Inspiration, the beginning of the week and getting the old grey matter going

Tuesday is the beginning of my week (I take Sunday and Monday off) and like everyone else I find it hard to get going. One of the best way for me is to have a browse, it seems indulgent or work avoidant but I'm increasingly seeing the importance of it. Everyone has influences, even the greats and we are in the privileged position of being able to scan across thousands of images sat in the comfort of our homes.

One of my favourite sites is Pinterest, as you select images you then get guided towards collections of similar work. You also get to create your own collections and so can come back and at a glance see all the work that caught your eye the day/days before. This is my collection called Paint.

Currently I seem to be enjoying looking at clouds lit up by the late sun.







http://www.panisbet.com/paintings_one.php?n=2

We've been having some great cloud formations lately and I think I might start the week playing 

around with this subject.

Here it is, I've had a very disrupted day today and will reserve judgement until tomorrow. It will be still wet enough to work on but I will probably have another go at it from scratch if I need to.

I sold The Turner sky today so I'm very happy

The Flying Scotsman is coming to Grosmont

I've decided to call this one "Grumpy artist paints the Flying Scotsman".

My tranquil life will be interrupted on the 12th with the arrival in Grosmont of the newly refurbished Flying Scotsman loco. It's going to be heaving....I may have to go and hide in my pottery.

Lots of people have been nagging me to do some Scotsman paintings and finally I have given in. Most annoyingly of all is that I really enjoyed doing it. I did it from a photo on the NYMR's website, its from the 1950's I think.

Painting something like this is really tough, let's call it an impression of a steam engine. My next one is going to be called " Flying Scotsman in the very far distance and hidden by a hill"

Now a while ago I said that Black is for wimps ....I take it all back.

Beech tree completed...I think

I think this is just about finished, I'll let it hang around for a bit just in case I feel the need to tweak some more. 

The palette knife

I have a good friend who is dabbling with painting and would much rather get small chunks of specific information rather than an expansive view of the whole complexity of a painting from start to finish. So in that vein I'm going to gradually tell you all about what I do.

I call myself a palette knife painter so that's seem the obvious place to start.

This is my palette knife, I have three, all are the same size. I used to only have one and I didn't know it's make or number and so when I eventually stumbled across the same ones I bought a couple more. I wrote down the make and number so that I'd never be worried about not having the right tool again. Of course I don't remember where I wrote down the information now......and there is no information on the handle.

The blade is just over 6cm long and 2cm wide at it's thickest point. I personally find it better to know one tool well rather than continually swapping sizes. Shorter blades lack flexibility and larger ones are too cumbersome. I find that I can get incredible detail by just using the tip but also can really slap the paint on when I need to.

I would advise you to try out several mid size knives before settling on the one for you. Mine is much more of a trowel than a knife, the longer bladed knife shaped knives are unwieldy in my opinion and hamper painting rather than helping.

My knife has become an extension of my right hand now, I feel totally at ease using it and know exactly how it's very gentle curved edge will perform. 

I started using the knife due to frustration at brushes becoming clogged with a muddy mix of colours and never cleaning properly from a quick wipe with a rag. The knife allows you to have much greater control over the cleanliness  of you paint but also allows you to work straight from the tube without using smelly solvents. Unfortunately you do use a lot more paint.

Mixing paint can happen both on the palette and the canvas. in order to get realistic changes in colour, especially for skies, I gradually blend away until I'm happy with the result. Other times  I will try and cleanly flick one colour on top of another without allowing them to mix at all. I always use the top edge of the knife.

I always use a tear off paper palette block, so that each painting is started with fresh colours. Some oil colours have a nasty habit of drying overnight and if you try using them the next day it will not mix or apply properly.

I naturally work from light to dark so by the end of each painting I have a a dark muddy mess on the palette and quite often break out a fresh one to come in with any highlights.

This is the finished painting from the little video.

Red Dawn Whitby

Whitby actually faces North even though it's on the East coast of Yorkshire, which means that in high summer you can see the sun both rise and set out to sea. Unfortunately the dawns are at a horrific hour. This one was definitely worth the effort.

Great Fryupdale head

This morning I decided to see whether Great Fryupdale would work on a squarish canvas, I'm undecided at the mo. 

And before you ask the name is not after the breakfast but rather the goddess Freya (Freyja) 

This lovely view is on the coast to coast trail.

Two little woodland studies

Just a couple of sketches from yesterday