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 28 - The Salon and Marble Hall at Weston

Last year, 2011, I started a wonderful working relationship with the Weston Park Foundation. It began with entering their Halls Fine Art Open Competition in the superb Granary Gallery space at Weston, having 2 out of 3 submitted selected, and then receiving the wonderful news that one of the pieces, 'Etruria Roundabout' had won the regional artist prize of £500 for Staffordshire and Cheshire. Etruria Roundabout is one of my personal favourites and has always proved popular, also winning the Visitor's Choice Prize at The Staffordshire Open at The Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford, but for one reason or another it has not found a buyer yet. I guess not everyone wishes to have a busy concrete traffic spot on their walls!

Winning the prize at the Halls Open at Weston introduced my agent and I to the art curator and education team there and we were offered a group show in the December months responding to the theme of Weston Park itself and celebrating the 25 years the foundation has been established. Participating in this exhibition was one of my career highlights as it lead to months of directly responding to the House and grounds as well as gaining entry to paint the main stage at the V Festival. Click here to see more details on the exhibition and the body of work.

So, when I knew we would be close by on the boat, moored at the beautiful village of Wheaton Aston and then Stretton Aqueduct, I thought I would revisit the fascinating interiors of the House at Weston with Oil Painting 28 - The Salon and Marble Hall. The other interiors I have painted at the house are The Library and The Dining Room and The British Guild of Travel Writers' Dinner at Weston.

It was ideal indoor subject matter with the dismal weather continuing, but more than that I really enjoyed an unusual depiction of space interpreting a chequered floor. Along with looking down railway lines and telegraph poles a chequered floor is a much-used device for illustrating space and perspective.

MC Escher often played his visual illusion games using chequered flooring, the study of Escher's perspective treatment formed part of my wide angle dissertation study during my Fine Art BA Hons. I think the stark contrast of black and white patterned squares allow immediate interpretation of the plane in space you are trying to depict, and as we have become so familiar with them, they can facilate and bring a normality to quite complex spacial representations. Another more recent artistic treatment of distorting chequered flooring can be seen in some of Tim Burton's films 'Nightmare before Christmas' and 'Alice in Wonderand'.

I have waved the horizon in the piece to draw attention to looking down at the tiles on the right hand side and looking up at skylight in the salon on the left. 

I have always had an unusual education of the subject whenever painting in the house at Weston, the tour guides escorting groups round and informing about every piece of art in the room I am looking at is a great way to learn about what you are painting. Now I know this room was originally a courtyard, I am positioned next to a painting of a 127 year old woman who once walked from Staffordshire to London, the painting of the ships in the background caused distress to a group of yacht owners because the wind is wrong. There is another popular painting in the room of a little girl who has been whipped in her classes, the chairs are all of the studio of Chippendale, the chequered flooring is welsh slate and Italian marble and original to the house. When Birmingham housed the G8 Summit the world leaders had a day of relaxation here at Weston and watched the cup final in this room whilst Tony Blair and Bill Clinton were being interviewed on the lawn at the front by David Frost.

Posted with Blogsy

Oil Painting 17 - Sunset on the approach to Middlewich

Our first time round the Cheshire ring I saw this sunset subject on the stretch between Sandbach and Middlewich. Before buying the narrowboat, whenever I have driven this stretch I always enjoyed seeing the boaters operating the locks higher than the road and so it was doubly enjoyable to actual be one of the boaters looking down on the traffic. This stretch also marks the start of the enormous salt and chemical works which line the canal up to Northwich.

This is the start of the Cheshire plain, and (for a canal) we are still at quite a high vantage point dropping down onto the flat landscape which makes you especially aware of the last sunlight and dramatic weather.  The down side to this being you are quite exposed and I had a battering by the wind getting this piece together. I also witnessed fork lightning from here as a storm swept in calling a end to the second session. 3 sessions in total.

'Une Petite Exposition' Opened by infamous forger John Myatt

John Myatt (right) at the opening

John Myatt, who was involved in the biggest art con in the UK, kindly opened the

Newcastle-Under-Lyme Show ‘Une Petite Exposition’ with a wonderful speech that

commended the artistry but also the commitment to paint the whole show entirely on

location, in front of the motif, an approach which he described as ‘sadly in decline’.

John had become aware of my work through also using the framing service at the Art

Studio, where the exhibition was held.

John went to Brixton prison for being involved in “the biggest art fraud of the 20th

century” and is now one of the UK’s fastest selling artists. I thoroughly appreciated

his time and kind words.

The exhibition was a success, with a large turn-out, including other local artists I admire Jiri Borsky and Peter Ecclestone.

Find more information about John Myatt’s fascinating story on his website - http://

www.johnmyatt.com/

Here is a link to another newspaper story about the exhibition -
http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/Artist-Rob-Pointon-opens-new-exhibition/story-16087438-detail/story.html

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.