About
“Well, I am ploughing on my canvases as they do on their fields” (Vincent Van Gogh, 1889) ....
…. – “and it shows!” (R.J.P. 2019)
I am an ex scientist/European Civil Servant who is learning to paint in retirement. With my paintings I am aiming to communicate something which has impressed me.
In the case of “Mountains” it is simply the spectacular or dramatic mountain scenery encountered on excursions in the Alps and further afield that have provided the impetus to paint. With “People” we are trying to capture some aspect of the character of the individual or group, or the feeling of the situation they are found in, while “Reflections” is mostly about the specular reflection of light on water, snow, ice, pavements and other reflecting surfaces. The "Still" page shows a couple of still lifes and some more abstract experiments inspired by tree barks have been added under "Recent".
Schoolmate John Sutcliffe in the Strathcailleach Bothy near Sandwood Bay Acknowledgements
The paintings are developed mostly from my own photographs and sketches, but in some cases from photos by friends and others which have impressed me enough to want to paint them – in these cases thanks and acknowledgements are included in the captions.
I am also very grateful to my friends and fellow painters in Merkinch Painting Group of the Art Society of Inverness for their helpful comments and encouragement and especially to Jonathan Shearer for his patient coaching. See:
I have also greatly enjoyed following some of the video courses from the Will Kemp Art School at: willkempartschool.com
Out of many “how to” books consulted I have found “Free Expression in Acrylics” and “Capturing Light in Acrylics”, both by John Hammond, to be especially helpful.
As Claude Monet said – “No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition” – that pretty well rules me out then, but I’m working on it.