Another blog book

On the way to the studio

Friday 23/10/09

I like this. It's the new routine. On Thursdays I drive to the studios and at the end of the day bring home my portable box easel and a board to paint on. On Fridays I walk to the studios with the easel and board and do a painting on the way. This leaves me with a painting of a crunchy part of Bath together with no car on a Friday afternoon with drinks in the offing - it's a win win situation.

This week on my Friday walk to the studios finds me trying to be all William Wrayesque next to a railway bridge (still yellow lines in the composition, but not that dominant). I try and make something of the colours as I find them (apart from the green - dangerous colour, green) without losing sight of the fact that it's a grey miserable day and is never going to be anything but.

It's all students and bendy buses around here, but I ignore them in my painting just as they ignore me. One conversation of note:

Old lady: Can I have a look?

Me: Of course.

OL: That's an unusual subject to paint.

Me: It's early days.

OL: I wish I could paint like that.

Me: Well, it's not much at the moment, but we'll see.

OL: Can I leave you with these copies of our Watchtower magazine?

!!Nobbled!!

The painting isn't finished (I know it sounds a bit like and excuse, but it's true). I need to wait until it dries to go back over and emphasise the light in the distance on the road and the car showroom - and then, oh yes, and then ... you'll see ... you'll all see ... BWAHAHAHA ...

Of lines, madness and the colour yellow

Thursday 10/09/09

It's perfect weather - finally. It is 5th time almost lucky. 'Almost', because the builders and their vans continue to come and go and park in my way.

I leave out the wires and the parking sign.

Is it finished? Maybe.

Later and it's still sunny, so I can try and finish the other commission. It too is pretty much there - no fuss, no drama, it just reaches the end.

Friday 11/09/09

The sun is still shining (!!) and what with the commissions almost done I can get into town and paint. I'm taking in a different size board (16" x 16") than usual to see if the rough edge thing works on a smaller scale. I have no idea what I am going to paint which is never a good thing. I walk up to the Royal Crescent, but I've painted it so many times before, I find myself totally uninspired.

Stopping for a bit I notice the yellow lines on Royal Avenue. [Cue light bulb]. Yellow lines! That's what I'll paint. [Distant screams from wife and bank manager]. There's the link with the pencil lines I'm scribbling on the pictures, there's a lot of William Wrayness about them, I really like the colour of them (that'll be yellow then) against the varying tones of the road and, best of all, they're everywhere!

I hurry back to the studio, remembering the yellow line there that I really liked. By the time I get there the shadows have moved from how I remember them, but it's still good so I get started.

I must not have cleaned my brushes properly last time, because they are all dry and scratchy. Annoyingly so. This gets me to a point where I can't finish the painting today. The jury maybe out on the whole yellow line lightening bolt of inspiration (too many metaphors?), but I'm not - it's a great idea. Ooh! I know where I'm going to paint next - it's a great yellow line - can't wait.

P.S. Here's some more of Thailand

That old self doubt thing

Wednesday 01/07/09

Chucked out of the Threadneedle Prize and with paintings not selling on the gallery wall and whaddayano - whammo - Doubt creeps up on me and slaps me in the mush. Good old Doubt - you know you can count on him. Why did I even write that on the painting? What's with that rubbishy edge thing? That old Doubt - he know's all the right questions to stick the knife in.

So, on Sunday, it was the big reveal for THE BATH PRIZE (where the organisers tell you which bit of Bath you've got to paint for the competition). Now, bearing in mind the blurb ("designed to stimulate new work celebrating the glory of a World Heritage City") I'm expecting Pulteney Bridge maybe, or the Royal Crescent, or maybe just somewhere where a tourist would choose to go. HA! No, my designated painting assignment is ... wait for it ... Southgate Shopping Centre!?!?

What? But I thought ... but, ...

Still, I have to laugh - I don't mind the subject - it's an opportunity to get all WW, but all the same, it's a bit of a curve ball.

So, Southgate Shopping Centre and Doubt - a pretty heady cocktail. I spend the afternoon prepping the board, (so there's no painting to post) with the big D gnawing away at me.

In the evening it's the fabled Brain of Bath quiz and I'm on one of the teams. Get that. I don't answer many questions, but I do learn some stuff. Not least of all is the fact that the memory doesn't function better on beer and the last few rounds I'm a definite liability. I still can't believe I got Thin Lizzy and Led Zepplin muddled up. Damn - once that bugger Doubt starts messing with you.

Thursday 02/07/09

I wake up in a blinding light of revelation. I've sweated out the big D in a fever of humidity and tangled sheets and it all becomes so obvious. The Southgate Shopping Centre. The big unfinished building site at the bottom of town - it's perfect for the unfinished painting look. Finished on one side and getting lost in nothingness (or maybe a few pencil lines) on the left. Can you see it? Can you see what I did there?

Also - good things about the place I am painting:

1. Shadey (again);
2. Only one person asks me if I'm Peter Brown;
3. A little girl peers around the pillar I'm standing next to and asks me lots of painting questions: do you paint the buildings? do you paint everything? they can be tricksey can't they? I have to stop painting and lean down to talk to her, but she's sweet and I make the effort. Her mum comes out of the bus station and the girl says, 'look mummy a painter', but mummy's got other things on her mind and drags her away.
4. A guy comes up and says he is the project manager for the development and that they might be interested in the painting. He even gives me a card. The developers are called 'Multi'. I've painted a lot of pictures in Bath, but it takes a painting of Southgate Shopping Centre to get my best lead on a sale - go figure. Let's hope the Man from Multi, he say yeah.

Bad things:

1. Can't stand exactly where I want without constantly opening the automatic door to the bus station behind me;
2. It's a long way from the Studio so it's quite a hike to get here;
3. A group of builders start talking to me, just as I get some sweat in my eyes. With both my hands full I can't do anything about it. They're asking me questions and I'm trying to answer, but I can't really think about anything other than the fact that I look like I'm crying.

Friday 03/07/09

It's windy today, which makes me Mr Grumpy from Grumpleton. I don't seem to move the painting on very much which makes me even more sour. I don't make eye contact with anyone. I didn't get where I am today by making eye contact with anyone.

Sketchy

30/04/09

Bwa Ha Ha! I laugh in the face of the storm! (inwardly)

Bwa Ha Ha! I mock the tempest (oo 'Mock the Tempest', good name for a band .... the band ... maybe ... maybe not)

Bwa Ha Ha! although it's really only drizzling and I'm standing under a bridge.

I get there early to beat the smokers to the good pitch. Things to note as I walk in:

1. I have a hole in the bottom of my right shoe so that it squelches as I walk.
   
2. Tanning! only 69p per minute! (is that cheap - sounds a lot to me. If they're trying to fool people they should try 'less than 2p per second!' that would have them queuing in the streets.)
   
3. 'retchmarks' advertised in another beauty shop - it's closed and not sure if it will ever open again, but if I had visible retchmarks, I'd probably pay to have them removed.
   

Painting goes okay - I think - I get radical at the end and put a large (ish) figure in, but keep it real sketchy. I'm standing on a slope and my crooked posture soon causes problems with cramp and back ache so I call it finished and slink off.

01/05/09

On the way to the studio:

I'm walking so it's an opportunity to get all Kurt Jackson and do some quick sketching on the way in:

Now this is what I'm talking about - WW (reminder WW = William Wray) or what?

Under railway line through the dodgy underpass that you wouldn't use at night. Even more WW - got to come back with my easel.

Along the run down street on the other side. 'Sold'?! Can't believe it.

Same street and look - someone has spent some time and effort just bashing tacks into the tarmac pavement. Little piles of them scattered around. Ha - what an idiot - what's the point of that? Ha - almost as dumb as someone standing here looking at the pavement and doing a drawing of it ... yeah ... ha ...

Over the bridge to the studio and there's some memorial flowers tied to the railings. I wonder who and I wonder why. 

Later:

Shoulder's still achey, but the sun comes out and I feel the need to get out and paint. I can't carry the easel far, but then, realisation dawns and I know that I can be all WW ish if I just paint the Upper Bristol Road. I set up painting a couple of front doors and my bizarre location inspires many drivers shooting past to hoot their horns and see whether they can make me jump. Annoyingly, I oblige them. Ha ha yeah yeah, very funny.

Similarly the seagulls seem to mock me, but much to my relief they miss with their pooh, splatting the pavement just next to me.

The painting seems to be showing promise, but the large phallus in the foreground is bugging me and I know I'm going to have to do something about it next time.

On the way home from the studio:

I'm still feeling all inspired, but after a few pints, the sketches are going a bit skewy. I realise that I can actually sketch people on the move by walking behind them while I draw. This works surprisingly well apart from:

1. When they walk really quickly, it's difficult to keep up and draw at the same time
   
2. I'm only getting rear views
   
3. I will inevitably get arrested or punched or both

A Step in the WW Direction

26/03/09

It's windy and rainy so I plan to do a bit more with the disaster I started a couple of weeks ago. I'm feeling pretty good as I've laid my paints out on the palette before I set off, got my rain cover for the easel and a plastic bag for the brushes. The smokers are still there when I arrive, but I know their break will end soon so I set up anyway. There's dog pooh, but I see it before it sees me. Yep - I'm feeling pretty smug - I even discover a new way of holding the brushes in my inside jacket pocket which helps to keep them dry. Yessiree, I've pretty well got the weather licked. Yup, yup, yup, yup, nothing can go wrong ....

Death Ray magazine (it's great) - I was reading an article in the latest issue about a famous comic artist and he said that when doing loose pictures it was better to do a precise underdrawing first and just paint loosely on top. His words come back to haunt me as I paint. My oh so loose and wayward underpainting is so off whack (technical term) that the whole session is spent trying to correct things - still I come away thinking that it looks better than when I started (praise be for that).

... ha, see, everything's dandy. Pack up, time for lunch. Hang on, what's this? The wind has blown my bag over. No problem there, surely ... it's only rolled down the pavement ... and managed to play football (because bags can) with the dog pooh on the way - eugh - there's pooh all over the shoulder straps. Sigh. I have been justly and righteously punished for my smugness by a higher plein air being, able to wield the power of pooh with devastating effect.

p.m. 

I'm feeling all WW - looking to make music out of something dirty and grubby.

...

...

I'm in my studio, so not much happens.

...

...

but I'm including this in the blog because I like it and it's a step in the WW direction.

p.m still, but later

I've got to pick up Ciara from her friends house at 6.00. I'm killing time, when all of a sudden I get excited by the sky and Twerton Mount. There's some places that strike a chord with you - can't explain it - maybe it's ley lines or something, but Twerton Mount is one of those places for me and as the opportunity presents itself I find myself racing to get a painting done.

huff puff ... climb the hill

huff puff ... set up the easel

I'm out of the wind near a copse full of burned out cushions and teenage debris - better be out of here before it gets dark! But of course I will, as I've only got twenty minutes to finish the painting. Obviously the WW thing to do would be to paint this, but I'm feeling all Constable Cloud Studyish. Not sure it goes to plan as the interesting shapes have blown past & I'm left with a big cloud suasage. Can't wait, can't stay.

huff puff ... take down the easel

huff puff ... down the hill.

P.S.

I've got to stop rambling - try and keep these things a bit shorter. In the words of someone what I was speaking to recently, "let the painting do the talking". 

Next week.