Tower Bridge, Winter Morning

The first Tower Bridge painting I exhibited at the Alexander Miles Gallery during the National Maritime Museum Annual show sold. The gallery is close to Tower Bridge, so it was suggested that another study of the bridge might be in order.

I never revisit the same subject with the intention of producing a "Clone" so it was necessary to find another location close to but not the same spot as used previously. I was also keen to explore the bright reflected light and deep shadow which I had used in the first painting but in a slightly tighter and controlled manner.

Below are the various stages from initial sketch with watercolour pencils through to the completed work.

Coloured pencil sketch

Initial composition quickly drawn in with a brush

Tonal values and main featured blocked in

Final Work

The National Maritime Museum Annual Exhibition 2015

This year the NMMAC show is quite unique.

The exhibition opened on 10 September at the Alexander Miles Gallery in St Katharine's Dock London. We have a number of guest artists this year from the most prestigious marine art societies in the UK, including the Royal Society of Marine Artists, The Wapping Group and the Maritime Art Group.

The exhibition also coincides with the Thames Festival and closes on the final weekend of the festival (Sunday 27 September).

The four marine arts societies have never exhibited together before so the event is unique. The gallery could hardly be in a better location, surrounded by the basins of St Katharine's Dock and filled with vessels of all shapes and sizes.

I have been fortunate to contribute seven pieces to the show which appear below.

The gallery website has all the information you need to get to and enjoy the show.

http://thealexandermilesgallery.com/?p=2170#more-2170

Dream for Sale

Racing for St Malo

Tower Bridge and Pier

October at Woodbridge

The Cygnet at Snape

The Pool of London 2015

Schooners on the Grand Banks

The River Medway 1825

The second finished painting inspired by JMW Turner's sketches done on the River Medway. This view along Chatham Reach shows the Naval storehouses lining the river. In the foreground an old 74 gun ship of the line is recommissioning and is moored alongside an accommodation hulk. To the right a frigate is in the process of getting underway to catch the evening tide.

Although I used one of Turner's sketches for the position of several of the vessels I have altered the viewing angle and composition to add a little depth and drama.

Evening tide, Chatham 1825

The River Medway, after JMW Turner

I have been perusing JMW Turner's Medway sketchbooks which are online at the Tate Gallery website.

A fascinating series of pencil sketches done by Turner at various times between 1805 and 1830, the sketchbooks give an insight into how busy the river was with naval and commercial traffic. They are a series of visual shorthand pencil line drawings, in the main done as reference for future work. This means they need a little persistence to decipher but with a little effort they yield a surprising amount of information. A few were worked up into watercolour paintings but most of the sketches went no further.

I could not resist the notion of interpreting some of the sketches into a painting or two of my own. I did not want to create a pastiche of the great mans work but instead use my own treatment of the basic sketch information.

My first development sketch was to select a subject and work it up using water soluble colour pencils which gave a very quick impression of a watercolour. I used a similar colour palette to Turner and his use of contrasting tonal ranges. The result was rather closer to a Turner than I had intended! Next I chose a second sketch made a few changes to the content to give a composition I preferred. I then selected a view and worked in acrylics using my usual technique. My interpretations are below.

It has been a very interesting journey of discovery and will result in more paintings I think.

You can find the Turner sketchbooks at:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/sketchbook/medway-sketchbook-65837/23

Looking towards Chatham Hill

Colour values sketch with the Dockyard on the right

Towards Chatham Hill at sunrise

Again towards Chatham Hill with an 84 gun ship of the line

Chatham 1825 the complete painting

Watercolours

Refining watercolour skills has been taking up my time recently. In that regard I attended a demonstration of watercolour seascape painting by Geoff Hunt PRSMA arranged by the National Maritime Museum Art Club.

Geoff is one of the foremost marine painters in the world today so it was very exciting to watch him in action. It opened my eyes to some of the shortcomings of my techniques. I have been attempting apply some of the lessons learned. A few examples of my studies are below:

Clipper Hull Down

Sidmouth

Hull down on the horizon

Whistable Harbour

The Medway 1830 (After Turner's sketches)

Medway sunset