June on the Southwell Trail (2021)

The photography along the Southwell Trail during the summer has been less organised than previous years, although it still remains one of my favourite places to walk. Sometimes I feel it is enough to observe and take in the surroundings, allocating just a few minutes for the photography or simply reacting to a moments of inspiration. 

At this time of year I particularly enjoy the light and shade along the trail, the dappled highlights on the path, the train of deep shadows and bright patches stretching into the distance evoking the trail’s past life a railway line. 

This imagery influences not only the photography but also my artwork. The following sketch drew inspiration from the summer photographs and was completed using combination of graphite powder and various grades of pencil to build layers of tone for the shadows. The finished drawing is A5 or postcard size: 

These were some of the scenes along the trail during June:

Hazelford Lock and Weir (2020)

The walk between Fiskerton and Hazelford Lock can either be taken on the path which runs alongside the River Trent or by crossing fields which link up with car parks for people fishing on the river. The second route provides landscape photography opportunities looking across the river to Stoke Woods and the hills behind. The is also a fine tree which stands in isolation in one of the fields. These were some of the scenes captured during September:

Over the summer I have used Hazelford Lock as a location to practice outdoor painting. Initially I started with watercolour and then moved to gouache which I find easier in an outdoor environment. Loaded below are two examples: the first painting is a view of the weir at Hazelford Lock and the second selects part of the lock wall. Both are postcard (A5) paintings completed with a small flat brush using a primary colour palette. The main aim was getting used to drawing and painting outdoors and I allowed myself about an hour to get something down on paper (the second scene took a little longer and was finished at home):

My biggest challenge working outdoors is the drawing; getting the scaling and perspective correct. For example, the first scene was drawn with a slightly elevated point of view. In reality, the eye line should be closer to the top of the weir and the right hand wall should follow the perspective line from the horizon i.e. it should be higher on the page, probably a little above the floating barrier across the weir. That said, choosing a scene with a lot of fast moving frothy water was possibly more naïve! But, looking positively at the outcome, the rendering of the water is the part of the painting I like the most.

I think I was influenced to paint the flowing water by my photography at this location. I particularly like the reflections on the lip of the weir which tends to produce some vibrant shapes and colours depending on the overhead conditions. These are some of the reflections captured on one of the a painting days:

Rock Cemetery (Art & Photography)

During the virus lockdown in April I published my first art blog. I had plenty of spare time, stuck indoors, with no new photography. This led to a few ideas about how to keep the posts going including looking back at a Scotland trip in 2013 and sharing some of my artwork.

Whilst constructing a more recent blog I found the following Rock Cemetery write up in my draft folder. It contains a mixture of art and photography that wasn’t published as I pressed ahead with the Scotland photography from 2013. I also had a few reservations about posting art, as mentioned in the first art blog, and that was probably the real reason why the draft went unpublished. However, I am keen to move on with my art, going beyond copying other artists tutorials, and producing some of my own original work. Part of the process includes documenting my progress in this blog... so here goes!

Back in early March, prior to any lockdown, I was combining art with my photography. I was keen to develop a quick style of drawing and painting outdoors following the style of urban artists. Of course, that is easier said than done. Adjusting to drawing with ink pens, with no opportunity for correction, means freeing the mind and accepting the inevitable inaccuracies and failures.

The subject on this occasion was Rock Cemetery in Nottingham. I know this location from my photography and the grand Victorian gravestones, crosses and stone angels, all tightly packed in lines facing St Andrew’s church, provided an opportunity for both sketching and photography.

The artwork on the day was hampered by the cold and several rain showers condensing the drawing painting time to ten minutes or so. The aim in this time was sketching out a few ideas that I could use later at home and this is the finished work, roughly A5 size, completed in gouache*:

I limited the palette to ultra blue and burnt sienna mixed with white and black. Yellow was introduced for the greens and blue to correct the sky colour. The whole scene was under painted with blue acrylic, which streaked horribly when applied (see below). However, I did like the odd area where the under painting showed through In the final version:

This was the sketch on the day itself in ink and watercolour. Not a great outcome - the scaling is all wrong - but it set the scene for the gouache painting. Later at home I altered the composition using photos as a reference and then produced a test version on the iPad using Procreate:

The stone work around the cemetery was the main photographic subject, concentrating mainly on textures in a close format:

I wanted to represent some of the photography in my artwork and playing around with painting apps on the iPad I completed the following drawing/painting in Tayasui sketches - a mixture of the watercolour brush and the ink pen:

Overall, I like the idea of mixing the photography with various sketches and paintings on the theme of a location. I can see me doing more of this when lockdown finishes and I am currently working on my next project at the moment. I hope publishing some of my early artwork will inspire others to give art a go, remembering that the outcomes are less important than the enjoyment of the activity...which should be true for most endeavours, but is often lost in today’s results driven world!

*I didn't explain why I used gouache. Gouache is an opaque medium that can be used like watercolour. When mixed with white or black in a creamy consistency it is dense enough to cover over any underlying paint e.g. the underpainting of acrylic. However, unlike the acrylic, which is fixed when dry, gouache is reactivated by the introduction of new paint. This allows the tones to mix on the paper which was useful for the weathering effect on the gravestones and crosses. Gouache is also more forgiving than watercolour and I currently find it easier to produce an end result in this medium.

Southwell Trail Artwork

Posting some of my artwork was one of the ideas I had to keep my blog going during the coronavirus restrictions. In normal times, I would be continuing with my long running Southwell Trail photography series capturing the spring blossoms and the new greenery on the trees. Instead, the camera hasn’t left the bag in weeks and I have turned to indoor activities including my artwork.

I  must admit to approaching this post with some trepidation as I am only at the start of my art journey. Much of the output to date is based on tutorials and I am very much at the copy and learn stage, with lots going in the bin!  More recently though, I have started applying some of the learning to my own subjects often using the Southwell Trail photography as a reference. These are some of the results.

Graphite Drawing

Graphite drawing was the first type of art that I completed. I find drawing more intuitive than other forms of art and learnt a lot from following Smoothie77 on YouTube and Patreon. These are two small sketches (16x11cm), the first is the Old Goods Store at the entrance to the Southwell Trail and the second is a snow scene drawn from a photograph taken when the ‘Beast from the East’ struck in 2018:

Watercolour Painting

The medium that I find the most difficult is watercolour painting. There are so many ways it can go wrong including paint consistency, wetness of the paper, working from light to dark and choosing the right palette and colour combinations. However, when it goes well watercolour is massively rewarding.

When selecting examples of my work to show here, I am hampered by potential copyright issues so I will show a repeat of the Old Goods Store composition completed in gouache. Gouache is an opaque medium that can be used in a similar fashion to watercolour although, dare I say, gouache is a little easier to work with.

Moving away from the Southwell Trail, is this tonal study of Newark Castle complete after my first plein-air painting session. I found it easier to deal with the scene without the distraction of choosing colours:

Digital Art

In addition to the traditional drawing and painting, I also dabble in digital art using a variety of different apps. In fact, there are so many options within these apps it is hard to build a coherent strategy. Sometimes I try simulating different painting methods but mostly find myself experimenting with different brushes, as the following examples will show.

The first example is a summer trail scene complete in Procreate using a ‘sable brush’. This produced a chalky, perhaps pastel-like finish:

This next example was completed in ArtRage using simulated oil paint squeezed from the tube and then worked with a palette knife. The scene is one of the fields off the Southwell Trail just after the summer harvest. The strong sunlight created a golden glow under heavy clouds which I tried to reflect in my choice of colours:  

Sky Mirror (January 2020)

The Sky Mirror in Nottingham in a 20 foot wide concave steel dish sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor. It reflects the environment around the sculpture which includes the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre and, of course, the sky.

I have photographed the sculpture a number of times in the past but this time I got right into some of the more abstract studies of the reflections and structure. This was mainly driven by the dull weather conditions but there was a brief break in the cloud at one point which provided an opportunity for these wider angle shots and some useful context for the following abstract images:

These are a selection of the more abstract studies:

As I stated in a previous post, I am keen to develop my artwork in addition to the photography. Currently, everything is a learning processing and this is a sketch that I started on the day, and later toned with neutral promarkers at home. Working in ink means living with errors and imperfections. I find this particularly difficult but recognise it as part and parcel of any new endeavour: