Daily Musings

December 31st.

It’s a wrap. The final pieces of my painting a day project were done from the beach at Sea View, the location where so many of the previous pieces were painted. The first one is looking out across the bay with a dramatic sky above. For the second piece, I turned through 180 degrees and painted Eric the Washingtonia palm, standing tall back in the garden behind me.

It’s been an interesting journey. I have learned a huge amount and I’ll pen some thoughts here on the website in the next few days. Thanks for following the project. Welcome to a New Decade one and all. May your journey through it be full of colour, contrast, texture, harmony and balance.

December 30th.

Looking in through a doorway to another dimension, one year on. Same view as Jan1st.

 Closing of the loop. The last painting of the project will be today and posted in the morning of Jan 1, 2020. Happy New Year. 

December 29th.

I mooched around the property for half an hour or so trying to find something inspirational to paint. In the end I looked towards the sky, a little like yesterday’s piece, and painted the shape and volume of a cloud passing by. I blocked in and filled out the painting rapidly. I then spent quite a few minutes rearranging it; changing the negative spaces, deepening shadow, switching neutral blues in the background. A couple of times I put the brush down only to pick it up again and fuss/refine (take your pick). Finally, as I walked the piece to the studio to photograph it, I stopped again and used my fingers to iron out and scumble some elements. Clouds, always moving, metamorphosing, twisting into different shapes catching different light.

December 28th.

Zooming right out. A coconut palm in the distance. Diminutive. Sky. Lots of sky. Hazy grey greens at the horizon reaching up to deeper blues at the zenith. A single puff of cloud lazily twisting across the picture plane. Bigness on a tiny canvas.

December 27th.

It would have been a shame not to have had another daily painting of Eric before the year is wrapped up. I surveyed him from the courtyard where I painted yesterday’s daily, and the light got richer as the short Winter day raced towards sunset. The warms of the brown foliage turning from neutral grey brown to rust to flame. I included the top of a century palm, just visible above the roof line at the bottom, to emphasise Eric’s height. Maybe in the New Year I will try a full portrait of Eric using one of the big vertical canvases waiting in the studio.

December 26th.

A corner of a courtyard at Sea View. I wavered between opening the gate or keeping it shut, trying it out a few times. Textured shapes cast by the shadows of the palms and rich colours in the morning sun.

December 25th.

The abstract morning shadow of a palm tree cast across the choppy clear water of the bay.

December 24th.

Steady pre-Christmas rain. Surrounded by my dailies in the warm dry studio, I went to work for several hours using three of them to make a couple of nocturnes and pushing one evening piece further towards sunset. The view of Mangrove Bay painted from the hill at Cambridge Beaches in March is an earlier sale that didn’t go through and is now available again. I liked the abstract quality of the daily that I had painted recently at Tween Walls as the sun went down. I intensified the contrast on this piece while keeping the bones of the shapes. I used a couple of the other dailies of Daniel’s Head and one of the moon to paint a nocturne of the peninsula and Island that has featured in so many of my pieces this past year. Happy Christmas everyone.

December 23rd.

Edges, tones, still water. Muffled, almost like Christmas snow. A little stage management, pulling in the palm tree from left of the picture to break through the sky.

December 22nd.

I yomped over the hill this afternoon, after not settling on a spot by the beach. There was a steady cold wind on the Mangrove Bay side, but some interesting stuff to paint. I settled on a view of the hotel and the tops of the bushes catching the sun as it slid down over the brow of the hill. It wasn’t really enough time with so many elements to juggle and I struggled to keep the piece coherent as the light changed and I began to freeze in the breeze.  I stuck with it though and this is what I got.

December 21st.

Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. (With thanks to Leonard).

December 20th.

It was pretty brutal outside and we lit the fire during the day, which is unusual. To stay cozy, I set up inside to paint it for my daily. I had a good shot at painting the curling flames but didn’t feel that I had pulled it off. Oh well! I went out again later to make amends and painted out to sea in the fading light, the wind on my face. I returned shivering but with a successful daily completed.

December 19th.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. A view I painted almost a year ago on Twelfth Night. The circle is almost complete.

December 18th.

It was windy today, but I found a spot by Mangrove Bay that was sheltered enough. I painted the random row of punts and their reflections. It was tough to read the water as the wind whipped and ruffled the surface from time to time, and the fast-moving clouds changed up the colours of the reflections. An approximation and a feel are what to aim for.

December 17th.

A wander down to the beach proved uninspiring. Unusual. I came back through the garden gate and saw this scene. The house was catching the sun at the very edges, yet the newly painted walls were also glowing in the shaded areas. Bounced light. How to portray this and save enough bullets to also include the bushes and trees in the mid-distance, that were also glowing with late afternoon sun? A jumble of values and neutrals all vying for attention. A puzzle to be picked apart by really looking and observing. Subduing and promoting various elements and all the while trying to keep the shapes varied, interesting and interconnected.

December 16th.

A glorious, still, Winter morning. Clear as a bell and a painting at every turn of the head. I chose a view across the bay towards the Old Post Office, with a couple of fishing boats idly resting at their moorings. What a contrast to painting the kite surfers few hours before.

December 15th.

A swiftly executed painting of the kite surfers and windsurfers in Long Bay during the evening. It was difficult to follow such a fast-moving scene, but as the surfers ripped across the water on a reach, I was able to study them long enough to gesture in the feel. I had initially intended to include the cool blues of a cottage in the shadowed land on the far side, but opted not to once the dynamics of this action painting developed.

December 14th.

I worked in the studio, making a painting of shallows and rocks from three recent dailies. Borrowing a shape here, a shadow there, a passage of light, fade to blue. Building blocks for big ideas.

December 13th.

Friday 13th certainly lived up to its name with regards to the UK election hangover. A little stunned and discombobulated by events in the Old Country, I buried myself in studio work for rather longer than intended. I emerged into fading light and raced out of the gates to tackle the Daily before it became a nightly. I screeched to a halt on the bicycle at the same spot where I had painted a few days ago, looking down Tween walls, the yellowing evening light capturing my attention. The high-risk strategy of painting at the golden hour when things change fast but rewards are rich, paid off. I felt I managed to get a feel of what was before me. I cycled home slowly in the twilight.

December 12th.

From the shade of the “closed for the season” Breezes restaurant I painted the hushed greys offshore. Softly, gently does it.

December 11th.

I’m writing this while I’m still at the location, having just finished today’s piece. It’s a tricky time of the day to paint. Early, with the sun still behind the hill. As I worked, the roofs in the background started to glow with top light, as did the boats. It’s tempting to grab at all these highlights and gorge on them. There is a lot going on, a lot of information to juggle, perhaps a little too much. An enjoyable, challenging session nonetheless and I think I captured the moment. Right, back for coffee!

December 10th.

Gin clear winter water. Looking into, on top of. Floating, abstracting, changing, refracting, reflecting, absorbing, subduing, emphasizing, moving.  Obsessing.

December 9th.

Looking down Mangrove Bay Road with the old green shed on the left-hand side. The warm band of light on a soft grey day stopped me mid-pedal to paint this view. The telegraph pole was the central feature; the apex of the scene, though I was careful not to centre it on the canvas. Tension and interest can be heightened by moving the main character just to the side a little. The painting held together well. More muted and closer with the values than my typical work. A good morning’s work.

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December 8th.

I’m working on some ideas for a larger panoramic painting; a mood piece with a band of light fading from warms to cools above the horizon, with Daniel’s Head in the distance, something I see often in the evenings here. I took a short video of the effect which I watched multiple times to help me solidify the concept.

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December 7th.

A dead calm morning at the beach. A cloud motionless before me, its reflection almost touching my feet. Once I got painting, the faintest of breezes nudged it to the east and eventually off the canvas, while revealing some colour changes in the water which was no longer a mirror image of the sky.

December 6th.

A view down the little back lane called “Tween Walls”. Dappled light and a buttery. Classic Bermuda scene.

December 5th.

A short ride to the public dock at Mangrove Bay. There were difficult, changeable conditions today, along with a short burst of rain. I liked the orientation and the lead-in of the foreground water, where I managed to capture the feel that had first attracted me to the composition. In the background though the sky and distant roofline continually swapped tonal places. One second the houses were lit up with sparkling white roofs. Next they would be a blue grey in shadow and the sky would glow a warm cream colour. It was touch and go for a while, but I managed to pull the painting out of the fire and was pretty happy with the end result.

December 4th.

The day got away from me and it was dark before I turned to my daily. I have been enjoying extracting information and ideas from previous dailies, so rather than setting up a still life or painting an interior, this is what I did. For the first piece, I chose a view of a small beach backed with oleander bushes catching evening light. I also incorporated a daily of some mangrove bushes into the painting. Initially, I added a red punt in the shadows but it didn’t sit right with me or in the painting, so I edited it out and went with what you see here. Into the flow by now, I pushed back supper and did the other painting of the fishing boat on its mooring, bringing the reflections all the way down the panel. I used a large recent studio work which was in turn inspired by a previous daily. So Daily to studio to Daily, but in the studio!

December 3rd.

A studio-based piece with information robbed from a previous daily, a view looking across Long Bay from a few days ago. I switched things up pretty radically and added a flotilla of optis to give the piece a lead-in, a human element and some jaunty movement.

December 2nd.

Another studio piece worked up from my head with the help of a couple of dailies. The weather was raging outside, so I spent the whole day in the studio refining large paintings. It was evening before I turned to the daily and my eye was in as a result. Things flowed nicely, which kept the little painting fresh.

December 1st.

A view of Daniel’s Head in the fading light. I chased around the canvas for a while, readjusting things as the scene changed with the sinking sun, finally settling on this.