A BIT ‘STUCK’, A BIG TREE PAINTING & MY BIGGEST CANVAS EVER

I’m currently going through a bit of a ‘stuck’ phase where I can’t get down on canvas what I envisage in my mind. I always want to move on and make better paintings. I’m never really satisfied with doing something that I’ve done before. Maybe I try too hard and want to achieve too much too quickly. At times like this, I find that I have to keep going, to work through it, and more often than not it does result in something positive, a new discovery, a stepping-stone to who knows where. Persistence is the key. As my favourite poet George Mackay Brown wrote: “There’s no retreat. The path mounts higher and every summit fringed with fire.”

However, here is a painting I did finish last week. It’s the latest of my woodland derived paintings and my biggest so far. I like the texture on the trees, the vertical rhythm, and the fluidity of the paint. Someone has commented on its Klimt-esque qualities which pleases me. Klimt is an artist whose work I’ve always been drawn to, maybe TOO decorative at times, but I do love his dream-like, abstracted trees and landscape paintings.

Mark H Wilson

Tangle Wood 2

Acrylic on Box Canvas

100cm x 70cm

Gustav Klimt

Beech Forest

Talking of large paintings, my biggest painting on canvas EVER measured 8’x4’ which I did at Art College many, many years ago. It was a big blue abstract based on the lettering and images from discarded canned food labels. Abstract Expressionism was all the rage at our college at the time, but I was a big fan of Pop Art, so I sort of combined the two.  I remember it got accepted for the Open Art exhibition at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull and I recall getting a few disparaging looks and comments carrying it through the streets of Hull for selection day.

Finally, to celebrate the arrival of Spring on this lovely sunny day, I’ll finish with this painting of mine called “Spring”.

A Popular Painting and Watercolour Competitions

Today, this painting of Whitby harbour made it to the top spot in the Art Web’s Popular Artwork, which is pretty good considering there are over 4000 works listed. It’s taken 2 years to get there. The painting was actually bought last year by one of my most valued customers in Japan, which is quite poignant considering the terrible events in Japan today. Sometimes, it’s hard to know what to say really.

 

Evening Harbour, Whitby Lights

60cm x 30cm on Box Canvas

http://www.artweb.com/artwork/popular

There are a couple of watercolour competitions coming up in the next few months that I intend to enter. It’s a medium that I haven’t used for a while. I prefer the physical, tactile and textural approach more suited to using oils and acrylics. I’ve always found watercolours too delicate and precise for my liking and have never been able to achieve the rich vivid colour I want. However, I came across this Howard Hodgkin watercolour the other day. I love his bold, deep, intense use of colour. Can’t wait to have a go myself now after seeing this. Where’s my watercolour set?

A Storm

Howard Hodgkin

1977

Well, a couple more hours of painting before the daylight goes, then I’ll see if Wifey wants an aperitif and a game of Scrabble. I’m on a good run at the moment, 14 games undefeated.

Mark H’s latest painting - a Contemporary Woodland

My latest painting featuring muted greys and loads of texture.

Tangle Wood 

60cm x 60cm on box canvas 

I finished this woodland painting yesterday. I’ve been working on it for a while, not being happy with it, but yesterday I looked at it and thought ‘that’s it, I can’t go any further with it now, it’s finished’. Every so often does a moment come along, and to me this painting is such a moment, when something has happened that I can’t explain, but is somehow right. Don't ask me how it's done! 

Keep painting and the magic will come.