Oil Painting 46 - Inside the Copper Beech

I think realisation that i had not ticked all boxes with the previous painting of the Copper Beech led me to produce this quick study, literally 10 metres from the previous vantage point, stepping inside the Copper Beech's canopy and painting just the trees' internal area. This subject could have taken an enormous canvas and invited more comparison with the inside of a Cathedral, however, time and available canvases were against, so it remains quite a loose small work of the trunk.

The brushwork and approach seems different from my usual so it intrigues as a piece, although not completely sure why, I think it was enjoying fracturing some of the light into straight angled brush-strokes which is against the initial anticipated dappled treatment but does convey something of the experience of looking through all those branches. Knowing a piece is not going to be something you would ideally like from the offset, and working on it whilst flipping between another painting, does give a lack of expectation to the painting and in turn a feeling of freedom and 'anything goes'.

Oil Painting 44 - Worcester Cathedral Interior

I am especially grateful to the management at Worcester Cathedral for allowing the benefits of my work to overrule the hazards and to grant me access to paint inside the Cathedral.

This interior space is beyond breathtaking, the height, space and unquestionable beauty surround you. Whereas I was struggling to find an angle that satisfied with Oil Painting 43 of the exterior, there was absolutely no problem in locating a vantage point inside the building. This for me, sits alongside some of the best Cathedral Interiors in the North of France. I can now, for the next four days at least, walk to this incredible subject from where I wake, and spend full days responding. The colours change fabulously throughout the day as the sun comes and goes throughout the different stained glass, highlighting the green and golds of the naked cotswold stone. 

I knew instantly this subject would lend itself to my approach and I could produce an individual take with challenging perspectives, gestural brushstrokes whipping the eye around to reflect the enormity and strength of the pillars, and draw out and exaggerate some of the colour subtleties within the stonework in the changing light.

Because there was just so much to go at visually I ended up attempting to contain as much as possible by standing in the central cross of the building in a position where by swinging around I could view down the Nave, both transepts and down towards the Lady Chapel, basically a panorama just short of 360 degrees catching the north, east, south and western stained glass windows in one image. Panning round so far enables you to convincingly wave the horizon and bring in a sense of height. 

This was the main struggle with this painting, wanting to spin right the way round but also knowing the overriding sensation of being in this space, and therefore the main subject, is the gravity defying height. Spinning too much and creating a thin panorama that loses that feeling of looking up would be a failure. The easiest way for me to communicate the height would be flip the panorama on its side, so you simply pan from the floor to the ceiling, which is exactly what I did Oil Painting 42 - Pugin's Gem. This piece is the straight forward symmetrical depiction of the interior of a gothic space and I wasn't surprised to find a photo with nearly the same composition in The Pugin Centre in Cheadle after starting the piece. No, I had got the appeal of the symmetry out of my system with that painting and now wanted to play games with recording right the way around me, looking up and down, even skewing and distorting some aspects to sneak the transept organ in on the right.

It was a compositional struggle that stretched me to the point of not knowing, even after a full days work, if it would read clearly as a representation of space or not. There was a eureka moment when i painted the pattern of the tiles in the central space that helped describe the entire space. All of a sudden the piece then seemed to click with the average viewer, and I gained the approval of the general public which until then had obviously been unsure! This happens a lot with the painting process in public and I often rush to get to the stage where people can read where I am going with the painting, as the activity becomes more enjoyable after that and you do not feel the end to constantly explain yourself. Believe me, a full day of rushed work and doubt, with confused glances from passers by, is a long time!

Gradually though the piece developed and the community of the Cathedral became warmer and warmer to having a painter in with them. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Cathedral, met some wonderful people, and would love the opportunity to spend more time there. A residency either with the Cathedral or the local school would be ideal where I could have more time  to explore spacial representations in this the most breathtaking of interiors. This is something I shall certainly be pursuing once I have finished dragging this 16 tonne tub around the country.

Oil Painting 43 - Worcester Cathedral

Our entrance into Birmingham was quite stressful, however the stay in the centre as I have mentioned already, and the exit we took were anything but. The canal passage past the mailbox continues, accompanied by a railway line, tree lined, surrounded by leafy Edgbaston, the Botanical Gardens and the attractive campus of Birmingham University. By the end of this stretch and then with the interest of Cadbury World, the canal was entering the first of the big three tunnels on the Birmingham and Worcester Canal and urban living is once again left behind replaced by rural Worcestershire. 

Leaving Brum means The Great Divide has now been crossed, we have left the Northern Monkeys behind and are now Southern Softies. I can feel the increased temperatures, wealth and arrogance washing over me but before I can get too comfortable in my new role snubbing the north, I am brought down to earth with a real bummer of a stretch of locks. The longest flight in the country it turns out, 50 something to Worcester in total and a particularly nasty stretch of 37 in just 4 miles at Tardebigge. Thats over 9 a mile. Luckily Stoke City holding Arsenal to a draw on BBC5Live got me through it (I have not completely abandoned my roots).

 

Eventually we pull up in Worcester, a small city dominated by an almighty Cathedral. My home city of Stoke on Trent has a much bigger population although it is a relatively new city (a federation of six squabbling towns 100 years ago) and thus doesn't have one of these enormous religious buildings dominating the skyline. It has plenty of impressive church spires and towers and even a new domed mosque but nothing on the scale of Worcester Cathedral. Nearly 1000 years old it still has the intimidating, awe-inspiring affect it's architects would have wished, and there is something utterly timeless about mooring up our floating home within ear shot of the bells tolling each hour.

Right then, where to paint it from? The iconic view of Worcester contains the Cathedral, and there seems to be one main vantage point, which is across the other side of the River Severn with a bit of cricket pitch and the arched river bridge in shot. *yawn*

I am paranoid enough about my paintings on this project becoming picture-postcard-like without consciously painting THE view of Worcester, that seems to be everywhere in the towns promotion. So out of stubbornness as much as anything, I defiantly stick to the high street side and try to get a view between the trees, this pushes me closer to the entrance and the visitors to the Cathedral so I feel I am having more of a conversation with the building, the close proximity allowing a more dramatic perspective and sense of scale, with the stonework filling the composition. The obvious influence here is the Rouen Cathedral frontage work of Claude Monet, although Dennis Creffield's expressive Cathedral representations have had a lasting impact after seeing him talk at The Princes Drawing School. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Creffield

Claude Monet's various representations of the portal of Rouen Cathedral

Dennis Creffield - Gloucester Cathedral I

We were having some rare and much appreciated sunshine and the tracking light source picking out the decorative stonework was unveiling some glorious unexpected colour combinations. Thoughts of Monet's Rouen Cathedral work and having the time to spend long periods of time with a constant subject is having appeal at this point in the midst of this stop start journey around the country, seeing so much but having limited time and feeling the pressure to keep moving.

Whilst working I was approached by a artist called Conrad (never gave surname) and we had a good constructive chat through where I was going with the piece. I think he approved. He voiced some great past artists who had similar areas of interest, particularally with the fracturing of this composition into a diamond format. The artists he named -

Lionel Feineger

Lionel Feinenger

Robert Delaunay

On the 2nd out of 3 days painting this piece there was a Graduation Ceremony

This piece, and producing it alongside the Entrance was also consciously a demonstration piece to the management team of the Cathedral to try and gain access to paint the spectacular interior...