Works in progress, and a little about the process...

Here are a few images of some paintings I have been working on. They are paintings of sea-bream and a filleted sea-bass.







Red Bream

Sea-Bream

Fish stock

Bream head.

All are oil on canvas.

I have also been working on some of the Malta paintings, and they are still progressing.

Here is the one of the redtower, shown earlier that I have reworked.

I have also painted another more abstract work from the original view.

I have just reworked the sky on this painting

and re-explored the same view in a more simplified way.

I reworked the Tower painting, moving back away from my emphasis of colour. I also added some of the dry scrub back into the foreground which has solidified the painting as a whole. At the same time I have created more of a Haze to the work giving the impression of the heat instead of the hotter colouring.

As you will notice the paintings are still evolving, the evolution of the fish paintings are now having an effect on the landscapes, in particular the 3rd painting of the Red Tower which has abstracted out of the original. This was led by the interest of the fish paintings moving from a study of the fish

itself, morphing into the fish-head painting. In the way the fish head work is relying on a ghost image of the skeleton to create interest, rather than the more defined skeleton of the sea-bass painting, the 3rd work of the Red Tower has relied less on definition and more on imagination to pick out the field boundaries and terrace work.

Evolving process..

I have been busy in the studio again, working away... quite productively, the work is evolving nicely. A lot of what I have done will not see the light of day, but it is leading towards something I'm getting interested in.
It may take a few weeks to get there, but if it does-so be it. It is always nice to meander off on a theme, and just follow to where it leads. It may be successful, or it may not.....either way the journey is enjoyable and I thrive on the process anyway. Painting ceases to be hard work and turns into an adventure. When the process evolves like this it is exciting, not so much that you can't see where it is leading, but you get the urge to keep going even beyond tiredness. The hardest part is stopping work, and even when I'm tired I can't wait to go back into the studio.....the tricky part is striking the balance between work and overworking. Getting over tired just means that you lose the impetus and the work gets stale.
This is why I am resting today, and probably tommorrow...

more interruptions.....lol

I found time to work yesterday, it progressed well. But with the trout fishing season opening in the morning I am spending today organising my fishing tackle and loading it all back into my van for the trip tomorrow.
Painting fish will have to wait for another day.

Back to grey skies....

We are back from the Cote D'Azur (French Riviera), in France. The weather was beautiful again, February and 20 degrees, sunshine and blue skies (if a little hazy at times). Travelling along between Nice, Antibes, Cagnes-sur-mer and as far along as Cannes....we intend to go further on our next visit to the area....was most enjoyable in bright sunshine and warm breezes. However we are now back in cold grey windy Ireland...and wishing I was still there.

Visiting the Cote D'azur, among other places, allows you to experience the world of the Impressionists and post impressionists. It is much easier to appreciate or critique the work when you have seen the areas painted, the light of the region and it's natural colours. See what they saw when painting plein air landscapes along the coastal regions. But many other artists also spent time working here, among them were Pablo Picasso, Chagall, Dufy, Cocteau, Bonnard, Soutine, Derain, Boudin, as well as Monet, Renoir and others. There is even an organised tour based around the settings and landscapes they painted for those that like to be guided.

I prefer to meander along at my own pace rather than being chivvied or delayed by a herd instinctively trying to keep everyone happy....even those that want the whistle-stop tour!
I am amazed how some groups go into galleries and speed around as fast as possible...I tend to go to one or two rooms at a time and savour what I see....there is always another day to see further. But back to the Riviera...the light there is different.. one of these days I may get to spend enough time there to do some painting....maybe next time, we are certainly going back again, we had a better time this year than last year, mainly because we travelled more widely (last year we spent most of the time in Nice and Monaco) but we still want to see other areas of interest, and we still didn't go to the Renoir Museum (Cagnes) the Chagall Museum (Nice) time just passes and before we know it, it's time to go home again......Well at least until Barcelona next month..........

Work on the Malta series.

The work has gone quite well today. I have photographed four of the pieces (badly, LOL) but there is a reflection on them from the lights, as I had long lost daylight by the time I was thinking about photographing them.

The first is of a castle called the Redtower, and it is actually that pink in colour.

The second is a view of a typical Maltese hill with patchwork fields in the foreground.


The third is based on sketches of a terrace hillside, seen from below.

The last of the four is a view of a bay on the North coast of Gozo. The headland has a distinctly shaped hill which creates a dramatic statement.

All are still works in progress, but I am happy with the way they are progressing.

I am back painting.

I have a total of five works on the go at the moment, and a number of others ready to start. They are all relatively small, (for me) under 35 cm as I am cognizant of needing to ship them abroad, and to keep the purchase price at a level that is affordable in the market they are going to.

I hope to carry on this week at near the level of work I managed last week, but I found it very tiring. I was painting up to 14 hours a day last week, and it takes a lot out of me, so I will probably slow down. The work is progressing well though.

February Snows...

We are almost snowbound at the moment... at least the studio is in walking distance, I was out in the car about an hour ago, but driving in a straight line was impossible, waltzing along was easy, stopping wasn't. England has it worse though.

I have finally finished rejigging my website and replaced sold work with other images, re-organised different galleries and updated my key words and tags....I hope!

Tomorrow I hope to start painting. Assuming I can manage to walk down to the end of the garden tomorrow. I will keep you informed....

February already

The start of another month! January has gone, and I still have no painting done!
I will get stuck in next week though. It is surprising how time passes so quickly. I need to get back to work soon, I have lots of work to do in the early part of the year with two proposed one man exhibitions in late summer and the autumn.

I am ready to paint now though, and because of this I know work will go well. I am rested, so I can approach the work with fresh ideas and impetus. I'll keep you updated.

January blues...

I haven't been in the studio for a few weeks, I have been busy at other things. With the year end figures to tie up and paperwork to organise I just didn't find the time to paint. We had to cancel two trips abroad this month due to unforseen events so we are not in Oslo this week, nor will we visit Madrid.
However, I've booked a trip to Barcelona/Salou for March instead, and we still have the visit to Nice (France) booked alongside two short day trips to Edinburg and Liverpool, (to visit galleries etc.). We are trying to get into the city center to see the annual Turner exhibition (in the national gallery)before the end of the month too, they only display the watercolours in January when the light conditions are most suitable (least damaging) for the works.

I am currently trying to tie down a gallery owner to do a stock check, but they seem to be totally disorganised as to what stock they have where. I have emailed my access printout to show what works they should have belonging to me, so they can see what they owe me for. There seems to be problems (caused by part-time staff not dealing with paperwork for sold items properly I'm told) with exactly what has been sold and what has not.

It is mildly irritating, though it would be worse if I needed the money at the moment, but I can afford to wait for a few weeks as my bank balance is relatively healthy at the moment. It is just another job that is taking far more effort and time than it should. I need to get it sorted out so I can do my end-of-year figures.

Meanwhile, it is great to see the stretch in the evenings, spring is on it's way. The lenght of the daylight hours seem to have taken a sudden spurt in the last two weeks, or maybe I was just too busy to notice.

I still haven't finished any paintings this year. I have been busy with other things though. The weather has been very (unusually) cold here recently. Today we have high winds too, but the sky has clouded up so it should start getting a little warmer.
I need to spend more time in my studio. I have the daylight simulation bulbs there, I am suffering a little from lack of daylight. I don't need an excuse to work in the studio, but if I did this is a good one....