An experiment in acrylic painting techniques that I’ve discovered on Youtube. The use of paper dabbing, ragging, sgraffito and sandpaper, I’ve even used a surgical scalpel. The aim is to created many transparent layers to great depth and texture. This image is a view from the top of Saunton Hill looking out over Saunton Sands and on to the distant Westward Ho. You get that wonderful glow of cadmium yellow Gorse flowers during the year which is always a striking scene. This painting is a mixed media using acrylic, wax and watercolour pencils. The surface is an MDF panel measuring 400 x 400mm covered in a coarse gesso brushwork. It’s been a fun day. Al
Tag art
Pyramid Fire.
The latest in the Glastonbury Festival series. Oil on canvas 36 x 36″. I usually work at the festival with the recycling crew and thoroughly enjoy the week but this year it’s sadly not on, so instead of going i’ve painted. This is a commission piece but hopefully the new owner will allow me to run off some prints. Al
Red Pyramid.
The Pyramid oil on canvas 100 x 100cm. Not really meant to be an exact photographic style image rather than an impression of what it is like to be in front of the Glastonbury Stage when its in full flow. I work at the festival every year as a recycler and am now a veteran. Al
Backroad to Bishops Tawton.
Went to collect a shoe rack from a couple in the back and beyonds of Bishops Tawton nr Barnstaple. After getting rather lost on a few detours I found them and collected said shoe rack. On the way back to the main road I had to stop the car and take a few photographs of weird and wonderful trees. This one with it’s water swamped road caught my attention. Love the skies reflection and decided to make the tree somewhat cephelopodic in shape. Acrylic & pencil on gesso panel 610 x 610mm. More trees to come. Al
The Burton Gallery in Bideford
Very pleased to have a painting accepted by the Burton Gallery for this year’s Christmas exhibition. It is of my mixed media painting Gateway To Manning’s Pit. Please visit the website on facebook Friends Of Manning’s Pit who are trying to save a wonderful area of our English countryside from a planning application to build affordable housing. The very thought of this going through upsets me greatly. Al
Woolacombe Beach.
After a few over paintings and desperate matters this is the finished item, acrylic on canvas 400mm x 400mm. I originally wanted figures within this composition but that proved futile. It’s rather funny how one’s confidence can ebb and flow with just one simple painting. At one point I wanted to punch a hole in it, and another give up painting all together. I’ve learn a lot from this and now to move onward. Thank bloody goodness after the wrestling it’s over. Al
Bye Hill near Winsford
A picture painted from a walk made earlier this year. Bye Hill on Exmoor in Somerset, England. 300mm x 300mm mixed media on paper. A wonderful walk and the pub in the village called The Royal Oak is fantastic. Al
PS Please check out my other site, Why Not Walk for an article about a circular walk around Winsford and the Exmoor National Park. Photos and walking guide!
Rising Tide At Fremington Quay.
Watercolour painting of Fremington Quay in North Devon, England. A day of my first fishing trip with my son Archie aged 14. It’s safe to say that not a single creature was hurt in the making of this day. This is painted using my own prepared Bideford Black a pigment found on the North Devon Coast. This was not a drawn out affair as I’m trying to free up and freshen my work. Dimensions are 340mm x 480mm on handmade paper.
Cow Parsley at Watermouth.
After a visit to Watermouth Cove in North Devon this painting became. Mixed media of acrylic, watercolour pencil, pastel & pen. Along one of the shady walkways I came across a clump of cowparsley and took a quick pic on my iPhone. Love this plant it always reminds me of spring and the smell after the rain is just wonderful.
Silent Noon by Christina Rossetti
Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass, –
The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:
Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms
‘Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.
‘Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: –
So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above.
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,
This close-companioned inarticulate hour
When twofold silence was the song of love.
The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:
Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms
‘Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.
‘Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: –
So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above.
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,
This close-companioned inarticulate hour
When twofold silence was the song of love.
Al.
Jardin des Plantes. Paris.
A quick pastel sketch of the wonderful park called the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Here in this scene it was a warm spring morning and the white avenue edged by trees looked splendid. Runners, families were all here making the most of the crisp sunshine. From here we made our way to the Paris Mosque for wonderful mint tea, a hookah pipe and sweet savoury cakes. Al
Al Brown Multimedia Artist. 