Flowering tree branches

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Flowering tree branches, October, 2013, oil on card, 13 x 9 cm -available

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Egypt, arch, 2013

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Egypt, arch, oil on card,  12.5 x 9 cm, 2013  SOLD

This simple picture was, for some reason (probably because it was delivered to the Union Gallery and not properly photographed beforehand) not included in the Egypt sets here. 

My feeling is that is was painted in Aswan but I am not sure.

The Union Gallery has since closed- I`ve retrieved works held by them and I can finally show it, ten years later.

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Beiramar Avenue, sea

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Beiramar Avenue, sea, oil on card, 10 x 14 cm  SOLD

This was painted as part of a series back in 2013, but for some reason not posted. It's rather romantic, reminiscent of Boudin or Monet. 

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Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2014

Here is my work, No. 672, in the Summer Exhibition. The photo came from my uncle, Swavek- thanks!

Everything is a little crammed in, I think you`ll agree, though that is rather to be expected given the nature of the show.

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 2014; Under the Tracks, Astoria Boulevard

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Under the tracks, Astoria Boulevard, Queens N.Y., Oil on card, 14 x 10.5 cm  SOLD

I`m pleased to say that this picture was accepted for the Summer Exhibition in the Royal Academy, London, which runs from 9 June to 17 August.

My other submission, a picture of flowers, was rejected: it is larger, and more conventional, both in subject and execution.

But it is always difficult and, as likely as not, pointless, to speculate over the reasons for acceptance in these group shows: one persons subjectivity is complex, that of a panel of judges must be even more so. Or it could be that things are refused on such grounds as size, their excessive similarity to other submissions, or because of fashions, or groupthink, or behind-the-scenes horsetrading.

Given that, it is probably self-contradictory of me then to say that I see the acceptance of Under the Tracks as an affirmation that the N.Y trip produced a good run of pictures and wonder if I should plan a return trip there: next year is too soon for me to feel fresh, and respond in a lively way to things there, but perhaps in 2015?

Annual Review: 2013: Flickr, Blogger, Facebook, and other sites

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Introduction

The year was a general success despite a slump from October to the end of December.

I enjoyed painting trips to Egypt, Uruguay, New York, Minas Gerais, and exploring further Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. I spent a few days working in freezing London too.

  Luxor- the Winter Palace from Hotel Susanna, oil on card, 12 x 9 cm

In Uruguay, oil on card, 12 x 9 cm

A Chinese restaurant in New York, oil on card, 12 x 9 cm

Boa Esperança, the central square, oil on card, 14 x 14 cm

Mafra, simple houses, oil on card, 14 x 14 cm

 

Sao Francisca de Paula- road out of town, oil on card, 12.5 x 18 cm

All the trips were too short, and I shall try to extend them in future. It is necessary to have a few days simply to acclimatise to a certain place, to settle in, and relax.

I sold reasonably well, with sales at the Royal Academies in London and Scotland, and at Dubai Art Fair, and to various private buyers.

I used various sites to show work:

Flickr

Flickr messed up their site with an ugly and frustrating redesign.

However, I  continued to use it, partly out of habit, partly because I have already invested quite a deal of time in putting work there, so that it is really a complete catalogue of my work, and because I could not find a better alternative. I usually show pictures in about ten groups. I have 721 followers, up from 612 last year.

Blogger

The number of followers increased only a little from 70 to 78.

Facebook

This site again prove to be good for feedback, contacts and sales. Please feel free to add me as a contact there if you wish.

Deviantart

I stopped regularly using this site as it is really just for teenagers to exchange pornographic  manga cartoons and kitsch. I have 55 "watchers" up from 51.

ArtStack

This site is elegantly organised and a pleasure to use. I sporadically loaded pictures, and these were stacked 77 times. I shall use it more.

Plans

I am going to Salvador, Bahia in January, and to Morocco in March. I wish to do a further trip in late July, but I haven`t decided where.

Thanks

Many thanks to everyone who helped me in 2013: buyers, followers, family and friends.

There are a good number of people online who have been supportive, but whom I have never met. I found their comments useful and encouraging. 

Happy New year to you all.

 

Carnations 5, oil on card, 9 x 10.5 cm    SOLD





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Ten days in southern Minas Gerais -part two

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Varginha, view, oil on card, 16 x 14 cm unavailable

Cambuquira , rain on a pond, oil on card, 17 x 14 cm - unavailable

Cambuquira , a view from the hotel terrace, oil on card, 14 x 14 cm    SOLD

Cambuquira , the lonely duck, oil on card, 15 x 18 cm -unavailable

Boa Esperança, the lake, oil on card, 18 x 14 cm

 These pictures are the fruit of some short trips from Boa Esperança to nearby towns. 

Varginha is probably the ugliest city I have ever been to, with architecture of such gracelessness and  such a lack of general urban planning that might even some Brazilians might be taken aback. I cannot recommend going there.

By contrast, Cambuquira, an old spa resort, has considerable charm, unspoiled by the intrusion of contemporary Brazilian design. It`s gently crumbling away. We stayed in a most agreeably faded hotel from the thirties near the melancholy bus station and enjoyed wandering in the spa gardens trying the waters.

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Ten days in southern Minas Gerais- part one

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Boa Esperança, shop, oil on card, 14 x 16.5 cm  - available

Boa Esperança, pasteleria, 12.5 x 18 cm  unavailable

Boa Esperança, Percy`s Peças , oil on card, 13.5 x 15.5 cm-  available

Boa Esperança, Salão de Beleza, oil on card, 14 x 16.5 cm

Boa Esperança,the central square, oil on card, 14 x 14 cm unavailable

Boa Esperança is a town of forty thousand, prettily situated on a lake in Southern Minas Gerais. 

I tend not to go to the interior of Brazil much. I always think of it as the real Brazil, deep Brazil, Brazil for really serious explorers, in contrast to Santa Catarina, which I think of as Brazil-lite, easily palatable for gringo softies such as me. That is, in the interior you have to endure sertaneja*, dilapidation, heat, slowness, and very heavy food. You feel like you are the only foreigner and you probably are, and everyone is incredibly religious**.

The landscape of southern Minas is not as charming as that of Santa Catarina, as it lacks the drama of both the coastline and high mountains. There are huge coffee plantations over slow, almost treeless hills, and small towns in which nothing ever happens except the occasional downpour and their own gentle decline. There are many children and many dogs and everyone seems quite happy.

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I enjoyed my time painting in Boa Esperança very much. I loved the simple painted buildings, which often have deco detailing, and the pleasant people, whose children, playing in the streets, struck me as very polite and sweet-natured.

I am trying to paint pictures which are simpler, more cheerful, and more colourful. For a long time I had, largely unconsciously, been trying to paint North European landscapes here- and painting the shop-fronts were a great way to escape from this. I am also working on a slightly bigger scale. I want to feel freer with the brush and enjoy broader effects.

* a form of Brazilian country music, often played at high volume by morons in oversized cars.
**this, sadly, has a political aspect, with various Protestant church groups seeking to meddle in the affairs of secular state, harry homosexuals, and generally reduce the liberty of others.

 

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 Many thanks to the Rodrigues family, especially Filo, for kind hospitality in
Boa Esperança.



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Ratones, edge of woodland

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Ratones, edge of woodland, oil on card, 15 x 15 cm  - available

Another very hot day.

São José, a house near wasteground

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São José,  a house near wasteground, oil on card, 18 x 12.5 cm - available

Painted back in September: back then I wasn`t happy with it: now it seems quite okay.

 

 

 

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Praia de Gravatal, blue

Praia de Gravatal, blue, oil on card, 14 x 15.5 cm -  -unavailable

Painted from the trilha that runs above Praia Mole to Gravatal.

It has really become summer here and is very hot: insects everywhere.

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Perhaps the finest painter using blue is Matisse. His blues are exceptional in the way that they convey warmth rather than cold.

Urubici, tall pines

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Urubici, tall pines, oil on card, 14.5 x 18 cm  unavailable

Painted in the afternoon.

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Many thanks to John "the lad" Collins and Tielle for their excellent company in the mountains this weekend.

 

 

 

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In rememberance of Clancy

In rememberance of Clancy, oil on card, 16 x 16.5 cm

Not dissimilar to other flower pictures: I shall experiment more with the backgrounds in future.

Mafra, Santa Catarina

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 A distant farm, oil on card, 16 x 12.5 cm

 A view of Mafra, oil on card, 14 x 12.5 cm   - available

 Mafra, simple houses, oil on card, 14 x 14 cm   - available

billowing of paper in middle of picture (above)

Mafra, man with a back pack, oil on card, 18 x 16 cm - unavailable

Mafra is a smallish city in the North of Santa Catarina which merges with its neighbour Rio Negrinho across the river. Its inhabitants are largely Polish and Ukrainian in ethnic origin and there are various very Eastern-European looking wooden buildings there, a big Ukrainian church and blond people. 

It`s prettily sited on a series of wooded hills, which are where I did most of my work. I could, I think, have spent a few more days here quite happily, although the food was dismal and costly (though don`t they say, "bad food is always expensive" ?): I had a particularly vile hot dog (what Brazil has done to the hot dog would cause nervous breakdowns in Frankfurt) and a foul Burrito. But the town seems orderly and prosperous and has none of the squalor that mars so much of Brazil.

I had originally intended to return to Florianopolis via Lages, but felt that this would, without a night`s rest somewhere, ìnvolve far too much driving in  one day.  I regret now that I didn`t consider this properly when planning, and added another day or two to my itinerary, as I was therefore forced to return via the route I came: via the tedious expanse of Teutonic suburb towns that stretches from Joinville to Brusque to Blumenau and Jaranagua. And the area between Lages and Mafra remains, for me, still somewhat unexplored.

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 The pictures are mostly quite good, if occasionally generic in composition (especially the first and third). I am working on a larger scale these days, and  am feeling very confident.

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Saco Grande, a white house

Saco Grande, a white house, 13.7 x 12.7 cm  - available

Painted on a pretty road running behind Floripa shopping.

The road to Itacorubi

The road to Itacorubi, oil on card, 12.5 x 12 cm

A very pleasant day for painting.

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I have bought tickets to Minas Gerais, where I shall pass Christmas, and Salvador, where I will spend some days in late January.

A street in Biguaçu - dogs and children

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A street in Biguaçu- dogs and children, oil on card, 22 x 18 cm  SOLD

This has been sold to and English couple.

 

The proceeds are going to help Ukraine, through a donation given to a registered British charity.

 

The proceeds from all paintings sold in 2022 will go to help Ukraine.

 

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I`m going to push up in scale over the next few days. 

I`m interested in capturing something of the life of the streets here: shamelessly pinching some ideas from Lowry.

Working class neighbourhoods are best for this: you can see people doing all sorts of things their streets- flying kites, playing ball games, riding bikes, drinking, selling things, and just hanging around. 

The middle-class zones, with their tight-lipped condominiums and security cameras might be neat and tidy but they must be a lot less fun to grow up in.

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New York V: above Queens; evaluation

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Above 43rd St., Queens, the back yards, oil on card, 13 x 12 cm

 There is something of Eardley here.

Above 43rd St., Queens, looking North-West, oil on card, 14 x 13 cm AVAILABLE

Above 43rd St., Queens, N.Y., looking down, oil on card, 12 x 12 cm

These three paintings were executed from the roof of my lodgings.

 If I regret anything about the US trip, it is that I did not paint anything close up, intimately.

 All painters have their distances: Lucien Freud or Chardin work much closer to his subject than, say, Turner does. And different cities condition different distances, so that panoramic views are a more likely response to Rio than perhaps to Camden. But I think if i were to revisit, I would try to get closer to my motifs, at least sometimes.

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The trip was, I think the most successful of my longer painting trips so far. The weather was magnificent, the light perfect and  the city is easy to understand and it is dramatic. The decision to focus on Queens, a rough 4 mile radius from my lodgings was wise, allowing me to explore without getting bored. 

I came to love Queens: it is ordinary but then quite beguiling at the same time, with an incredible mixture of unpretentious people from all over. I didn`t find any architectural marvels there- it is strange to me how few Churches there are- but there is a huge amount of good solid ordinary building, both blocks and townhouses -the sort that is so woefully lacking in Brazil- all laid out on an elegant grid, sloping easily down to the river, punctuated by small parks here and there.

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Many thanks to James for putting me up on my first days in the USA and for helping me, and to Tatiane for bravely and brilliantly assuming the role of  photographers assistant.

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New York IV: painting in Central Park and Hudson River Greenway

 Central Park Symphony, oil on card, 15 x 12 cm  SOLD

The parks in central New York are magnificent. I was there to catch the first changes of the Fall: fantastically coloured Sycamores. The weather was sunny but not scorching. Central Park is amazingly varied in terms of types of spaces. It isn`t quite as big as people say, if you know the London parks, but it is quite something nonetheless.

Central Park, New York, autumn, oil on card, 10 x 13 cm  NOT FOR SALE

I always love the freedom from precision in drawing that painting nature gives after I have been painting buildings.

Trees, Hudson River Greenway, N.Y., oil on card, 12.5 x 12.5 cm - unavailable

There is a huge Bonnard influence in these pictures,  a direct result of visits to the Metropolitan Museum nearby.

Central Park N.Y., woman in a red dress, oil on card, 12 x 16 cm  NOT FOR SALE

 Five from Manhattan`s parks

New York II: East Village, Brooklyn, Morningside Heights, and outside the Public Library

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These are pictures from less systematic perambulations. It is difficult in such an intensively commercial zone as Manhattan to find places to sit and work peacefully: this is partly why I spent so much time exploring Queens, though another reason is simply that it is, I find, better creatively to explore a smaller area with some concentration, than a wider area superficially.

A Chinese Restaurant, East Village, oil on card, 11.5 x 14 cm

I loved the rectangularity of everything, as if the work were a vast three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle composed from square and rectangular pieces: it suits my somewhat blocky style.

 Outside the library, Manhattan, oil on card, 10.5 x 14.5 cm  - available

Washington Square, Manhattan, N.Y., oil on card, 14.5 x 13.5 cm   SOLD

Tenement, Morningside Heights, Manhattan, N.Y., oil on card, 11.5 x 15 cm  unavailable

I remember seeing something on television once about Glasgow, in which the presenter maintained that the layout of New York and its systems of tenements was more reminiscent of Glasgow than any other city, but I cannot, alas, recall what programme it was. But in a sense Glasgow is more interesting, because of its slopes and hills: New York could do with a few hills to set it off.  And I could find no ecclesiastical architecture to match that of "Greek" Thomson.

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