Canals of the Pennines

I have been invited by Littleborough Art Gallery to submit some canal paintings to a special exhibition called "Canals of the Pennines" (on throughout July and August). I am very pleased about this as I will be joining some well known local names who are also exhibiting. Thank you Suzi !
The paintings I'll be showing are: Urban development; Lock gates; The canal in fog; Canalside; Workshop and Canal Lock.

History

Oil on hardboard 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£7 to US; £3.50 to UK and Europe)

What stories these old buildings could tell if they could speak. This ended up as a tailor's shop but it is close to other mills and factories and doubtless had a more industrial background in its early days. Now it's all closed up, become part of our history. For the techies amongst you- I wanted to create a feeling of gentle sunshine without using blue in the sky! In fact there is hardly any influence of blue at all in this painting, just a hint of lavender to tone down the red on the building.

A bit of peace and quiet

This painting has been sold

Oil on hardboard 8" x 8"

Sorry about the glare upper right on this one (near the wall dividing the 2 fields - it isn't like that on the painting proper). However, the colours are pretty accurate in this photo but I will retake the photo in a few days when the painting is dry. Ok, I have blended the paint quite a bit in this, especially in the foreground. It just felt right to do so and also seemed to fit with the "peaceful" aspects of the painting.

Path to Crowden (II)

Oil on hardboard 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£7 to US; £3.50 to UK & Europe)

Path to Crowden (I)

Oil on hardboard 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£7 for US; £3.50 for UK & Europe)

As you follow the Longdendale trail up past Torside reservoir there is a signpost pointing across the reservoir chain via a bridge to Crowden. Part of the track is wooded with pine trees. It is not a big area but it is mysterious and a bit magical.

Sailing at Torside

Oil on hardboard 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds)plus postage & packing (£7 for US; £3.50 UK & Europe)

Now and again you get a fine day like this. You're up at Torside, the boats are out, and you could almost be in Italy!

The house on the hill

Oil on hardboard 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£7 for US; £3.50 for UK and Europe)

I worked a lot on this painting. Originally it had a blue sky but I wanted the scene to be very still so that the house almost "brooded" over the surrounding countryside.

Shining Water

Oil on hardboard 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£7 for US; £3.50 UK and rest of Europe)

Not sure if the water is part of one of the reservoirs or if it is a lake. Again, it is seen from the Woodhead Road which stretches for miles. Great days we are having.

To the Hills

Oil on hardboard 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing (£7 to US; £3.50 to UK and Europe)

These white flowers were crying out to be painted although I usually ignore the cries. Can you see the little cyclist up there in a red shirt?

Sheep in the meadow

This painting has been sold

Oil on wood 8" x 5.5"

A simple little painting, I enjoy these simple shapes. Don't know what the sheep are doing there, can't seem to get away from them.
Sorry about the bit of glare on the photo upper left.

Canal lock

Oil on wood 6" x 7" Please email me if you are interested in this painting

It's unbelievable how much time some of these "small" paintings can take up. I did this one some weeks ago, was not satisfied with it and have just spent another couple of hours on it. I am always amused when I remember what Jack Vettriano said - "For the first three hours a painting has you by the throat; for the next three you have it by the throat". Ironically in my case the extra work usually does not mean fiddling with small details. In this case I was simplifying the shapes more and eliminating some structures and detail which were getting in the way of a good design. I can usually get a good feel for how it's going by turning it upside down.

Grazing

Oil on wood panel 9" x 18" £120 (British pounds) plus postage & packing

Ok, the sheep seem to have separated again. I think I know what happened. In the previous painting the farmer had dumped piles or clumps of feed down in the field so many sheep gathered round one clump. Here, they are just relying on the grass so it is "each to his own". There was gentle, intermittent sunshine that day such as we often get up here in Spring and Summer. Gives me a feeling of peace this painting.

Padfield sheep

Oil on wood panel 9" x 17" £120 (British pounds) plus postage & packing

Sheep kind of "group together" - you don't see them dotted about much individually - unless it's that these are northern sheep and like a good chin wag. And it was surprising the number of 'triangles' they made, which was particularly helpful to me. It's funny how the colours of your own landscape really do affect the colours you mix on your palette. Click on the image for a bigger view.

An April day on Woodhead Road II

Oil on hardboard 10" x 17" £120 (British pounds) plus postage & packing

I'm attracted to this sweeping view across the line of activity as it were. The sky, the grass, seeming endless but that horizontal slice where the hills and trees create form and shape is a bit like reading a book. I have used the same palette here but concentrated on mixing warmer colours. You can get so much out of one scene.

An April day on Woodhead Road

Oil on hardboard 10" x 17" £120 (British pounds) plus postage & packing

I last painted Woodhead Road in the fog so it was nice to get back there on a fine April day full of the promise of spring. This is a bigger painting than usual. If you click it you will see it bigger size, in more detail.

Workshop

Oil on wood panel 7.5" x 8" Please email me if you are interested in this painting

Down by the canal again, still some small workshops and sheds. They look great with the sun casting strong shadows.

Industry

Oil on wood panel 7.5" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing

New building at the back, old building at the front. Industry doesn't have to be big and brash. I liked the way the sun hit that small shack wall. Just a peaceful, sleepy scene in Stalybridge.

Canal reflections

This painting has been sold

Oil on wood panel 8" x 8"

Canal-side

Oil on wood panel 8" x 8" Please email me if you are interested in this painting

I don't think I'll ever get tired of these old tributes to industry. It was so quiet by the canal and it struck me how even only fifty years ago the noise and activity down here would have been deafening.

Long shadows

Oil on wood panel 8" x 8" £65 (British pounds) plus postage & packing

It felt great to be back painting Stalybridge and this one is "hot off the easel". I just finished it about 10 minutes ago. We have had a wonderful week here weather-wise so I have a number of new Stalybridge ones planned. By the way, the street really was as empty as this. Just an old pick up truck there sleeping the day away. (I know, it looks like a car).

Memories of a Barber Shop

Oil on wood panel 12" x 12" £105 (British pounds) plus postage & packing

Early one March morning in 2008 when the shops were still closed I saw this old guy in the winter sun ambling past the Barber Shop in the town. Looked like he hadn't bothered to visit a Barber Shop for some time, bless him.

My backyard in snow

Acrylic on wood 8" x 8" £65 (GBP) plus postage & packing

This is the view from my bedroom window of my small back yard and the road opposite. We are lucky that we are on a slight hill so that makes us seem quite "high up". I enjoyed painting the grid in the middle of the yard!

Chimneys in snow

Acrylic on wood panel 8" x 8" £65 (GBP) plus postage & packing

This is possibly one of the most complex paintings I have attempted so far. It had so much detail in it. I tried to ignore that and go for the big shapes. Also I limited my palette to cerulean, paynes grey, ultramarine, yellow ochre, raw umber and mars violet deep. That sounds like quite a lot of colours but some were used very sparingly. The scene is so typical of English northern hill towns. You can clearly see the row upon row of little terraced houses each with their own chimney. Not much smoke comes from them these days though as most of them have central heating fitted!

Rassbottom Brow

This painting has been sold

Oil on wood panel 8" x 8" £55 plus postage & packing

This is a little passageway just at the side of our main street. I used to walk down this cobbled brow to the railway station at the bottom to catch the train to work every day. I have seen it in all weathers and often thought I would paint it so here's the first. It's a chilly, damp winter day, the afternoon light beginning to fade. Hopefully I'll get another pic in the summer when the trees on the left are in full foliage!

Sheep in snow (II)

This painting has been sold

Acrylic on wood panel 8" x 8"

So curious these sheep! And a lovely colour against the snow.

Happy Christmas from Stalybridge

Oil on wood panel 8" x 8"

A very happy Christmas to all my blog readers, watchers, buyers, friends !

Lock gates

Oil on wood panel 8" x 8" Please email me if you are interested in this painting

Looking back

This painting has been sold

Oil on plywood panel 8" x 8"

Tuesday

Oil on plywood panel 8" x 8" £55 (GBP) plus postage & packing

Tuesdays are particularly quiet in Stalybridge. The custom always was in this area that the shops closed on Tuesdays and some of them still keep to that. The bulding on the right was a factory, now converted into apartments. It still feels like a mill to me thank goodness but maybe that's good design on the architect's part.
In this one too I can still see the grain and tiny pits in the wood panel which I really like.
I have reposted the image here as the first one was not all that representative of the painting. In fact this one and the one above when you see them "in the flesh", look just like "a pair".

Snow on Padfield Main Road

Oil on plywood panel 8" x 8" £55 (GBP) plus postage & packing

Woodhead Road (II)

Oil on plywood panel 8" x 8" £55 plus postage & packing

The little trickle of icy water running down the road towards me made this scene a bit special I thought.

The canal in fog

Oil on plywood panel 8" x 8" Please email me if you are interested in this painting

The canal systems around here were built not for pleasure cruises but for industry, mainly to carry the goods the factories were producing down to Liverpool docks via the Manchester Ship Canal. When they got to Liverpool they were transported all over the world. The mills of Lancashire produced enough cotton by breakfast time to satisfy local consumption. The rest of the day was pure profit.

Sheep in snow

This painting has been sold

Oil on plywood panel 8" x 8" £55 (GBP) plus postage & packing

Raining again

Oil on plywood panel 8" x 8" £55 (GBP) plus postage & packing

Everybody likes car headlights in a painting and it's difficult to resist them when they reflect on a rainy road.

Woodhead Road (I)

Oil on plywood panel 8" x 8" £55 (GBP) plus postage & packing

I should have really called this "What colour is fog?" It's the kind of extremely intelligent question five year olds ask. If I knew the answer I'd probably be at the end of my journey and bye, bye, blog.

November

This painting has been sold

Oil on plywood panel 8" x 7.5"

It doesn't take much for the town to assume the identity it had a hundred years ago, a small, industrial mill town, a town made for work and for workers. Houses here have very small back gardens or back yards because mill workers were not expected to be concerned with growing things. They spent their days in the grind of industry, the mill chimneys calling them to service each day. My family were part of that body of workers, I'm proud to say.

Ray Mill in fog

This painting has been sold

Oil on plywood 8" x 8" £55 (as the exchange rate between pound and dollar keeps fluctuating I am going to quote prices from now on in British pounds only. Please use current rates of exchange to calculate for your own currency). Plus postage & packing.

I was flicking through some old art magazines the other day and found an article on that marvellous living English artist, Ken Howard. Apparently when Ken was at art school he considered his weakest area to be that of colour. One of his tutors at the time, Ruskin Spear, contemplating one of Ken's efforts said "You'd better get yourself a tube of raw umber, 'Oward". I like that story and its just like Ken to be amused by it. By the way a small effort of Ken's now would set you back about £15,000 on average.
So, with that in mind (only joking) I have gone full circle with this painting to the colours I started using 3 years ago - Indian red; Paynes grey; Raw umber - and very enjoyable it was too. Love that fog! We had two days of it.
Sorry about the white-ish spots in the sky. It's just camera glare. Not on the real painting.

A new Stalybridge painter !

Although she has been painting for many years Theresa Evans has only recently decided to set up a blog and paint and post on a daily basis. I love her landscapes of the Peak district - please click to have a look for yourself.
(No, I haven't given up - it is just that I am struggling with technical problems at the moment. Stay posted)

Tinsel Town

This painting has been sold

Oil pastel on paper 10" x 8" £55 plus postage & packing

I'm beginning to see that none of the buildings seem straight. I don't know if they really are out of line or whether it is a perception of mine.

Train line

Oil pastel on paper 8.5" x 8.5" £55 plus postage & packing

Dark tracks, distant mill chimneys and a few lights dotted about - this is what a winter evening feels like here.