Oxford - The Cherwell River

'Summer' 16"x30" Oil on canvas

I am just about to return to the UK for a visit, my first in over a year. I used to live in Oxford, up-river from London, and used to spend many hours cycling about the city.

One of my favourite places is the River Cherwell at the Marston Ferry Bridge. I have often stopped to look at the view of countryside within the city, surrounded on all sides by buildings, but seeming miles from anywhere.

'Winter' 16"x30" Oil on canvas

I painted the same scene one summer and again the following winter; it changes, but is still the same, the Cherwell flowing its way towards joining with the Thames.

I currently have these two paintings mounted side-by-side in a custom common frame that turns them into a diptych.

'Men I Know' part 2

'Teo' 24½"x18½" Oil on canvas

Another painting in the series of oil brunailles that I have been doing of interesting people that I am lucky enough to know.

This is of Teo, a delightful, wee young lad... and I mean young, he was just two weeks old at the time. This one was a pleasure to do as he didn't move much (too busy growing to care).

'Men I Know' part 1

'Duncan' 24½"x18½" Oil on canvas

I have been painting a series of oil ébauche sketches done as brunailles. Basically this involves pouring an amount of "painters' soup" (a fluid mix of paint, oil, and turpentine that looks like ox-tail soup... hence the phrase "that painting looks a little bit "soupy"") over a white primed canvas and smearing it into an image. It's an old tonal technique, often done traditionally to produce an underpainting, although some painters such as Eugène Carrière have utilised it as the basis of their practice.

The theme of the series is "Men I Know", a wide range of subjects from newly-borns to elderly friends. They are all mainly "heads" (24½"x18½"), although there are a few slightly larger canvases. As I know a lot of interesting people, this might be a large undertaking.

So far I have only done just over ten, this one being of my friend the sculptor Duncan MacCallum.

2013... Over But Not Forgotten

'Rob' 36"x30" Oil on canvas

I sadly didn't post anything last year (me bad)... if I left it a year I hoped nobody would notice! Probably very few did.

Well, it was a phenomenally busy year. Many good things happened, some slightly annoying, but nothing actually bad or unfortunate.

This is a painting of one of my studio-mates, Rob Farrow, which won the 'Figurative Award of Excellence' award in 'A.I.R.S.' the 4th ‘Annual International Representational Show’ held by the Federation of Canadian Artists in Vancouver.

It wasn't the best prize by far that I won during 2013, but it was the one that pleased me the most for many reasons, although chiefly as I had "strongly" encouraged a friend to also enter. He did, and himself won a prize which made me very happy... a good night.

Happy 2013!

'Rubens New Year' 20½"x18" charcoal on paper

I wish everyone a happy 2013. May all your endeavours succeed and may your happiness increase!

The image is a somewhat crude Rubens pastiche in charcoal... no particular reason for drawing it other that I felt like doing one.

As far as I know Rubens never actually did an image of Old Father Time and the New Year Child, but if he had, it would probably would look something like this (but with more finish, flying putti and symbols obviously).

The Great Pender Escape

'The Great Pender Escape' 40"x50" Acrylic on canvas

Another portrait of Neal, my studio mate, on his prized Yamaha YG1 café racer. Sadly it wasn't actually running at the time (although now is... sort of). I'm not the best at painting complex machinery, so this picture was a bit of a challenge. Motorcycle fans are very particular.

This work was started at the very height of the growing season on British Columbia's Pender Island, so the foliage was a incredibly vibrant green. That said the photo is not the best, so appears far too lurid. I really must get a better camera.

The film reference is hopefully obvious, and as in the movie, the bike (and as it's not operational) promises much, but is a transport to little but trouble.

June

'June' 50"x40" Acrylic on canvas

A portrait of my friend June, a fellow painter.

June always paints a lemon into her works as a sort of signature, so as I always think of lemons, I asked her to pose holding one (actually plastic) with a lemon-yellow hat on, in front of one of her paintings. Although not too easy to see, her painting is of a view of a field in China... with a lemon in it.

This painting was part of an international exhibition at The Federation of Canadian Artists. I was happy with getting the picture in as it was the first time I had entered one of the Federation's shows.