Patrick Nasmyth 1783-1831

A bit of art history,
I discoverd a interesting painter Patrick Nasmyth
He managed to paint using his left hand after he had injury to his right hand and he was deaf due to a illness. His financial affairs were chaotic and consequently he never managed to make any real money from his paintings, he paid great attention to brickwork and fore ground in his paintingDetail Here
More info here

I found it interesting that even though he was deaf he seemed to be able to get round this problem also the problem with his hand must have caused numerouse problems for him,.
it was during a sketching exhibion in august 1631 that he was caught out in a thunderstorm and caught a cold which turned to influenca and he subsequently died.

View From Royal Festival Hall

A view of a sketch i did from the Royal Festival Hall a few weeks back, it may be ready now for a painting, I know the perseptive is not really acurate but one has to allow a bit of artistic licence.There might be a blog later today but wanted to test this one out as i got a funny messsage on my email about status or some such....

People sketches from memory

That is whata I am calling them at present(see title) I am doing lots of these sort of sketches in my current sketchbook and even though not drawn direct they are reresentive of something this one has a railway platform fell to it.

Houses of Parliament from The embankment

Have been fiddiling some more with the Houses of Parliament am happier with the bridge!

Studio Paridisio!

One of the pleasures of keepimg sketchbooks on holidays is that you can look back and very often use them as memory joggers, they somehow seem to envoke more than photos as you very often include how you were feeling on that particular day,
STUDIO PARIDISIO
I stayed at the above Place in '03 and remember it as a very pleasant holiday. The hosts were Barbera and David with theire son Jason who was looking after the art side of things that week, they usualy employ seperate tutors for each week, so making for a varity of styles to choose from.
The actual villa was a charming place very Italian and you can probably see more from the link. Happy Days!

Science fiction feel

This encaarstic painting has a almost science fictiom feel to it, to my mind you could be looking out of a cave to a distant planet in space. This by the way is a recent encaustic work i am still trying to decide whether to persue this as a project at some point or not,

Tower Bridge painting

This painting is of tower bridge and is really about texture of paint,,,,hopefully you can see it is tower bridge and means something for you. you can see a earler sketch book tower bridge in a previouse post.
Please note it has come out a bit darker but it still showes what i mean...

Houses of Parliament

This painting is not finished by any means but it is sort of working a bit dark in places but then that adds interest

Spent this morning in Chichester as is my thing on most Saturdays and found myself doing a very fine art thing of taking a picture of some tar on a pavemement, interesting pattern though.
Waterstones were having a book signing by someone who had written about local Jazz in chichester took photoof band playing otside

New York Skyscrapers

Have not shown many New york photos here, These from the trip made there last march. Theses are near central park.
I love the way there seems to be things on top going on, part of the architecture of course
It was quite cold then and snow still on the ground in Central Park.

Whistlers etchings

Please note that though there appears to be two blogs for yesterday there is in fact only one the Savoy blog is in fact todays.
As a bonus have found another link on whistler
Eagle Wharfe

Monets 'Sun breaking Through The Fog'

As part of my Westminster To Tower bridge research I have been Looking at Monets London paintings of the Thames and smog link(new scientist)


image from Christies
Monet painted Sun Breaking Through The Fog' in 1904, from the window of his hotel room in the Savoy
Web Musum. Paris


It is worth quoting a passage from Peter Ackroyds excellent biography of London, Vintage
page436 quoting Monet on London Fogs.

"Then, in London, above all what I love is the fog....that gives it its magnificent breadth. Those massive,regular blocks become grandouse within that mysterious cloak."

Views From The Savoy Hotel. London

Whistler's Nocturnes
Just a brief blog on Whistler I need to do some more research on this. He called his night pictures Nocturne because of the use of very little paint. Whilst still oil they were indeed almost watercolour also very few coulours again the metopher with music was very clear to him,

Whistler also made some interesting Studies of views from the Savoy as the link below shows
Pigeon

Monet also stayed at the Savoy and the picture shown is of Waterloo bridge painted in 1900
Waterloo Bridge

Comming right up to date TheThames Project
Kurt Jackson did a whole series of paintings featuring paings of thames and publihed a interesting book on his sketches

Sky Blue

When I was out at about 10 this morning the air was so fresh you would think it was winter. it was so clear and crystal sharp that it was mind blowing in a dazzling sort of way, I had my camera with me and took a couple of shots. I always wonder where these planes are going and comming from!i think one had just taken off from Heathro or Gatwick(5Omile away) Perhaps the plan was America Bound?(Second Pic)
anyway hear is another one to finish Off

new blog

I have started a new blog on the themes of 100. My first theme will be doodles
artythings100
I hope hope you will find the experience interesting, there may be other thems comming up in the near future we will wait and how this journey develops.

Todays pictures are experimental and you could say they ar mixed media. I have used a prepared gell for support on the canvas,liquid acrylic ink which I let run at random angles.The first picture shows the wax added and i think makes a interesting picture.

Encaustic work

I seem to be in experimental frame of mind, many years ago I whent through a envausatic phase yjough fairly pleasing images i was never entirley satisfied with doing them as they were done quite quickly. So reinvented for the 21st centurey i have been doing some more and produced some interesting things. i will show you another one tomorow.

Down to the Sea

The sea has always been magical for me and i could never imagine never having seen the sea as some people in the middle America must experience.
Cornwall has rugged cliffs and dramatic scenery and this painting is probably based on this. Cornwall has always drawn many artists to its shores. Perhaps one of the most famous schools of artists was the Newlyn School of Painters. popular in the 1880s and 90's. it could be said that the arrival of the railways from about 1877 opened up the whole area and opened the way for tourisim

Shower gell experiment 2

Here is another shower gell experiment I think they have got something not quit sure what but something......

Shower Gell Experiment

This sort of works though being shower gel as a base does not dry as easily if at at all.
Nice effects though and I did use acrylic inks with some paint, the support was rubber foam.

The image Hunter

Thinking, as I do a lot of when out sketching and gathering visual information it is rather like going on a hunting exhibition (not that i have or will do).You hunt around for the right view, sometimes its overwhelming you take photos in case you need them but I find that my mental imagery is very strong and at times its almost like a gallery so you have to get away from the scene and let things die down a little and the the fun begins in what comes out, sometimes it is a ongoing process as at present with this London project. I have got to thank once again Katherine of making a mark for this line of thought that was going round my head at 3.30 this morning......!!!
The above photo is part collage but I am not totally convinced by it , it is still about the Thames and was done before Mondays visit a example of how my mind is working away..

Tower Bridge and H.M S.Belfast

This sketch was done on the spot on Monday and I was waiting until what image from Mondays
trip woul be strongest in my mind it has to be this one at the moment as I have dome a painting of it well that is still developing, the shape is a very awkward front to back....... anyway as this is part of ongoing Westminster to Tower Bridge series I am satisfied it is on schedule and enough images will come through in the end plus of course ideas a well!!!

Turner Sketching

My continuing interest in Turner has unearthed a interesting example of how he would sketch, he tended to rely more on his memory and used some of his sketches as reminders in his book on Turner'A Wonderful Range Of Mind' John Gage(Yale Universitey Press 1987) uses the following example which I thought very interesting and wanted to share with you

A young medical student, R.J.Graves,crossed the Alps with the painter, and noticed him useing a notebook, ' across the pages of which his hand, from time to time, passed with the rapiditly of lightining'. in due course graves curiosity got the better of him and he looked over and saw that Turner was recording the passing clouds. Turner's approach to scenery was increasingly to make rapid pencil notations often in the process o travelling, then to flesh some of them out in colour. on the basis of much nore protected observation which were entirely mental.

The above quote was interesting and i have read somewhere else that he did a similiar kind of thing walking round London observing the changing perespective of the city

The Wapping Group of Artists

There is a interesting exhibition on at the Oxmarket Gallery in Chichester
featuring The Wapping Group Of Artists which has been going since the 1940's
The main reason why it has made a impression on me is the fact of my current project which is Westminster to Tower Bridge and many paintings featured many images of this area of the Thames. Apperantly they meet every Wednesday during the summer months to paint anywhere along the Thames.
Sorry about the way the photo of the book has come out but I bought a copy of the book and I am getting a lot of inspiriation from it, all the artists are great charecters and are proffessional.

Sketch In Progress

This is another recording of how I sketch it is a bit shakey but i was holding the camera as well!
As I seem to be on a sketchbook theme at the moment i thought i had better do a bit of research to tie up the loose ends.
Artist seem to fall into two camps when it comes to sketchbooks. they either produce great pictures that everyone can admire and see what it is the sketch or they are just note and meanlingless scribles to the onlooker but meaning something to the artist.
Constable seems to have been in the picture way of things, then you have Turner
who just does a quick outline and some notes. perhaps this is a indication of different methodes or thinking.....
Two more examples and here I must thank Katherine of Making a Mark
for pointing me in the direction of Monet
who seems to be in the scribbler catorgory of sketchbook keepers. Arriving at the present day David Hockney is perhaps of the picture type and very good they are too, I remember seeing some of his original sketchbooks on display at The National Portrait Gallery last year, they were books in themselves and indeed some have been published as such.

How I Sketch

Here is how I sketch with a watersoluble crayon andbrush pen that contains water. Tomorow you wil see how I add more detail!

A Scotish Sketch

This is quite a old sketchbook showing when I was on a coach holiday ro the scotish hoghlands. one of the places we visited was Glencoe I sketched the outline of the mountains as we drove past(rather in the way of Turner,there will be more research on Turners sketchbooks in due course)

more turning pages!

l
Could not resist another video clip,seems to be working well.... only thing being hand in the way, such is life!

Video of page turning

Well this seems to work at last!! As a experiment I tried the new video thingy on blogger, What do you think?
The sketchbook is from A Californian trip a couple of years back which included San Francisco and Yosemite National Park.

Hospital appointment

Had to trapse up to QA this morning , bit of a waite so did quick sketch there drawing people is not my strong point also you have got to be postioned so people cannot see you sketching, not that they care anway as most are only focused on getting seen!

The Whale

Todays quick sketch is of a whale , as you can see!

Abstract shapes

Just shapes really after seeing some of the absract paintings at Pallant house gallery which was interesting, Still inclined towards Klees work further research needed. The theme o the exhibition was music and the influence on Klee and kandinsky. LOooking at my doodle again it is perhaps more Kandinsky