Girona Door Knockers

A recent trip to Girona inspired me to paint some of the door knockers that I have collected photos of.

It was a different way of working after using a lot of colour, here I am mainly working in monochrome, but again trompe l'oeil surfaces and working quite fast.

Girona Door Knocker. Acrylic on board

Detail

Detail

Door Knocker, Girona. Acrylic on Canvas

Door, Girona. Acrylic on canvas

Amble fishing boats

Amble Fishing Boats

Painted sketches in response to the fishing boats at Amble. 
The boats are in dry storage whilst being worked on, raised up on blocks and trailers. Revealing their forms and volume.
All the textures and weathering to be seen against the forms and colours.
I have enjoyed working on textured surface, keeping as much of the underpainting as possible as I build up the layers.

Rudder, Acrylic on paper collage

Cutaway, Acrylic on paper collage

The square cutaway has over time become the shape it needs to be through repetition, erosion and corrosion.

Cutaway detail

Recent Acrylic painting

Rust, Acrylic on monoprint

Detail

I have been working on the theme of eroded and decaying surfaces for some time now and I have been enjoying using colour and mark-making.

The images are taken from photos that I have mostly taken myself whilst walking but sometimes just from the Internet. The kind of things that catch my eye are eroded paint surfaces, rich textures and painted woodwork.

I like to work onto a ready dragged surface sometimes of arbitrary colours while I work over with transparent glazes or opaque layers. I also find I enjoy working onto surfaces that have been collaged from a few previously dragged pieces of paper as I make selections of the areas that I respond to or as they relate to the subject I am focusing on.

Although the subject may be flat and without perspective, I am creating physical depth with the layers of paint, colour and texture and I suppose, a level of trompe l'oeil with the colour. The act of painting is important to me, the tactile sensation of applying paint and building up layers of mark making.

The images in this selection are all on paper that has been previously dragged with acrylic paint, torn and collaged, or monoprinted onto first.

 Barred acrylic on paper collage

Prow, Acrylic on paper collage

Slider plate, acrylic on paper collage

Folded, Acrylic on paper collage

Folded, Detail

Hinge, Acrylic on Monoprinted paper

Hinge, detail

Bank Studio and Exhibition

I have taken on a studio space organised by East Street Arts in the old NatWest bank in the Beacon Centre in North Shields. I have worked as a teacher in North Shields all my working life and know the area well and feel an affiliation with the place.
We had a group show there in November 19, this was my first experience at showing my work since before I started full time teaching.
It was great to be part of the team and enjoyed the process also the deadline really focuses the mind on completing stuff.

detail of large canvas

detail of large canvas

detail of large canvas

I completed this large canvas for the show on a piece of unstretched canvas using oil paint and oil bars. A new way of working for me but carrying on the theme of the abandoned places.

 Beth J Ross created this dolls house gallery and some artists had rooms in there. Mine are the small abstracts seen in the last image, this was a very popular exhibit and great fun to do.

 My paintings on paper are just attached to the wall using magnets, very quick and easy to display and dismantle.

 Exhibit in the old bank vault by Dolores Ramona

 Exhibit in the old bank vault by Simon Gregory

 Exhibits and installation by Dunstan Low in the old shop front on the bank.

 Salt prints of the moon by Dominic Smith

 Oil paintings by Deanna Lewis

The exhibition was well received by the general public and coincided with other events on in the vicinity so there was good footfall.

New Life, New Painting

I am starting a new chapter in my life after 30 years of teaching.

These paintings have been on a back burner for a while and so I have spent some time dedicated to completing them. I feel that I am learning painting from scratch again and it has been a fulfilling experience for me.
Even so, it's probably a transitional phase while I complete unfinished business, try new things and see where explorations take me.
I am not sure where I want to be yet, but I am enjoying getting there.

 Slider, Oil on canvas

Cathedral Doorway, Acrylic on canvas

Latch, Oil on Canvas

Fragmentation, Acrylic on paper

 Fragmentation(detail)

Entry, Acrylic on paper collage

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Entry, (detail)

These images rely heavily on texture, layering up, paint over collage and observation of things seen. They are linked by their interest in doorways, entry, liminal spaces, forgotten and abandoned things and places.

I have enjoyed working onto prepared textures and collage and working with the accidental as much as the created marks.