A Chair

I built my first chair about 40 years ago by nailing four lengths of wood onto the corners of a (folding) cardboard ludo board. It was not a good chair. It was only through the phenomenal strength my barely formed thighs that I managed to keep my bum off the ground until the end of tea time. This is my second chair and is pretty successful.

I'd always thought that making furniture might be a rewarding occupation it being both creative and practical. However it's also quite time consuming, space hungry and expensive. The plan was to attempt to make a set of chairs and a small table but time moves on and other projects came to the fore so 1 chair is all there is for now.

There are nails or screws but I did use 'organic resin' glue to strengthen the joints. It was a great excuse to invest in some new tools though. I now have a band-saw, bench-sander, electric-planer and biscuit-jointer (nope,me neither).

I do like the chair very much though. It was based on the stylised designs that Annes Stevens and I developed for the game; Fable The Journey. I think it worked out really well and is quite charming if not very practical as the footprint is quite small. It's shown here on Hankley common to add a touch of drama.

Cutting the mortice and tenons

Laminating the legs

The un-oiled seat.The splits are cut in as a stylistic feature

Perhaps one day I'll make the rest of the set but keep your money in your wallet for now, I'm not be taking any orders just yet.

Fire and Iron

2011 has been good to me, I feel revitalised. I've been catching up on time mis-spent and searching out new ways of making stuff. I'd always been attracted to the elemental nature of blacksmithing; iron, fire and muscle. But how to begin? Well as it turned out, I work with the partner of Rebecca Clarke who is both a Blacksmith in her own right and the daughter of renowned metalworker Terrence Clark. Even better than that their forge is right on the path of my lunchtime run, about 10 mins form the office.

Bex is an excellent tutor and a pleasure to be with. She took me from complete novice to making items I'm genuinely proud of in a matter of hours. Call her, commission her, you won't regret it!!

She started off by teaching me to make tongs, a basic tool of the trade and then some 8cm nails which I need for another project of mine.

I had a thoroughly rewarding time doing this. It's probably the most engrossing thing I've done in a long, long time and something I intend to pick up again when time permits. Perhaps even build a forge.

Sicily sketches

Just back from two weeks in Sicily where we rented a house overlooking the sea near Scopello. Sicily is lovely, all you might want from an Italian experience; beautiful countryside, chaotic towns, turquoise water and great food. It's also got the most unthreatening feral dogs and the most threatening drivers I've come across anywhere. The cafe/bar in Scopello is a great place to sit and be amazed by both. Outside their cars the people are lovely; relaxed, engaging and charming but once behind the wheel they're SCARY.

I Managed a couple of morning runs (not my best time :-) in the Zingaro national park which was amazing. It was more like fell-running as the paths are really rocky and uneven with quite demanding slopes. I made it even more challenging by sticking to a strict and beautiful diet of pecorino cheese, fresh bread on the hour, suino-nero salamy, oil soaked veg and cheap wine. I should really align my intrerests better.

More relevant to this blog, I found the time to do some watercolour sketching as well. It was fantastic being able to paint in such wonderful light. It really makes easier to be braver with the palette when everything is glowing. I think I learned quite a lot from the experience.

There are a few more pics here if you feel the need more sicily sketches

Semi Recovered Fail

Oil No2

Tomatoes and coffee bon't make a great snack but they serve well enough as a still life subject.
I took a bit more care over this one. I really want to be able to paint in the 'studio' and in the evenings so I sorted out some daylight lighting and used a box to reduce background interference.
I got some 20w (100w old skool) low-energy daylight bulbs from 'nulightuk' on eBay http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/nulightuk/. They work well for the subject using a desklamp but I really need another source to light the canvas. One light is just a bit constraining.
An old cardboard box with the front and top removed contains and controls the scene. It should probably be black but I figured I'd done enough prep at that stage and really wanted to start painting.
I also painfully re-learned that painting over graphite pencil with oils is not a good idea (it lifts).

It's so much more enjoyable when you can focus on painting without the time pressure of shifting light. I can see loads of ways to improve this pic but I'm still pretty happy with the result. Can't wait to do another.

Oil

I fancied trying a more robust medium so I got myself some oils. I'd used them once before, years ago got frustrated and never stuck with them.

I know this is a horribly flawed image, I was just getting a feel for the paint again. To be honest it felt alright, I could do with being bolder and less faffy but it seemed managable.

 

The biggest shock was realising just HOW LONG it takes for the blasted stuff to dry.

The Moat at Elstead

Not a terribly exciting image but it has some things going for it. It's of The Moat behind Elstead.

I took off for a couple of hours this morning to see if anything convinced me to paint it. After strolling around The Moat for a bit (remaining unconvinced) I decided I had to do something rather than pack it in so I sat myself at the far side of the pond, looking back on the little sandy beach.

It's not a bad representation the scene but it looks a lot better in the thumbnail than it does enlarged. Lacking crispness and a bit muddy again but I'm happy with it considering I wasn't that motivated.

It's a lovely spot, very relaxing, ducks paddling, ripples rippling, a couple of biplanes droning overhead on the way to the Dunsfold airshow. In the end, as always, it didn't really matter what I came up with, it was just nice to be out and about painting.

I might just treat this and another I did at the time as sketches and have a go at a studio image later.

Mackeral

It's too easy to get used to good weather. This weekend we forgot we were in the U.K. followed a break in the clouds and went line fishing off a boat (Kraken) out of Lyme Regis. The sea was spectacular, a gently undulating glassy surface with a seamless blend between it and the pearly cloud backdrop. Quite a beautiful and surreal experience for an infrequent boater like me.

Of course the weather borked and everyone was soaked within 10 minutes despite coming equipped with perfectly good tee-shirts and even some socks. Anyway, once you're really wet you're probably as wet as you're going to get so we carried on.The company and the fishing was pretty good though; interesting chats and enough of a catch for dinner.

Mackeral are a beautiful fish to catch (easy), eat (tasty) and to look at (stripey). Unfortunately I haven't really done them service here, E.Mc has done much better in the past. To make amends I later headed off to Tesco to have a crack at an iced one but they only had Herring. Arguably as tasty but not such a looker if you ask me.

Cliffs at Burton Bradstock

More of the crazy cliffs at Burton Bradstock near West Bay in West Dorset with the Isle of Portland in the background. This one on a really hot August day with the crowds out. Sun-cream and ice-cream as as as the eye could see.

I'm pretty pleased with this pic; It feels like the place and the paint is going down a lot cleaner than recently. I'm being more agressive with it which seems to be paying off. It's certainly a big improvement on last year's visit to West Bay a bit further west along the coast.

This one is about A5, watercolour with some gouache to help with the people (the dotty bits in the middle). Thanks to A.S. for suggesting adding more green in the summer sky, paradoxically it does feel warmer and helps remove the 'straight from the pan' quality from the F.U.Blue.

Last Year's images http://paulmcsblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/west-bay.html

Grey Day by Golden Cap

A Bleak day and quite a bleak picture. Had an hour between downpours to rattle one off on the beach by Golden Cap (Lyme Regis in the background).

I had some problems with laying down the initial tonal values so it's a bit overworked but worth doing, any practice is good practice.