Lemons

Lemons. 

A number of things came together to bring these paintings about. Firstly, Twitter contact Abigail Bosanko changed her avatar to this striking painting:

I'd never seen it before; it's called 'Pink Roses, Chinese Vase' by S.J. Peploe, one of the Scottish Colourists. Then we went up to Edinburgh to look at the Cadell cycle of their Scottish Colourists exhibition, and I got the chance to see this painting in the flesh. It's fantastic; it hangs in the far corner of the room and drags attention towards it. The draughtsmanship and the underlying geometry is so confident and solid, and the paint is put on in magnificent, thick, chunky slabs of colour - and what colour. It hums with life. It's also got something I find really exciting, that apparent ease and simplicity and confidence of a painter who really, really knows what they're doing.

The Cadell exhibition I was less keen on (a bit passionless) but again it was exciting to see big, vigorous paint strokes on big paintings that work right the way across a large room.

Then the Crossing Borders exhibition at Paxton House wanted some pieces that could 'hang together' so I thought I'd try to put together something of what I'd got from the gallery visits. Obviously it doesn't stand up to Peploe's work (you'll see how small and grudging I made his picture) but I think I've moved on with something, and that's always a good feeling.

Wendell Hicks - Frontier Librarian.

Finally completed the second Wendell Hicks strip. And here it is. (And here, if you want a frankly better look.)

Snow

Two new landscapes, the Borders under heavy snow. Two views - across the Merse from Chirnside ridge, and from Ninewells Mains to the distant Cheviots.

Wintry views, just as Spring arrives. I am nothing if not topical.

The Merse, Snow, oil on canvas, 60cm x 49cm.

Ninewells Snow, oil on canvas, 60cm x 49cm.

Coldingham Rocks.

New painting. A study of rocks on the beach at Coldingham, Berwickshire.

Coldingham Rocks,  oil on canvas, 60cm x 49cm.

Skyline.

Getting off the train and emerging up out of Waverley station is one of the best ways of entering a city. Out of the - oo, let's see now - six major cities I've visited, Edinburgh is right there in the top two.


I never get tired of this view, or fail to be uplifted by it.

Ruinscape

Ink on A3 cartridge paper.

Hell of a Colour.

I tried, I tried really hard today to get this up as some sort of zoom-in-able PDF thing or lovely flash flip-page book complete with crinkling page sound effects so that you could actually read the damn thing, but... well, it just didn't happen.


After many wasted hours this afternoon, I was about ready to chew through the desk in  frustration, but a week ago today I fell off my bike on an icy patch and gave my ribs a proper good crack, and I've just taken two of the wonking great painkillers that the doctor gave me yesterday and I'm a lot more relaxed about it all than I was a couple of hours ago. So I thought what the hell, just get it posted. You can at least look at the pictures. Look at all the pretty colours. Wow.


Anyway: it's a technical exercise in learning how to colour (and letter better) but also a sincere tip of the hat to Mr. Mignola for creating such a great character, and to the likes of Duncan Fegredo and Richard Corben for all their fantastic and inspirational illustration. I dare say it's a copyright infringement festival, but it's not for sale, just a big doff of the hat.


(Right click & 'open image in new tab' lets you zoom in and read.)

 Sing and readalong here: