Praia Moçambique, looking inland, mid-afternoon

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Praia Moçambique, looking inland, mid-afternoon, oil on card, 27.5 x 30 cm - available

 

Photo

 

The camera- a Lumix DMX  - has certain baises, and dislikes certain colour contrasts especially where pinks meet greens. I messed about for ages in the editor and never hit the nailhead. Well, I think it is more or less right.

Painting 

 

I loved painting here. The sun was not too tyrannous, and I could perch myself on a little knoll above the sands.

I finished before the late afternoon light comes raking in sideways- quite glorious to see- and I shall return today to see if I can capture this. I usually avoid going the the same place on successive days (does that  make me sound rather like a serial killer?) as I benefit from  having a fresh impression but I shall, exceptionately, break this rule.

I have been working on a larger scale and this allows more spacious painting, with looser brushwork-  most enjoyable.

 

Black  

 

I have also re-introduced black to my palette. 

Thanks, in part to the Impressionists many painters plein air painters avoid black as the Impressionists  had argued that black doesn't exist in "nature" and they held fidelity to nature as a high value (as if painting itself exists in "nature"). 

But, I'd avoided putting out blacks for a long time not because of reverence to the Impressionists but becauses they so readily pollute other colours on the palette, and all the mixtures can become greyed out.

 I am trying to use it discreetly. 

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Campeche, looking south

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Campeche, looking South, oil on card, 18 x 14 cm    SOLD

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Painted in an impressionist technique. 

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Five little monotypes

 A boat in Lagoa, with the first impression at the bottom.

 A street in Lagoa, with the first impression at the bottom.

A boat in Lagoa, second version, monotype 9. 3 x 5 cm

A street in Lagoa, first version, monotype 9. 3 x 5 cm

The ink surface was manipulated between impressionsms, so my use of the term is lax.

These were made some years ago in Lagoa, and I found them while arranging my books. They are a little smaller than credit cards.

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I think I shall do more like this: they feel fresh.

Valparaiso, Chile

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 Valparaiso, Cerro Bellavista, oil on card, 11 / 9 cm  SOLD

A smallish town, a port, dirty but striking with good old architecture and fine views from the hills above: in short a good painting city.

I spent most of my time in the lower commercial areas of the city and painting some of the many, impressive stucco 19th century very brightly coloured. There are many pleasant squares, though everything is in need of renovation and the whole reminds me very much of decaying Brazilian port towns that I've been to such as Pelotas or Laguna. The port area is very much Tom Waits territory, like so many ports, that air of dilapidation, which at times is very beguiling, at others merely squalid.

 Valparaiso, waterfront, oil on card, 14.5 / 10.5 cm  - available

Of Whistler I see just a little sign:

 Valpariaso, the British Arch, oil on card., 14.5 / 11cm  - available

I didn't work as large as I'd anticipated. For travel the intensity of that postcard size is quite ideal.

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Santiago, Chile

Nine from Santiago

I've  been pleasantly surprised here  The city is quite elegant, not too large. The architecture is perhaps a little anytown, with little that I can see that might not be found in any other capital: neo-classical and eclectic late nineteenth century with non-descript modern filling in the gaps, but it is generally well maintained with little mess or graffiti, and the city is well planted with trees.

Santiago: Palacio de Bellas Fine Artes: the blue umbrella, oil on card, 14.5 / 12.5 cm - available

The people seem pleasant enough, pleasant tempered and gentle,dark haired, round faced. I detect a latent conservatism to them. The school girls wear rather odd over socks over their stockings as part of their winter uniforms, but I can't see other notable idiosyncrasies. There some soldiers on horseback in olive uniforms- elegant.

The city is grid  plan, with occasional crookedness.  I stayed in Bairro Brasil, close to the centre, much peeling nineteenth century and some elegant or fashionable bars, though in the main the city is old/fashioned feel, so that shop displays are quaintly, sometimes sadly simple and the concept of self/service seems unknown, so goods are kept behind a counter and you have to ask for what you want from an assistant.

It rained continually for my first two days, making painting trying. On the third, however, it was dry enough to climb Cerro San Cristobal and look down.

 Santiago, from above, oil on card, 14 / 13 cm  unavailable

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Not long ago I received some criticism, that the paintings were grey, and that I was "timid with colour". Like most well directed criticism this stung, and instinctively I resented it- it is so often the case that  I, perhaps we, resent and reject criticism most when it is justified.

But with a few days on I decided to try to face the challenge of the criticism, and I have been using colours with more boldness, and less concern that the effect might be vulgar.

The hostel has some wonderful flowers, and I`ve been painting these, in a sort of impressionist style, trying not to over mix the paints and using lighter  grounds. They are brighter and more cheerful. I shall post these these later.

Santiago, Praca Brasil, a red umbrella, oil on card,  oil on card, 13.5 / 11 cm  NOT FOR SALE

A quiet street

A quiet street, oil on card, 10.2 x 14.2 cm  - available

I had originally intended to title the picture "a boring street". I'd walked past it and thought, how spectacularly dull, I must try to paint it!, but of course as soon as I came here with my easel and started looking the more I found of interest. The little road leads to various research institutes each featuring rather anonymous buildings and, as with many academic institutions, there is a very particular atmosphere of "hush". The road curves round, undulating slightly.

This is one of the oddities of boring things: that is, when you start studying boring things they very quickly stop being boring. Martin Parr's collections of "Boring Photographs" illustrate this very plainly.

There is a tense stillness in paintings by Alfred Sisely, especially apparant in his paintings of floods at Port-Marly. This is one of the most Sisely-ish pictures I've done for a while.

Of the Impressionists, I feel the greatest connexion with Sisely: he isn't syrupy, like Renoir, or heavy like Pissarro, and he doesn't have Monet's inclination towards epiphany (which I don't give two hoots about, not having any mystical instincts whatsoever). His sensibility seems sensibly British: phlegmatic and free from melodrama and I love the sense of harmony in his works, which usually are constructed using a simple grid system.

The theme of silence, of boredom is very late nineteenth century: I suppose it relates to the often idle leisure class of the time and its evasion of social responisbilities.

Trees behind a fence

Trees behind a fence, 35 x 40 cm, oil on canvas

A small painting (35 x 40 cm), again impressionist in method. I painted it plein air, listening to Roxy Music from the car.

I am priming some board to use as a support for a series of small pictures, about A5 in size. These will be readily affordable to collectors and easy to post. As my pricing is geared to the Brazillian market the pictures are particularly good value to overseas buyers: they will cost 100 Brazillian Reals (about 55US$ , 40 Euros, or 34 UK pounds) not including post and packing. Anyone interested should simply email me for details.

I can arrange framing- it is cleap to get good framing here and worth considering. It would probably cost an addtional 50 Reals, but I would have to check.

I believe in making art affordable, and available to those who are interested.

There exists a great deal of price snobbery in the art world- even a low priced paiting is unaffordable for most people. I think this has the net effect of damaging sales, leading to lower sales overall because it dissuades potential new buyers from entering the market. It seems to me wrong and, more importantly, foolish that an educated person on an average income, such as scoolteacher or book editor, should be unable to afford to purchase original works because of the art worlds pricing structure, which exists to maintain the prices already established artists and sustain the idea of "exclusivity".

The average jobbing artist, who is not a star, then, fails to sell and their work remains in storage for years on end because the galleries, and art world in general have conspired to maintian prices and failed to nurture a low-medium price market.

Or so things appear to me. Perhaps readers have another take on it?

Tyre Shop- Stage 3

It started to rain and I got utterly soaked. I worked back into this without blacks or browns: this freshend it up. I don't think it needs too much more work, just some attention to details of the telegraph posts, wires and kerbs.

Little Yellow Tree, Impressionism

I return to the woods, this time without black paint. The shadows contrast less harshly with the foliage than the one I did a few days ago (see below).

It is so hot here that painting outside for much over an hour outside is arduous.

The Sea, Impressionist painting.

An impressionist painting, painted plein air in one session and using a palette without black or brown paints. The effect is shrill to my tastes. The pastel colours give a Walt Disney feel- I'm not sure I really like that.

If God is present, then it is in the details:



It's enjoyable painting the sea: how it reflects light and changes in the course of an hour. I'd reccomend for mental patients.