Frieze Artwork

Working with the Made in Greenwich Gallery, I have developed a number of ideas for interior design projects. Largely exploring the idea of bespoke frieze deigns for application to walls in either a paper or canvas material.

The first results are shown here:

Wild sea

Antigua

Breakers

Dunes

National Maritime Museum Art Club Annual Exhibition 2013

The National Maritime Museum Art Club Annual Exhibition is currently on show at the Paul McPherson Gallery 77 Lassell Street, Greenwich, London, SE10 9PJ.

The show lasts until Saturday 22 June and comprises marine themed paintings, drawings and prints from members of the Art Club.

I am fortunate to have three paintings on show this year. All work in the exhibition is for sale.

Canadian Corvettes in acrylics with a second corvette
 painting in the background

Officer of the Watch acrylic

Castle in the Air, also in acrylic

Aviation work

I have an exhibition later in the year which will be a combination of marine and aviation work. So at the moment I am looking at themes related to both subjects. I am particularly drawn to the early days of aviation and a number of works from that period will feature in the show, but the first subject will probably be a daring Mosquito raid on a French Chateau during World War II.

Footage exists on YouTube of the raid I wish to portray, well worth viewing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKt_SQuqQug

I have begun the preliminary work on the composition but there is much to do before embarking on the final painting.

The pose selected is from behind and slightly above.

My intention is  to capture the drama of a very low level raid.

The first attempt to capture the colour values

Port Solidor

I have begun to explore a softer slightly less finished style of landscape over a slightly textured and coloured underpainting. After a few experiments this is the first finished piece. I think the technique needs more experimentation, but on the whole I am quite pleased with the result of this one.

The location is the estuary of the river Rance in Brittany, to the left of the river mouth is the French resort of Dinard. To the right is Port Solidor and beyond the headland is the port and resort of St Malo.

Evening at Port Solidor, Brittany

Paris

We managed to squeeze a day in Paris during last years trip to France. Its been a few years since I was last in Paris so it was an enjoyable time and for once last year the sun shone. 

It was such a warm day we stayed outdoors the whole time and did all the usual tourist sites. I just had to try and record them in paint, so below is "The Paris collection 2012".

An Eiffel of sunshine

By the Orangery

Paris from the Trocadero

The Seine

Tuileries fountain

D-Day 70 years on

The 6 June 2014 will be the 70 anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. Sadly there will be few veterans left to remember it.

The subject has fascinated me since I was a boy. Two of my uncles crossed the beaches on and shortly after D-Day and it was always a treat to be allowed to look at a D-Day map of Gold beach.

So I have begun to plan a tribute of my own for next year, in paint of course. The final idea has not yet formed but I have begun a few sketches.

My starting point has been the famous Robert Capa photographs of the first waves landing on Omaha beach. Only nine frames of Capa's photographs remain, the rest were accidentally destroyed by an over enthusiastic technician who melted the film emulsions in a drying cabinet!

But those nine frames tell the story magnificently. If I can capture an essence and mood of such a momentous event in paint I will be very satisfied.

Initial thoughts on composition

A quick colour sketch, the day was heavily overcast and grey

View from the assault boats, the first wave goes ashore

In the shallows looking back out to sea

Officer of the watch

I have long had a desire to capture the activity on the bridge of a warship on convoy duty in World War II. Despite the immense search power of the internet I have found relatively few pictures around which I could compose a painting.

The reason I think is that photography was not encouraged, except on official business, security being paramount. Therefore not many pictures exist, and fewer still that fitted the pose I wanted to execute.

I managed to find a few that approximated the angle I wanted to portray, below are the preliminary ideas followed by the final painting.

Initial concept and notes

Sketch of a possible colour palette

The final painting "Officer of the watch"