Art - Gallery:
Note: There are no images on this page. Only the text from the main website, relating to each of my paintings, is included here. Readers who retain some vision may prefer to visit the gallery page on the main website. You will find a link to that page at the foot of this one.
The Echo:
This was my first completed painting after I became totally blind. It shows a room with a wide panoramic window, flanked either side by curtained walls. In the centre of the room on a carpet, is the back view of a reclining nude, whose pose is echoed in the range of hills seen beyond the window – or vice versa – hence the title. The colours are white walls and carpet. The curtains, in which can be felt the folds of the material, are gold. The nude is flesh toned, with a head of black hair and the background of hills and night sky are crimson and black. The window is highlighted with white to give the appearance of glass.
The Flooded Cavern:
This is a simple, yet somewhat abstract, design. It’s a very early painting, which attempts to depict an underground cavern, with a shaft of light streaming from somewhere up top. Although it is said to never go back, I may have to re-paint this one, as I have not rendered the stonework to its fullest extent – but it is an early painting and I didn’t know then what I know now about using my mixed media...and I also got the highlights wrong on the water too!
By The Wayside:
This is a landscape, showing a plain background of sky and grassland, with a few impressions of trees. The middle ground is of an old stone wall, tactile, damaged and tumbled down in places by the weather – in hindsight, the texture of the wall could have been rendered to look more realistic to show a more weather-beaten state. The foreground shows a grassy area, with flower heads and fallen stones from the wall, with a track leading to a gap in the wall, from a strip of tarmac at the very front of the painting. When seen by a sighted person, she said this painting reminded her of the Kirkstall Pass in Yorkshire and the varnish shine on the black stone wall made it look drizzly – a nice effect!
Treebourne:
This is an early basic landscape with flat trees and rudimentary foliage. This painting was an attempt to try and create – for the first time – the movement of water, as is shown in the painting. The effect was achieved by flattening out plasticine in its chosen route and then dragging the blade of a table knife in varying strokes, so as to realise the flow of water. Once I was satisfied with the result, I overpainted the river with the same colour as the sky.
The Stony Road:
This painting is a more adventurous work, as it features more tactile images. The stony road itself, running diagonally through the picture, shows the rough textured working of plasticine, multi-layered in colour and scattered with stones; these being small worked pieces of plasticine. The trees, in full autumnal leaf, are still flush to the board, but being scored to show texture. The foliage is made up of scrunched up plasticine. The sky is pure paint and is streaked to give the effect of clouds and the middle ground is a mass of autumnal colours, representing fallen leaves. The foreground has grassland, interspersed with stonework, rocks and boulders. The sky is blue/white and the rest of the painting is browns, yellows, reds, greens and golds. The road is a mixture of all these colours, with a top overlay of chalky, dusty white. It is strange, though pleasantly surprising, that most people who have seen my work class The Stony Road as one of their favourites and as this is another painting I did completely by myself, I must have done something right!
Autumn Pastoral:
This painting is a burst of autumnal colours; orange, yellow and gold. The composition of the painting is simple and the tactile texture is more pronounced, due to the scrunched-up plasticine representing fallen leaves and foliage. The trees are mere impressions though and are still more or less flush to the board.
Of Age:
This was originally the middle panel of a triptych, entitled Three Ages of Woman, but the other two panels did not make the grade. I think Of Age suits the pose, as she is of age to present her open and evocativeness. The figure assumes the yoga Lotus position, with her head bent with a full fall of auburn hair. The background, if I remember correctly, contains some raw and savage crimson brushstrokes.
Je Suis Seule Avec Mon Desespoir:
“Je Suis Seule Avec Mon Desespoir” (I am alone with my despair) speaks for itself. The figure is shown from waist upwards and is nude, though basic in representation of both body and face. She is holding a handkerchief to her eyes and the other hand, resting on a table, is clutching a broken-stemmed rose. The background, though flat, is full of turmoil and movement, owing to the impassioned way I applied the brushstrokes.
First Snow:
This is the most tactile and almost three dimensional of my works so far shown. The stone wall has been realistically worked, with detail being given to show the ravages of the weather. The trees in the middle distance are firmer and stouter, having more substance to them than in any other painting thus far – though one tree in the background loses some credibility, having its bare branches applied naively. The foreground diagonal path and grassy verge reflect the coldness of the painting, with sparse colour and gaps in texture representing puddles, which reflect the bleak sky.
Lonely Water:
This is the first painting I have sold since going totally blind and since Van Gogh was supposed to have sold only one painting in his whole lifetime – and that to his brother – well, I must have done something right! Lonely Water was inspired by the music of E J Moeran, plus a visit to Buttermere in the Lake District, though more for the loneliness of the area, rather than for its beauty. The simple design has the foreground shaped as a semi-circular curve, presenting a rough track, grass verges and scattered flowers. The top half of the painting is also similarly curved, with a woodland track and lakeside trees. There are the remains of an old stone wall and a broken tree, with its stump behind the wall and the trunk with floating foliage angled into the lake. The majority of the painting is taken up by the lake, which mirrors a bleak sky, streaked with silver.
Lake in Autumn:
This is another simple design, but with the trees and foliage even more realistic and definite in their representation. The lake takes up most of the foreground and reflects the sky, while the middle distance is of a curving lakeside track, bordered with autumnal- laden trees.
Lake in Autumn II:
This is a companion piece to Lake In Autumn, using the same methods of scrunching and scraping for the foliage and track respectively. I think this was painted almost soon after its partner, hence the similar range of colours. Rather than a horizontal view of the lake and trees, this painting is a vertical view of the lake, with a more determined and defined track.
On a May Morning:
This painting tries to suggest a quiet and tranquil Sunday morning. My inspiration for this painting was a piano piece of the same title by E J Moeran, my favourite composer. The stones in the pathway were little balls of plasticine, until I stood on them to flatten them out. The grass and path edging was scrunched and pinched plasticine. The path leads down to a bench, which sits in front of a small lake, surrounded by trees in full foliage. The lake reflects a warm sky of cobalt blue, streaked with white clouds. The grassland is scattered with the impressions of flowers, with just the flowerheads showing. To produce this effect, I used the nozzle of a Flash cleaning liquid bottle, pushed the nozzle into the plasticine and pulled it out, bringing with it a small blob of plasticine, which I squashed down and painted.
The Track:
This is the painting featured in the video and it is the quickest work I have done – within weeks – and at times, being surrounded by people with various camera and sound equipment, plus visits to exterior locations. The painting is full of autumnal colours and is, more or less, a variation of The Stony Road, though the textures of the painting have advanced immensely from those early days, with regard to how I worked the trees, walls, grass and foliage and the track itself.
Moon’s Tune:
“Moon’s Tune” is based on an acoustic guitar piece of music of the same title. The painting tries to convey the reflective and flowing mood of the music, as the moon is highlighted in the movement of the river and its reflected light upon the landscape.
The music was written by singer/songwriter Allan Watson, in the guise of Lol Robinson and Hazey Jane II and is featured on the album A Message From The Morning.
In 2013 this painting was awarded First Prize (£250 and Certification) in the Wellbeing section of the Elderly Accommodation Council’s Over-60s Art Awards.
Spirit of the Moonbather:
This painting was completed in late 2017, though the image and design had been with me for many years and could be seen as a variation of The Echo, which has a similar theme to its content. However, the silver rendering of the figure's outline, symbolises the spiritual aspect of his/her fundamental autonomy.