Birches, Aviemore

Birches, Aviemore, oil on card, 8 x 10 cm SOLD

The final picture of the Spey Way walk. By this point the weather had closed in, very cold and dark. I'd forgotten quite how inhospitable the Scottish climate can be

London: Chelsea and Kensington: five paintings

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Distant view of Kensington Palace, oil on card, about 10 x 11 cm  NOT FOR SALE

I love this side of London, it's spacious, clean and elegant. I love the way it slopes down to the river. It feels calm and orderly. I stayed with my beautiful friends Lise and Felix in Notting Hill Gate: the weather was perfect.

If these pictures are popular and there is clearly a market, then I should like to return to London to do a larger run.

I always think that I am in "Whsitler territory" when I wander down to Chelsea.

 Kensington Palace from near the Pond, oil on card, 10 x 12 cm  SOLD

 Battersea Bridge, oil on card, 10 x 12 cm   AVAILABLE

St Columba's Church, Chelsea, oil on card, 10 x 12 cm  AVAILABLE

Campden Hill Gardens, Notting Hill, oil on Card, 10 x 12 cm - discarded

Four of these pochades in their little carriers




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Paintings from the Spey Way

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 View from The Croft, Elgin, oil on card, 10 x 12 cm  SOLD

 Elgin Cathedral, oil on card, 10 x 12 cm  - available

 The Spey Bay, oil on card, 10 x 12 cm  SOLD

Fochabars, oil on card, 10 x 8 cm   AVAILABLE

 

Gatehouse to Craigellachie Castle, oil on card, 10 x 12cm   AVAILABLE

Ballindalloch Castle, oil on card, 13.5 x 10 cm - available

Houses, Moray, oil on card, 10 x 12 cm  SOLD

Arndilly, oil on card, 10.3 x 13.2 cm     available

The Spey near Ballindalloch, oil on card, 10, x 11 cm  SOLD

I spent a week walking the Spey way. I walked up to the Spey Bay from Elgin, the followed the river down to Aviemore, getting lost a few times and spending the night in various Bed and Breakfasts and hostels.

Painting-wise the trip was good, but the romantic idea of walking and painting as I went, was less happy in reality.

This is because:
1. carrying a rucksack- which happened to break on day two is very tedious
2. my shoes started to cut very badly into my heels
3. Scotland in the rain is not a good place to be when you are walking on a hillside
4. packing and unpacking  every night and morning gets annoying.

Better conceived was the Christmas trip to the mountains earlier this year, when I stayed in the same place and made daily excursions with just a little bag.

 I shall adapt trips in future to this model. It means one has the chance to do a reconaissance of a place, then return to where is good. If one is following a linear track that doesn`t happen, unless one walks back- something which i find psychologically well nigh impossible. It also is better socially because you can get to know people sometimes at your lodgings, and it is nice to chat to someone after a solitary day painting.

Anyway, as regards painting, I am happy: here is a little selection- more can be found on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tadeuszderegowski/sets/72157627338763566/with/5989683743/

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London: paintings from the south London suburbs

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The view south from Crystal Palace, London, oil on card, about 12 x 10 cm  NOT FOR SALE

I mentioned how I had felt that painting the "official" more obvious tourist London might feel like a restriction, that as I painter it might feel as if I were working within a world of entirely pre-determined, setpiece views.

In fact, I found this less tedious and limiting thing I had imagined. There is a reason for the set piece views, and it is because they really are often truly spectacular, despite the fact that they have been turned into cliches.

So the there was no need to adopt a superior "ironical" attitude in depicting the sights, and I shall set about doing more.

The view from Brixton Hill, London, oil on card, about 12 x 10 cm  AVAILABLE

Nunhead Cemetery, London,oil on card, about 12 x 10 cm  SOLD

Clapham South, London, oil on card, about 12 x 10 cm  - available

But I also did some bus journeys into the suburbs, in south London around Brixton and Crystal Palace, and to Nunhead, hoping to capture their very particular spirit, to create more intimate localised views of residential areas, perhaps places which had some memories for me.

I wish I had had more time to get into this: I hadn´t the chance to visit old haunts in Finsbury Park (specifically the lovely Parkland walk, along the old railway line) and those areas behind Holloway Road and Hornsey which always seem forgotten to me (an instinct which was awakened in me by John Foxx who, indeed, used sections of the old railway to make a film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzXTu6tiXmE)

I am very much hoping to return to London before the bad weather and darkness set in this year.

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Some paintings from London: tourist painting

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The Houses of Parliament, Westminster, oil on card, about 10 x 12 cm  AVAILABLE

 

 

 

Saint Paul's, London, oil on card, about 10 x 12 cm  AVAILABLE

 

 

 

Tower Bridge, London, oil on card, about 12 x 10 cm 

 

 

 

Three paintings done in London, which satistfy the definition of "tourist painting" to me, in that they are very much set-piece views, immediately recognisable. I don't mean the term pejoratively

It is excellent to work from the south side of the Thames. As one goes east the tourists thin out, and it's easy enough to find a peaceful spot. The north side of the river is almost a showcase of London history, with views of the Tower, St Pauls, Parliament and so forth. 

I worried that because these scenes are so well known it would be hard for me to find my own angle, and that the paintings would become twee, and had speculated that it might be better to oncentrate on more obscure, perhaps more readily "personalisable" views in the suburbs (some of which I shall post tomorrow).

However, I feel that I have managed- what matters, as ever in painting, is to be attentive to what really is there, as opposed to what one supposes should be there. And the skies of London are extraordinary for the capacity to change mood rapidly- a vital subject in itself.

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Three Scottish still lives

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Still life with the black cat, oil on card, about 10 x 9 cm

Still life with yellow flowers, oil on card, about 10 x 9 cm

Still life with red flowers and the Chinese rider, oil on card, about 10 x 9 cm  AVAILABLE

These pictures were painted in Aberdeen: it was too cold to go outside.

I've tried to paint still lives in Brasil but they don't work out- the sort of introverted "gothic" still life, with it's Redonesque aspects is so much a product of an introversion, sometimes an unhappiness, that seems particular to cold Northern Europe. There seems something very peculiar about staying in to paint cut flowers when the sun outside is so welcoming, and there are flowers covering the hillsides!

The third photo in particular leaves something to be desired: I have left these paintings in the UK in Scotland and was unable to properly check their quality before leaving (I was also foolish enough not to record their sizes so the sizes given are approxomate). But such shiny dark painted surfaces are always hard to capture well.

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Back to base

 Paintings from the Spey Valley leg of my trip: there are also som pictures from London, Brasil, and two still lives painted in Aberdeen.

Back.

Many pictures later, a good run of experiences and good news.

The trip had three stages: Taubate, Brasil,  London, The Spey Valley, Scotland and then London again.

I shall be posting the best of these in three postings. I also painted some little still lives.

I had some good news: the Union Gallery in Broughton Street, Edinburgh has taken my work, and will be dealing with it. This is excellent as it is a good Gallery with an interesting profile. I have raised the prices of paintings to 100 pounds sterling each. This is necessary to cover travel costs, which can be very high.

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Many thanks to those who hosted me: Larry, Chris, my parents, my sister Anna and her husband Kenneth, and Lise and her son Felix. I simply could not do such a long trip without your help and support.