Mystery Solved

I don't know if you have read my profile on my website, but if you have you will know that my past painting has been sporadic to say the least. I painted several oil paintings in the early eighties, but twice as many that I never finished and I gave up painting. I didn't have the patience for oil painting. After meeting another artist who showed me some examples of impressionist watercolour paintings from some of the best artists of the time, I gave painting another go. This was much better as I could now finish paintings quicker, using watercolours. This meant lots of paintings and everyone being completed. This was in the late eighties and early 1990. By the end of 1990, I had stopped painting again. I didn't paint again until I moved to Sweden in 2005. By the end of 2005, the paintings had stopped yet again.
In May of this year, I began painting again. So far, I've painted nine paintings. I'm just warming up still, but much more confident. The only thing that's been worrying me is, how long will it go on? Each painting that I complete, I ask myself, is this the last? If I paint something really bad, will that kill off my enthusiasm? I must admit, I struggled with two or three of my latest paintings. They took far too long to complete. I felt like the end was nigh. However, I have finally realised what it was that caused me to stop painting before. It's so obvious (if I'm right). In 1990, my first child was born and another three years later. They grew up, but in 2005, another baby was born. Sounds like a pretty convincing reason why I might have been distracted from painting. Only time will tell, but there's no babies on the horizon.

Dirty Water Paintings

Living in Sweden is probably not much different from England, in the summer. Spring and autumn are similar too, although much shorter. I would say they are about 6 weeks each, with 10 weeks for the summer. That leaves 30 weeks for the winter! Of course that is my observation and it does depend on just where in the country one lives. However, it is long and depressing, especially after new year. It seems to be a country devoid of colour. It's most noticeable from the air. Everything appears to be black and white. Sometimes, when painting winter scenes, it's tempting just to use payne's grey. I did one painting a few years back, "Winter In Gyllberg", which I felt I was painting with the dirty water from when I clean my brushes.

Winter In Gyllberg




 

Can you see what I mean? I love putting colour into my winter paintings. It seems to really make the picture. If the sky is blue, then so is the snow, with even darker blue or purple shadows. The sky tends to be a weaker blue, more cerulean blue than ultramarine. The only warm colour is raw sienna, at best. It's not a lot of colour, but one should look for those colours and use them wherever possible. It's those colours, how ever weak or small the area, that make the painting come to life. It re minds me of those black and white photos that have just one object which is coloured. It's a nice effect. Painting snow is about painting what you see and not what you think you see. Snow is not just white!

Good From A Distance

I remember from my school days, that in art classes, there was always someone who was a little behind the rest. They would paint something that really didn't look like what it was supposed to be. Me and my friend, half joking and half trying to be nice, would compliment them by saying that their picture looked good from a distance. We didn't say how big that distance was! Now I have just finished a painting and of course I fiddled with it at end (as usual) because I wasn't 100 % happy with it. Whatever, it is now finished, but I can't decide if it is any good. I find myself standing the painting up somewhere and slowly walking backwards, to see if it looks better. Then I end up backing into a wall! Is it really that bad? Someone give me a second opinion. The best thing to do is forget it and try to paint something else as soon as possible. Sometimes I paint a picture that I'm not pleased with and then after a few years, I look at it again and wonder why I didn't like it. Once I painted a couple of pictures that I really disliked. I put them on Ebay and they sold without problem. I didn't get much for them, but it easily covered the costs of materials. So at the end of the day, it's not up to me if my paintings look any good. Somebody will always like them enough to buy. Perhaps they have very big rooms!

Mixed Bag

Sometimes I worry that my interest in different types of art and styles of painting, might frighten away the very people that I'm trying to attract. I don't know who sees my new work every time I upload something. Occasionally, I put out two or three flower photographs in succession. Maybe a new twitter follower will see them and say to themselves "I'm not interested in this sort of thing, I thought I followed an artist". It could be that I upload ten abstract photos in a row. I do try to mix things up a little, to avoid putting anyone off. Even the subjects of my paintings can vary a lot. I don't normally paint flowers, but my last painting was of sunflowers. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be getting many votes in the contest that I painted it for. Personally, I was quite pleased with it. I wanted to get away from all the Van Gogh type paintings. I think I did that, but it obviously wasn't popular. I don't care because as I have said before, I paint what I like and hope others will like it too. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, don't worry if you don't like one of my uploads because the next one or the one after might be your 'cup of tea'. Be prepared for a 'mixed bag' and if you visit my website any time, you will see what I mean.