Oil Painting 57 - Narrowboat Interior

Living inside a narrow floating tube and being interested in dramatic perspectives I had to try and sum up this unusual space that has occupied so much of my time and thought. I say 'thought' because of the year we spent designing and fitting out this interior after buying it as a shell and being so limited on space every decision needs thought and has consequences.

This space of our design has now moved with us around the country, and now coming to the end of the project it will soon be time to put it on the market for the next owner to enjoy, a difficult decision and all the more reason to get it recorded in paint.

As a painting this piece was really enjoyable to produce, the natural light in abundance coming in from all angles and reflecting of all the varnished wood was releasing all sorts of unusual colour combinations, and cast and reflected light patches. Karen is featured working on the laptop. Hopefully the angle I have given the composition isn't too much to be distracting, especially in a floating subject you would wish to be level. I seem to be introducing an angle into a large percentage of my works which seems a natural process and true to how I see or experience the spaces as I am painting.

Somebody on social media likened this piece to Pierre Bonnard's work who is an influence, I shall attach an example -

The Dining Room in the Country, Pierre Bonnard, 1913

Source: wikipaintings.org via Rob Pointon on Pinterest

Oil Painting 32 - Captain Karen

Of course this is a joke title and in no means reflects the true captain of our mighty vessel. Karen was privileged enough to be given temporary control whilst on a very straight section of The Birmingham Main Line and later the Tame Valley Canal in order for me to produce this sketch.

I want this project to have a real human element and am aware of how there seems to be plenty of imagery of wide angle scenes taking in the new scenery we find ourselves in although not much of the individual character side of boating. I am sure this next winter, when I shall retreat more indoors will release some enjoyable studies of our wood burning stove in action and still life's and interior boat scenes.

I can already see in my head a piece entitled 'Karen the galley slave' with atmospheric steam rising from the pans on the stove!

Oil Painting 30 - Wolverhampton Viaduct

We reached the end of the peaceful Shroppie and began entry in to the great urban unknown of Birmingham, beginning with Wolverhampton, and a day's slog up 21 locks on the Main Line into the city centre. Our joy at reaching the top of this lock flight was short lived when we realised we were moored in a police investigation scene after a tragic incident at a nightclub alongside the canal. This setting highlighted our anxieties about now bringing our boat and home into an urban area, which seem exaggerated anyhow having spent quite some time off the beaten track. It is a noticeable feature of this year how our feelings are effected by having the ability to engage and disengage with mainstream society. You see very little advertising on the canals living without television, in an era when we are bombarded normally, but then reentering a built up area, especially such a warren of disorientating canals as Birmingham, makes you doubly apprehensive about mooring up all our possessions in an unknown area. The constant complicated logistics of this trip we're taking their toll at this point.  A new map book helped in us visualising what we had ahead of us on the BCN (Birmingham Canal Navigation) that has more canals than Venice and also the act of getting the paints out to paint this Oil Painting 30 - Wolverhampton Viaduct really helped in taking some form of ownership over the landscape we now find ourselves in.

This is a real positive of the painting process I have not really mentioned before but spending long periods of time observing an area gets rid of all anxieties about that location. Because a painter with an easel is such an unusual sight I talk to a lot of passers by, and low and behold the people of Wolverhampton turn out to be some of the friendliest I have met on the canal network.

I had noticed this scene on the way up the lock flight and was fascinated with the angled spiralled brickwork underneath the railway viaduct as it compensates for the old canal passing through at an angle other than 90 degrees. It reminded me of the spinning ghost train tunnel at Alton Towers and got me thinking about how this angled approach is a much more effective way of representing the planes of a tunnel. I am talking about quite abstract values here so I will try and help illustrate with some doodles -
I do a lot of work with perspective and drawing viewers eyes into a painting by taking them down 'tunnels' of interest towards a vanishing point. I create these tunnels, a lot of the time, by using obvious directional brushstrokes to manipulate the viewers eye. These are not literally tunnels but can be looking through a passage of trees or down a street etc.

To date I have been mainly painting the brush strokes pulling straight towards the vanishing point like an orthogonal on a perspective drawing

or alternatively creating hoops with the brush strokes.

The Breakfast Painting, 2009 -  You can see a lot of 'hoops' in the brushwork in this piece creating a tunnel for the eye

The brickwork in this viaduct, and the thoughts of the ghost ride spinning tunnel got me thinking that I should utilise this method more as it a dynamic combination of the two. So try and emulate this more complex recording of space when next painting a passage of trees or an underground tube station or even put the pattern in the sky with brush strokes above a subject I want viewers to be drawn to.

Have another look at the full painting at the top, I have altered the graffiti that was on the bridge to be my signature for this piece.

Oil Painting 27 - The Willows of Gnosall

The plan was to get down to Thomas Telford's Stretton Aqueduct but when you underestimate the distance and then stop at such a peaceful spot as Gnosall surrounded by a passage of flowing Willow trees, the plan, and life, has to wait for 2 days whilst I produce this piece.

I have wanted to paint a willow for a long time, especially seeing so many on this project, growing by the water. If you remember with the French trip to the Vendee coast this year I produced one of my first tree 'portraits' with 'Tree by the Atlantic' study. It has been just a matter of time since then until I paint a willow, I know the flow of draping leaves in the movement of the wind will suit my approach with paint. I am not sure that this piece is 'it' however, it has some of that love of willow trees but is also a comment on the Shropshire Union canal and the long passages without locks where you are cruising through a tunnel of trees. I am enjoying the small front of the boat dwarfed by these leafy giants. Incidentally the owner of the boat in front got it cheap because it was underwater when he bought it!

Posted with Blogsy

Oil Painting 25 - Market Drayton

This piece was squeezed into the 48 hours available at a visitor mooring in Market Drayton. It is not a bad challenge actually, to have these marked time periods at stopping points along the circuit, sometimes frustrating but it has kept us working and moving. Before this boat project, The most I have managed was a solid 48 hour painting stint for charity, when I painted 32 canvas portraits depicting 37 different sitters. The sitters were allocated 90 minute time slots throughout the 2 days and nights. I was exhausted and the last few were a little ropey but all in all it was an interesting experiment and raised £3000 for meningitis research. I wonder if I could do a similar format in a British Waterways 48 hour mooring spot.

Anyway, back to this piece, despite enjoying Market Drayton's town centre and having a good cycle round to gauge possible painting locations I ended up sticking with the visitor mooring spot and enjoying the idea of producing a piece from the boats perspective looking along the roof. This is an iconic view for any boater when steering your 60ft piece of metal along the waterways. I am pleased with the result which happily combines the reflection study of an attractive boat with some dramatic spacial representation.



The view or weather conditions are nothing extraordinary but it is a good image to sum up what I am trying to do with this project in giving an alternative take on the actual experience of travelling on a boat around the British canals. I say 'the actual experience', of course I am heavily manipulating this recorded experience, for example, I really didn't need a fire on the evening of finishing the painting yet fancied painting the wispy blue smoke across the composition from the chimney at the front of the boat. I was sweating cobs inside the boat for the rest of the evening!

Oil Painting 24 - The Shroppie Fly, Audlem

We had been looking forward to spending some time in Audlem, and the popular Cheshire village didn't disappoint. The Shroppie Fly is the name of the cream canalside pub in this painting alongside Audlem Mill and canal shop. When you walk into the Shroppie you are faced with the awesome bar, a former working 'fly' boat, with the bar staff pulling the pints from inside the boat. I was also taken with some great framed sketches on the wall of some of the live music acts they have had there. I myself, really enjoy and would recommend the challenge of trying to capture a moving live performer on stage. Some of the other pictures on the walls of the shroppie admittedly made my heart sink, there was at least three paintings or prints from the same viewpoint as I had just started from with this Oil Painting 24. Views become iconic because they have an impact or gut appeal - Should the artist refuse these viewpoints because they have been explored many times before? Or embrace the universal appeal? A noticeable difference with my painting is the wide angle that allows the inclusion of the wonderful lock keepers cottage. The garden to this cottage was something special with the owners selling bits and bobs to passing boaters from amongst the flowers. We bought a second hand windlass from them. I am really enjoying the amount of tiny independent trade on the towpaths and wish to paint more of them. After being self employed for 5 years now, entrepreneurship is a subject that really appeals. I am embracing this culture myself displaying past Year of the Boat works on easels alongside my current painting to entertain the passers by. One of the passers by on this occasion was the boat 'The Cat's Whiskers', a boat that has already passed me working once in Wrenbury on the Llangollen canal. You can read their experience of the Shroppie on their blog http://thecatswhiskersnb.blogspot.co.uk/

Oil Painting 20 - Chirk Aqueduct

You can see the Welsh mountains starting to have an affect on the landscape as you are getting closer to Chirk, then you round a corner and are suddenly faced with this impressive aqueduct accompanied by a railway viaduct. The canal immediately goes into a tunnel at the other end of the aqueduct. This is the view as you round the corner, I wanted to get the drama of the multiple levels, looking down to the river and up to the passing trains as well as seeing the water of the canal. It was a tight angle to achieve the water and the arches of the Aqueduct. There are sheep in the flat flood plain fields below. This span marks the border with a sign at the end - 'Welcome to Wales'.

Oil Painting 13 - Oil Sketch of Castlefield Quay with Beetham Tower

This quick study was left alone when the morning sun disappeared for the afternoon rain. I am glad of this though as it has kept the painting in an early interesting stage that I would usually transform, losing some of this initial sparkle. It is always a compromise between initial expression and economy of colour and line, and clarification of detail and definite illusion of space. I was overlooked by high-rise mills of converted flats with balconies and a few of the residents came down to chat through what I was doing.

Oil Painting 12 - Castlefield with white skies

I can see where LS Lowry was coming from with his white Manchester skies, the overcast or raining 3 or 4 days we spent in Castlefield unexpectedly brought out very Lowryesque treatments of the landscape with the stark whites, warm red bricks and grey. The more time I was spending on this piece the more the towpath was lightening up and it was probably good that I stopped before adding a matchstick man and could be done for plagiarism. That being said I thoroughly enjoyed exploring this landscape and my time in the centre of the city. I only wish the rain had let up a little more to facilitate more paintings, but then I guess that wouldn't be Manchester.

Oil Painting 11 - Castlefield Evening Sun

After passing through media city, the high rise flats of Manchester began to dwarf us as we arrived at Castlefield late in the day. I began this painting in a hurry buzzing with the excitement of now (temporarily) living in a city centre and trying to capture the last hour of sun which was turning the red brick of the converted mills and multiple viaducts into golden orange glow. The dramatic modern footbridge spanning the canal, and towpath I was working on, was making a good spectator area, with many people leaning and watching the painting take shape, a small chinese lady watched for 45 minutes which I think is the longest I have managed to entertain a member of the public. I am a complete showman, I love the added energy that comes with being conscious of people watching, and striving to keep their interest.

Year of the Boat Part 3 - Middlewich to Anderton

Conte sketch 1 - Old Trafford

I have been enjoying using conte crayons in life classes recently and thought the metalwork of old trafford and the caged gas pipes over the canal would translate well to this medium.

Angel over shoulder 2010

 Conte has more permanence than charcoal, you can achieve some rich blacks and flowing gestural linework.

Becky sat upright 2012

I haven't produced many landscapes in this medium but hoping to master this in the process of needing to turn around quick landscapes in this project.

Pencil Sketch 5 - Karen steering through Sale

Karen taking us through the long straight section of Altrincham and Sale, Greater Manchester, towards the city centre.We had heard a few horror stories of the Manchester canals but nothing negative to report of here, had a pleasant ride in, fascinated by our first big city growing up out of rural Cheshire. I am pleased with this sketch, you can capture real spontaneity in quick sketching, and I am enjoying the process of choosing the background as we go along!

An advantage of travelling at walking pace...

There are not that many pros to travelling at an average speed of below 3mph, until you see an old guy struggling with shopping keeping pace with you

Oil Painting 10 - Reflection Study, Preston Brook IN PROGRESS

A quick small study from the front of the boat. Only an hour and a half's work so far, searching for an unconventional composition. I struggled with the close proximity sitting in the front of the boat, which is a worry as I was thinking of doing a lot from this position over the year. I am hoping to develop this study further, but of course this will mean different boats and a different location.

Part 2 - Wheelock to Middlewich

Oil Painting 9 - 'Kitch'

I was helped to moor up before the Preston Brook Tunnel by a fascinating looking fellow called 'Kitch'. Kitch was covered in tattoos and had a bizarre broken nose. I really wanted to paint him sat on a little wooden bench on the towpath next to his wood pile and a carved face he had produced from a found piece of sandstone in the woods next to us. He told me he had seen a jet black mink across the other side of the canal the day before.

The dappled sunlight was releasing some glorious colours. I would have liked longer with the painting but it wasn't to be. I want to paint more characters' portraits on the canals but time restrictions and the availability of people to sit for long periods are a big factor. I wonder how Vinny coped...



Portrait of a young Peasant - Vincent Van Gogh

Pencil Sketch 4 - Northwich Town Swing Bridge

A cheeky one to try and sneak in before our return passage up the Anderton Boat Lift. I think you can tell the sketch is quite rushed but I wanted to respond to the bridges of Northwich. I was enjoying the black and white paintwork and the movement of the traffic through the structure disappearing into the town although I don't think the sketch got the stage of properly visualising the traffic. Oh well. it is still good exercise to try and capture something as quickly as possible. I am delighted that this transient life of perpetual movement on board a boat seems to reigniting my desire for quick sketching on location which I am aware I have pretty much ignored in my practice since my study at The Princes Drawing School in London where we would do plenty of rapid sketching of scenes of intense interest around the streets of the capital.

Pencil Sketch 3 - Waiting for Hunt's Lock, River Weaver

This sketch was produced whilst waiting for the British Waterways Lock attendee to finish lunch!

Martin Sayle, Karen's dad and our trusted mechanic is at the tiller enjoying the view. I was drawing this from the roof again. Glorious sunshine, brews a plenty and in no particular rush. I think it was the reflection of the repeated arches of the viaduct that attracted me to start sketching although once I started it became more about the shear height of the railway bridge in relation to the boat.

Oil Painting 8 - Winnington Works in evening sun, Anderton

Winnington Works is a huge industrial complex directly opposite The Anderton Boat Lift and after finishing painting the lift for the day (Oil Painting 7) I would make my way over to paint this in the late sun. I was attracted by quite abstract values, the obvious continuous circular pattern in the River Weaver caused by an overflow from the Trent and Mersey above and how the reflection of the works was affected by that.



The works started out as a huge oddly shaped silhouette but as the sun progressed round it slowly caught more and more of the orange light. The Hunts Lock operator on the River Weaver told me that this works accidentally invented Polythene as a by-product.



I was wanting to capture one of these enormous chemical and salt works of industry in oils ever since passing the first one way back in Middlewich and finally got round to it here in Anderton. I can see already that is going to be a running theme with this trip, seeing something spectacular, but the frustrations and logistics of getting round to paint the subject in the tight time frames before moving on again. I guess I have to just embrace the added energy that comes with knowing you haven't got long.



Photographs by Karen - KS Photography