A Collection Of My Oil Paintings
Welcome to the area of my portfolio showcasing my oil paintings. While my love of painting stretches back many years, I originally painted with acrylics - over 25 years ago. Oil painting is a recent endeavour, as such I'm hoping you're in a mind to be kind in your opinions of my talent - or lack thereof.
I have tried to be brutally honest in my assessments of my artworks and methods. You may agree with me, you may not. As we are all aware, the merit in any artwork is in the opinion of the viewer. Feel free to have a browse.
Country Hideaway
Medium: Oil on Stretched Canvas
Dimensions: 9 cm x 7 cm
Number eight in the miniatures series, Country Hideaway is one of my personal favourites.
I saw the image in my mind's eye and knew it would make a lovely, homely painting. I used a combination of blended brushwork and impasto to create this piece - my favourite way to work.
The highlights and shadows on the fencing was painstaking work with a 0000 detailing brush. I like the way the light seems to bounce off the cottage, and how it falls across the lane and field.
Making Waves
Medium: Oil on Stretched Canvas
Dimensions: 9 cm x 7 cm
Making Waves is number seven in the miniatures collection and is a total departure from my usual style.
One of only two abstracts in the collection, Making Waves is a subtle mix of blues, purples and greens applied in thick impasto. The cloudy sky is just distinguishable from the crashing waves beneath.
Sunlit Lane
Medium: Oil on Stretched Canvas
Dimensions: 9 cm x 7 cm
Sunlit Lane is taken from a monthly painting assignment reference photograph in Malcolm Dewey's "Artist Live Membership" group.
I enjoyed the painting process with this piece as it was a departure from my general style of painting. As the canvas is very small I lost a lot of the detail from the original along the right hand side of the lane. I feel at this size the piece benefits from the simplification, the feeling of a light filled lane in summer is captured without the extra details.
Autumn Reflections
Medium: Oil on Stretched Canvas
Dimensions: 9 cm x 7 cm
Autumn Reflections is number five in the miniatures collection, taken from a photograph my mum liked. As a gift for her, Autumn Reflections was the first miniature to find a new home.
Getting any kind of detail on a canvas this small isn't easy, each tree and its corresponding reflection is just a couple of brushstrokes. Rocks on the shore and the slight ripples along the water's edge are merely dabs with the smallest brush I own. Despite being light on detail the painting works as a whole .
Snow Day
Medium: Oil on Stretched Canvas
Dimensions: 9 cm x 7 cm
Snow Day is the fourth miniature created specifically for an art and craft table-top market. This is the only piece I have done in oils that I previously did in watercolour. The watercolour piece, Winter Walk, can be viewed in my watercolour gallery. Both are adaptations from a photograph I took in February 2018 when the UK was in the grip of "The Beast From The East".
Snow Day was a little more challenging than Winter Walk, those tiny details on a canvas this small needed a very steady hand. As with all my miniatures, the painting is continued on all four sides.
Sunset Seascape
Medium: Oil on Stretched Canvas
Dimensions: 9 cm x 7 cm
Sunset Seascape is the third of five created for a tabletop arts and craft market in a local town. I chose to create these tiny paintings for the market for ease of transportation and the little space they require for display.
Sunset Seascape came of my desire to express sleepless nights and exhaustion. Fibromyalgia is more than just pain. The lack of any land mass expresses the isolation felt by many fibro-warriors. The vibrant colours in the sunset represent both the intense pain of a flare-up and the brief rays of hope we feel on a rare pain free day. The contrast between the bright sunset and the deep blues of the sky and sea represent the mood swings associated with chronic health conditions.
The focal point is the sun, because I try to focus on the good days and the things I can do rather than my limitations.
Dark Seascape
Medium: Oil on Stretched Canvas
Dimensions: 9 cm x 7 cm
Dark Seascape is the second of five pieces created for a tabletop arts and craft market. These mini canvases are so much fun to paint, they can be finished in less than an hour, although squeezing detail into such a small space is a whole new challenge.
While I didn't paint from a reference photograph, this piece is a kind of amalgamation of a few photographs I have seen recently.
River Landscape
Medium: Oil on Stretched Canvas
Dimensions: 9 cm x 7 cm
River Landscape is the first of a set of five mini landscapes created specifically for a tabletop arts and craft market in a local town. These cute little mini canvases come with their own dinky display easel, making them perfect to display on shelves, mantlepieces, or in small spaces.
River Landscape is another piece painted from imagination, the scene popped into my head unbidden and just had to be painted. It took a little tweaking before I was happy with it but in the end I feel it turned out well.
Sunset Over River
Medium: Oil on Canvas Board
Dimensions: 18 cm x 13 cm
Sunset Over River came entirely from imagination. The blended brushwork of the sky and water contrasts nicely with the impasto of the forest to the side.
I particularly like the contrasting colours and play of light over the water. Originally this was intended as a watercolour, then I noticed the oil paints sat on my palette from the previous painting session and decided to use them up. Sunset Over River was the result.
Study Of Aerial Perspective
Medium: Oil on Stretched Canvas
Dimensions: 20cm x 20 cm
Study Of Aerial Perspective is just what it says it is. Not intended to be a finished piece, this is was purely a practice piece to get aerial perspective right. Having said that, I do feel there is potential in developing the scene further.
I like the colour combinations and the overall effect of combining soft blended brushwork with impasto strokes - if you've seen my other oil colours you've probably guessed that for yourself by now. I'll leave this one to sit for a while and come back to it another time. The distant hills could possibly be a little more substantial and the foreground needs to be more cohesive. The river I am happy with though.
Study In Light
Medium: Oil on Canvas Board
Dimensions: 18 cm x 13 cm Landscape Orientation
Study In Light is exactly what the title suggests. I was getting a little fed up with my paintings turning out darker than I intended so deliberately set out to keep this one as light as possible. For some reason my software just won't allow me to add a virtual frame to this one.
Despite having signed the work already, I don't feel it is finished. The reeds in the foreground left corner need some serious work. I also feel that although I want to keep the scene light, some tonal differences in the distance and the river banks are needed. I could also do something more wit the sky and water - or maybe that's why my paintings are turning out darker than I want - I need to learn to leave well alone...
Homeward Bound
Medium: Oil On Canvas Board
Dimensions: 18cm x 13 cm Portrait Orientation
Homeward Bound was originally intended as an exercise for an artist's group. It was supposed to have two or more figures at different distances with light poles for perspective and proportions. I just thought a parent and child walking together made for a nicer scene than solitary strangers. If you've seen my watercolour paintings you'll notice it's not the first time I've used the parent and child to replace solitary figures.
The original reference picture was full of greens and it was my intention to reproduce the scene as it was. I found as I worked on the piece that I just wasn't feeling the whole green thing. Maybe it has something to do with working on the piece in early Autumn, maybe it's just because Autumn is my favourite season, whatever the reason the scene became an Autumn evening with strong light playing over the grassy field and strong shadows falling across the pathway. As I tend to do, I used soft blended brushwork in the sky, also in the pathway and field. I reserved the bold impasto work for the trees and to a lesser extent the two figures. The nearer trees could have been more detailed, and the further trees less so, but I got far too engrossed in trying to get the figures right.
Water Under The Bridge
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 18cm x 13cm Portrait Orientation
Water Under The Bridge is taken from a view of the canal near Bolton-Le-Sands, Lancashire. In this piece I have tried to capture the essence of light in the scene. The strong reflection of the bridge on the water is what really caught my eye, along with the vibrant colours - even in the shadows. The pathway leading under the bridge is a little wonky and out of proportion but on the whole I was happy with the way the piece turned out.
I used soft blended brushwork in the sky and water too keep them looking tranquil. The bold impasto brushwork in the bridge, foliage and pathways, I feel, really bring the piece to life. I may revisit this scene another day and get that pathway right, but for now I'm OK with it's imperfections.
Radiant Reverie
Medium: Oil On Canvas Board
Dimensions: 18cm x 13cm Portrait Orientation
Radiant Reverie was the second of a set of two paintings. These were painted together from the same limited palette. The intention was to create two misty Autumn landscapes from two images created by an AI image creation app.
As you can see, Radiant Reverie is most certainly not a landscape painting. It remains a part of my collection to remind me that when things don't go right, it's perfectly OK to go left.
The misty atmospheric image created by AI just wasn't translating to my canvas. Rather than give up and scrap the canvas I blended all the paint already there into a soft, muted, orangey brownish colour. Then I let loose with the red and yellow paints still on my palette, mixing some into oranges for variety. It's no masterpiece, not a total success, but not a total failure either. The colours work well together, and some people like abstract rather than twee landscapes, so maybe there's somebody out there who is really drawn to Radiant Reverie.
Autumn's Embrace
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 18cm x 13 cm Portrait Orientation
Autumn's Embrace is one of a pair that were painted together using the same limited palette. Both images came from an AI image creation app. Autumn's Embrace was completed first of the two. Radiant Reverie being completed soon after.
Autumn's Embrace shows an indistinct hillside fading into an overcast sky in the background. The middle ground consists of two wooded areas with soft Autumn colours with a mist shrouded area which could be fields. I used soft blended brushwork in the background and middle ground to keep the overall effect one of misty indistinctness - is that even a ward? The painting is dominated by the relatively small area of bold, bright impasto brushwork in the foreground depicting the vibrant Autumn foliage of a hedgerow, or is it a late blooming floral patch? You decide.
I deliberately left out any signs of habitation in this piece, despite the AI generated image having a couple of structures with the nearer wooded area. I wanted viewers to be drawn in to form their own impressions of the scene.
Twilight Serenity
Medium: Oils on Canvas Board
Dimensions: 18cm x 13 cm Portrait Orientation
Twilight Serenity is another piece adapted from a photograph taken by my son near Cusworth Hall, South Yorkshire. The painting turned out much darker than the photograph but I like the moody atmosphere it gives.
The trees and bushes in the background became a dark blue mass with very little detail which I like. I also like the softness of the light effect in the middle ground. The stronger colours and bold brushwork in the foreground help give depth and perspective to the scene.
I used more blended brushwork for most of this piece to give it a tranquil feel, only adding impasto strokes in the foreground to bring those elements forward. Overall I'm quite happy with the way this piece turned out.
Rustic Peace
Medium: Oils on Stretched Canvas
Dimensions: 20cm x 20cm
Rustic Peace is adapted from a photograph taken by my son near Cusworth Hall, South Yorkshire. I painted in an impressionist style with bold impasto strokes and bright colours. I tried to capture the light in the scene while still keeping the feeling of peace and isolation. I'm not sure how successful I was, but I do like this painting.
As the first painting I had done in over 20 years I feel Rustic Peace has earned it's place in my portfolio.