Michael

I’m still working on the Pendle series which I’ll add to the blog soon but here’s a painting of Sunset over Southport Sands that I’ve finished off this week. It had been waiting for me to finish it for a while but as I sold it last week, I thought I’d better finally pull my finger out. I’m pleased with the outcome and will be producing a limited edition print run from it before our exhibition in September Sunset over Southport Sands

Here’s the final Piece, finished a couple of weeks ago. Quite pleased with this one and looking forward to doing some more on a large scale. I’ve also been working on a sunset over Pendle series which I will start posting on my blog soon. Watch this space….

The large skyscape is getting there now I think. The blue-greens (which look like dark blue in the cloud area) have come out a bit strongly on the photograph – they’re a bit softer in reality and I have some more softening and integrating to do yet on those areas. I’ve also got some work to do on the top right section. I put some blue-green on and  took it off again yesterday in the right hand area of the clouds, so that will need reworking too. Sometimes it can be like that: backwards and forwards until hopefully it starts to fall into place. We’ll see….

I’ve returned to colour and skyscapes these last couple of weeks. I’m working on a decent scale and with oil paints so it takes a little longer (with drying time, etc). I felt a bit stretched by it on Tuesday but managed to get a bit of a flow going on Wednesday in between workshops. More dark to go into it of course but hopefully over the next two weeks it will come to. Watch this space….

I came into the studio last week after several weeks of feeling under the weather. So I was still physically and emotionally quite low. I had a commission to make a start on and just didn’t feel in the ‘right space’ for it. I’d also been reading a book called ‘Dark Nights of the Soul’ by Thomas Moore and in it he suggested that it can be helpful to articulate a dark night in whatever way seems natural to you – whether that’s through poetry, music or painting, etc. He also suggested selecting materials that are in sympathy with the mood or whatever it is that you’re trying to express. So I decided to try and draw from that place and chose to work with black pastel/charcoal on a cartridge paper with a bit of tooth. I tried once again to let go of control and to see what wanted to come through. These are the three pieces that came in fairly quick succession. I could try to analyse them in words but I think that part of the beauty of this kind of work is that the images are open to personal interpretation. So I’ll leave the response to you – I hope they ‘speak to you’ on some level. The drawing below was done several weeks ago and I was experimenting with a range of Derwent pencils called Graphatint. They are watersoluble but when used in their dry form they appear as coloured greys. I really like the depth that can be acheived and the effect reminds me of drawings by the French post-impressionist artist, Georges Seurat. 

Art & Soul had a visit this week from a couple of the team from arttutor.com – Hannah and Jon. They came to film us in our ‘natural environment’ and asked us if we had any thoughts on filming content for the day. So I decided to work on some ideas in my sketchbook for future work on waterscapes – both for myself and for arttutor content later in the year. So below are the pages I had begun for Thursday’s filming. They are ‘work in progress’ involving images from the work of other artists, water images and some rough sketches and studies of my own These pages focus on the dramatic movement in Seascapes and the rolling wave image towards the top left is one of Maggie Hambling’s. My own rough studies were about capturing a sense of movement through gestural mark-making. In the right hand image, the top study is in pastels and the lower one is in watersoluble ‘Derwent Graphatint’ pencils I carried on with the gestural approach over the next pages. This study was produced very rapidly using acrylic paints and a broad brush. It was based on the work of another artist (image bottom left). I’m afraid I don’t know who it was but I liked the movement and the energy and it felt good to flow with the paint in that way. To the left, I did some pastel studies based upon Monet’s impressionistic approach to water. The lower one is just mapped in ready for some more work. To the right, I collected some images that were more about pattern, some of them done by other artists, and they lift up to allow me to do some studies underneath and around them These images are all about ‘going with the flow’. I’m looking forward to using these as inspiration for some creative play – experimenting with energy, flow, movement and of course, different materials Being a moody artist, I couldn’t pass by the opportunity to collect some evocative images by two of my favourite artists – Whistler and Rothko. I’ve linked these to some of my own photographs and I’m hoping they will lead me into some very subtle painting. In contrast to all that movement and energy, these will be about contemplation and stillness. So that’s it so far. I’ll upload the pages again as I develop my own studies and experiments – hopefully something interesting will develop out of the theme!

I thought it was about time I updated my blog with some of my recent work. I hope you like them. As you can see, in these first two, I’ve returned to the theme of skies. I liked the drama of the ‘Fiery Sky’ and the shaping of the clouds in ‘Red and Blue Sky’. I worked on dark toned paper for both paintings which gives them added depth I think. Fiery Sky Red and Blue Sky The next series of images are painted with acrylics on canvas and they began with the idea of working with a limited palette to evoke certain moods. Sometimes landscapes reflect the way we’re feeling – the outer world resonates with the inner world. In this small series, I tried to allow that to come through. I had no clear idea of an image when I started – just a certain range of colours, a few emotional undercurrents and some memories of landscape. From that point, the paintings just seemed to emerge. Their lack of detail gives scope for personal interpretation, I feel. Afterglow Darkening Floating in the Dark Clouds Sweep over the Moors Moorland Reflections Going Home In the painting below, I have attempted to capture something of the poetry of light. The subject was the reflection of a vase of flowers cast on the wall and I was drawn to the shimmering light. In a piece like this, I like the balance between the busier areas and the seemingly empty or blank areas in a painting. I’d like to develop a series of images along these lines that perhaps have a contemplative quality to them.  Flower Reflections

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.

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