More ‘In the beginning….’

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Every painter evolves. Often we don’t see the early work, the experiments that, perhaps, didn’t quite pay off.

As per an earlier post ‘Here’ I am occasionally adding earlier work as and when I find it, or get time to. This month I have a couple from long ago.

The first is ‘The Barn’. This represents my very first foray into ‘alla prima’ (all in one go), ‘en plein air’ (outside) painting. Again, I was around 14 or 15 when I painted this in oils on a canvas board. The reason for the painting was that it was the place where the band I was (and am) in used to practice. Tulwick Barn near Grove in Oxfordshire, is seen here from higher ground in what we used to call ‘the pea field’. It didn’t always grow peas, but that was the name we gave it. Just off the old ‘Gypsy Lane’ path that meanders from Grove to Wantage it gave a great vista down to the old barns where we practiced. As well as music I always loved to paint, and this naive little 10×14 in oil was the result of a very lazy summer’s day spent painting. The shed is full of hay and the field in the foreground has recently been turned over. I still look at this painting with fond memories, so glad I did it.

The Barn

As an aside, the band reformed after many years apart, providing great fun for us but we don’t get to practice at The Barn as it has long gone. I’ve added a pic of us in headier days, and a more recent one emulating the pose of long ago.

The other picture I am adding today is a bit of a mix. Painted when I was around 16 years old, this one was made as an experiment. I was very interested in photography and had received a David Bailey book as a Christmas present. On the cover was a small 4 x 3 black and white picture that Bailey had taken of the model Marie Helvyn. To combine photography and my painting I had the idea of emulating the photo of the model on a full size canvas, and then photographing this and reducing it in size to an approximation of the one on the book cover. Why? I simply wanted to see if I could capture it in paint and see if the monochrome paint would be similar in tonal values to the monochrome photograph I would take.

Unfortunately I don’t have the book any more but I still have the 36 year old framed canvas board. The canvas is approximately 3 feet wide by 2 feet high, so you can imagine, it took a lot of concentration to get it so much larger than the little reference photo and then reduce it back to a photo. The media was also a bit of an experiment, I used oil and acrylic, learning that it’s fine to use oils over acrylic and not the other way around as a result! I have taken a picture of the canvas and added it below.

Lady in a Bath Towel

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll add some more in time.