Just off BR 401: looking towards the sea

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Just off BR 401: looking towards the sea, oil on card, 30 x 25 cm  available

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Creek, Florianopolis

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Creek, Florianopolis, oil on card,  29.1 x 23.5 cm  SOLD

I painted here before. It`s nice to return to places and compare work.

 I continue to work on a larger scale.

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Trees at Muquen

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Trees at Muquen, oil on card, 25 x 29.7 cm - availalbe

The first successful picture painted in Brazil this year. 

I moved up a little in scale as I want to be confident working larger when I go to the UK in August.

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Conclusions; Santa Catarina Road Trip/ Rio

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 Cabanaconde, mountain in sun (detail), oil on card, 24 x 21 cm

Six weeks in Peru

Peru is about as good as anywhere I know for a painter to wander around in. It`s fairly safe (at least in smaller towns away from the coast), the weather is clement, the people are pleasant and mostly respectful, it`s cheap and its very varied in terms of landscapes and historical sites. There are few cars in the rural places and you rarely feel that you are in a a big machine as is so often the sensation in developed countries. That is, in the west every place you go has a Visitor Centre selling tat, giving you directions and has signs all over sign saying things like Path may be slippery in the rain. Please use handrail, sufficient indeed to make you feel a piece of processed tuna at the the end of the visit (no thanks National Trust).

This trip was the longest I've done. Six weeks is a short university term, and enough time to exhaust some ideas and develop others. It`s enough time to develop a certain self-sufficiency too.

The main thing is I`m happy to be working on a larger scale now- however tricky that is for traveling around. It`s difficult to store pictures as they never quite dry completely. However, on a larger scale there is much more enjoyment in the physical manipulation of the brush.  And the final piece just has greater presence.

 So to this end I`m preparing larger supports and have built new carriers. These will be ready in about two weeks time. 

The next foreign trip in to the UK in August. Most likely it will be very different in tone as I`ll be meeting considerably more people, and having more conversations. As a confirmed misanthrope this isn't necessarily something to celebrate.

Santa Catarina Road Trip or Rio?

It`s necessary between now and then to plan something to break up my time here- most likely a drive in Santa Catarina, perhaps up to Videira, then to Xanxere  then to Passo Fundo in Rio Grande de Sul, a to cover corners of the state and of Rio Grande de Sul that are unfamiliar to me. That could be done over six days...or maybe it would be more fun to revisit Rio?

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Corire

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I went back to Arequipa from the mountains. But the weather there was terrible: a lifeless grey sky and a drizzle for days on end. So I made my way west to Corire to see Toro Muerto Petrographs, This is a huge expanse of rocks on a hillside carved with simple figures. 

Corire offers a considerable contrast between the green, irrigated valley and the extraordinary barrenness of the mountains that surround it.

 It is not the most lovable place as it`s very hot, filthy and the food is dreadful except in the chicken place close to the Hostal Willy`s and that doesn`t open until 6pm. There are only two buildings of architectural note: a convent and a colourful church. The people are not friendly or helpful or attractive except in the aforementioned chicken joint and a clever toothless chap with a little cart containing a shoe repair kit who fixed my shoes with immense skill so the heels no longer cut. The lady who will prepare a breakfast of egg in a bun and a sort of milkshake using condensed milk in the strange market opposite Willy`s is friendly too, albeit in a bossy way.

Three nights there was enough. I am curious to one day make the journey all the way to Cotahuasi, but that will have to be on another trip. Quite when I am not sure as I intend to conquer Ecuador next.

  Corire, mountain, oil on card, 21 x 24.5 cm - available

 Corire, a big mountain, oil on card, 21.2 x 24.5 cm - available

 Corire, hillsides, oil on card, 21.2 x 24 cm  available

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Chivay part 5

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Chivay, Colca Valley, oil on card, 21 x 17.3 cm - available

 Chivay, a tree, oil on card, 23.5 x 21 cm sidcarded

 Chivay, a road, oil on card, 21 x 19.2 cm - diiscarded

These are the final three pictures from Chivay, an excellent place to work and a highly agreeable town to stay in. But I would recommend that travellers there bring a book to read as the evenings can be rather quiet.

These three are all painted more thickly than the previous set. 

In the six weeks I worked I had enough time to make quite a considerable advance- to work on larger pieces  and more confidently. Indeed, six weeks is probably as long as one can work on a daily basis without fatigue. You'd need a week off and a change of location to some utterly different landscape to maintain freshness.

 But these pictures remain simple in both a technical and conceptual sense.

Are they rather old-fashioned? Should an artist be attempting to engage more with the contemporary world? Anyway, do such questions matter if you enjoy what you do?

Well,  I hope to exhibit some of them here and in Scotland later in the year and will perhaps see if such questions are broached.

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Chivay part 4, in the valley

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Chivay, a hillside with farms, oil on card, 21 x 24.8 cm - unavailable

Chivay, a view across a gorge, oil on card 21.2 x 24.2 cm  SOLD

This is one on the better ones from this trip- it's fluent and captures the grand scale of the place.

Chivay, trees near thermal pools. oil on card, 24.2 x 21.3 cm  unavailable

These three all use relatively thin paint- in contrast the the next set which all were painted using thicker impasto.

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My fourth Peruvian trip: Chivay part 3, fields

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 Chivay, fields, oil on card, 22 x 23.5 cm - available

Chivay, fields and farms, oil on card, 19.4 x 25 cm unavailable

In both cases these were painted from quite high up the slopes, to capture the pattern of terracing and fields.

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