Going Down To The Lake

My wife comes from eastern Finland. This is one of my more realistic paintings. The thundery cumulus building up over the lakes is typical in the summer. They get some cracking storms there.

Pihlajaniemi

This is in Pihlajaniemi in eastern Finland. I think I could work out some interesting abtractions from this.

Forest Interior

I lived in Sweden for nine years, and did quite a lot of stuff there. Mostly because of the change of scene I guess, but I've always had a feeling for the north. I like the slanting cathedral-like lighting effects you get in the forest. This picture was only sketch really  and I had to trim it to get it into a frame I wanted to use.

Nonetheless, it was accepted for the 1992 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London.

Sunlit Trees #1

And again the forest. But this time, on the edge of a clearing, rather than in among the trees. I've done quite a lot of these. Working with simliar groups. Experimenting with style. Sunlit trees...

Sunlit Trees #2

...As I was Saying....

Sunbather

A sunlit rock at the edge of a shallow inlet with some back-lit trees as a backdrop, caught my attention when I was walking by a lake one summer afternoon. The spot seemed enchanted. I made a sketch of it later that evening. The painting, and the sunbather, came along a few years later. I know the pose is rather contrived. I wanted it to fit in with the style of the composition, in which nothing is realistic.

Shadows And Reflections

This is a very simple picture, but I like it. When I look at it I feel I'm there. Also, thematically, it leads well into my next picture.

Evening Bather

In Sweden, in the summer months, office hours are 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. In the northern latitutudes this leaves a lot of the sunlit hours to enjoy. It's nice to have a quiet dip before spending the evening in the town.

Evening Tram

...and here we are...on our way to the restaurants. This bridge over the river was one of the first things to impress me when I arrived in Gothenburg. If you know it, you'll realise that I've taken liberties with its construction to give it an amusement park effect. The perpective is deliberately odd. The picture needs to be hung well above eye-level to work the way I intended. If you want to see how the bridge really looks, go here...

Evening Newspaper

I find it reassuring, that in these days of media overkill, that there are still some around who are content just to sit and enjoy reading the evening paper.

Evening On The Avenue

This is a wide street in Gothenburg with restaurants and bars sprawling over the pavements and, back in the 70's, big american cars cruising up and down. The figures silhouetted in the evening sun have no particular place to go.

Evening Traffic

For this couple, oblivious of the traffic, the evening has started well....

Evening Sun Through Trees

...while, in the forest outside of the town, the evening sun provides a spectacle without audience.

Sun Trees, And Water

One more summer picture, before winter comes. This is an impressionistic treatment of a theme I've spent a lot of time with....light coming through the trees.

Snowbound Rushes

I'm not entirely pleased with this one, but it has some elements which I feel I could use to better effect sometime. It shows bullrushes collapsed under the weight of snow...but it's the background that I feel has some potential for further development.

Snowbound Rushes 2

Like the previous picture, this painting depicts clumps of bullrushes collapsed in the snow. I'm very pleased with the lighting effect.

View From Huvudsta Centrum

While in Stockholm, I lived in a little self-catering unit on the 11th floor of Huvudsta Centrum. The room itself was a bit depressing, but fortunately, it had this terrific view out over the inland sea. It was constantly changing. In this picture, I've tried to illustrate the way that water vapour behaves in cold dry air, and how the sunlight fills it.

Silence

On a still day in winter the silence in the forest seems absolute. The faintest stirring in the air makes the dried up oak leaves rustle secretively. It can be vaguely alarming at times.

Boats On A Blue Shore

I've lived in a number of coastal towns. The next few pictures have a coastal theme. This one is based on an early pencil sketch I did back in the 60s. I was very impressed then with the works of Ben Nicholson and Victor Passmore. I'm not sure this shows, but anyway I'm still as pleased with this one now as I was then. I just wanted to use a few simple shapes to evoke the feeling of boats having a very permanent presence on the shore. Such that you might expect to find, on returning after many years, that they not appreciably moved.

Boats On A Red Shore

There's less permanence here. This is based on another pencil drawing. It's quite possible I did it on the same day as the one to the left. I used to draw a lot.

East Coast Town

This is no town in particular, but it's on an eastern coast, and it is early evening. The buildings in the foreground are in the shadow of a railway embankment. I'm on the train, heading south.

Lönstrup Lighthouse

Red Glider

Red Glider (Turning Point)

Frant Beech