Galloway – a good place to rest, no need to count sheep…
Galloway, part 3
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Category Archives: drawing
Horse Chestnut Tree, Potternewton Park
This tree in my local park is wider than it’s tall. Two weeks ago, the candles were at their best. I’ve painted horse chestnuts in blossom for a few years – it’s not easy and this is my favourite attempt so far. I’ll have another go next year…
Birkenhead Docks – Present and Future
East Float, 2015
Standing at Tower Wharf in the chilly choppy wind, looking across East Float, one of Birkenhead’s inland docks.
The area is due for transformation in the Wirral Waters development project, a 30 year plan to regenerate the area.
In 2045, this could be the view…
East Float, 2045
Hope some one is around to comment.
Public toilets, Woodhouse Moor, Leeds
Today is World Toilet Day, a UN program to draw attention to the sanitation crisis. 1-in-3 people in the world don’t have a clean, safe toilet!
These public toilets at Hyde Park corner in LS6 are now disused – a slash in the Council’s budget, we assume.
There are about 8000 public toilets left in the UK.
See also:
Public toilets, New Brighton, Wirral
Public toilets, Sea Palling, Norfolk
6th August, 1945
River Mersey – Three Queens
The 175th anniversary of the Cunard Line, Liverpool, May 25th 2015 – the three ships Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria and Queen Mary II, meet in the River Mersey and perform aquatic manoeuvres neither seen nor attempted before.
It was a sight to behold – a strange and unexpectedly emotional experience. Many scousers, including me, wept with pride.
Telephone Box
Phone box, Lidgett Park Road LS8
There are about 10,500 red telephone boxes like this one left in the UK.
It’s the K6 model – over 60,000 were installed since it’s design in 1935 by Giles Gilbert Scott. The same year my mum was born and Alcoholics Anonymous started.
The red phone box was recently voted the best British design of all time – beating Spitfire, London taxis and the miniskirt. Of course, that’s debatable. This phone box is by St Edmund’s Church in Roundhay, Leeds 8.
The No Tree
As I went out one morning… I spied graffiti on graffiti. Someone had written NO on a yellow spot that was spray-painted on a beech tree.
Unless you had an interest in yellow spots, you might not have noticed it.
The yellow spots appeared on about 120 trees a few months ago to mark them for felling.
Gledhow Valley Woods, Leeds 8.
The Lodge House
I was commissioned to make a portrait of this former lodge house, built in 1888 by Sir Charles Ryder, one of the original partners of Tetley’s Brewery. I drew the house a few times before I painted it. In the middle of one drawing about 300 or 400 geese flew overhead, very high up. They flew and honked their way west in a giant V-formation that changed shape as they went – but they didn’t make it into the painting.
Thorn Lodge, Roundhay
The Low Sun
Poetry links:
November Night, Adelaide Crapsey
The Day grew small surrounded tight, Emily Dickinson
November, Thomas Hood
November, Ted Hughes
Arthington Viaduct
Arthington Viaduct by the River Wharfe, West Yorkshire
The viaduct was engineered by James Bray for the Leeds and Thirsk Railway, c.1850.
Chapel Allerton Art Trail 2014
The Three Hulats, Harrogate Road, LS7
Being local, I am honoured to have my paintings on show at The Three Hulats for the next two weeks as part of the Chapel Allerton Art Trail 2014, organised by Inkwell and Chapel Allerton Arts Festival. My pictures are in the darts room, so be careful. Lots of local artists are getting exposure during festival week. Download a map here.
The Official Opening of the event happens on Tuesday 26th August, 6-9pm. Follow the art trail along the 18 locations on Harrogate Road from Inkwell to Further North Bar (about half a mile). Everyone is welcome!
There’s an Art Trail Artists’ Talk on Thursday 28th August, 6-8pm at Inkwell. I’ll be taking part, along with fellow artists Nick Claiden, Helen Dryden and Fred Pepper.
The Wall
The wall is black. And full of colour.
Made of sunlight, tree branches and holes.
Ink paintings II
More Chinese ink, the first picture is painted on greaseproof paper made in 1988. The last two are on rice paper from this century.
Ink paintings I
Using a Chinese ink stick, the first painting is done with sable brushes. The second picture is drawn with home-made bamboo pens. The last image is painted with Big Cloud, a Chinese brush.
Black July Woods
Indian Ink, Chinese brushes, Czech paper – come together in an English wood.
View from the Chevin
View from the Chevin IV
View from the Chevin III
I painted the view a few times.
View from the Chevin, eyes shut
View from the Chevin I
Clock changing woods
I’m losing sleep tonight. The clocks go forward and in the lost hour it feels like time to stop painting the trees and look for a different horizon.
Here’s a drawing with my eyes shut. It still looks like trees:
Exhibition at Horticap, April 2013
A taste of what’s on show at the exhibition of my paintings at Horticap this month. There’s a rolling program of artists exhibiting at this venue.
Hanging it
Conkers
Diatoms
Crow
October Woods
Jo Dunn 