught the mood. 

Take wild risks, they often work.

 

This morning both being sleepy, we had a ly-in, not waking up until nine; now for us that is lazy.Then looking at our diarys and finding today having a blank page, we realised that we had a free day. So a quick breakfast was consumed and then out to play.

Tangmere was the decided destination. For those who are not aware, it is the site of a Battle of Brittan fighter airfield, which now has a museum on site. An hour or so later we arrived and at the museum which was splendid, we would recommend it to all. The only down fall was that there wasn't much to paint, now for me that is a disaster, so out came my camera.

The idea was to not take any documentary type photos, but to go along the arty line. That's what I did , looking for colour, reflections, contrasts and any thing else. This was the side of a Hawker Hunter fighter.

Occasionally to do some thing different is refreshing and jolly good fun.

 

For the sake of those who feel that I do not lead an exciting life, the other evening we, that is Liz and myself took part in the Japanese, Kit-Kat challenge. This involved tasting about thirty or so pieces of chocolate, then naming them. I got one right!  Enough of chocolate.

My exhibition at St. Columba's is going very well, it is remaining open to visitors until the end of May.

The painting above was also painted at beer when in a relaxed and couldn't care less sort of mood. A splash of watercolour around the boats then let pen take over.  Its fun and relaxing; I particularly like looking for thing that shouldn't be there, such as a car tyre, an open book; but to be honest there is a tea mug nearly everywhere.

A simple trick to draw compositions together on the beach. Notice the cables from the boats, they all deliberately go to a center of interest point; They draw the eye in and help to make the picture work.

See you soon Duncan

 

Liz and myself have just come home from our spring break in Sidmouth, we were tired and needed a rest, as usual the Kingswood hotel in Sidmouth looked after us so well; thank you.

Also as usual Beer was visited a couple of times for a little R and R painting on the shingle beach and around the fishing boats. Our first visit was on a lovely day, with a  horizon to horizon blue sky, lovely. The only down side was the ever so cold and fierce wind; being hardy and refusing to be put off, a warm coat, jumper and scalfe were donned and a painting I did go facing the full onslaught of the wind.

The water colour started well; however my drawing board was vibrating wildy as the wind tried to steel it from my hands, I persevered.

Soon after my water bottle was blown away.   Soon after that after my water colour pallet was upturned.

Refusing to be beaten, my brushes were put away and out came a pen. So a half water colour--unfinished work was continued in ink. The end result was not brilliant, but great fun. I will not show you that piece.

Two days later, the wind having abated, a return trip was undertaken, water colour work on my mind.

So sat in the same spot as before, I started a rendition of the chapel, a rock arch in the cliffs; perfect weather for water colour. A short while later one of the fishermen came over to chat, I know some of them quite well, with a mug of tea for me (no charge), and a natter, very pleasant. All in all a super morning.

I love painting out side, it is so changeable and such good fun, you never know what is going to transpire.  Try it.

 

 I lead an art group which meets every Thursday afternoon in Andy's on Goldsworth Park, we as a group were asked to paint some bird nesting boxes for the new church garden; all good fun and a bit of a change. Everything, that is paints and brushes were provided, so we just enjoyed ourselves. Fourteen were painted, much more than were needed, I assume the excess boxes were sold to buy plants, or something else gardenish.

It was so good putting aside for an afternoon my usual serious arty ministrations and just playing for a while. Others of a more serious dispossession also relaxed a little, the rest just loved the non to serious play. Now working with about twelve people in  a cafe with acrylic paints is asking for accidents and occasional paint splodges where they were not intended. So I needed to be very much on my guard with a damp cloth in my hand, doing the odd quick wipe up. Brushes need washing constantly, dirty water removing and replacing with clean, very busy but good clean (after a wipe with my cloth) fun.

So next time you pass St Andrews garden look out for our bird boxes. Adding a final thought, we did wonder if some of the birds would suffer migraine attacks with their new brightly coloured home.

 Conversation was lively, banter flowed back and forth, those of a more serious nature relaxed a little and just painted away, trying not to make to much of a mess. Now working in a cafe with many people painting with acrylics was asking for trouble; paint on table surfaces for example. So I needed to be constantly on my guard, walking around with a damp cloth, cleaning brushes, moving and changing very dirty water, But it worked well, all paint slashes were to the most part avoided or removed promptly, it was a very pleasant afternoon.

So next time myself or others pass the church garden we will be able to see our art work on display. We all hope the the birds don't get a migraine with all their brightly coloured nesting boxes.

Well my exhibition has been running for a little over a week now and thankfully it is going very well. This set me thinking as to why we exhibit?

 There seem to be three, maybe more, reasons to show your work; the first is money, it does cost to exhibit, so naturally that needs to be taken back and to sell a piece does cover the costs. Secondly the purpose of art is to show your thinking, understandings, ideas and skills; sharing these and helping others to see as well. Then the last reason is a much misunderstood word, ego. Look at me aren't I great; that thinking I dislike utterly; however there is an element which must not be overlooked. I know that my work is ok, but I do need encouragement in order to continue. The positive feedback which I am receiving at the moment is much appreciated and is much needed affirmation to continue; so thank you all for your comments.

The painting above is of a collection of various dried leaves, this technique I was demonstrating to a workshop last Saturday, which was as super day; I did enjoyed myself as I am sure the attendees did also. Leading workshops, teaching, encouraging, affirming, it is such an honour and a lovely way of making new friends. Out of interest the session was over suscribed, a few who hadn't booked turned up; we all squeezed in and had a good time. If any of you who attended that workshop are reading this; well I must say, "Well done"

, there was much thinking outside the box and experimentation. I had not thought of using leaves as printing blocks!!!! It was a good day.

Well at last the above exhibition is up and running and within the first hour the painting displayed on the poster was sold; a very encouraging start.

Can I remind everyone of the sensitive work which takes place at St. Columba's, as such for obvious reasons the door cannot be open at these times. So a quick telephone call on 01483 766498 before visiting would be a very good idea and also saves disappointment.

So, in the future I will not be forgetting trees, far from that, but in the short term I will be looking at old decaying fishing boats and other water craft. Sounds good fun.

 

The other day, Liz was busy with all sorts of meetings happening, so she suggested to me that is was an ideal opportunity for me to swary of to London and sketch a little; not a bad idea I thought! So happily off I went. Upon arrival the streets were windy, cold and this swary all seemed like a rather chilly mistake. However I persevered and wandered with no real aim, working my way behind Trafalgar Square into all those narrow twisting streets which in the not to distant past were the rather seedy Soho; thankfully now significantly cleaned up and a delight of twisting and narrow streets and alleys, but it was still very cold.

However I passed this alley, with nowhere to sit, workmen hosing down the street, more workmen doing some sort of repairs; a lot of banging, hammering and shouting to each other going on; so I leant against a wooden wall and started sketching. Then somebody moved something and apologised for blocking my view, I said nothing, just laughed, the obstruction was removed quickly. They carried on working, then started chatting with me as well; they were a good bunch and I did enjoy my time with them. The sketch wasn't to bad either.

A nice way to spent some spare time and to relax. Only one sketch was produced as it realy was a tad cold, but that was a special time in that alley. Try to be brave and paint/sketch in very public places, people will talk to you, you will have a good time. Go on, try it.

 

Still a little dark, early morning light coming in through the window, just had breakfast and my quiet time, then no e-mails to answer; a good start to the day, that is just how I like it!

Above is a timed piece which I produced a few weeks ago at Beer (the place in Devon and not the drink), a lovely shingle beach and shore launched fishing boats still operate from there. We were staying in Sidmouth for a few days and Liz wanted some retail therapy, so I was dismissed, being told  to go away for a few hours. Great, chance to paint at Beer, one of my favorite sketching locations.

Method a very quick light sketch with pencil. A few very loose washes with water colour. Then tighten up with a pen and 45 minuets later, there it is. Its good fun, don't worry about mistakes. Sounds rather blazzy, but its about enjoying your art. The aim was not to produce a great piece of art, rather to relax and enjoy myself and I did.

Got a full day ahead of me, it should be good. See you all soon

Love Duncan

 

 Well Liz and myself hope that you all had a super Christmas; we certainly did. 

But today a little advertising.

My exhibition "Can you hear the trees talking", goes up shortly at St. Columba's conference center Woking. Its all about how different plant forms form that ama in size; for ink work this is very large, the work was exceedingly challenging. If you are interested I feel that you will enjoy the show.

Above is one of the pieces which will be exhibited. I will post an invitation to you all in a couple of weeks.