October 16th 2012

Since the start of October, I have spent 4 days promoting my work in the North Yorkshire area - specifically around York and up beyond Castle Howard towards the North York Moors. Some simple observations....getting colder....I think it's quite similar to the Cotswolds in terms of landscape and architecture. It's a stunning part of the country - no doubt about that.

Thinking ahead over the coming winter, I am going to do some painting on-location in various places around Halifax. Hebden Bridge is the first place I intend to visit - just need to wait for the right weather conditions. I'm hoping for a fairly mild autumnal day - there's a spot called Hardcastle Crags which will be perfect for some outdoor painting. The plan will be to produce prints from any paintings that I complete and maybe establish some links with galleries in the area who may be interested in exhibiting my work.

I'm hoping to collect some great winter photographs over the next couple of weeks and choose a selection of them to work up into paintings. This will hopefully be part of an exhibition that I'm putting on at some point in December. It's all a bit sketchy at the moment though as I don't have a venue or anything organised yet!

I met a well established artist in Wixley, North Yorkshire a few weeks ago. Neil Simone. I came across his home/gallery and went and introduced myself. He showed me one of his latest commissions which coincidentally was a house portrait in Malvern, not far from where I'm from. We had an interesting chat and when I got back home, I e mailed him to ask if he had any advice for an artist like myself. He got back to me and said he would be happy to send me a copy of his book 'Memoirs of an Artist' which document his career over the past 30 years or so. Thought that was good of him.

Luddenden House Portrait

Since moving to Halifax just over a year ago, I've worked on a lot of commissions
from the Yorkshire area which I would not have done had I not moved. This is one
such commission. Not far from my studio, this location is Luddenden which is a
particularly picturesque village just outside Halifax. This house is situated on
quite a steep hill with spectacular views - partly visible to the left of the house
in the painting. I worked on this painting in my studio from a photograph which I
took earlier in the year. It took a couple of visits to get the best photo to ensure
that the lighting was just right. The very distinctive stone, has a completely
different appearance with direct sunlight on it and I wanted to make sure I captured
this. Very satisfied with the finished result here.

West Yorkshire Landscape

This painting is a view from a farm in Golcar, near Huddersfield. I was
delighted when it was commissioned as it is a subject matter that I would
naturally choose to paint myself. I particularly like the way that
distance can be portrayed through watercolour. Using a more transparent
wash can give the impression of distance really effectively. I also like
the contrast than can be achieved between parts of buildings which have
direct sunlight compared to those parts in the shade.

As I have traveled throughout West Yorkshire, I have built up a large
collection of great images which I will work up into paintings in the near 

future.

Broadway, Grantchester

This painting was produced from a photograph that I took during a visit to Cambridge. I stood in the middle of Grantchester Meadows where there is a footpath in to Cambridge and took the photo looking back towards Broadway. It was a bright and breezy day in May, one of those days where the cloud formations are really spectacular.

Both the original and full size mounted prints are available to buy.

Prints 47 x 27cm £50.00 including delivery to UK address.

Coincidence in Buckinghamshire

From Tuesday 11th - Thursday 13th September I continued touring the villages of Buckinghamshire. On this visit, the locations included Aldbury, Wiggington, Hastoe, Cholesbury, Buckland End, St Leonards, Stoke Mandeville, Wendover, Puttenham, The Lee, South Heath, Hyde End and Great Missenden.

During my tour of England over the last four years I've always been surprised by the number of unusual coincidences that have occurred. The best instance of this happened on Thursday morning of this particular trip. Breakfast, around the table at The Brownlow B&B near Ivinghoe. Me, an older couple, two women, all tucking into breakfast talking about what we were doing in the area. After a couple of minutes of conversation, it emerged that I had visited the home of the older couple who lived in a small village outside Bristol two years previously. They recalled that we had a brief chat in their garden and that they already had a house portrait having won it in a raffle! Small world.

Buckinghamshire - Brackley

Coming to the end of my promotional tour in 2012.

I am revisiting Buckinghamshire. First arrived on the scene in 2010 but have since realised that there are far more villages that need to see my artwork. I will be focusing my efforts on this county until the clocks go back. What then? I will be hibernating in my studio for the winter only coming out briefly for a spot of sledging with Bobby when the snow comes.

This time I stayed for three days and visited the following places: Waddesdon, Edgcott, Wootton Underwood, where I had an interesting chat with the security chap outside Tony Blair's gaff, Ashendon, Ludgershall, Haddenham, Ickford, Worminghamm and finally, a place that I think deserves a special mention because it has such a fab name - Brill.

Brill is where this photograph was taken...

Sorry, I've tried looking for it, but I can't find it.

This is my second choice best photo. Not taken in Brill. This was taken in Ashendon. I do love a good bit of ecclesiastical architecture, exaggerated by some  direct sunlight...

More travels around Essex

 

My latest tour was around the very north of the county of Essex.

Taking in Felsted, Stebbing, Great Easton, Thaxted, Great Bardfield, Bardfield Saling (pronounced sailing), Shalford and Beazley End.

In Shalford, there is a small village shop which does the best sandwiches I have ever eaten - fact.

The photo above was taken in Great Easton, I think, and it kind of sums up this area quite nicely - very rural, hardly any phone signal etc. Plus it's just a great image and looks even better put through an instagram filter as this has been.

That's me done in Essex for this year....probably be back in spring time next year...