Painting in Penwith: April 2013

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Life drawing

Here's last nights drawings with Jason Walker tutoring at Newlyn School Of Art.

These are probably my strongest drawings yet and I am really pleased with the results. Jason has really helped me with structuring the body, getting me to really LOOK and breaking it down into simplified shapes. This has helped me improve no end!

45 minute pose

Here I really concentrated on the upper body and face. In life drawing I really struggle with faces but with Jasons advice in seeing the face as just a series of shapes i was able to achieve a pretty good likeness. I aim to practice this method a lot more!

45 minute pose from last week with Kate Walters. I really like the pose here but looking back on it i can see a big difference in the face compared to last nights with Jason.

Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Penwith Landscapes

Here are some work in progress shots of some new landscapes I have been working on recently. They are of the ancient moorland around Carn Galver and the Nine Maidens stone circle in West Cornwall. I have always been attracted by the rugged beauty of the area and have a keen interest in the ancient sites dating back many thousands of years. So its no surprise really that after a long break from landscape painting that I have returned to these subjects.

"Carn Galver From The Nine Maidens" acrylic on canvas April 2013

"The Nine Maidens" acrylic on canvas April 2013

"From the Carn" acrylic on canvas April 2013

These Landscapes have been a real departure from my usual style. I have gone for a more gestural, in some places impasto finish. To achieve this I have added certain mediums to my paint to really thicken it up and then applied it quite aggressively with stabbing marks. I have not worked like this for years and it has been quite freeing after painting in a much more controlled manner for several years. It would be quite interesting to apply these techniques to my recent figurative works, though I do love the subtlety of working the figure up in thin layers it could be an interesting experiment.

Charcoal Sketches

I am currently putting down ideas for a series based on the Perseus and Andromeda myth and below is a sketch for Andromeda the Greek princess sacrificed to the Kraken. I actually found the source image from an old copy of Vogue and thought it was prefect for the narrative. The picture is so fitting that I don't really want to change that much in it but we shall see how it progresses. The light and shade on the body is excellent and I definitely would want to keep that contrast.

I had not previously done a study of a face in charcoal so it was quite interesting doing this, a detail from a Titian. I have always struggled with faces in life drawing so i will definitely practice some more of these portraits in charcoal.