Wild Scarlet, Queen Street, Bath.



When registering to enter the Bath Prize Painting Competition, one  is first allocated  a particular place in the city to paint, however one can submit other paintings as well. A coincidence - the first place I ever painted plein air in Bath, in April this year, was very near the same allocated place of Queen Street, but viewed from the other side of the arch in Trimbridge (see below).
A prominent detail above is a 'manikin' in the LH corner which had displayed a blue dress. Here is an earlier stage of the work ....

 The thoughtful woman in the shop even left it out for me to paint a while longer when closing up at 5.30. However 2 weeks later ...... returning to finish the work, she had placed an eye-catching RED dress outside. Making a rather instant decision, I decided to quickly paint red opaquely over the Blue dress before she took the red one back in - I think the red works well and have given the painting the quirky title  "Wild Scarlet, in Queen Street, Bath" - referring to the two shop notices of the 'Wild Cafe', and 'Scarlet Vintage' dress shop.
I always felt hungry whilst painting outside the cafe, seeing people enjoying their tuck, thinking "Later I'll get 10mins to have a nice rest and a coffee" -  but I never did manage it, parking time always ran out, etc. I  recommend the Scarlet Vintage dress shop with the helpful proprietor woman, displaying the most elegant colourful dresses I've seen for a long time (I don't usually take much notice of such shops).
Having been to the site to work 4 times trying to get the right light, etc, I felt there was a danger of loosing freshness and spontaneity so it is good to finish the work; hopefully I can loosen up do something more lively.
Below is the first painting in Trimbridge done in April. a it is lot smaller and so executed more quickly. I think I'm pleased with the sense of light in this one.

Plein Air meet at British Camp, Malvern.

Another meeting of the UK plein Air Society proved a very enjoyable day, blessed with great weather. After starting the meet with a coffee together at the British Camp Hotel, catching up, and getting aquainted with new members etc., we climbed, recovered our breath(!),  and painted towards the North first, with  a view one of the peaks above Malvern Town  ( the town is below the peak to the right and out of the picture)
We'd all set up first on the NE side looking  towards the Beacon peak.  Peter Cronin - foreground, Roy Wilkinson - far left, Anthony Bridge - far right, GlynisDray -  has just been checking progress on the others and heading back to her easel,
 Moving round the ramparts, a longish walk to the South showed another stunning view from the Black Mountains and round towards Cheltenham and Gloucester.  At the new site, I always seem to be the last to settle and start painting, with the wide choice of open vista. I could see rain towards the Black Mountains so turned my back to that to include the southern tip of the hills;  this painting is a bit literal but I couldn't resist adding colleagues at their work; Roy Wilkinson and  Anthony Bridge, perched against the skyline. . We could see rain in the north, felt  a few scattered drops but the raincloud barely missed us and I heard they's had a good downpour in Malvern. Lucky - it is very exposed on the hill.
My easel, just before packing up at 4.50pm,  the models (posing for free) had long gone for coffee at the hotel a mile or so below so I had to hurry to catch up.

Malvern Hills from Sink Farm Lane

About 5.00 pm Saturday at Sink Farm, Hangmans Lane, Hanley Castle. About twenty  cows surrounded me at the start (quite intimidating!!), but they soon got bored watching and wandered off towards the barns and vanished, milking time. I went back for an hour today . The sky was somewhat different, however reworking a bit the next day certainly helps to consolidate the piece. Painting into the sun creates its problems, with light changing by the minute but I was trying a system of mixed optical grey, it tends to restrain the colour so works well in this instance as the colour gets bleached out in this type of lighting situation with the sun popping in and out of the clouds.

Top of Lavington Hill - in progress


Oil on canvas 20" x 16" Working on  a larger format, 'en plein air'.
The edge of Salisbury plain, looking West, with strange light/colour effects in the sky ..... There's  a also a compositional challenge here ... I wanted to convey something of the richness of a roadside verge, some sunlight  hitting  a patch of brambles etc, yet it also relates to the overall landscape in some way. This  has pehaps has too much of the wider landscape intruding. Below shows the progression of the work.

Copper Beech at Longleat

A  magnificent Copper Beech, by the car park near Heaven's Gate. Done in the last hour of fading light, I didn't quite catch the sense of light I wanted here, but somehow like the sense of 'attack' in this one. Oil on gesso panel 14" x 10".

Some Bach  to listen to ........  it helps my mental flow when working.

Jenny Asparro: Partitia no 2

Garden study with sundial, and yellow roses.

Study of a garden for a house commission
The lovely roses were just gone over with petals dropping but enjoyable to paint.

Design for a Roman style mural

Something completely different! I found this in a corner of the attic - one of two designs for an 8ft high building hoarding in North London in the area called 'Little Venice', near Regents Park Canal. This project was being planned for the hoarding of a large building site, just as the last recession hit in the early 1990's and the idea was suddenly scrapped.

 The second design, now lost, was quite different but more relevant to England; it was of a medieval type Gothic cloister, a row of wide pointed arches with pillar supports and a low wall between, (ie Salisbury Cathedral cloister, but less ornate), with views through the arches into a courtyard garden of green topiary shaped bushes and  glimpses of sculptures could be seen. I remember adding a Henry Moore style granite grey coloured statue, contrasting the medieval with something iconic of 20th century. A pity it is lost - anyway very different from the plein air work.

Saint Dimitrie



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Oil and Golden leaf/Wood;
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