MORNING AT AINSDALE WOODS – PASTEL PAINTING

I attempted this small painting three times until I was happy with it. This version was done on Pastelmat support and it gave me the saturation I was after. For the background sky I scraped different pastels onto the board and wet the scrapings with a brush to get an even transition of colours.

The first attempt was done on pastel paper. This is the one below. Here, I used gouache to get the background sky, not pastel, as I did above.

The pastel colours do not sing out and appear flat and dull to me. I also felt there was too much foreground. So I tried again:

This time I obtained the background sky, as I did with first painting – scraping various pastels and wetting the scrapings to get an even background on pastel paper. I also reduced the foreground. It had a better saturation of colour at the end, but some of the darker colours failed to sing out. So that was when I resorted to the pastelmat.

I have used Clairefontaine pastelmat in the past and have always been happy with the results. I did not use it much as I couldnt find any larger sheets of it. The top painting was done on a 30x40cm sheet. Recently, someone told me bigger sheets were available and now I can get 50x70cm sheets which allows me to tackle slightly bigger pieces.

The downside of the pastelmat is the price and the lack of even bigger sheets. However, I wont be using it for life painting, and it is here where I go even larger, but it will allow me to do my small and medium size paintings and get some great vivacity of colour.

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

THE TOP OF CLIEVES’ HILLS – ACRYLIC PAINTING

I was talking to a fellow blogger about the perils of reworking a piece. At the time I was reworking two paintings, one of them was this, above. My fellow blogger explained the problems of reworking poems and stories. I felt there was more peril in changing paintings, as it can take a lot of work to correct bad decisions, particularly if you want to get back to where you started. With text, you could keep a copy and quietly lob the revision binward, ressurect the original and pretend nothing had happened ( well, that’s my blinkered view)

I was asked to submit a painting or two to an exhibition and was scraping around for something suitable. I did like the original of the painting above; there was an understated and almost abstract passage in the foreground, but despite a few showings it stayed in my possession. So I thought that I would shake it up ready for another outing.

I was reluctant to change as I was pleased with the original foreground, but having made the change I am equally happy with the outcome. It now looks very similar to the view I saw when I did a watercolour version one sunny summer’s morning, sitting on the hill amid the rough grassland and weeds, a few years ago.

Time will tell.

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

EARLY MORNING ACROSS THE MOSS – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

One from the archives – it’s been a busy week.

This is the view I used to see as I cycled to work across the fields behind our town. The sun rising and a mistiness still clinging to the low reclaimed marshland. Occasionally you’d spot the ghostly form of a barn owl swooping above the ditches and reed beds.

The painting now resides in my neighbour’s house. They used to take the same trip – but in a car, not on a bike.

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

UP THE HILL – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

In my previous blog I showed the church at Lydiate which I passed on my recent walk. This is the start of that walk.The low winter’s afternoon sun picking out the fence wires and forcing shadows across the path and field caught my attention. I also liked the bare oaks leaning away from the prevailing wind. Enough, I thought, to try a painting. So here it is.

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

ST THOMAS’ CHURCH OVER THE FIELDS – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

In early December we had a prolonged snap of cold weather which started to drain my motivation to do much; even painting. Many days were dark, foggy and sub zero, but the few times the clouds lifted all I wanted to do was get out and walk in sunshine. This image came from one of those escapes. I’ve painted St Thomas’ church before, once plein-air. Below is this sketch which I posted in 2018. I was sat by the canal and turned around to see the tracks in the barley field leading to the church amongst the trees. That is the trouble with getting a decent view of this church – it is surrounded by trees.

On my latest winter walk the trees had lost their leaves and the church was revealed, illuminated in the low afternoon sun. Then, as I came back to my car I noticed the ivy-clad oak partially framing the church. The opportunity was too good to miss.

So the image is somewhat apposite for my last blog before Christmas. May I wish my readers a merry Christmas.

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

FLOODED FIELDS AT HASKAYNE – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

An old, sold painting, this morning, of flooded fields. The area behind our town is low lying, reclaimed, marshland and despite the many drainage ditches it can get flooded after torrential rain. So the farmer may be unhappy, but it can give great contrasts in lowlight such as sunrise and sunset.

I’ve been busy setting up an exhibition at my framers and manning a collective exhibition in the town centre. I also took a couple of paintings to the main art gallery which got some funding to stage an exhibition of the architecture and buildings of the town centre – a subject, on which, I have many paintings. I missed the opening as I had already promised to go to a life session that day.

Nothing of mine has been sold at the collective, though a few – and cheaper – paintings are going. I think that this will be my last time in this show after participating for twelve years. The numbers visiting are going down and down. Last Friday I had the lowest visitors for any day I’ve been in attendance. A sign of the times I guess.

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

THISTLE PATCH – PASTEL PAINTING

I’ve been doing some pastels of late, but mainly seascapes. So, for a change, I thought I’d slip in a pastoral scene.

I saw these thistleheads whilst out walking in the grounds of Kenwood House, north London in September. I put out an acrylic painting a week or so ago, entitled Perfect Day. That painting showed a view of this hill from the other side of the lake. It indeed was a perfect day; the pleasure of the open air after negotiating three train rides which brought us from Liverpool to the capital.

In this pastel scene the parched ground acted as a foil for the clump of thistles and bank of trees. The light on the thistle seed heads made them almost glow. Then, just an arrangement of the thistle clump to run counter to the slope of the ground.

I hope it brings you calm.

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

AT THE TOP OF CLIEVES’ HILLS – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I have been meaning to have a go at this for a while. I wasnt sure how effective it would be. I took some reference photographs as I was sitting on the roadside painting the image (below) which I posted in an earlier blog : the view over the hills to St Michael’s Church at Aughton, near Ormskirk – a favourite of mine.

I put a couple of walkers in, but it is a precarious place to walk as cars come wizzing along. I found them a bit too close for comfort as I sat painting by the roadside. Still, I lived to paint another day.

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

PERFECT DAY – ACRYLIC PAINTING

A couple of months ago we visited friends in London. On our arrival the weather was fine and their dog needed exercise so we went off to Kenwood house – which backs onto Hampstead Heath and Parliament Hill – and walked through the grounds. Our route passed a series of lakes. One was the home of the Kenwood Ladies swimming club. Further down the hill was a lake for the men. Apparently they need to be kept apart – maybe they once had similar problems that I get with frogspawn filling my pond. Anyway…

This is another lake, with loungers in the evening’s heat. I particularly like the couple lying in the grass. I recalled that Lou Reed song: memorable for me as the record came out just as I started university. It was a juke box constant whilst I got my feet under the table in the union bar – in those heady, sunny, autumn days – days before the reality hit the fan.

I did a quick painting from a number of my photos, just to scope it out. I left out the guitarist who set up his amp nearby and regaled the whole lake with some practice pieces before the police arrived and curtailed his session; not even giving him time to pass the hat around – showbiz, eh?

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

LOW LIGHT ON A YOUNG RIVER 2 – WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

I was trawling through my images as I prepared an update to my website when I discovered this small watercolour I completed a couple of weeks ago. It was an imaginary scene based on recollections from my travels. I have painted a similar subject before using the same title. At the time it was just a bit of playing around, looking at textures and techniques – painting with no pressure. I hope you enjoy it.

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