Today I have been making a start on my painting The Hob. Working outside, as I have for most of the pieces in this series. I battled against the quick drying effects of sunshine fanned by a warm breeze. In some respects these weather conditions worked as an advantage with this painting, as I was able to allow the lighter colours to dry before applying the bold blacks to the canvas thereby avoiding accidental colour transfer. This helped enormously in keeping lines clean and bold. I wanted to give solidity to the painting, making it sturdy and chunky to portray the functionality of the scene.
By keeping the painting basic I feel the scene crosses over into the abstract. Without the details to prompt the viewers eye the basic shapes seem to take on another more primitive life, whilst still retaining the familiar, if unconventional fusion of gas and electric hobs. Again one taken from my Suffolk home and the other from my place in the north east in keeping with this theme.
The past week or so has been very busy travelling between Suffolk and the north east. Today I managed to get back to my latest painting The Fire Place. I have been very busy adding some finishing touches to the work, adding wall coverings and finishing off the remainder. I think the loosely mixed white paint with a touch of black in stripes worked quite well in achieving that shimmering light on silk effect of the white wall paper. The other side of the wall I used the original colour scheme but made it much bolder in the painting. I think this decision helps to emphasise the rather graceful lines of the more elegant fireplace on the left hand side of the work. The most difficult part of the painting to achieve was capturing the plaster moulding. I think my representation just hints at this feature, and is a detail I may go back to later once I have tackled the next project in this series The Hob. In the main I employed thick and textured paint to the canvas applying it with a variety of brushes.
