Central Arcade, Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne is full of architectural treasures, one of which is the Central Arcade, a stunning Edwardian shopping arcade built in 1906 within the Central Exchange, a triangular building built by Richard Grainger in 1836-1838 to the designs of John Wardle and George Walker. I’ve painted the outside of the building on many occasions as it appears in my paintings of Grey Street, Grainger Street and Market Street. Folk in Newcastle will best remember the Central Arcade as the home of J.G. Windows music. I recall going in to the basement to check out the latest rock music releases as a long haired Genesis fan many years ago!

Back in 1993 I was commissioned to do an original watercolour of the Central Arcade in Newcastle. At the time, I was doing a series of paintings of Newcastle taken from ariel perspectives. The client had commissioned two other paintings along that theme and wanted the one of the arcade to be viewed from above too. This was a challenging task, as the Central Arcade is enclosed by a glass roof and there is no public access to the balcony that is on the first floor. I managed to persuade the caretaker at the time to allow me to climb through a small window from a room that overlooked the shopping area below, for me to be able to take some photographs.

There’s nearly always somebody busking in the arcade but unfortunately on this occasion there wasn’t so a few days later I drew my son Oliver playing his violin on our driveway from an upstairs bedroom window to get the correct perspective. I was so pleased with the end result that I decided to reproduce the original watercolour as a limited edition print with only 250 in the edition.

A few years ago I decided to paint the Central Arcade again, but at ground level. This time however, I became the busker playing the violin. The original watercolour can be seen at my Studio & Gallery in Ponteland.

Sphinx Sunrise

Painting a sunrise on location is one of the hardest challenges as a watercolourist. The main problem is that the colours change so quickly, so by the time you have laid your first wash and waited for it to dry, the rising sun will have brought a complete change to the scenario before your eyes. One can quicken the process by working on a paper which you have already tinted. This will allow you to skip a step and crack on with the next wash.

For this particular scene in Oman, I went out with a friend who took me out to a remote spot to walk his dogs early in the morning whilst it was still dark. Before the sun rose, I anticipated what the initial colours were going to be and started painting in semi darkness. It was very hot, temperatures already in the high twenties, so the paint dried quickly. Just before the sun came up over the sea, it was already starting to tint the sky a fugitive pink which I was able to lay in along with the gentlest touch of Winsor and Newton Manganese Blue for the sea. I allowed parts of the first wash of Cadmium Lemon to show through which helped to create further mood and atmosphere.

Oman has some very distinctive rock formations throughout it’s stunning coastline. The rock on the top right of the page reminded me of the profile of the Egyptian Sphinx, hence the title Sphinx towards Muttrah. This is one of 40 paintings which feature in my signed limited edition Sketchbook of Oman which is available online or at my Studio and Gallery in Ponteland.

Robin Hood's Tree, Hadrians Wall

Part of the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner was filmed on a stretch of Hadrian’s Wall which has a Sycamore tree growing in the dip, so as a result, it is often referred to as Robin Hood’s Tree.

I once painted the scene in winter for a charity Christmas card which proved to be very popular but on this occasion I decided to paint it set against the backdrop of summer sunlit clouds. It’s an unusual composition but that’s because it’s such an unusual scene. For those who love to walk Hadrian’s Wall, it’s a familiar sight and often a talking point. If I ever take the Military Road, which has to be one of the best drives in the UK, I allow myself a quick glance to see the lone tree standing in the gap.

The original watercolour is currently available to purchase at my Studio & Gallery in Ponteland.

February Morning in Siena

My first visit to Siena was in February 1999. It was a wonderfully bright and crisp, sunny (but cold) morning. When we arrived, the shell shaped Piazza del Campo (where the famous Palio horse racing is held twice a year) was very quiet. It was just a little too cool to do any painting, however I spent quality time observing the locals wandering around the piazza. Most of them were men who would often stop to greet each other and stand chatting. It was lovely seeing them enjoying the bright morning sunlight and their conversations.

On my return to the UK I did a couple of  watercolours capturing the historic centre which has been declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, one of which I reproduced as a limited edition print  The other is this one titled  Siena, February Morning which can also be seen at my Studio & Gallery in Ponteland.

Theatre Royal in the Snow

Earlier this year I was approached by the charity The Cyrenians based in Newcastle who work with vulnerable, disadvantaged and homeless people. Sian Thomas, their marketing administrator, asked if they could use some of my paintings as Christmas Cards to help raise money for the charity which has been going for over 40 years.

Over the last 20 years or more, I know that the paintings I have done have raised thousands of pounds through being reproduced as Christmas cards, in particular for the Marie Curie cancer care, so I was more than happy to oblige.

We’ve decided to do three paintings of Newcastle, the first of which is this classic scene of the Theatre Royal in the Snow which was a sell out limited edition print. I’ve painted a similar view recently which I reproduced as a limited edition print titled Grey Street, Snow Shower.

I hope to finish the other two paintings, one of the Tyne Bridges, the other of the Angel, by the end of the month, so watch this space.

After stretching a sheet of hand made Italian watercolour paper on to the drawing board, the first stage was to draw out the main elements of the composition with a B pencil. I like to paint a lot of the detail from observation with my brush, so there isn’t a huge amount of detail in the pencil drawing.

Next, I covered the whole sheet with a wash of clean water then ran in a gentle wash of Winsor and Newton Cadmium Lemon from about a third of the way from the top of the board. This helps to take away the starkness of the white and set the tone and mood for the rest of the painting.

One the yellow had dried I repeated the process of laying a wash of clean water except once it hit the architecture, I began to be more random with the wash leaving some of the paper untouched by water. I quickly ran in a wash of Rose Madder into the water but left some of the yellow showing through as pure yellow.

Before starting the sky, I masked off some of the detailed areas in the water like the poles and boats so that I wasn’t having to paint around them with the blue. I started off the sky with quite an intense wash of French Ultramarine and Manganese Blue, fading it out slightly as the sky came closer to the horizon and then painting around the architecture.

Once it had dried, I deepened the blue for the foreground part of the Grand Canal I then started on the buildings on the right hand side. The detailed photograph shows how some of the blue in the sky and water was used as shadow areas for the buildings.

I finished the right hand side before commencing on the left so that I could use slightly more stronger colours to give the impression of the left hand side being closer.

When I rubbed off the masking fluid, it meant that the colour underneath remained as a base for the poles and boats. Strong, dark refections on the left provided further depth to the painting and once I had added the smaller areas of detail to the architecture and boats, the painting was completed. I have two paintings of the Grand Canal available as limited edition prints available online or from my Studio and Gallery in Ponteland. I also have an original watercolour available of the Grand Canal which I painted using the same process described.

Chelsea, Centenary Champions

After watching on television Papiss Cisse’s two wonder goals last night against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, I was reminded of my one and only visit to Chelsea’s ground.

In 2006 two of my clients who are Chelsea fans, commissioned me to do a watercolour painting of Stamford Bridge where they are season ticket holders. They invited me to a match so that I could get suitable reference of the fans going to the ground on match day to enable me to produce a painting similar to my successful Toon Army print. I arrived at the ground a couple of hours before kick off so I could do some sketchbook studies and take suitable photos to use as reference.

Chelsea are known for playing in blue, so it was important to repeat the colour throughout the painting, not just in the tops that the fans were wearing but also in the sky and elements of the stadium. It was a bright, sunny day, so I began the studio painting with a gentle warm wash of Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Lemon to set the tone and mood for the painting. I deliberately kept the brush marks crisp and sharp to keep the architectural elements of the stadium defined and strong. This provided a contrast to the more fluid rendering of the figures making their way to the ground.

The clients decided to reproduce the original watercolour as a limited edition print titled Chelsea, Centenary Champions which is available on line with only 95 copies in the edition. Papiss Cisse describes his second goal against Chelsea as his best ever. It has to be of the contenders for goal of the season.

Launceston Place

Susan and I were saddened to hear of the death of David Peat on 16th April after a long battle with Myeloma. I had the privilege of working with David back in the autumn of 2001 on a television idea my brother and I had. We decided to make a short pilot video of the idea and some friends of ours recommended David whom they had known closely for many years.

Part of the idea was to show the cooking ability of my brother Philip, so it was decided that David and I would meet up at the restaurant where Philip worked as the head chef, the Launceston Place Restaurant, Kensington in London. The other part of the idea was to show my watercolour painting skills, so I was to be filmed outside painting the street scene, including the restaurant.

Philip and I had no experience working to camera but David demonstrated his award winning talent as a film maker right from the start. He quickly took stock of the scenario and came up with some great camera angles to capture me painting which made it a lot more interesting than watching paint dry. The way he filmed Philip cooking was equally impressive and although I say it myself, the pilot came out really well. We never managed to get it seen by the right people and eleven years on, I don’t think that British television needs another cookery programme.

Here is the section that David Peat filmed of me painting.

http://youtu.be/nBEdCAEpeA8

To see the full pilot of Philip cooking and me painting, follow the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dGyIdRmss4

To find out more about David Peat, take a look at his website davidpeatphoto.com     Also there are also touching obituaries to David which elaborate more on his career in Herald Scotland & BBC News Scotland.

Our prayers and thoughts are with his family and friends at this time of deep loss.

John Knox House

The Royal Mile in Edinburgh, known by the locals as the High Street, has to be one of the finest streets in Europe. Over the years I’ve painted it many times and captured some of its famous landmarks including St Giles Cathedral, The Tolbooth and of course John Knox House. Many of these watercolours have been successfully reproduced as limited edition prints which can be purchased online, from retailers in Edinburgh and from my Studio and Gallery.

My first limited edition print of John Knox House sold out very quickly however, we still have copies available of this smaller painting, a busy scene depicting various folk going about their daily business, just like multitudes of others, generations before them.

You will notice in the painting that the ultramarine blue is repeated, not just in the sky but in other parts of the painting. Likewise, the deep red of the telephone boxes finds its way into other parts of the painting to add extra life and colour to the cityscape.

Alnwick Castle

The Northumbrian town of Alnwick boasts a magnificent castle as well as stunning gardens. I’ve had the privilege of painting both. In 2003 I was commissioned to paint over a dozen Northumbrian Castles in watercolour for a leading North East company to grace the walls of their boardrooms and Alnwick Castle was one of them.

I had already decided that I would spread the paintings out over the course of a whole year so that I was capturing all of the seasons. After working out when the sun was most likely to be catching the ancient architecture, I felt that the last light of a summer evening was going to best for this particular scene.

It was painted on an expensive hand made watercolour paper, heavily textured, which was ideal for rendering both the stone and the foreground grasses. It also allowed me to make quite large, free brush strokes to indicate the low lying clouds reflected in the slow moving River Aln. The painting that was commissioned worked well for the client and I was so pleased with the result that I decided to do a slightly different interpratation of the same view which I later reproduced as a limited edition print. The original watercolour can be seen at my Studio & Gallery in Ponteland.