Mist over Pendle

Pendle Hill - dark and brooding. My latest pastel painting captures, I hope, a sense of the hill's mysterious presence and history. Having lived in its shadow for most of my life, these moods have become in some way a part of me. In paintings like this, my inner and outer worlds come together in ways that can only be expressed visually. I hope the image 'speaks' to you as the the hill does to me.

Mist Over Pendle

I've lost count of the weeks, but I've recently been trying to push the boundaries of my own work. The image below is a semi abstract piece called 'Red Sky at Night'. I used Acrylics on canvas and worked rapidly so that the brushstrokes would have energy and 'presence'. My Abstracts page contains more of the recent work - some of which were attempts to articulate some of the more difficult emotional undercurrents of my character and experience of recent years. I think that some of the richest art, music and writing often come from times of great challenge and loss in our lives. As we find ways of expressing it, we can connect our personal experience to something universal.

ArtTutor.com

Here's a link to Arttutor.com a Liverpool based company who have come up with a really clear format for online trutorials. Both me and Stephen Ormerod have been creating content for them over the last few months. You can gain an overview and access some free tutorials (click a tab at the top of the Arttutor home page for these). If you like the look of it you can access all content for a monthly subscription. Hope you like what you see : )

Cick Here

Week 8 (I think) and here's the latest piece called 'Rain Sweeps over the Valley'. Painted on decent quality cartridge paper using black pastel and two shades of grey, it was all about mood (as ever!). I sometimes enjoy the starkness of black and white - it can add to the sense of drama. I hope you like it.

Week 4 and here's the slightly moodier skyscape. I worked on a darker tone of paper for this one (burgundy coloured Fabriano Tiziano pastel paper) which added to the mood and showed through in parts. The texture of the surface is a bit more noticeable and tends to soften the edges. The piece took a bit longer because I broke off to experiment with some abstract mood paintings.

Week 2 and I've been working on a gentler skyscape which I'm quite pleased with. I must admit though, towards the end of the painting, I was feeling a bit impatient because I wanted to move on to a stronger, darker image. I persevered though and finished the gentle one before moving on. Dave, our new addition to Art & Soul, who is a graphic designer, put Marillion 'Marbles' on the sound system which was dark and evocative. This got me in the zone for the darker image which is to follow. Watch this space......

Hi, welcome to my first artist's blog. I am just returning to being an artist/teacher after several years of making a living in the 'real world' at St Mary's College, Blackburn. I have taken the leap and joined fellow artist Stephen Ormerod in a new venture, Art & Soul, which is a shared studio/gallery space where we can develop our own work, run workshops and publish/promote/facilitate the work of other artists. Following our opening weekend, we are settling into the environment and beginning to get a taste of how it can encourage people to 'free their creative spirit'.

I am revisiting the theme of skyscapes, which were a feature of my earliest soft pastel landscapes (just a few years ago!). This time though, I'm interested in the skyscapes independent of any landscape. I think that they have enough colour, mood, balance and composition to stand alone as subjects for paintings. Also, I think that as far as potential for experimenting with scale, different media and personal expression the skies the limit.

Below is the first of these, completed last week and I will be posting images of further work as it develops so please revisit this blog to see how I get on. Also take a look at Art & Soul and you'll get a flavour of what we're about. (P.S. we have a few things to iron out in the setting up of these blogs - so this is posted by me rather than Stephen, as stated below - I guess Rome wasn't built in a day!)