Cumbrian creative countdown...

Not long to go now before the next Rydal Hall residential art break in Cumbria is due to start. It promises to be another good one!

I'm really looking forward to returning in June again next year (a full class already) and again 25 - 29 May to run another exciting art course painting and drawing in superb Lakeland surroundings close to the magnificent Rydal Hall. I return again in the Autumn next year in 12-16 October to teach you how to paint all those wonderful glowing colours in Lakeland - the reflections will be magnificent!

Here are links to see just how great the art breaks at Rydal Hall with me are for you!
http://rdcreative.co.uk/art_holidays/Expressive_mixed_media_art_break_using_pastel_and_watercolour

http://rdcreative.co.uk/art_holidays/mixed_media_expressive_pastel_and_watercolour_autumn_art_break_rydal_hall

Just to let you know, I finally got to finish my own colourful pastel painting started as a demo from a spectacular view along the lakeshore of Rydal Water for my students art Rydal Hall in June '14. 

Above
Morning glory - Rydal Water, Cumbria
Pastel on Clairefontaine pastelmat
21 x 17 inches 
Available

It's taken a while, but that's how it goes sometimes - the busy schedule of an artist I'm afraid!

Personally I'm delighted with it. I know my students were delighted with their own pastel paintings too created lakeside with me along the magnificent lakeshore of Rydal Water whilst on a superb weeks creative art break staying at the magnificent Rydal Hall near Grasmere earlier this year in in June. Here's a link to it...
http://thecreativeprogress.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/a-great-art-break-in-june-14-at-rydal.html

If you need any further information about any of the residential breaks at Rydal Hall do give me a call - happy to help!

To book your place do get in touch with the friendly and efficient staff at Rydal Hall please contact Rydal Hall on 015394 32050 or email mail@rydalhall.org 

http://www.rydalhall.org

Places are limited so do get your skates on to secure your place!

Those all important missing elements...

Well actually they are not missing if you add them and this is what I have done with these paintings here.

Compare the two paintings in each case as 'before' and 'after' and you will see what I mean. The 'before' are OK paintings - textural, expressive and dramatic but...add the birds and hey presto, the paintings come alive!

Above
'Heading out - Flamborough'
22 x 15 inches (half imperial) Arches 140lb (300gsm) Not 100% rag content watercolour paper.
Pastel, watercolour and gouache over gesso ground.
Available.

Adding 'living' elements such as the birds in this case or figures maybe in another painting, could ruin a painting altogether since the viewer will be drawn to the figures and see nothing else robbing the painting of any chance for exploration and thus equal attention throughout so, more often than not I leave these things out.

However, now and then, adding that all important element to focus on can bring the composition together as a whole and give the painting real meaning. This so happened to be the case with the award winning painting I created earlier this year 'Peregrine above Malham Cove' winning the Royal Talens award at Patchings Open Art Competition 2014. The painting on its own was good but the bird made it great!

This so happens to be the case with the following paintings. Remove the birds and the paintings become soulless and void of meaning. Adding the birds places wildlife in context and gives the other elements with real scale.

In the painting - 'Heading out - Flamborough,' the Knott flying over the sea and the rocks, although quite large and accurately detailed (taken from MY OWN photographic reference with a big long lens), are not too dominant but sit in the landscape and are perfectly in tune with it. Clearly you can see how camouflaged they are with lost and found edges. Adding them anywhere else and they would have dominated.

Above
'Tide in, tide out - Bempton'
16 x 16 inches
boxed mdf gloss varnished and framed with white slip and deep black stained ramin frame.
Acrylic
Available.

In the second painting 'Tide in, tide out - Bempton', the sea birds this time add scale to the cliffs. These cliffs are hugh! Anyone who visits Bempton cliffs and Flamborough cliffs along the East Coast of Yorkshire will be (and are) completely blown away by their scale and majesty. I'm never disappointed by the views along this coast and I go there a lot painting and drawing as much as I can.

More seascapes from Bempton to come soon!

More about Strathmore 

Above
High winds in the Pennines
Strathmore Aquarius II  Cold pressed 80lb (170gsm)
22 x 24 inches
Full original Strathmore Aquarius II  - sheet size 22 x 30 inches 

In my last couple of posts I've focussed on Strathmore. Well, I'm doing it again! 

I've recently chosen these robust papers to create some of my finest Pennine drawings to date from sketches made on site and with my humble knowledge of photography working alongside Pennine photographer Richard Littlewood.

The papers are (as previously mentioned) just fantastic as drawing papers so the artist looking for something different  - these papers are a must!

Personally I have been looking for a really good quality and robust drawing paper for many years on which to express the environs of these hard upper Pennine landscapes justice.

I've tried many but Strathmore papers fit the bill perfectly. The quality and robust strength of the papers, complete with deckled edge on the single sheet 400 and 500 series and that fantastic watermark on each sheet (bottom left hand corner) just stamps authority as a paper of quality. 

For my Pennine drawings the paper has the lot and digging through my sketch book, photos and combining them together here are the results...

Above
Pennine profiles
Strathmore Imperial Not 140lb (300gsm)
22 x 24 inches
Full original Strathmore Imperial Not - sheet size 22 x 30 inches 

Above
Winter in the Pennines
Strathmore 300 Series Watercolour Paper 140 lb (300 gsm).
11 x 15 inches
Full original Strathmore Watercolour Paper - sheet size 22 x 30 inches 

Above
Winter trees and pennine snow
Strathmore 300 Series Watercolour Paper 140 lb (300 gsm).
18 x 18 inches
Full original Strathmore Watercolour Paper - sheet size 22 x 30 inches 

Above
All weathers in the Pennines
Strathmore 300 Series Watercolour Paper 140 lb (300 gsm).
20 x 18 inches
Full original Strathmore Watercolour Paper - sheet size 22 x 30 inches 


For further information on the excellent papers made by Strathmore visit visit https://www.artistpapers.co.uk/

On a roll with Strathmore papers!

Above

Strathmore 500 papers

The clear and distinct variations between the different colours of the watercolour sheets in the Strathmore 500 series (left to right) as Imperial Not 140lb (300gsm), Gemini Rough 40lb (300gsm) and Aquarius II 80lb (170gsm) as branded watermarks and deckled edges.

Well, actually these papers come in all sorts of different shapes, sizes, textures and finishes and I just love them!

I've recently completed an article for 'The Artist' magazine as the concluding one in a four part series focusing on different mills offering very different papers indeed. 

I have to say, I found the Strathmore papers to be amongst some of the most robust and the way the mill creates many of its papers with a beautiful embossed logo in the bottom left hand corner...well, I just do NOT want to have this hidden under a mount!

Cleverly Stathmore have watermarks for the different papers you use which is great. If you have them altogether in storage you only have to pull out a sheet, check the left hand corner if in doubt as to which is which.

Above
Strathmore 500 Series Imperial Not 140lb (300gsm)
A beautifully textured paper for expressive drawing as well as painting. fantastic expressive mark making capabilities for really distinctive work.

Such a good watermark and paper of quality signing my name next too and endorsing is an absolute must. Working with mixed black and white media (as shown here) I deliberately glide the pastel and black media over the watermark so you can see it - who wouldn't! It is perfectly and accurately embossed - a real mark of quality and as such you are compelled to do your best work on the paper (so thank you strathmore).

To discover more about the Strathmore papers I road tested  with fantastic results right across the range look out for 'The Artist' magazine in January 2005. If you cannot wait until then you can always order some yourself by visiting https://www.artistpapers.co.uk/

There is something for everyone - you will not be disappointed!

On with the next black and white media paintings on these amazing papers....watch this space!

Back to black and back to the Pennines

Above
Raining stair rods over recent Pennine snows
Black and white mixed media on heavy duty cartridge paper
14.5 x 14.5 inches
Framed in black stained ash bespoke frame behind glass, mounted with deckled edge showing to all 4 sides
Available 

In my last post I mentioned how strong, compelling and appealing a black and white image can be. The focus of a black and white painting, drawing or image is realistically in tone and line and combinations of both.

Black and white tone allows you to express in an instant what colour takes a much longer process to visually express. Thus, when working with colour, my work takes on a different meaning or perhaps a different focus - mainly texture, 'colour' itself and light. 

For black and white drawing and painting the essence is upon the ambiance - the landscape a a whole. There is no hiding! As they say, 'it's there in black and white,' cut down to the essential ingredients - pure.

Above
First snows of winter in the high Pennines
Black and white mixed media on 'Arches' 140lb (300gsm) Rough 100% rag contet watercolour paper
22 x 16 inches
Framed in black stained ash bespoke frame behind glass, mounted with deckled edge showing to all 4 sides
Available 

The same can be said for photography in many instances with many landscapes that persuade the artisan photographer to convert or think in terms of black and white and in so doing often such images say 'more' and make a stronger statement than introducing colour into the frame or composition. 

However, colour has it's moments too (for reasons explained) for photography and painting but as a parallel photographers and artists working with black and white have to work harder to evoke the essence of the scene since colour can be so easily distracting and black and white, as stated - pure.

Deep in the Pennines, on the high moors the landscape can appear 'flat' - void of interest in terms of colour. convert to black and white or think as an artist in terms of black and white and this upland world takes on a new meaning! 

The harshness of the environment with the abandoned homes and upland farmsteads disappearing into the landscape with the collapsing walls doing the same, broken and strung out along a much forgotten landscape makes you think in terms of line. Twisted and bent trees which struggle for survival in the thin soil agains constant high winds, their rough and ragged shapes against the skyline - thoughts of line again. 

Hills that appear and disappear in upland mists over soft tussock grass high amongst the abandoned land -  one can only think of tone, simple and pure as different shades of grey.

With thoughts and direction such as these I tread the upland moors with a great northern photographer Richard Littlewood who is a fantastic artisan who uses his camera to paint with the light and extract the pure raw essence from the landscape he knows so well close to his home town of Huddersfield. You only has to look at his portfolio to understand his empathy with his subject.

The landscape in these upland reaches appeals to us both in very similar ways - Richard with his camera and me with my sketchbook and pastels.

We return again mid September. I'm really looking forward to that!

http://www.richard-littlewood.com/

Just drawn to black and white

High winds above Malham Cove.
Mixed black and white media on Strathmore 500 series 100% rag content  Imperial Not 140lb (300gsm) watercolour paper. 
20 x 24 inches

What a fantastic watermark! This is left displayed in this drawing - floated in the frame. two deckled edges top and bottom are made with this paper and tow machine cut sides lets and right in contrast.
Full sheet size 22 x 30

EVERYTHING starts with drawing!

Solid, 'proper' quality drawing is the backbone found in every successful artists work and is the essence of their expressive, visual and artistic language - the bedrock for everything they do.

Drawing is a 'way in' - a great exercise to help you think your ideas through and put ideas down on paper.  OK, you can do the same by directly working with paint and pastels and I do that too, more often than not, working with colour directly on site or colour sketching in the studio as well. here though I 'draw' with the brush - not just paint with it.

The purity of drawing through tone, line and expression of ideas is what attracts me to it every time. A good drawing (throught through idea) sets up a good painting. Choosing different  types of drawing media and different papers keeps the exercise very stimulating and as experimental as painting. 

Combining different drawing media in the same study is also a great way forward and will give you confidence when thinking about the next stage...the 'big painting!' Keeping your sketch or working drawing by your side you have the perfect reference when you may start to get 'lost' in the field of colour and wonder which way to go. The drawing acts as a rudder and will help you put the wind back in your sails! 

Any painting session in the studio will always begin with a thumb through my sketch books and as I sink into my work and get into the zone. Ideas spring from these simple black and white/ sketched ideas and notations of thought through elements and studies on a page. 

Drawing for its own sake is what I do also. Drawing is important to me since these finished studies command as much attention as a finished painting through expression and emotive value.

There is nothing that holds as much emotive value you are compelled to express as an area you know and feel and have a connection with as I do for Malhamdale. It is one of the most dramatic locations within the whole of the Yorkshire Dales.

Cliff, rock, twisted weather beaten trees, mist, rain, sun illuminating the white limestone and steep fell sides and scree slopes, shadows plunging the deep gorges and ravins into mysterious caverns. 

There's more to come and I'm looking forward to getting out there in the Autumn season and painting even more of the dramatic scenery that Malham has to offer - every time!

Before and after

A little while ago (1 July actually) I was invited by Pateley Bridge Art Club to give an evening demonstration with pastels and chose a dramatic landscape view from the top of Sutton Bank to show just how wonderful and expressive pastels can be to work with when you want to work quickly and in an impressionistic and energetic way.

Choosing to work with 'Clairefontaine' pastelmat as a full sheet of 70 x 50 cm board (colour 'Anthrecite' to give my colours some real punch), the layered pastel in the 2 hour demonstration using many different types of pastels looked like this...

Towards the light  - Sutton Bank, North Yorkshire (stage 1)


Having developed the very essence of the scene for Pateley Bridge Art Group the pastel painting was finished later in the studio focusing primarily on the light, cliff shapes, light and dark and contrasting areas to give the painting real drama.

The two figures were added as the last finishing touches and elements to give this landscape real scale, height and aerial perspective.

Towards the light  - Sutton Bank, North Yorkshire 
Pastel on Clairefontaine pastelmat
Size 13 x 19 inches 

This painting will be a signature piece to be shown in a joint show  at Sutton bank visitors centre in the 'Inspired Gallery' from 17 April until 4 May 2015 along with many other paintings taking influence from the North Yorkshire Moors national Park.


It is with great delight that I'll be returning to Pateley Bridge Art Group in Glasshouses in Nidderdale (one of our favourite Dales in Yorkshire) to give an exciting full day workshop to on Monday 20 October to all the keen members so everyone can try out for themselves expressive pastel techniques.

We'll be painting a dales river scene and with the River Nidd flowing through this wonderful Dale we will be spoilt for choice for subjects to create some really exciting paintings together. 

I cannot wait to get started! 

http://www.nidderdale.co.uk/pateleybridgeartclub/index_PAC.htm