Around the next bend

Posted on by Alan

What’s around the bend? The very point at which the road (or river, come to think of it…)
disappears from view, the geometry of perspective rudely blocked by hedges, buildings, hillside or trees, there lies the fascination. Seeing what you’ve not seen before…could there be that perfect view, the dynamic and satisfying arrangement of shapes, or something new to satisfy the curiosity?

Toft's Chase 

This first drawing is taken from a sketch made on a very cold, dull afternoon in Essex,
and the second drawing is from over the border in Hertfordshire. Both views have a lane dipping down and then rising up and away around the bend, and both feature neatly trimmed high hedges and in the Herts lane, manicured and neat ditches. Not exactly wild and rugged landscape, but I seem to find our compulsion to ‘tidy up’ the countryside graphically interesting, which is maybe why I chose to use coloured pencils, to imitate that control…

Keeping it simple
The two sketchbook pencil drawings below are from my home turf in Dorset. This day there was warm bright sunshine, combined with a cold breeze and buzzards calling high up over my left shoulder.


In the second drawing, early spring Galanthus snowdrops were in bloom on the shaded grass bank, and as I stood in the middle of the road under a large beech, the shadows cast by its branches danced across the lane and up onto the sun soaked grass…

Get out there and do it

Posted on by Alan

Get out there and do it: when the weather looks unkind – too dull, too dark, too cold –
go anyway, something invariably turns up that you would otherwise miss.

In a quiet country lane nearby I parked up and strolled a few yards along the road looking this way and that for a nice composition to reveal itself, and stopped just past a tree lined bend. The sky was clear, the sun had gone down leaving a cool transition between coral red, orange, gold and duck egg green, turning imperceptibly to cobalt and then indigo blue above my head. A hunting barn owl coursed up and down a metre or so above the long grass meadow, then up over the willows and on to the next patch, minutes later appearing again to try it’s luck one more time. I made a rapid pencil sketch on the spot, and tried to do something with it back indoors.Bumfords Lane dusk

I started out thinking I would produce a coloured ink drawing but almost from the start it was not going well. Persevering, I ended up working over the whole thing in oil pastel and although I like the result insofar as it conveys my excitement at the colour, the feeling of cold air on my face and the fast approaching darkness (and seeing the owl of course), it wasn’t the picture I had in my mind’s eye…a situation I’m sure many artists find themselves in from time to time!Bumfords lane with barn owl

Autumn turns to winter

Posted on by Alan

Below is a sketch of the riverside trees at Nounsley with clouds billowing in from the south west late in the afternoon. The sunlight is low from the left, lighting up the sugar beet in the field. The pencil sketch carries the scene on to the right, the lane dipping down to the ford beyond the roadsigns

 

Nounsley riverside trees, watercolour sketch. Sunlight lights up the foreground sugar beet as the clouds billow in from the south west
The ink drawing below is of trees in my local managed woodland. I added some wax to the oak to help achieve the texture of the bark, the background sweet chestnut is smooth by comparison due to being coppiced hard back. Back at the car, a bat flew up and down the car parking area, as a tawny owl hooted in the middle distance and a muntjac barked somewhere nearby. The moon had risen, purple grey clouds wafting past its yellow face, and it was only 4pm….

Most people think a British winter is rain, rain, and er, rain. This ink sketch is of a country lane nearby on a very wet December day, but full of atmosphere nonetheless!

There’s weather coming

Posted on by Alan

Soon be time to get those oil paints out and try some autumn landscapes, with those wild skies and mix of colours. Meantime I’m still battling with line and wash, trying to say the most with the least.

These straw bales caught my eye as they stood in an animated fashion across the slope, framing the village church spire in the distance. The foreground shadows are cast by tall trees just to my left on the edge of the field. What makes it for me is that one bale stands out by being in the shade.


In this sketch, the reflected colour of the blue sky in the tarmac seemed to be exaggerated
by the vegetation. I accentuated the colour slightly, the actual sky seemed unimportant
in comparison.


In this drawing, one single cloud arrived and gathered itself from a relatively clear sky and dominated the scene. The telegraph poles stride across the stubble field and past the maize crop on the horizon, where rooks perch on the wires. A shower of rain followed shortly afterwards.

Two for one

Posted on by Alan

A stroll along the river bank, late summer sun. At the ford I stop and sketch the footbridge. In the pencil drawing below, the lane winds up the slope and disappears round to the right, framed by the tree in shadow and is the real point of interest, but I can’t resist a little mechanical structure with dynamic shadows, too.

As I watch the wave pattern thrown by the car that drives carefully through the shallow water, the fishes scatter and then quickly regroup. Just immediately downstream, within half a metre or so, a group of large chubb come out from the shadows of the shrubbery to mix with the smaller ones, all presumably waiting for any easy pickings to float their way from the disturbance.
A short distance further on, the river narrows to a stream almost choked with vegetation, then widens and deepens at the next bend. Under the shade of large willows, this pool
contains more chubb of varying sizes, just hanging casually in the deeper water. After a few minutes I notice two large perch, sitting below them about half a metre deeper, almost on the bottom. I made a drawing of three of them back in the studio, using conte crayon on medium surface cartridge paper.

The thrill of it all

Posted on by Alan

We all think the London Olympics were a triumph, and getting swept along on a wave of feel good olympic euphoria I went with my two grown-up kids to a once-in-a-lifetime morning session in the Olympic Stadium for some paralympic awesomeness.
As soon as you exited Stratford station the smiles and waving foam finger pointing began, and you couldn’t help but have a huge grin on your face by the time you got your morning coffee and blt sarnie. The xray security checkpoint guys were a little curious about my tin of watercolours though.

Once in the stadium, I made a pencil drawing of what I saw in front of me…but really only intended to scribble down a few lines, just enough so that when I put some colour on it later, I could suggest the excitement of just being there. I hope that comes across.

 

There is so much colour everywhere, this group of athletes, officials and camerapersons at the long jump add to the overall feeling of animation and vibrance in the stadium…
even in the shade of the funky spotlights…

Below is a photo of the velodrome looming like some huge, sleek vessel or craft of somekind.

I’d set out thinking I might do several drawings around the park, but it was just too hot with not much seating available in the shade. That isn’t to say the whole day wasn’t brilliant, it truly was.

Water, water everywhere

Posted on by Alan

A very wet July. Buttsbury ford, Billericay became a local attraction as the
rising water level rendered the road impassable for many days. Local
photographer Roger Whitlock and I payed a visit one evening. While Roj
set about capturing the evening sky I made this rapid sketch in watercolour
and felt tip, propping the sketchbook on my easel. I was interested in the
colours and the overall feeling of sodden, all pervading wetness, and that
river, road and lush vegetation all seemed to merge together.


I had no mixing water with me, but as I was stood in the wheat field with flood
water slowly rising up over my boots, I realised I could improvise! As a consequence,
the picture has a rough texture to it, which is the silt in the water dried onto the page.
Roj took this photo when I had started laying on the colour (See more on Roger’s
photostream by checking local photographer in the sidebar).

Alan by Roger Oct 2012
This pencil drawing was made a couple of weeks later, looking a little further
down the lane, with the river behind me.

The plate is the person

Posted on by Alan

This is Lesley’s mini. It’s waiting to be collected by it’s new owner.
If I recognise the licence plate of a car belonging to someone I know,
it’s their car, not just any car of that colour and model. It’s as if the
vehicle is the person. So it can be a little weird when the person has
passed away but their car is still sitting there. If I ever see it again
after it’s gone, It’ll still be Lesley’s mini.


I also made a straightforward pencil drawing of the rear plate,
and I’ve included it here as an antidote to the above sentiment.
Back to lines, tones and form…


LN52 KVA pencil study, August 2012

A little decay

Posted on by Alan

These barns have been neglected for many years and are now being refurbished and converted as so many are. When I first knew them, they housed farm machinery
and were home to several donkeys, who spent their days mooching about in the yard.

A sketchbook drawing made with ink wash and felt tip pen, with the sun low and to
the left. There always seems to be a traffic cone somewhere in the scene these days,
and this is no exception. Tempting to highlight it in that pinky red…