As part of the Rennaissance Project for Cleethorpes three local artists Tracey Edges, Bill Meek and myself have been asked to produce the artwork for postcards. It’s great to have been asked to get involved and great that the traditional postcard format for a seaside town is being challenged. Rather than the mass produced, generic postcard of Cleethorpes Pier, which could be any seaside town in the UK, our postcards will offer a view through the subjective & selective eyes of three very different artists.
The three postcards I am working on are views of Cleethorpes at sunrise.
Sunrise 1 is the view under the Pier with the Fort on the horizon.
Sunrise 2 is sunrise and the Fort
Sunrise 3 is sunrise at the Boating Lake
The three postcards I am working on are views of Cleethorpes at sunrise.
Sunrise 1 is the view under the Pier with the Fort on the horizon.
Sunrise 2 is sunrise and the Fort
Sunrise 3 is sunrise at the Boating Lake
Sunrise 1 - Sketch 1 
The postcard commission is also challenging my practice in many ways. The work is more figurative and in particular I’m having a whole new palette experience! The orange spectrum colours in Sunrise 1 & 3 are clean, fresh and straightforward. Basically, an orange is lightened by a warm (cobalt) yellow or a cold (lemon) yellow. But the pinks! Wow! The pinks of Sunrise 2 are a whole new colour ball game. It’s difficult but exciting.
Sunrise 1 - Sketch 2
Sunrise 1 - Sketch 3 complete
Sunrise 1 - painting unfinished
Sunrise 1 - painting unfinished - detail
On this blog, I try to avoid referring to my life other than my life as a painter. But writing the blog has helped me realise a change in my work that is also reflected in my life and until writing the notes I was unaware of this parallel. Life reflecting art and all that. One’s work is so intertwined with ones life it is impossible to distinguish which is influencing which. I am entering into a crimson phase!
Sunrise 2 - Sketch 1
It’s funny because pink and purples are colours that I really enjoy and appeal to me in my life generally for example in my choice of clothing, flowers or living environment. This is a new development. I have moved away from the turquoise blue, the colour which was the inspiration for all my lagoon paintings (and clothing!). The blue spectrum I know so well that working it has become instinctive. I can recognise the subtlest difference and mix the nuance of colour without a thought having to register in my conscious/critical mind. The pink/purple spectrum is something I know very little about on the palette.
Sunrise 2 - Sketch 2
The colours emerging are rich, sumptuous & consuming. Back in my college days alizarin crimson was the only part of the pink/purple spectrum we were issued each term. There were loads of mucky browns and ochres but no passionate, vibrant, energising pinks or purples to be had!
Sunrise 2 - Sketch 3
Sunrise 2 - Painting detail - unfinished
Sunrise 3 - Sketch complete
Sunrise 3 - painting detail unfinished
There is a whole new world of colour opening up to me. Even the pigment names are gorgeously unfamiliar and descriptive. While the blue hues are as familiar as old friends.
Magenta lightened by titanium white is a rich pinky purple.
Permanent geranium and titanium creates a sweet candyfloss pink.
Rose madder and titanium creates the classic pink of the Pinks, a carnation pink.
Mmmmmmmm. So gorgeous I could eat-cha!!
The postcard commission is also challenging my practice in many ways. The work is more figurative and in particular I’m having a whole new palette experience! The orange spectrum colours in Sunrise 1 & 3 are clean, fresh and straightforward. Basically, an orange is lightened by a warm (cobalt) yellow or a cold (lemon) yellow. But the pinks! Wow! The pinks of Sunrise 2 are a whole new colour ball game. It’s difficult but exciting.
Sunrise 1 - Sketch 2
Sunrise 1 - Sketch 3 complete
Sunrise 1 - painting unfinished
Sunrise 1 - painting unfinished - detail
On this blog, I try to avoid referring to my life other than my life as a painter. But writing the blog has helped me realise a change in my work that is also reflected in my life and until writing the notes I was unaware of this parallel. Life reflecting art and all that. One’s work is so intertwined with ones life it is impossible to distinguish which is influencing which. I am entering into a crimson phase!
Sunrise 2 - Sketch 1
It’s funny because pink and purples are colours that I really enjoy and appeal to me in my life generally for example in my choice of clothing, flowers or living environment. This is a new development. I have moved away from the turquoise blue, the colour which was the inspiration for all my lagoon paintings (and clothing!). The blue spectrum I know so well that working it has become instinctive. I can recognise the subtlest difference and mix the nuance of colour without a thought having to register in my conscious/critical mind. The pink/purple spectrum is something I know very little about on the palette.
Sunrise 2 - Sketch 2
The colours emerging are rich, sumptuous & consuming. Back in my college days alizarin crimson was the only part of the pink/purple spectrum we were issued each term. There were loads of mucky browns and ochres but no passionate, vibrant, energising pinks or purples to be had!
Sunrise 2 - Sketch 3
Sunrise 2 - Painting detail - unfinished
Sunrise 3 - Sketch complete
Sunrise 3 - painting detail unfinished
There is a whole new world of colour opening up to me. Even the pigment names are gorgeously unfamiliar and descriptive. While the blue hues are as familiar as old friends.
Magenta lightened by titanium white is a rich pinky purple.
Permanent geranium and titanium creates a sweet candyfloss pink.
Rose madder and titanium creates the classic pink of the Pinks, a carnation pink.
Mmmmmmmm. So gorgeous I could eat-cha!!
I’m ashamed! I know virtually nothing about the cycles of the moon. Been sat here more than half an hour and the yellow half moon plus a day – just seems to be sat there in the sky. I still can’t decide whether it’s setting or rising. Just checked –it’s just east of a south westerly position so I guess it’s setting. But it hardly seems to be moving. Not like the rising moon I watched rising at my last visit which seemed to have shifted up every time I looked. Perhaps the trajectory is different at different stages of it’s cycle. This must be the case. I do know that the full moon rises when the sun sets and the full moon sets at sun rise. Though I must confess that I only discovered this when thinking about doing this residency. So in the mid winter when the nights are longest the moons night journey across the sky will take double the time it would in the mid summer. I love that the pattern is reverse of the sun.
