Piece Hall

Piece Hall, Halifax.

Saturday 21st April 2012. I've been planning a series of paintings of the Piece Hall in Halifax. Today, I was looking after the kids all day while Mrs Chapple went to Sheffield, so I took the opportunity to lead a little field trip down to the Piece Hall to take some photographs.

For Heavens Cake

Some of the units are occupied by various businesses. This one is a Cake Shop which is AMAZING - I know from experience! This is the kind of image that would work well as a watercolour. Everything works so well from the vintage style sign to the street furniture to the architecture of the building. The only way it could be improved, is to take the photograph early in the morning to get the direct sunlight.

 

I love the symmetry of this photo. Capturing the direct sunlight makes this image work so well. The contrast of the light and shade is a great effect that emphasizes the architectural style. 

 

This is another great image which really captures the architectural style. The shadows cast by the sunlight makes this image for me. I would remove the shadows cast by the bunting.

 

I like the way the sun casts a shadow, creating that sharp line that runs diagonally. The lady sitting outside the cake shop adds interest and I would remove the bunting.

 

This is another individual shop that I think would work well as a watercolour. Similar to the cake shop, this frontage just looks so inviting.

North Yorkshire

Have been exploring the area around Skipton in North Yorkshire over the past couple of weeks. It is unquestionably a beautiful part of the country and I hope to spending a lot more time there in the coming months.

I have an idea. I was struck by the number of vintage/old fashioned style signs/shops etc that exist in the many villages around Skipton in the Dales. These things I am convinced, will make for excellent subject matter. I think they are visually outstanding. This ties in with looking for a suitable subject matter to paint and exhibit at craft fairs and festivals in the Yorkshire Dales. I need to come up with half a dozen images based on this vintage sign/shop frontage theme. I'm going to be busy...

Royston

Royston is a few miles south west of Cambridge and is where I picked up my travels from 27th-29th March. A little while ago. Not much to report apart from the weather back then was beautiful but since then I have been restricted in my travels by the many April showers....

Am hoping to spend at least three days per week between now and September, on the road promoting my art work, building up my order books...

Signs

During my travels, I always keep an eye out for interesting signs. Some signs are funny or unusual or some just simply look good. I particularly like old fashioned, traditional shop signs which look like they've been there for decades. I'm hoping to build up a collection of photographs of such signs and eventually, I'd like to paint a collection of my favorite ones in watercolour, but in a very photo-realistic style.

Here's a few photos that I've already taken..

Leathley

On Tuesday 6th March I was in Leathley and other surrounding villages like Pool in Wharfedale and Guiseley. A nice area just north of Leeds heading out towards the Yorkshire Dales. Another fairly cold day but plenty of sunshine around - everything's got that bare, end of winter look about it.

A New Season

The promotional tour has started up again for 2012. The weather's warming up and the first signs of spring are emerging.

So far, over the past 2 weeks I have completed 5 full days of promotional work, covering a new area of the country closer to my new home, West Yorkshire. Started off in Wetherby and the surrounding villages and then on to the northern villages around Leeds and up towards Harrogate.

A couple of pictures to show off here....

It will be interesting to see which parts of the country I cover in 2012. All will be reported on here.

Oxenhope

During my travels around England, promoting my art work, I have been amazed at the number of small villages that exist around each major town. Each settlement, although many are very similar, all have their own characteristics which make them unique. A lot of the similarities include features such as a church, the village hall, local primary school, village shop with obligatory notice board including ads pinned or blu-taked on in no particular fashion.

Most of my commissions to date have been of private individual houses and it has been an intention of mine to focus on village scenes which would naturally appeal to a wider audience.

It was on Saturday 12th November I drove around some villages just north of my new home in Halifax. A village called Oxenhope stood out to me as ideal subject matter to paint. I’ve finally made time in my schedule and have completed these three paintings of the village from the original photographs that I took.

This painting was painted from a photograph taken from Dark Lane, just on the North side of the village. It’s a good view of the main part of the village and I particularly like the way that the sun reflects off a few of the buildings to create a sharp contrast between the light and shade. The original photograph that I took made it fairly difficult to distinguish between different buildings, so where possible, I’ve made the image a little clearer.





This painting was taken from the same spot as the first painting but looking in more of a westerly direction. The sun was in just the right position to catch the house in the foreground. As with the first painting, the contrast between the light and dark is outstanding and I particularly like the way the fence posts and wires stand out against the darker background. One of the common traps of watercolour painting, is to overcomplicate the subject matter - this would have been easy to do with this image especially with the amount of detail in the distance. For this reason, I have deliberately simplified the fields in the distance, I did not want this aspect of the painting to appear over cluttered.





The third painting was taken from the opposite side of the village on Hebden Bridge Road with the church in the foreground and the sun behind me. I’ve used a touch of artistic license here in removing the wind turbine that sits on the hill in the distance, which I felt detracted from the view. One of the features that really makes these images work so well for me is the autumnal tones in the trees. The sunlight brings out the golden brown tones in the trees beautifully and that makes these kind of paintings work so well at this time of year.







The original paintings are available to buy. £125 (mounted) or £150 (framed) each
A limited edition run of 50 prints of each painting are also available £30 (mounted) £55 (framed) each or buy all 3 for £75 mounted or £135 framed.

I can be contacted on my mobile 07792 553 273 or e mail pete@petechapple.co.uk

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