THE TRACK TO NEW CUT LANE – ACRYLIC PAINTING

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This is another in my series of local views though this one is less stylised than the previous two, but I have pushed the colours again. I posted a plein air version back in July last year and when I found it in my sketchbook to do this version, I was quite pleased with the watercolour I had done out in the fields.

So in some way I have taken a backward step with this painting by not pushing it graphically but I am pleased with the summery vibrancy and the looseness.

In the meantime I have been reworking the first two. I’ll post them soon when all the changes have been made.

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

A STORM PASSES GREEN KETTLE FARM – ACRYLIC PAINTING

Second in the series of the graphic and colour-centric landscapes I am completing. Not sure if there is too much detail in the foreground here and that a further paring down could prove beneficial. I am already reworking the foreground of the first in the series I presented earlier, and painting a third.

I did a watercolour of this farm a long time ago and there isnt a lot going on though I love the outline of the buildings and the wind sculpted trees. This time I added the storm and am very pleased with some of the outcome.

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

MORNING ON THE MOSS – PASTEL PAINTING

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I was trying to capture the essence of the low-lying and fertile area behind our coastal sandy belt and decided to give it a go in pastels. I initially blocked in the dark areas with acrylic paint: a practice I had read about recently and wanted to try.

I am a bit ambivalent about the result, but it made a change from the watercolours.

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

PLEIN AIR WORK #2 – WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

Back on the bike and into the morning sunshine. This is a cottage on Plex Moss Lane. Further down the lane I stopped on a grass verge and did these farm buildings across the fields,

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They had an incongruousness about them – a ramshackle collection of buildings.

A few days later I ventured down another, parallel, lane that crosses the moss and here are (above) some of the same buildings I painted in the previous image: the two buildings on the right of the painting of the farm across the fields.

And finally I love this cluster of buildings, half in and half out of the shadows with posts and cables sprinkled about – although the barn on the right looks like it could be subsiding.

There might be some things worth working up into a proper painting. It’s certainly good to get out again into the morning sun and the cycle ride gives me some exercise.

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

ROSE COTTAGE, PLEX MOSS LANE – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Rose cottage seems a misnomer for a farm complex, but that’s what Google said it was when I checked it out. Actually, it wasnt the farm that initially attracted me – though the building acted as a superb foil – it was the gloriously yellow rape seed growing in the field in front, with the illuminated spring foliage on the trees. That was what made me take a photo or two on one of my recent cycle rides.

With Boris’ latest edict I might now get back to painting outside in the coming days – though the temperature has taken a nosedive of late which is a hindrance, as I am too impatient to wait too long for paint to dry; not advisable with watercolours.

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

A BEND IN PLEX MOSS LANE – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

Another view from my cycle outing on Monday morning across the Moss situated behind Southport, north of Liverpool. The single track lane shuffles across the reclaimed marshland, dodging the scattered farms. The tilled fields ready to sprout barley, cabbages, carrots and potatoes.

I thought that I would do this on a half imperial sheet, rather than the quarter sheets I’ve been using recently.

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

PAINTINGS OF HALSALL MOSS – WATERCOLOUR AND PASTEL

On Monday morning I decided to try and lift the lethargy I described in the previous post, by getting out on my bike and seeking out new material. Normally I would have taken my painting gear, as it was a bright, if blustery morning, but I felt that that might upset the locals, so I put a camera in my pocket instead, and headed off along Plex Moss Lane – the lane defined by the posts in the watercolour above, past the farm you can see, and across Halsall Moss. Taking pictures as I went.

The land rises as you come off the Moss and there was a line of trees.

I did this one in pastel, of the trees bursting into leaf.

And I got a few more images that I can work up during lockdown.

As well as collecting images, a trip like this also allows you to pick out some possible places to paint when life does return to normal. I can waste a lot of time finding an interesting subject when I go out. If I have a few possibilities in mind before I set out it can set me off in a much better frame of mind when I settle down to paint.

Stay safe.

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

HALSALL MOSS ON A SPRING MORNING – PASTEL PAINTING

I painted an identical scene in watercolour and posted it on this blog a while back. In this version I wanted to see if I could enhance the textures of the vegetation using pastel and hopefully have got more variation with this media, even if the image is pretty similar.

The view is one of the many drainage channels that criss-cross this low lying marshy area which is now prime arable land. I originally sketched it one morning last year and during the painting the mist broke and the morning sun illuminated the fresh vegetation picking out the greens and yellows.

Hopefully I will soon be able to get out in the open to gather some fresh material to paint again, unless the government confine us all to barracks.

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

WINTER ON THE MOSS – ACRYLIC PAINTING

Things are getting a bit hectic around here. I am off on holiday shortly and I needed to get an exhibition up and running yesterday. I am also just completing a commission that came in last week and when I come back from holiday I have another exhibition. This painting is for that later exhibition. The exhibition is about the local landscape and I need a bit of time to assess this latest effort and see whether I want to include it. I may be forced to as I need 30 pictures.

Other paintings of the local landscape are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

HALSALL MOSS 4, REVISITED -ACRYLIC PAINTING

Assembling the paintings for my landscape exhibition, which starts next week, I was including the painting below. It was an old painting I quite liked, but I wondered about the flat area in the middle and whether the images needed linking better. So I painted in a wind sculpted tree which spread across the centre touching the different areas.

Other landscapes are available for sale on my website.