Retrospective Book
I crowdfunded this book in 2014 and it represents my artistic journey to that point.
Contrast Collage
Contrast Collage 700 x 900mm Original watercolour on paper 2006 £3,250 Again here are two paintings created purposefully to cut and splice together. The many different ways of cutting and rearranging firstly one and then here with two or even more paintings was fascinating. The results were always such a pleasant surprise. What struck me most was the way the sharp contrasts of tone and colour would leap out. They have a very three dimensional aspect.
The Midnight Rambler
Midnight Rambler 700x900mm Original watercolour £4,500 A single watercolour in black and white, cut into equal strips and altered vertically. In many ways this creates a more disturbed effect, there is no symmetry or harmony; it’s a shattered vision, similar to looking through broken glass.
Dos Pinturas 1
SOLD Dos Pinturas (2002) 880 x 620mm Patel on Paper £4,800 The figurative aspect of my work I have chosen to represent through an idea I worked on in Mexico, I simply call it Dos Pinturas literally meaning two pictures. We’ve all played the game of spotting shapes in clouds. I tend to spot shapes in a lot more than clouds. The next five paintings are all in pastel. They combine some of my figurative work with the weathered distressed surfaces of doors and walls I used to paint when living in Mexico. This was a new and complex idea for me at the time and the ability to rework an image was crucial. I think that to have developed this idea in watercolour would have been impossible.
Dos Pinturas 2
Dos Pinturas 2 880 x 620mm Pastel on paper £4,800 In many of the Mexican towns the walls were often painted one colour to a height of four or five feet and another colour to the roof. This colour change coupled with the strong shadows were crucial in breaking the image up and adding levels of complexity. Every process I develop revolves around this continual bolting on of ideas and always moves in the direction of further complexity. .
Dos Pinturas 3
Dos Pinturas 3 880 x 620mm Pastel on paper £4,800
Dos Pinturas 4
Dos Pinturas 5
SOLD Dos Pinturas 5 880 x 620mm Pastel on paper £4,800
Dos Pinturas 6
SOLD Dos Pinturas 6 880 x 620mm Pastel on paper £4,800 SOLD
Two Doors
SOLD Two doors 22 x 30 inches original watercolour 500 x 700mm £2,800 I have painted many doorways, like people no two are the same. You can really see a sense of history within them. So full of texture and colour they are fantastic to paint in watercolour.
Doorway in Brown and Blue
Doorway in Brown and Blue 500 x 700mm Original watercolour £2,250
Doorway in Yellow and Greenway
Doorway in Yellow and Green 500 x 700mm Original watercolour £2,250
Doorway in Red and Blue
Doorway in Red and Green 500 x 700mm Original Watercolour £2,650 A natural development was to start to fuse the dos Pinturas idea on a larger scale. This was only possible when my drawing skills had improved. Only when I was able to accurately draw a doorway or arch and the way the light falls was I able to overlay the more complex ideas onto that foundation.
Doorway in Green
Doorway in Green 700 x 500mm Original watercolour £2,750 This Dos Pinturas work founded on a combination of realities has the ability to move in virtually any direction. It is essentially utterly contrived. This stretching of reality makes it possible for me to push the potential of the medium further.
Door of perception
Doorway of Perception 700 x 500mm Original watercolour £2,750
High Noon
High Noon 1,400 x 1,000mm Original watercolour £7,50022 So painters need no photographic trickery or software, we can just change an image as we see it. These are truly fantastical. One of the aspects I like the most is the option to change colours. Why is it that some colour combinations can be perceived in so many different ways. I’m not just looking at obvious symbolism but more emotional personal instinctive connections; surely that’s what drives us all to like certain paintings. It’s a huge area of work and one I’m looking forward to learning more about. Page 34
Toro
Toro 1,400 x 1,000mm £8,500 This is the second of 2 epic size Dos Pinturas Street scenes I painted in 2007. One of the limitations of watercolour is simply scale. The larger the painting the more difficult the paint is to handle. With a painting this large what in theory is the simplest task in watercolour painting laying a simple uniform flat wash with no imperfections becomes a highly technical achievement. The difficulties inherent with the medium simply become magnified. On such a large painting the technique and understanding of how the paint is being applied is so important. The combination of speed and accuracy of brush work is everything. The faster you can paint the more options become available. To realise a painting I had to be adept at painting large and intricate shapes often several at a time. Always working against the fact that the paint would be drying. This is particularly evident with the Überpaintings featured in the next chapter.
Über Birch in Black and White
Über Birch in Black and White 700 x 500mm 2008 £4,500 SOLD In an Überpainting every wash affects both the subsequent and the previous. It is impossible simply to paint a finished piece first time. The various possibilities involved in four washes need to be eliminated throughout the process. This is achieved by making slight alterations from painting to painting until the final piece is settled. There are no short cuts to this process. It can take as many as 30 individual paintings to achieve some sort of finality.
Über Birch in Colour
Über Birch in Colour 700 x 900mm £4,25008
Ploughed Field
Über Autumn 350 x 500mm 2012 £1,450 When designing an Überpainting I tend to start small, half this size. Then as my understanding of how to construct an image grows I’m able to enlarge and embellish the design by adding layers of complexity. When painting like this each painting is like a rehearsal, my performance improves with each one. The final large pieces are simply a question of executing all I have learned accurately and without error.
Über standing Stones
SOLD Über standing Stones Original watercolour 350 x 500 mm 2010 £1,550 I have an interest in pre historic sites. They are often located within a landscape that already lends it’s self to being painted. They are a challenge to paint all those vertical lines bi secting the horizontal.
Über Pennines
Über Pennines Original watercolour 500 x 350 mm 2011 £1,550
Über Graveyard
Über Graveyard Original watercolour 500 x 700 mm 2011 £2,750 A more unusual subject although a common enough sight. A different sort of standing stone. This was perhaps one of the first paintings where understanding how to recreate patterns revolving around similar structures within the four washes.
Über Mushrooms 1
Über Mushrooms 1 1,000 x 700mm £4,500 Here similar to the gravestones we have a rare foray into a more micro subject. The difficulty is that each mushroom is similar yet needs to be individual. So the design stage is about searching for a pattern that isn’t quite a pattern, a rhythm that is just off beat. Once I’ve worked it out it seems easy, it just takes time and perseverance. It’s the play of light, the shadow cast by one mushroom to the next that is the hardest part. This is an area of work that has huge potential; I just need to find the time.
Mushrooms 2
Über Mushrooms 2 1,000 x 700mm £4,500 Here similar to the gravestones we have a rare foray into a more micro subject. The difficulty is that each mushroom is similar yet needs to be individual. So the design stage is about searching for a pattern that isn’t quite a pattern, a rhythm that is just off beat. Once I’ve worked it out it seems easy, it just takes time and perseverance. It’s the play of light, the shadow cast by one mushroom to the next that is the hardest part. This is an area of work that has huge poten