SIXTY YEARS ON!

 We lived in Cologne in 1961 soon after we married. My diary informs me that I finished this drawing of Cologne Cathedral on this day, exactly 40 years ago.

African Savanna

 Oil on Stretched Cotton Canvas

First Seascape

 This is more of a ‘study’ than a finished painting, which is why I used acrylics. I haven’t painted water, seascapes before.

Here’s what I take from it:

(1) It gives me a good starting position for the next seascape, I have learnt the basics of the technique.

(2)I need a flatter surface than cotton canvas which is too coarse for the finer detail. A flat board with a fine linen canvas glued to it and three coats of Gesso would take the detail in oils

Montana and Bighorn Sheep

 

THE AFTER LIFE ADVENTURES

 

THE J & P AFTER LIFE   Adventure Stories

 

Adventure 1

Patsy’s …… M O N T A N A      A D V E N T U R E

 

As you can see, Patsy chose to go mountaineering in Montana …  the US State of the ‘Big Skies’ … for her first adventure. Naturally, the painting is called, ‘Patsy in Montana’.

 

I have included a separate photograph of me with the painting: to give you an idea of its size. It’s on a 30 x 40 inch Stretched Cotton Canvas and painted in oils.

 

This is my second ever Landscape, and I really enjoyed it. 

UNUSUAL FIND

 

I have today been sorting out the chaos that is/was my studio. In one drawer was an empty carrier bag which I nearly threw away, but first glanced in to find the ‘original’ of the first artistic Pen & Ink drawing I ever did.

The scene is of Cothele House in Cornwall, and I see it is signed Oct 1979. I thought I had drawn it when I was in Germany. However, the last flight from the UK I made was to New York and return with Mrs. Thatcher (according to my Flying Logbook), in December 1979.

I can only conclude that, I knew I was going to Germany in the January 1980, and that I was going to start pen & ink drawing as a hobby. In preparation I bought some pens. I had thought I would try my hand, and used the cover of a National Trust bag as a reference.

Interesting, for me anyway, is that most of the shading lines (hatching) in my drawing are vertical. Thereafter, I invented my own system, or so I thought. Later, my stuff was printed by a very old and traditional printers in Roermond, Holland. They informed me that the liked my style as it was the way the Dutch artists drew a century before. They were pleased and I was flattered.

AUSTRIA

 This one is for two dear friends who came to Austria with Patsy and I in 2015