Hello Blog, My Old Friend

June 7, 2024

I’m sat here in my studio; my home studio, as I await word on the date when I can collect the keys to my new studio in the town centre. I am wondering what to paint. There’s nothing unusual in that, not for me anyway. I work in a way that might be described as flying by the seat of my pants. There’s a way that I think paintings should be made – or perhaps, how a painting should look. There are subjects that I feel compelled to paint about; mostly concerning my immediate environment and personal objective experiences. But fusing these two elements is not always straight forward and the amount of work that goes on between landing on a particular subject and making a painting is not inconsiderable and is fraught with feelings of doubt and worthlessness. But, like I said – this is normal. I’ve learned to live with it and have a little faith in the process. 

Monochrome Beach Studies

May 29, 2021

This is one of the first paintings made in response to my never-ending pursuit to understand the landscape that I paint. Working in colour (I wonder) allows me to concentrate on atmosphere and form but the results are difficult to make sense of back in the studio. Limiting the pallet to practically monochrome allows me to concentrate more on the structure of the landscape; how it’s actually put together and, hopefully I can use that information to structure the studio paintings.

Another Structural Sketch

North Blyth (270521/B)

This painting is part of an ongoing investigation into the structures that make up my local landscape. Creating largely monochrome studies allows me to explore structure rather than form.