Trees near a church, Trindade

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Trees near a church, Trindade, oil on card, 26 x 28 cm

It is getting very hot, and even when painting in the shade one returns sun-dizzy.

 It may be time to start painting still lives again, perhaps flowers...

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A dog going somewhere

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A dog going somewhere

There is a short story here.

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Branch

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Branch

This was taken over a month ago and is one of the photos that I'd describe as "modest photography". 

That's a term I've invented for a photography that draws attention to slight phenomena or humble objects, depicted in an undramatiising way. It's deliberately unimpressive.

Thus, I finds myself in a contradictory position: I have to decide which unimpressive photo is most impressive. 

That's a paradox I can live with because the possibilities of modest photography are endless. It opens one up to a totally different understanding of the art.  Liberated from the obligation to seek evermore transcendental or memorable imagery one is free to find value in the commonplace, the overlooked. 

I shall next explore this further with photos of little grey stones, small piles of sand, scraps of litter or small fallen leaves.

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Eyeball

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Eyeball

These eyeballs are sold from a coin operated dispenser outside the local supermarket. I wonder who comes up with these glorious designs? In an ideal world the maker would receive at least a knighthood.

 Anyway, the presence of these dispensing machines and the utter pointlessness of the crap within them is, in these times,  reassuring,: we haven't yet been reduced to exclusively utilitarian existences.

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There's a colour range which I fall very easily into as a photographer, consisting mostly of secondary colours, greys and browns. It can be a little serious.

So it's nice to step outside that sometimes, and what better subject that the surreal world of sweets and toys, and I'll try to do more. It allows me to change gear. Plus, for sure, they are often rather agreeable.

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Pavement; recent photography; camera

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Pavement

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Recent Photography

I've put my brushes down, and have returned to taking photos for a while. I'd been working very steadily on landscape paintings for a good few years and felt the need for a change. I started to think "this is what I can do" or "this is what I do" and with that comes ennui. The difficulty of travel because of Covid reinforces this. 

Image-making with´painting for me has begun to follow very set processes- finding a place to work, mixing colours, a initial tentative sketch, revising that sketch, then blocking the larger areas, usually with the more distant elements first, Then adding darks and becoming more detailed. 

It's nice, indeed essential, to have a method. But I started to become aware that the method is one that permits certain statements, and negates others, and couldn`t easily shift process. It became uncreative. 

Hence, photography.

I've often had my doubts about photography because it can seem too easy, to be glib. But that is perhaps because I gave insufficient attention to the decision making processes which it can involve, underestimating their possible sophistication;

These photos are extensions of previous essays- the neighborhood through it's architecture, still life, and rustic or woodland themes. Some of them create or suggest narratives, and think of adding texts to some of them.

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Camera

The camera I use is a Lumix DMC-LX7. It's small enough to fit in my pocket but has a Leica lens and works very nicely. Larger cameras are cumbersome, and their SLR feature is much less necessary nowadays when editing on the computer is so easy compared to in the darkroom .

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Steps

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Steps

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Night, blocks, Trindade

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Blocks, night

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Trindade, block

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Trindade, block opposite, oil on card, 13.5 x 15.7 cm unavailable

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Me in the studio

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In the studio

In the studio today in Trindade.

 I mainly work plein air so this is  somewhat posed.

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Gardens, Trindade; Ecuador; carriers

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Gardens, Trindade, Florianopolis, oil on card, 21 x 24 cm unavailable

These larger pochades are less easy to get right as they demand a more sophisticated compositions. 

With this in mind, how many pictures can one reasonably expect to be successful in a week's painting, and therefore how many pochade carriers should I take to Ecuador?

Approximately a third of sessions are successful- the others can optimistically be regarded as "preparatory". So, with two sessions a day and fourteen a week, there will be five good pictures (if I am lucky) at the end of each week....which means I need only take about 15 carriers.

At the end of each week a few carriers can be "liberated" because the pochades inside them will be dry and can be removed.

All this matters as I like to carry as little as necessary when travelling.

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Houses on the hill

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Houses on the hill, Trindade, oil on card, 21.5 x 19 cm unavailable

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Rua José Francisco Dias Areias - Trindade, Florianópolis

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Rua José Francisco Dias Areias - Trindade, oil on card, 21 x 24.5 cm

If there is sun tomorrow, perhaps I`ll go to painting at the sea.

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Rua Nilo Mussi, Trindade

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Rua Nilo Mussi, Trindade, oil on card, 21.3 x 21.5 cm  SOLD

This picture was very difficult to paint. 

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Trindade, cyclist

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Trindade, cyclist, oil on card 23.5 x 19.5 cm 

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R. Gonçalves Lêdo - Trindade, bicyclist

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R. Gonçalves Lêdo - Trindade, bicyclist, oil on card, 18 x 24.5 cm discard

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Trindade- a street

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Trindade- a street, oil on card, 24 x 21 cm - available

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Trindade, Rua Prof. Belmarminio Correa

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Trindade, Rua Prof. Belmarminio Correa, 

oil on card, 21.5 x 24.8 cm - unavailable

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Painting in Trindade/ the blocky style - blocks, Trindade

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Blocks, Trindade, oil on card, 20.5 x 25 cm   available

Painting in Trindade

There are an increasing number of new blocks, none of which have much aesthetic merit or even interest. But I am trying to find something in the patterns of their facades. The older architecture isn't that interesting either, to be honest, but there are one or two older houses which have a certain charm. 

It's good to work around here, to walk to destinations and to feel that one is discovering ones own neighborhood. 

I'm working larger. I want boldness, a poster-like quality, like those famous Deco posters used for tourism advertisements- I'm preparing for Chicago which I shall try to paint in a broad and audacious manner.

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The Blocky Style
or
 fat crude lively pictures... 

The pictures here are larger than I have painted for a while and the idea is to construct a new style

The features of the new style are- 

1. thick outlines describing elements

2. clear colours

3. limited colour range

4. simple geometrical shapes 

5. cheerful storybook atmosphere.

To assist working on a larger scale I reduce to palette to four colours- a blue, white, a yellow and a warm dark colour such as a red or brown. This makes mixing easier. I use big fat brushes too. It might end up looking a lot like Sironi but less sad.

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Rua Linhares, Trindade, red car

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Rua Linhares, Trindade, Florianopolis- red car

 oil on card, 15.5 x 18 cm - available

The first of a run of pictures depicting my neighborhood.

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Tranquility

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Tranquility, Trindade, Florianopolis

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