TheArtistApril2016__

48 artistApril 2016 http://www.painters-online.co.uk

M

y painting is always full of loose

ends. Never very planned, I go

to paint one thing and see

something else – a note in a sketchbook

reminds me to come back another day.

I’ve got used to adapting my painting

days around the weather; there will be

Following last month’s adventures, Richard Pikesleydevelops

some of his reference material, still working on site, into more

finished paintings

END POINTS

time to write letters and tidy the studio

when it’s raining. Right now the sun’s

shining and there’s work to do.

I pull out one of the watercolour

studies I made yesterday and look

again at the two trees that had caught

my eye across the river. There’s

something rather grand about this

subject, two trees amongst thousands,

one in shadow and the other in blazing

sun. Once again my plan changes, I’m

excited by what I’m seeing and think I

know how to paint it. I’ve got a canvas

with me that’s about the right shape

and without further thought I start

painting (left).

Time and tide

Back at Porlock my first concern is the

state of the tide, which has shifted by

about an hour from yesterday. It is all

slightly different, but the hulls and

keels of the line of yachts are still

exposed as they stand on the mud and

I think I can get another drawing done

to help me paint something bigger in

the studio later. I always find it difficult

to ignore the light, but with a

complicated subject like this my initial

focus is on getting all the edges and

relationships within the drawing

mapped out without worrying too much

about the encroaching shadow. I take

my time and do lots of measuring and

checking, keeping an eye on the

swinging shadows of the masts and

switching to working tonally as the light

Light, Trees and River, Barle Valley,oil on

canvas, 1216in (30.540.5cm).

A little essay in light and dark – sometimes

the simpler ideas make stronger

compositions, and this is one I want to return

to on a larger scale. I worked on a previously

started painting that I’d abandoned early on.

The bumpy underlying brushstrokes show

through in places and some of the structure

is built on marks from the earlier start

Porlock Shadow,Indian ink and

watercolour, 1015in (25.538in).

By using insoluble Indian ink to draw the

structure I won’t disturb the framework of the

drawing when I later add watercolour washes

to grab the light at a particular moment

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