Victoria Park, November

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Victoria Park, November 2024, oil on card 29 x 29.5 cm - available

A more rugged expressionistic picture.

 So much of painting for me is about how much noise I can make, how much I have permission to make it.

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Lagoa, houses and trees by a lake

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Lagoa, houses and trees by a lake, oil on card, 25 x 20.5 cm

An expressionistic pochade painted plein air by the lake.

The sharp sunlight invited ice-cream colours, a palette I love but rarely use. The combination of hot yellows and palce blues and greens is lively. 

I try to limit the palette when working plein air, usually mixing the colours in advance. This limited palette is partly because my palette is not that big, and because having a large choice of colours would make painting rapidly more difficult.

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A visit to southern Peru: Cusco; part three: the new town

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Cusco: narrow road downtown, oil on card, 10.5 x 14 cm - available

Cusco: buildings, oil on card, 10 x 12 cm  unavailable

Cusco: shops downtown, oil on card, 13 x 12 cm   available

Cusco

I'd wanted to work on the shops which are so striking, selling piles of pig cadavers or novel varieties of potatoes piled up high, or   children's shoes spread out on a blanket on the ground or car parts or bust up cellphones or old university thesis, but there were too many people to concentrate.

 It is impossible for me to work when people are watching. Almost all viewers are pleasant, but their presence transforms me into a street performer and this prevents me from working freely: I begin immediately to think of of what effect each change to the picture has on the viewers considerations. 

I wished I had taken my little Lumix  camera because the one on the mobile is poor, and it'd have been easy to take some nice snaps. There are some things for which the camera is unquestionably superior to painting, and that includes capturing street scenes.

Anyway, here are some, rather expressionist, paintings of the streets. The high perspective is especially reminiscent of Kirchner. With such painting the question is always about finish, knowing when to end. 

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Urubici: two recent paintings

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Urubici, boys playing football, oil on card, 14 / 14 cm   AVAILABLE   

Urubici, ploughed field, oil on card, 12 / 13 cm   AVAILABLE

I spent the last two days in Urubici, in the mountains. I painted eight pictures, I'll show the rest tomorrow.

Something I like about Urubici is the fact that it has a street life, with children playing football or in groups conversing. I like the people who seem unpretentious and industrious, and are a relief from the people of the island who are rather fond of themselves. I also love the smell of woodsmoke drifting down the town's solitary high street, and I love the towns mysterious setting among woods and surrounded by mountains.

And, as a painter, Urubici is great for having an especially sharp clear light: you occasionally get that in Florianopolis but it's much less common. 

I guess these are the most German Expressionist influenced pictures I've done for a while. I'm playing about with new methods: working more quickly, but also discarding more, the idea being to maintain a sense of energy within each picture.

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Igreja Matriz Nossa Senhora Mãe dos Homens, Urubici, Santa Catarina, Brazil

I spent the weekend at Urubici in the mountains, a tiny place which contains this marvellous expressionist style Catholic church, which looms above about the small houses around it.

I don't know when it was built: I suspect about 1930: the web tells me just that Padre José Alberto Gonçalves Espíndola was responsible. It is not in a very good state of repair: note the colonies of wasps' nests.





Judging by the empty lots along the main street it seems to me that Urubici was planned with a much larger population in mind than it has: this thesis is supported by the unnecessary, wonderful vastness of this building.

The Best Cars Are Bristol Cars

This painting is a conversation that has begun happily. Only a few alterations are needed- most obviously a tidying up of the silhouette of the Bristol cars. It's not often a painting begins well like this, it only happens when you don't give a damn, but, of course, not giving a damn isn't something you can just choose to do. You just have to find yourself in that mood somehow.

The texture of paint is particularly likable here. It comes from painting over an old canvas.

Bristol Cars are a hand-built luxury car. They have been manufactured since 1945 and are sold exclusively through their showroom in Kensington High Street, London.

For those who are unfamiliar with this splendid British car company: http://www.bristolcars.co.uk/index2.htm

The shadow of a tree

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Day 2

I think the next step will be to ensure that the lines are more or less square where it matters. There is an Aztec feel about the green picture, and I have injected something from 20s German Art in the yellow. I have a close affinity to art from the 20s and 30s.

I suppose that both pictures are self-portraits. I have been working very fast, trying to leave my judgements aside, working from something close to instinct.