Scotland Remembered

This image, from my memory of a lochside holiday in Scotland a few years ago, was painted without reference to drawings or photographs.

The oil painting evolved following a tuition session on the colour wheel and in particular, using a harmonious colour scheme. This creates a pictorial unity and feeling of calm. Distance in the picture is created by a closely tonal range of predominantly cool blues and blue-violets, juxtaposed against the increasingly warmer and stronger tonal contrasts of warmer blues, blue-greens, greens and yellow-greens.

Early Evening, Venice

A visit to Venice always inspires me - the light, colours, reflections and textures - it's like living in a painting! This is a large preparatory charcoal drawing for a future work in oils.

The atmospheric, early evening light was very attractive, but I was particularly interested in the strong shapes and tonal contrasts of the gondolas against the more subtle tonal ranges of the water and architecture.

I started the drawing by dropping charcoal dust onto the paper and manipulating it with my fingers to 'sketch' in the main shapes; then more dust was added and pushed around and I began blocking in tones. Putty rubbers were used to lift out shapes and areas of 'light', and to create textural marks. Willow charcoal and charcoal pencils were used for final strengthening of marks and tones.

Hawnby, Summer Heat

This oil was executed en plein air, using palette knives. It was a very hot day and having quickly blocked in the main shapes of the composition with washes, I used the knives to speed up the painting process and create luscious textures.

The simple arrangement of the treeline and subtle changes of the rich greens in the landscape are complemented by the inclusion of strategically placed reddish ochres.

Helen, Afternoon Glow

Charcoal drawing on grey-toned paper. I wanted to capture the diffused afternoon sunlight that created such wonderful subtleties across Helen's figure.

The light in the studio changes fairly quickly at this time of day, so I had to work swiftly. A series of counterchanges (i.e. lights against darks); the use of lost and found edges; and variation of the tonal density and character of the line, all helped to re-create the play of light on and around the figure. It was tempting to introduce white to enhance contrasts of tone, but careful modelling with the charcoal finally allowed the mid tone of the paper to evoke the desired lighting effects.