Category: Painting

Royal Academy Summer Show

Art, Painting

This is the second painting I submitted for the Summer show at the RA, the first being the portrait of of my uncle Peter.

A completely different kind of painting altogether, I wanted to explore pure colour, to find the clearest, strongest ways to show its true nature and behaviour in watercolour medium. Only three colours are used, cyan, magenta and yellow, employing juxtaposition, overlay and tone as well as wet and dry paper and re-wetting techniques. Each colour is laid on individually, not mixed.

As a jeweller my work is very much about control, my designs are geometric and ordered, serendipity is a rare and welcome component, usually appearing whilst pushing the limits of the material. This process follows through in the “Dots” series of paintings. I begin from a precise positioned grid of marks, working on wet and/or dry paper, overlaying in several passes following a strict order whilst allowing accidental or material based irregularities to occur. Colours are applied with droppers or with broad washes laid over dried dots, allowing the colours to soften and run at will. Langford - watercolour painting

This following painting uses another technique, I laid down intense drops of colour on dry paper and allowed them to dry out completely before brushing over them with clear water  and a large brush, spreading the colour and making the colours run.

maurice

Portraits of Peter

Art, Painting, Portraiture

I have been looking through all the versions I have made of this watercolour painting, of course I wasn’t organised enough to date them as I made them but they are roughly in the correct order below.

There is one more day left to either frame this most recent one or paint yet another version before I deliver it for a competition.

The first four are mere practice versions, testing out technique, paper quality and colours. The nose looks very frostbitten in the first one.

I think on balance the most recent one has in it that I am happy with than any of the others, it feels like I made a big leap forward in the last two or three versions, I felt I knew the contours and how to handle the paint the way I wanted. I tried a faint wash over all the background in  No. 8 but decided I preferred the cream paper left alone in No. 9, although I have lost the bright edge to show the sunlight falling on the top of the hat. I think I might just add a little more shading to the lower lip and try to define the tip of the nose better.

I have enjoyed doing these paintings so much, I don’t think I will mind  when I receive my inevitable letter of rejection! It’s all about the doing not the winning. . .
Peter1
Peter2Peter3 Peter4 Peter5 peter6 Peter7 Peter8 Peter9

Watercolour Challenge – A Portrait of Peter

Painting, People, Portraiture

I have a tiny black and white photo of my uncle Peter in a boat on a seaside day out with my mother perhaps before the war. I don’t recall ever meeting him as he died when I was very small but this image draws me in. He was an artist and studied at the Slade in the 1930’s, even winning a couple of prizes. I think it is his profile that I like so much, the slightly weak chin and mouth and the refined but quirky nose, it curves down right at the tip a bit more than I have managed to capture here. Then there is the hat, a black trilby not a straw boater, an odd choice of headgear for a boat trip, I suppose it was all he had with him and wanted to shade his eyes.

I have made very few watercolour portraits, I find the medium too challenging to accommodate the endless tiny changes I always seem to need to make before the likeness feel right. However, I have painted this now about 15 times and I have nearly got it right. I chose to restrict the palette to just Paynes Grey as I was working from a black and white image. The blue/grey becomes a rich dark blue when very strong as well as keeping its colour in the faintest washes. If or when I do it again, I will paint the sky differently, I was trying to capture the way the dark hat’s edge turns white in the bright sunlight as well as the tips of brow, nose and chin disappearing into the brightness. I haven’t got that quite right here. Also there is a line of shadow along his jawline which is too harsh. I must keep trying I guess.

Peter in watercolour

Double Portrait Painting

Painting, People

Reaching the final stages at last I think, though there is plenty still to do, little corrections and a decision about whether or not to add in a section of the painting that hangs above the sofa behind the sitters, you can see part of it behind my painting. I am in the process of repainting the junction of the shoulders today.

My Deighbours' Daughters 2