THE CLAYTON PLACE FRUIT STALL – ACRYLIC PAINTING

Another in the style of Colin Brown, the same style used in the painting I recently posted : Waiting to Cross the Strand. Except that it isnt in that style. It certainly started that way, but my good intentions were quickly usurped by my own usual methods and this is the outcome. I think it was the detail that forced me to get tighter.

Though it’s not to say I am unhappy with the result. I rather like it and it has some things going for it that please me.

The subject is, as you can see, the fruit stall. This comes into view when you exit the main entrance from Central Station in Liverpool. Central Station is the hub of the city’s rapid transport system, not he mainline station. The stall is in a bit of a down at heel alley that links to a new shopping precinct. When the sun shines on it, though, the stall seems to glow and this is what I have captured here.

It is also a welcome addition to my Liverpool Series.

Other Liverpool scenes are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

EXHIBITION SUBMISSIONS – W/C and ACRYLIC

Tomorrow I will take three paintings of local scenes to an upcoming exhibition at Southport’s art gallery, The Atkinson. The first one is a new version of a watercolour I presented before, but I have dropped the horizon line and cut out some of the foreground after Multiplemichael – in my opinion, rightly pointed out that there was too much unnecessary foreground in the original. I also increased the foreground puddle on this version of Flooded Fields at Lathom.

This second one is an acrylic painting of Formby Beach, again, one I have previously shown. The third, is a smaller watercolour: Sunset on Lord Street, again, one I have shown before.

It is a juried show and was a good hunting ground for me in the past, but the gallery authorities have meddled with the format. It was originally run by a small group of artists as a totally juried show. Now the gallery authorities have insisted on it becoming inclusive (because they get a grant towards it, if it is in that format). Now we have a hybrid: anything goes, along with the juried show I am entering. There’s a subsequent lack of ownership resulting in poor advertising which is vital in these days of austerity and having to sail against a difficult financial headwind.

If nothing sells – assuming I get them in – it might be my last appearance, particularly as the submission price has increased ( probably because they werent making as much in sales as they once did)

When this exhibition is running we will be opening another exhibition almost opposite on Lord Street, organised by a local artist. Consequentially, I will be having two bites of the cherry, but even so, sales may be hard to come by.

Paintings are for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

WAITING TO CROSS THE STRAND 2 – ACRYLIC PAINTING

I read an article by the artist, Colin Brown, detailing his approach to cityscapes. I thought that it could help energise my own work. As with many such demonstrations, there were aspects that I didn’t like, but his starting point seemed interesting. I suppose I had unconsciously used a similar approach in my life painting, but Brown provided a coherent structure that I felt was worth investigating.

So here is my first attempt, applying some of his methodology. The subject is the Strand on the Liverpool waterfront. Here you need to cross this very busy road to get from the city centre to the old dock buildings which have now been converted to shops, restaurants, apartments, arenas, art galleries and museums.

I wanted to contrast the people waiting at the crossing to the heavy traffic and the business of the early evening activities going on around and of course reference part of the Liver Building.

I originally did a version in pastel and it got used in a book on Liverpool, published a few years ago.

But despite being published the painting never sold. So this time I changed the angle and featured the highrise, which is supposed to reflect an ocean liner, and also pushed more colour into the piece.

As I’ve said many times before – you can but try.

Other townscapes and paintings of Liverpool are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

BRIDALVEIL FALLS, YOSEMITE VALLEY – ACRYLIC PAINTING

A friend asked me to do a commission for their newly decorated room. It was a memory from one of their holidays. The photos were into the sun with high contrast and little colour. I must admit to liking the high contrasts, but felt it needed some colour, so I introduced purples and blues into the rocks and added some foreground foliage with complementary ochres to break up the mass of the cliff-face.

An added difficulty for me was the size, smaller than I’m used to, and this hampered me somewhat. Anyway, they are happy with it and I’m taking them to my framers to get the right frame and mount.

I had been to Yosemite myself, but didnt recognise the falls. Then, going over my old photos from 1983 there it was, I just didnt manage to get such a good vantage point.

Other landscapes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

MORNING CLIMB – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I’m in the middle of a couple of projects at present, so here is a painting I did in 2007. It is particularly apt as, today, it’s a bright blue, crisp, spring day outside and this is a painting capturing the anticipation of the summer adventures, hopefully, we will embark upon. Climbing the hill towards the light to reveal more great vistas.

Other landscapes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

AUTUMN COMES TO AINSDALE WOODS – ACRYLIC PAINTING

After the holiday, back to earth with a bump – particularly yesterday, when I had some pretty aggressive dental treatment. But this blog is about painting, not my teeth, so here is a painting of the local woods which back onto the sandy beaches around here.

The woods are predominantly made up of conifers, but there are gaps where spruce makes a grab for the sunlight. Then, in the autumn these gaggles of spruce light up the forest with their colourful, leafy displays. I’ve painted this type of scene before and here, without apology, is the start of a wooded section just behind our local airfield.

Coming out of the shade of a copse, the light on the trees and their trunks ahead, grabbed my attention and the puddles on the path was an added extra.

Other paintings of woodland are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

ASWAN AND OTHER WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

Finally we reached Aswan where further navigation down the Nile is prevented by two dams. Our boat moored opposite Elephant Island in Aswan. The Island is one of the oldest parts of Aswan and the whitewashed houses looked like something you might find in a Greek Mediterranean fishing village. It looked particularly inviting in the morning sun – so, always weak to temptation, I went on deck to get something down on paper.

Next to our boat, town dwellers waited for the ferry to the island. There are still many rickety ferries on the Nile, but the Egyptians are building new bridges and unfortunately their days seem numbered.

Now I am back home, I have been looking over my sketches and here is another one of the many fishermen among the reedy islands, one I didn’t publish at the time.

And here is the riverside as we approached El Minya with it’s boat building and repair yards that you also see elsewhere, all the way down the river.

I think that is almost all of the sketches. I gave a few to our guide, Salah, who was always checking out what I was doing, but what remains are a reminder of a super trip.

As I said in an earlier blog, painting a scene on a moving boat requires a special approach, as getting what you need down before it’s gone demands speed and a disregard for too much detail – probably not a bad thing in my case.

Other landscapes, townscapes and riparian scenes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

KOM OMBO AND EDFU – WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

For me, Monday was a red letter day on this trip. In the afternoon we moored up right next to this temple at Kom Ombo, so for once I was able to sketch some of the architecture we had come to see. It is quite a late temple by Egyptian standards being started in the 2nd century BC. A giveaway is the ornate column tops which indicates Greek or Roman influence. In fact it had a whole range of column decoration. It is also unusual in that it is dedicated to two deities, the falcon headed Horus and Sobek, the local crocodile headed god. There were a lot of crocodile mummies on display in the museum – though, disappointingly, none in the river ( crocs not mummies).

I returned to the boat after the visit to the temple and museum and had about an hour to get this down. The warm evening light mellowed the stonework and I got a fair bit done before we set sail again, though I had to do the sketch in a rush.

On that same Monday, we woke up to find we had moored right on the waterfront of the town of Edfu. Normally we moored in walled areas or in out of the way and uninteresting places. On this morning we were right in the thick of it with touristy horse drawn carriages transporting people to the local temple of Horus. ( though being in the thick of it meant we were also close to the mosque, and got called to prayer at 5am – on this occasion I declined the invite) I had breakfast and hurried up on deck to get a flavour of the place before we set off. Again, another hurried sketch, which I finished as we headed to Kom Ombo.

Other townscapes are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

TOWARDS ASWAN – WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

We are rapidly heading towards the end of the holiday and the dreaded day of reckoning when we have to settle the bar bill. As regards painting, I am getting a bit repetitious in my sketches, as there isnt any time to do anything on our visits to the temples and monuments, so all of my sketches are from the boat and there are a limited number of subjects that we pass on our voyage. I have taken to pencil sketching in a small sketchbook when I see anything interesting. I race to get the details down before we pass the scene. Then I copy the sketch onto my watercolour pad before starting the painting.

So, above is a sketch done in this fashion. It is a very basic Nile scene where the wind had whipped up the desert dust to give a slightly different colour palette. With the sun shining through the dust and reflecting off the water it gave some good contrasts as well.

At Luxor we had a sunset and I moved the hills which house the Valley of the Kings into the frame, and added a felucca which had earlier passed us, as a couple of guys paddled around the river, casting a fishing net in the warm evening breeze.

Oh, it’s a dirty business, but someone has to do it.

Other landscapes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

FURTHER DOWN THE NILE – WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

As we progress down the Nile, the valley widens and closes revealing miles of lush agricultural lands on occasions, and then the desert makes an appearance with high limestone cliffs butting up against the river, marking the edge of the desert.

At other times the cities and towns come into view. The high-rise buildings seem very similar to the high cliffs of the desert edge.

As the boats slips by, children an adults rush to the shore and wave. I thought that this was because we are some of the first tourists for a couple of years, but I’m told that this has always happened.

In some places with lush water meadows and net fishing it feels like the place has never changed.

Other landscapes are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com