NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

We cannot go to the Bluebells, so the Bluebells have had to come to us, via gouache and brush. Normally a birthday walk for Katrina, but today having to make do with a view through a picture frame. Happy Birthday xxx

The latest daubing is of an English river bed, complete with Pike, Roach, Minnows and stylised scribbles. Destined for a family member who likes to sit on a river bank in the company of a rod and line.

Last status check, I promise. This morning I decided to go with a 'stained-glass window' theme to the painting, building up the composition out of cells of colour. This treatment will extend to the Reed Bunting as well. As with all my work, how it ends up is not so much pre-planned, more a case of it being haphazard, but that is where the fun lies. I might not get a chance to work on it again for a few days, but when complete I'll be sure to post it. If it turns out alright that is...

A little more headway has been made on the painting (detail above.) I'm at the stage where the subject matter takes a back seat and the colour and pattern take over. Whatever little realism existed will now be pulverised under layers of paint - if a colour combination doesn't work it will be painted over - if a pattern jars then it will be replaced. Gouache is a forgiving medium. Ultimately it is all about the detail and not necessarily about the bird or the leaves, which is just as well as realism is not my strong point!

With heavy rain, strong winds and a disinclination to venture outside, there was only one thing for it this morning - start on a painting! Out came the brushes and gouache and a start was made on the latest composition. I have an idea in mind, which is bird-themed, but as with any of my paintings an image of the finished product has not yet materialised in my brain. I start with a vague idea and then let fly with the brushes, building up layer upon layer of colour and pattern. I thought it might be fun to post the work as it progresses  - the photo above was taken after about an hour's work. Much will change, of that I'm sure.

The rain and miserable weather have kept me indoors (so no soaking wet search for a Wryneck for me!) This is good reason to get on with another painting. I started this particular work months ago and it lay abandoned in a portfolio until just the other day. I have posted previous efforts here and here . My approach to all of this is very loose. Take a few pictures, use them as reference, embrace a lurid palette of colour and use graphic shapes to build up the composition. I paint over a lot of what I have done, so at times the finished article may have half a dozen layers of gouache in any given area. My source image for this painting was taken in Banstead Woods one late autumn afternoon (below). True representation, scale and perspective is largely ignored to accommodate for a free-flowing style (Psued's Corner this way, please). The owl is going to end up as an ornate, graphic take on a Tawny... at the moment. Progress is slow, so the finished article might still ...

More natural artwork, this time courtesy of a cheeky moss and lichen combo. If each day were 1,000 hours long and we lived for several hundred years, I might have the time to get into these living wonders. I do not know how some people find the time (and have the brain capacity) to multi-task in their natural history studies. I start to get a headache if I try and go beyond birds, moths and plants... The above image, on first glance, is pleasing enough - a cushion or two of Grimmia on a lichen encrusted wall. But the harder you look, the more you see - further species are present, and the colour range wide. If we were to zoom in more is revealed... Admittedly it's not sharp, but there must be a further dozen species here. One wall would most probably keep a lichenologist busy for several days. And to think that we all walk past such organisms each and  every day and we are supposed to be observant advocators of our wildlife!

The work of Jackson Pollack? Paul Klee? Mark Rothko? No, it's an abstract produced by one Mother Nature, using the medium of lichen. Stunning, isn't it? If you want to see more artwork like this, don't bother going to your local gallery, but visit a churchyard or stone wall near you. The show is open all year round and entry is free!

I've been keeping notes since 1974. A field notebook as a starting point, then the days counts, highlights and descriptions being transferred into a 'posh' hard-backed volume. Or computerised. I've switched between using the computer (soulless) to paper (organic) a few times, but ease and laziness has dictated that, for the moment, the keyboard and screen wins. My enthusiasm of youth spawned rambling narrative over several pages. My impatient middle-age can turn a day into a list of names and numbers. Most unsatisfactory. I've even considered giving up taking notes - but this knee-jerk reaction has been kept at bay so far. After all, I don't want to lose my 40 years of consecutive record, even if, when I die, it is all consigned to a skip. But I am still questioning what I write (or type) and why I do it. The internet has made the sending in of information much easier. I no longer refer to my notes at the end of a given year to collate the records to send to...

Last April, after producing my first painting since 1980 (which you can see here if you so desire) , I thought that I would be bashing them out throughout the year at a prolific rate. I was wrong... it's taken me almost a further year to create the second. My inspiration is once more a mixture of Hockney/Klimt (God, that sounds pretentious) and is based on the shingle beach at Dungeness and the abundant vegetation present (in the painting represented by Wood Sage). The posts in the background mark the line of the old railway track, long-gone but whose ghost still haunts that magical part of Kent. I admire fine artists who deal in realism, not just because of their immaculate skills but because I just cannot paint like that. My efforts have always been based on graphic shapes and patterns, but it wasn't until I visited the Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy last spring that I had the confidence to use bold colours (and lots of them). For the first time in my life I can...

I left art college in 1980 having studied Graphic Design. I also stopped painting at the same time- that is until last weekend when, through encouragement from my family, in particular my youngest daughter Jessica, I picked up the paintbrushes once more. I have always admired artists who use graphic images and shapes within their work. Gustav Klimt is my main inspiration along with the all-round design skills of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. As for natural history illustration, give me Michael Warren anyday over many others. The painting above took me half a day and is based on Silver Birches and Bracken. I had no idea how a style would evolve and basically just painted away, adding layers until something took shape. As a first effort in 32 years I'm pleased enough to feel that it's worth my while to do some further work. I enjoyed doing it, which was another plus as I had been secretly dreading trying my luck after so long away from the easel. The medium i...

Please take a moment and click on the picture above (I've saved it to a larger size to better appreciate it). I took it on a Cornish headland. If it were to be hung in a gallery of abstract art, it would not be out of place. Lichens... just don't ask me to identify them all!