An art lover’s house in Roundhay, Leeds. The owners requested a drawing in colour and I was happy to oblige. Painted last week on watermarked T & J H Kent paper from c.1950.
House Portrait #35
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Category Archives: watercolour
Spring!
Finally… it is Spring in Leeds.
Pet Redbeard
A local Viking who kindly agreed to sit. Pet has striking features which I am drawn to draw.
Galloway, part 2
The Rhins of Galloway, trying to think about nothing.
Galloway, part 1
The Rhins of Galloway, a good place to get away when the world’s gone mad. It’s very green and peaceful, and the sheep don’t bother you.
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…
And Did Those Feet
This is the View From Birkrigg Common. It’s hanging in a group show in Leeds called And Did Those Feet, an exhibition exploring William Blake’s poem, Jerusalem.
The inspiration for the picture came in March this year when I visited Birkrigg Common, Ulverston, Cumbria, and was struck by the panorama visible from the triangulation point.
Since then I have painted it several times, usually as a series of 4 interlocking images, that to me represent many of the elements of Blake’s Jerusalem:
1. England’s mountains green are there – the fells of the Lake District.
2. Ancient times have left traces such as the Bronze Age stone circle.
3. The pleasant pastures of Bardsea, with their sheep and lambs, look down on the purple sands of Morecambe Bay at low tide, and the island where monks built a holy chapel in the 14th Century.
4. Here can be seen more clouded hills, and at the far right of the painting, Heysham nuclear power station – our latest version of a satanic mill.
The exhibition runs until 24th May 2016 at St Edmund’s Church, Lidgett Park Road, Leeds LS8 1JN. I’ll be there on Sunday 22nd May, 11:30am – 1pm, if you’d like to say hello and see my longest painting yet – it’s 10 feet wide.
Mad March Sky
Sunset on Monday night – the sky and the trees go crazy – in a good way.
Raging River Wharfe
The River Wharfe at Harewood Bridge a week or two ago, still roaring from all the rain it drank at Christmas.
No!
No sun – no moon!
No morn – no noon!
No dawn – no dusk – no proper time of day –
No sky – no earthly view –
No distance looking blue –
No road – no street – no “t’other side this way” –
No end to any Row –
No indications where the Crescents go –
No top to any steeple –
No recognitions of familiar people –
No courtesies for showing ’em –
No knowing ’em!
No traveling at all – no locomotion –
No inkling of the way – no notion –
“No go” by land or ocean –
No mail – no post –
No news from any foreign coast –
No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility –
No company – no nobility –
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member –
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds –
November!
Thomas Hood
(1799-1840)
