Painting Light and Colour

‘Windmill on the Amstel Canal’

Oil on canvas board, 24 x 18 cm

Status: For Sale €95

This is another one of the small panels executed outdoors in the cold Amsterdam snow. The Amstel canal winds its way down into Amsterdam, and I ride my bicycle past this windmill on my way into my studio. There is also a famous statue of Rembrandt sketching on this spot, directly behind this scene. It was bitterly cold, but fortunately, I was able to find a sheltered spot out of the wind while I painted away for an hour or so.

As you can se, it was a few days before the big snows that fell over Christmas, but I was still very glad to get out of the cold. It only needed a few remaining brush strokes in the studio to finish it.

‘Rain’

Oil on canvas, 24 x 18 cm

Status: For Sale €95

Happy New Year to all!

As the weather gets increasingly cold here in Amsterdam, the time I can spend outside painting gets kind of shorter as well. The solution is to paint on a smaller canvas - a canvas board actually. This one is only 24 x 18 cm, actually smaller than the image on your screen if you click on to get the enlarged view.

The shortage of time also dictates going at it fairly briskly, no point being precious about anything. This is a view over the rowing waters in the Amsterdam Bos. I got rained on twice whilst painting this over the period of an hour. However, I am quite happy with the result, a fairly lively painting.

‘Storm over the canal’

Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm

Status: For Sale POA

‘I don’t believe in making pencil sketches and then painting your landscape in your studio. You must be right under the sky.’ (William Merritt Chase)

I painted this picture of a canal boat as a storm was approaching from the near horizon. I don’t know whether the story about the English painter Turner lashing himself to the mast of a ship and painting in a storm, basically to get the ‘vibe’ is true or not, but it is definitely true that you always get a better result painting in situ. It also helps that the uncertainty of the weather tends to dictate that you paint pretty much fast and furious before you get saturated, blown up by lightning etc. Invariably, the painting is more lively!

‘Autumn light’

Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm

Status: For Sale POA

Autumn light

‘Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own.’ (Charles Dickens)

It’s moving well into the end of Autumn here in Amsterdam, and there are lovely colours about in the parks. I actually did this one a few weeks ago earlier in the season, and, believe it or not, there were even a few brave souls sunbathing in the park as I was painting it.

The Dutch light seems to get even clearer and softer in Autumn, and there are some nice interplays of colour to capture - provided the sun stays out!

Although I started this one Plein Air, I finished it in the studio, without bothering to look at the photo I took of the tree. This is because, although it is imperative to start the painting by looking at what’s in front of you, at some stage, the picture takes on a life or rationale of it’s own, which then needs to be carried through to the finish, in some ways discarding the original model you started with. One of the major pitfalls to be avoided with this methodology is not to overwork the piece and end up with a dull and boring picture. I think I’ve managed to avoid it this time.

‘Seated Nude’

Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm

Status: For Sale POA

Seated nude

‘The nude does not simply represent the body, but relates it, by analogy, to all structures that have become part of our imaginative experience.’ (Kenneth Clark)

One of the differences between a nude and a portrait - both pictures of a person, is that the portrait is personal, ie it is a picture of John Smith, hopefully clearly recognisable by all, and, on the other hand, the figure should represent or evoke a feeling of empathy in the viewer who (presumably) shares a similar body, and can recognise the feeling which produces such a pose.

This one was looking a little pensive until I changed the position of the hands which now convey  a more relaxed demeanor in the subject. It’s funny how little things like this alter the message the viewer receives.

‘Blossoms and Butterflies’

Oil on canvas, 80 x 50 cm

Status: For Sale €750

Blossoms and Butterflies

Abstract generally means existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence. However, in art it is more frequently used to describe a work that is not tightly ‘true to form’. When I abstract a picture I will usually stick to what nature provided with the colour and tone, but like to break up the form, eg shapes, drawing etc. This will sometimes give a more interesting and appealing picture. In any event, it’s likely to be less boring than all those old still life’s and flower paintings produced in abundance hundreds of years ago.

‘The more abstract is form, the more clear and direct its appeal. (Wassily Kandinsky)’

‘OLD CHURCH’

Oil on canvas, 30 x 20 cm

Status: For Sale €180

OLD CHURCH

This is the ‘BovenKerk’ not far from Amsteveen, from a view looking across the lake known as the ‘De Poel’.

It was painted on site, Plein Air, over the period of about three hours, give or take. One of the things that makes a subject like this interesting for me is that the church has been there so long that it has melded into it’s environment of trees and other surroundings.

Henri Matisse is quoted as saying ’A rapid rendering of a landscape represents only one moment of its existence. I prefer, by insisting upon its essential character, to risk losing charm in order to gain greater stability.’

I don’t disagree with Henri. This ‘rapid rendering’ does indeed only give a snapshot of the church’s existence, but its one I was there for!

‘Life Drawing’

Screen Print, 40 x 30 cm, limited edition of 5

Status: For Sale €60, unframed

Life drawing

Print making is one of the things that I would like to do more of.  As the weather is starting to get colder here in Amsterdam, and the window for landscape painting is getting somewhat restricted, I did hie me down to the Amsterdam Grafisch Atelier to refresh my screen printing skills. There is quite a bit of technology and kit required for printing, but the payoff is that once you get things set up, you can then print off large numbers of images, and you can therefore let them go at a significantly lower price.

I used existing images of drawings, and amalgamated a number of different images onto the print, laying them down using various colours. The result is interesting in that they are fragments of my drawings which have now been ‘collaged’ together on a 2 d colour image.

‘Merlot, flowers and an apple’

Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm

Status: For Sale at Exhibition at KunstKerk September 5th

Merlot, flowers and an apple

This is a ‘Still Life”, or as the French call it, a ‘Nature Morte’.

I had this still life in mind as I was riding my bike to the studio. I stopped and ‘borrowed’ a small handfull of flowers from a bed of thousands, and when I got to the studio, I used my apple (no lunch!) and a half bottle of red that was Jon’s, but I didn’t drink it. Arranging a still life can be challenging. Bringing together a few disparate objects doesn’t necessarily make a (good) composition, but sometimes you get it right, and I think I did here.

‘Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos. ‘
Stephen Sondheim

The whole composition is actually bought about by the red Merlot colours and that of the flowers - purely coincidental, but very effective. These are played of against the complimentary greens of the apple, bottle and the background green/greys.

‘Vondel Park Cafe’

Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm

Status: For Sale at Exhibition at KunstKerk September 5th

Vondel Park is (probably) the largest park in Amsterdam. Situated just outside the older city, it gets very crowded in the warmer months. I painted this scene of a cafe across the pond earlier this summer. It took me two different days to complete, as it is biggish. The bright light was cool and clear, (in the morning), so I painted everything accordingly, with a unifying ‘coolness’, and with very loose brushwork - providing quite a different result than some of my previous landscapes. Always nice to come up with something novel.

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
Albert Einstein

This painting will be on exhibition at the KunstKerk Gallery in Amsterdam from 6th September.