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Film Maker & Photographer David Peat Dies

by on May 1, 2012 in Latest News, Painting on Location

 

Launceston Place

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.

 

 

 

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Kidney Transplant

by on March 28, 2012 in Original Watercolours

Millennium Bridge, Rain's Past

Millennium Bridge, Rain's Past

In the autumn of 2006 Susan and I were filmed by the BBC for Songs of Praise to be shown on bonfire night. The programme was being broadcast from the CastleGate, the home of City Church Newcastle which Susan and I have strong links with. Songs of Praise wanted to interview several people from the church who had interesting life changing stories and they asked if we would share our story about how I gave one of my kidneys to Susan back in 2001. Susan had been going into renal failure through polycystic kidney disease. I was tested along with Susan’s mother,to see if either one of our kidneys would be a match, and remarkably mine was. Usually live donors are family members and because of Susan’s tissue type, the chances of receiving a kidney from a dead donor in the UK would have only been about 3%. A husband/wife donation is much more unusual. The operation took place on 27th June 2001 and has been a total success without any rejection. I commented on the programme the words of Jesus Christ on marriage and what I had said to the surgeon after the operation:

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh”? “So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate”. Matthew 19:5-6

I said to the surgeon who had operated on me that the kidney would not reject because it became “one flesh” with Susan when we married each other.

Part of the filming took place on Newcastle’s Quayside and they asked me to do some painting on location. I decided to do this view of the Millennium Bridge which I tackled in one of my sketchbooks. The result was quite pleasing so I decided to do this larger 16″ x 12″ studio watercolour which depicts the bridge highlighted against the backdrop of a sky heavy laden with rain clouds. I think we were spared a heavy downpour during the filming, hence the title “Rain’s Past”!

The original watercolour can be seen  at my Spring Exhibition at my Studio & Gallery in Ponteland.

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Grey Street, Snow Flurry

by on October 19, 2011 in Latest News

Grey Street, Snow Flurry

Grey Street, Snow Flurry

I’m just preparing for my Christmas Exhibition. The preview weekend starts on Friday 11th, Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th November where there will be a selection of new original paintings on display, most of which have been inspired by recent trips overseas over the last 12 months. It’s been an eventful year for Susan and I, with us both travelling to the Middle East and Italy and my television appearance on the BBC’s “Show me the Monet” with my watercolour of “Grey Street, Saturday Morning”.

Travel always gives me a deeper appreciation of home here in Northumberland, so there will of course, be several scenes of the North East, including the one above of Grey Street, Newcastle seen in a snow flurry.

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Ponte Vecchio, Firenze

by on October 18, 2011 in Painting on Location

You never quite know who you are going to see whilst painting on location. I was crossing Ponte Vecchio when working in Florence recently and noticed BBC’s Fiona Bruce being filmed by a camera crew. I’m not sure for what programme, perhaps another series of Fake or Fortune? 

I’ve painted several watercolours on location of Ponte Vecchio, usually from Piazza Michelangelo, however on this occasion, I decided to do one standing next to the window of a rather expensive ice cream shop at the end of the bridge on the other side of the road. After being charged €6 for the smallest tub of ice cream available, I embarked on a small sketchbook study of the bridge bathed in the late afternoon sunlight.

The Duomo in the distance was both my starting point and focal point of interest with the strong angles from the foreground buildings taking the viewers eyes towards the main part of the subject, the bridge itself with its shoppers and colourful flags. Using this simple study and some of the reference photographs I took, I hope to work this up into a larger original watercolour in my Studio.

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Heriot’s School from Victoria Street, Edinburgh

by on June 21, 2011 in Limited Edition Prints, Scotland Prints

Heriot's School from Victoria Street, Edinburgh

Heriot's School from Victoria Street, Edinburgh

One of the things I really enjoy painting when in Edinburgh are the old telephone boxes, including the old Police ones. This print of Heriot’s School taken from above Victoria Street features two types. The old police box predates the era of mobile communications, so most have been withdrawn from service, however they live on in Britain today albeit through the BBC television science fiction series Dr Who. The Doctor’s time machine was named the TARDIS  which stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space”. It appeared much bigger on the inside than what it did from the outside, unlike the real police boxes which were a mini police station inside.  Today the word TARDIS is often used to describe a room or space that looks much bigger inside than it does from outside.

Recently my sister in law was quite surprised to hear her six year old son say that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up. After going through with him the various options of different types of medical doctors and finding him getting more and more confused, she realised that he meant Dr Who.

For this painting of Edinburgh, I kept the sky simple and warm as there is lots of activity going on in the main painting with sunlight and shadow areas, figures, cars, detailed architecture and of course the telephone boxes!

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Show me the Monet

by on May 7, 2011 in Latest News

You may recall a blog post earlier in the year where I wrote about being filmed for a BBC Series titled “Show me the Monet“. Well, the 10 episode series begins on Monday 9th May on BBC 2 weekdays 5:15-6:00pm. I have been told that I am appearing in the program on Wednesday 18th with my painting of Grey Street viewed from Emerson Chambers.

“The series following the fortunes of amateur and professional artists from all over the United Kingdom, as they battle it out for a spot at the Show Me the Monet grand exhibition and sale at the Royal College of Art in London, where members of the public and the art world alike will bid to buy the best of the art work on show.

Contenders could stand to make some serious cash, but first they need the seal of approval from three of the art world’s toughest critics. To win a spot at the exhibition and the chance to sell and make some money from their work, hopeful artists must first face the Hanging Committee, where their hopes and dreams could be made or dashed.” Quote taken from the BBC Website.

The painting I submitted actually began with me doing a sketchbook study in watercolour on location as preparation for a painting demonstration I was doing at Waterstones the book shop one Saturday morning last September.

Using the sketch and some reference photographs, I drew the basic shape of the buildings and figures in readiness for the demonstration. I was able to work quite quickly on this particular painting and as you can see form the photograph, I managed to complete most of the building on the right hand side of the painting. I was able to finish off the rest of the scene in my studio.

The filming of my appearance on the program was an enjoyable but slightly disappointing experience for me as my work was not selected for the Royal College of Art, but I’d much rather try something and fail than not try at all. I’m looking forward to finding out what artwork the judges did pick in the end.

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