Tuel Lane Lock Under Construction, Rochdale Canal, Sowerby Bridge. Watercolour 18" x 28"
I paint from life, whether it be the model indoors or a townscape outdoors. It is the only way I can capture the living moment.
When outdoors I am a sitting duck for mischievous children. My painting of Tuel Lane Lock was made under a hail of pelted stones. In the Caribbean I have had sand thrown my way when painting beach scenes. If not children, biting ants run a close second. The photographer can click his shutter and run, I can't.
In the tropics, shade is another factor. If, a hundred years from now, some critic gives a learned opinion as to why I chose a particular vantage point, I doubt that my need to find shade would come into it.
When working indoors from the nude figure, it is the model that becomes the sitting duck to troublesome mosquitos or sculptural techniques that go wrong. On one occasion when taking a life cast, my model was covered in plaster that refused to set and later encased in a plaster cast that stubbornly resisted being removed. Fortunately my models are made of tough stuff and have a good sense of humour.
But working from life can have its idyllic undisturbed moments. My painting of the Rochdale Canal passing through rural countryside is a case in point.
Rochdale Canal. Watercolour 18" x 28"
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