Painting No 26 - Church and Mill, Ivinghoe

Oil on canvas board 12" x 16"

I've started doing several paintings in parallel as I often have to wait for the paint to dry, so this one is close on the heels of Trofeo Kima Rocks.  I attempted this windmill years ago when I briefly dabbled in watercolours but never finished it.  This view is from one of my runs out with the dog.  I made the clouds a bit more interesting and added the pheasant to complete the composition (in exactly the same way I added the way-marker in Trofeo).

This mill is the oldest postmill (the whole structure rotates on a central post to face the wind) in England and has an interesting history.  I visited this mill way back in 1978 when I cycled down to Invinghoe youth hostel (recently turned into flats) on a whim, from Doncaster (via Grantham youth hostel).  I never imagined then that I'd be living nearby.  I've always thought it was called Invinghoe Mill but apparently it's called Pitstone Windmill.  Invinghoe is the nearer of the two villages.

I'm planning another one with the mill and Ivinghoe Beacon for the near future.  I've been encouraged by my experiences with the Joss Naylor prints so I intend to do a series of local scenes and sell them as prints.

This one was interesting as I tried to keep the field and trees fairly loose but had to provide some very fine detail with the church and windmill sails.  I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Painting No. 22 - Joss Naylor, Wasdale, 1970s

Oil on board. 24" x 24"

I've been planning to do this one for quite a while now, every since I saw the original photograph on the cover of the Keith Richardson book 'Joss', a biography of the fell running legend Joss Naylor MBE.

The photograph is by the late Brian Duff so I had to obtain permission from his family who own the copyright to be able to paint it. 

There were clearly some challenges here.  Firstly, once again it's painting from a photograph and not real life.  Secondly the photo contained more than the usual mix of photographic distortions not least of which is the massive foreshortening which brought the background hills much closer than they appear in real life.  Also, how did he get that haze around Joss? This was in the days before Photoshop.  Finally, it's monochrome so I was going to have to decide on the colour scheme. 

This painting is important to me as it is in the genre that I want to specialise in: mountain activity scenes, and it is of a real celebrity in the fell and ultra running circles in the UK.  I have plans to hopefully use this painting to raise some money for charity. 

So, I had to plan this one carefully.  I started by getting used to the image by making some pencil sketches. 

The face was a mass of shadows making it difficult to extract any detail but there was just enough to work with.  I then did a value sketch in oils on a 10" x 10" board, as the tones within the picture were vital to making it work.  I was particularly keen to get the figure to stand out against the background. 

 

Before doing this I had to choose the composition.  I tried various positions with Joss on the left, in the centre and finally chose the one above with him appearing to run into the picture from the right hand side.  A square shape also seemed to suit the composition within a nice diagonal running from top right to bottom left.  His arms are on the horizontal golden mean whilst the left hand side of his body (his right) is on the vertical.

Next I  had to decide on what colour his kit was.  I tried various combinations, using a scanned image and Microsoft Paint, before going with a dark blue top and red shorts.  I couldn't make out the type or make of shoes he was wearing in the photograph so I changed them to the classic Walshes which he typically wears.

Now I was ready to start.  I'd originally intended to do this on stretched canvas but the one I bought was too cheap and nasty so, being too impatient to source a decent one, I cut and gessoed a piece of board.  I then drew the main outlines in pencil onto the gesso, using grid lines in the more detailed areas such as his face.  I blocked in the main areas using a dark red wash then proceeded to add the colours. 

As I was doing the background it struck me that there was a lot of interesting detail missing on the original photograph.  As a fell runner myself I like to be able to make out the paths and features that are so familiar to me.  So I found some reference photos and proceeded to do a reasonably detailed background, knowing full well that I'd have to fade it out by scumbling to the required tone to make it recede.  This has worked quite well as the detail is still to be found through the haze.  For example the path up the western flank of Great Gable can be seen under Joss's right arm.  That brings back memories of battling up there in a monstrous gale in the 2008 OMM (Original Mountain Marathon).  (See this video at the 2:08 min mark to see the conditions). 

This painting includes my first use of a palette knife.  I used it to obtain the markings on the rocks in the foreground.  Interestingly, I paint with brushes with my left hand but use the palette knife with my right. Very strange but I do like the effect it gives.  Perfect for those rocks. 

I did two passes of the whole figure, making sure the values worked, until I reached the point where I thought doing anymore would spoil it.  Overall I'm very satisfied with the effect.  I managed (in my opinion) to get the figure to project out of the painting.  The end result is not yet where I want to be as a painter but I get the impression that painter's are never satisfied so for now I'm happy with the end result.  I hope others like it.

Painting No 20 - Aldbury in the Spotlight

Oil on Canvas Board  18" x 24"

This is based on a photograph (yes, I'm still working from photos, sorry) that I took while out running. I couldn't resist this cloud formation and trying out the hotspot technique by placing Aldbury in the sun. I took a risk with demoting the land in favour of the sky but I think I just about got away with it.

It is amazing how effective the sunlit area is.  I had the painting on the easel for a couple of weeks with just a dull green and blue middle ground and the whole picture looked flat and uninteresting. I particularly the like the natural greens and browns in the sunlit patch.  There is something soothing about them.

Painting No 10 - Autumn Flames on Ivinghoe Beacon

Oil on canvas board, 8" x 10".

This was a quick one (2-3 hours) based on a photograph I took last week while walking the dog. I was struck by the gorgeous yellow trees (a cluster of three small silver birch) in an otherwise drab landscape.

I used a canvas on which I'd attempted a scene of frost and mist last year sometime. I gave that up as a bad job.

I found this one interesting in terms of the composition as the hedge and pathway take the eye across to the left hand side. The trees help balance that and draw the eye back. This is demonstrated by the incomplete painting below without the trees.



Having put the tree in the picture still wasn't properly balanced so I added some figures (my daughter and dog) from another photograph.

I left the forground in a fairly crude state as I didn't want to overcook it. I'm pleased with the result although it may be a little weak at the bottom left.

I think I need to develop a more interesting signature.