A way of looking

Seeing things.

Hello and welcome to my Monday Blog

Jubilant Fields  Oils on canvas 20 x 20 inches

A sense of place, colours seen and remembered.

Just marks and textures.  An abstract 'landscape'.

During my gallery show this week I was asked how my paintings begin. 

 What are my first thoughts?

 Where do my ideas come from?

My answer?....I make marks and move paint around.

This is actually true but those marks must be a result of things once seen.

Memories of places visited, weather, colours in a garden or a beach.

When I first started painting I took photographs for ideas

and I would paint these scenes as they were.

Then I learned to 'see' and this is when my painting really came alive.

Rather than the whole picture, I looked for shapes and lines, patterns and colours.

 I wanted to move away from the 'real' and give a 'sense of time or place'.

For my paintings to be loose, atmospheric and more abstract.

 I put away my reference sketches and photos to become free from copying.

At first it seemed strange and I was often tempted to reach for my file of photos. 

Now I never think about using them.

To illustrate how I learned to 'see' I took this photograph of a wild garden.

 This week a drift of Rosebay Willowherb is flowering. 

In the foreground there are grasses and beyond, a line of trees.

Isolating the shapes can be a good way of taking from the 'real'.

Looking for shapes,line and colour...

This is what I remember rather than the actual scene.

One day these ideas might surface in a painting.

Here is another idea...

Simple shapes and lines.

Tonal values and colour.

A painting might have these shapes...

not to represent the logs and hogweed but as abstract shapes and colour.

Bricks...

Even a brick wall has interesting shapes and colour.

This old wall has soft olive greens, greys and fawn.

The possibilities are endless.

If you would like to see my paintings I have an exhibition of my work

in Sam Scorer Gallery, 5 Drury Lane, Lincoln until Sunday 15th July.

Open daily from 10am - 4pm.

Until next Monday...

Thank you for visiting.