FISHERMAN'S ROCK - STUDY

This small study was painted from a day I spent visiting Peng Chau (a small island in Hong Kong). Usually when painting on location, I use either oil or watercolor trying to get an accurate representation of the subject along with my own feelings for the place. I did this one quickly (in about an hour or so) and although not quite what I had in mind, it did serve as a useful beginning to a larger study that I'll post next time. Fisherman's Rock, oil on board, 5" x 7".

GREEN BOTTLE, PART 3

After laying in a slightly deeper toned background (and carefully painting around the bottle), I worked for awhile on thew shadow softening the edges and adding a slight translucent shimmer where the light came through. I feel I am close to completing this one now. I'll let the paint harden for awhile then take another look in case there are a few other areas that I want to work on before signing and framing, but for now, it's finished! Small Green Bottle, 8" x 8", oil on board.

GREEN BOTTLE, PART 2

Here I have completed the second pass, again using thin layers of oil and slowly building up the intensity of the colors. I looked carefully at the patterns that I could see in the glass and tried to reproduce them as I saw them. There was quite a lot of irregularities in the glass even though this bottle came out of a mold ( there are slight vertical lines on the sides where the edges of the mold join) so they were an important component and had to be included. I'm getting close to finishing the bottle now, I still have the shadow to do and also am thinking about slightly darkening the background, with a further subtle darkening of the foreground - we'll see how that goes.

GREEN BOTTLE, PART 1

I have only recently returned to the studio after having been away for 2 months and had not been able to log into my blogger account so unfortunately no posts until now. I do hope to catch up with these soon as I have a lot of new paintings to update - this bottle being the first of them.
I have a love for bottles of all shapes and sizes so when I saw this interesting pale green one that went from a square base to a round top, I knew that I had to add it to my collection. Meaning to paint it some time ago, I only recently got around to it! Starting with a gessoed panel (which I have to say is just about my least favorite surface on which to paint) and first laid in a thin even grey over the whole surface. When that had dried, I lightly drew in the outline using thinned oil taking care to get the correct shape and perspective. Painting very thinly as if I was using watercolors, I then put down washes of oil color using soft tipped brushes trying all the while to represent the various qualities of the bottle. The panel was then put aside to dry for a few days. Next I'll darken some of these initial tones and add more details.

ROOTS

Over the last year, I have been slowly completing paintings that I started some time ago. Most of the time these pieces don't need a lot of work to finish them and that was the case with this one. Initially I wasn't that happy with the way the rocks came out so decided to re-paint that area. This took longer than usual (naturally) and was only finished late last week. Although this is a medium-sized painting, I feel that this is more of a study and I hope to get to finish a larger version of it sometime in the future.
I first came across this scene many years ago when I lived in Hong Kong. The huge roots of a Banyan tree cascaded down the hillside, hugging the contours of the surface rocks and provided support for the massive tree above. In a space between the roots, a government worker had painted a fire hydrant marker showing the direction of the closest hydrant and also the type of water etc. The scene had a huge impact upon me when I first saw it and I knew back then that I would do a painting of it. I loved the various elements of the scene which I felt brought man and nature together. A few studies followed then I set to work on a larger stretched canvas using oil paints. Over the years I did bits and pieces here and there before finally getting my act together and finishing the work. Size is 24" x 36" (61cm x 92cm), oil on canvas. Private collection.

BIRD ILLUSTRATION

Here are a few illustrations I did a long time ago for a proposed book of birds. The plate above was to include Little and Chinese Egrets (you can faintly see the pencil outlines) but only the Great Egret was completed.

This plate included some of the tern species seen in South-east Asia, again not completed mainly because I couldn't find a publisher willing to sponsor the time and money to do the project. Both illustrations gouache on paper, size about 11" x 7".

EVENING SKY

I finally finished this large painting that was started some time ago. Since sky patterns and colors at dusk (and dawn) change so rapidly, I was only able to do a small study in my sketchbook before the colors faded to grey as the sun set lower below the horizon. A few photos helped my memory along when it came time to do the actual painting, and since I had planned on doing a large version, I first painted a smaller study (about 9" x 12") to help solidify the design etc. A graduated deep and slightly greyish-blue was laid in first from top to bottom then the darker clouds were painted in. The lower areas of the clouds that were picking up the last rays of the sun were carefully added and I continued working my way down to the horizon. I kept the land below simplified in tones of grey so all the focus was on the sky and when that area was completed, went back to the sky for some of the final details in the clouds. Size is 30" x 40" (76cm x 102cm), oil on canvas.