Updates from My Art World IX (December 2016)

1. Sketching on Public Transport

2. One to One Coaching with Gary -This day we did Plein Air,

Adebanji painting on Battersea Bridge I

Adebanji painting on Battersea Bridge II

How it looked after the first coaching session

3. Painting a Commissioned piece of The Chelsea Riverside

One of my collectors got me painting this scene, they plan to use it to remember Chelsea, a place where they used to live before.

4. Painting a Commissioned piece of Albert Embankment.

Auntum Light, Albert Embankment, 11" x 8", Gouache on Watercolour paper

5. Christmas Holiday Trip to Portugal

A quick demo sketch I did of a tree in Algarve, Albufeira

Three paintings I did in Gouache at Albufeira in Portugal

Catching up on my football skils during the Christmas break.

MY UPCOMING WORKSHOP -"THE URBAN LANDSCAPE"

After the success of "EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT SKETCHING" in August, I'm taking on a new workshop on the 29th of October, 2014 (WEDNESDAY) at Harris Academy, Falconwood. It is all about the URBAN LANDSCAPE, Some call it CITSCAPES, or TOWNSCAPES or URBANSCAPES or STREETSCENES!

This workshop is all about how to paint Convincing and Expressive Landscapes indoors!

St Pauls

After a Demonstration with Knockholt Art Group on a London street Scene

The Royal Academy in progress

Bank of England in progress

The video below gives you a quick run down of what we'll be covering.

I paint a lot outdoors, and I bring the knowledge of what I have gained outdoors, indoors. Both of these types of painting inform each other.

Adebanji capturing Morning Light, Chelsea Riverside, indoors

Morning Light, Chelsea Riverside (This is the painting Adebanji was working on, in the picture above)

"If you are able to understand how to approach the painting indoor, it will really help while you are outdoor."

Adebanji working outdoors. (there's nothing stopping you from achieving both effects. Outdoor and indoors)

Summerlight Chelsea World's End- the completed painting which Adebanji was painting in the picture above

Moreover winter is on its way and not everyone might like what you see below!

I had about 10 layers on......

Also had my Eskimo Ice breakers on......

If you are up for this, please register by clicking this link HERE

Or email me by clicking HERE, if you are interested and you can come with your payment on the day, if you don't use PayPal facilities.

Below are list of what you'll learn while painting on the day.

• How to paint convincing and expressive Urban landscapes-indoors.
• What to look for outdoors to give your indoor paintings that spark of the outdoors!
• Making colour notes.
• The importance of an abstract pattern with a very good value plan.
• Approaching your painting with a layering and corrective process with the mind of a sketcher.
• How to scale your pictures to suit the size of the ground you are going to be working on. Both the traditional way and with the Accurasee App.
• How to put figures and cars into the painting through the silhouette method without getting bogged down with much detail.
• How to simplify perspective in three simple steps.
• The best times to take pictures.
• Making your painting a personal statement and developing a painters shorthand that suggests rather than copies.
• And most importantly, get direction and help from Adebanji while you work on your paintings after the break.

The Venue is:

Date: Wednesday 29th October 2014, 10am - 4pm

Venue: Harris Academy, Falconwood, DA16 2PE

Free parking available.

Tea and Coffee Provided. Pls bring your packed lunch

Please visit my website to see more of what I do, by clicking HERE

Highlights of The Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2013 (Main Category)

The 126th Annual Exhibition was opened by The new President, Ian Cryer who succeeds Peter Wileman, who had been President since 2008. The Opening Speech and awards were given out by the eminent Historian Dr David Starkey.

Dr David Starkey speaks about the history of the ROI and some reasons why the Institute gained it's Royal status.
I am happy to say that those two paintings in the middle of Dr Starkey and The President are mine......yeah!

The Exhibition runs  till Saturday the 21st of December. If you are in London please try your best to get down to The Mall Galleries, it's a cracking show!

A cross section of the crowd at the Private View

Every year I personally highlight a few paintings that caught my eye. These are just a few paintings that interest me! Apart from sketching and painting, I like to review paintings and say what excites me about them. So relax and enjoy a few of my ramblings!

Adebanji with his painting Sloane Square, Summer Shadows

Above is one of the paintings I have in the show, It's of one of my favourite spots in London, "Sloane Square, Summer Shadows".

PETER BROWN ROI NEAC PS Hon RBA RP

Early Morning, Elephant Gate Udaipor, Peter Brown

I am always on the look out to see what Peter Brown has up his sleeves, as I am a great admirer of his work and his work ethic!

This particular painting of his above is just one of the rewards you get for waking up early and chasing the beautiful light! I can just imagine him working on this one! It has the force of a typical energetic "sketched plein  air piece".

 Everything is in the dark and mid tones apart from the source of that lovely Naples yellowy light peeping through the gate! It is not a common thing to see that he has not overstated the light but just apportioned the right amount of effect it makes on the surrounding environment!

I can almost see myself walking through that warm light into the distance!

I would like to own a piece like this because looking at it would always remind me that there's gonna be a way out of the chaos of the day, if I remained focused!

Peter Brown with his paintings in the show

DAVID CURTIS ROI RSMA

Moorings at Hayton- Chesterfield Canal, David Curtis

David Curtis, so modest, so humble but yet his paintings speak volumes! You instantly know when seeing his paintings that he is an ardent draughtsman! You couldn't get a better  silent lecture in drawing than when you look at his paintings!  I love both of them! The one above is incredible! How did he capture that light without making it look overworked or unnecessarily detailed? The effect of sunlight on the dirty water is so REAL! Yet when standing close up to the painting, you almost feel a certain measure of mystery  about the whole piece!

I'll have to attempt something like this is the new year! When I look at paintings like this I just want to paint!

Midwinter, Slaynes Lane, Misson, David Curtis

The striking thing about the snow scene above is the tree! I love trees! But David even makes me love them better! He has a deft touch.....It's a combination of loose washes with some thick and thin applications of oil strokes that just bring out the beauty and reality of those twigs and branches!

Zooming into the branches wasn't something I planned doing until I saw my fellow painting colleague-James Bland, had done so on Facebook. This is what the Zoom-in looks like below:

Detail of David Curtis' painting-Midwinter, Slaynes Lane, Misson

Michele Del Campo, Haidee-Jo Summers, David Curtis and Kieron Williamson (Mini Monet) with David's paintings in the background

DAVID PILGRIM ROI

Punt Station, Magdalen Bridge (Oxford)

David Pilgrim has developed into a very mature painter. I must say I struggled with getting a good image of his painting above because it was taken under a strong tungsten light in the gallery but all the same I think this piece blossoms well with it's very loose and impressionist handling!

I have seen the smaller version of this piece which I'm sure David blew-up on, to create this one. The thing that I noticed was that he managed to keep the same spirit and vitality in the small piece as in this larger one. This is not an easy thing for the painter to do. Many a painting is ruined while under this process of enlarging.

He uses a very complimentary shadow of purple to form an inviting abstract shape around the centre of interest where the figures are, to the left.

I just love the way he interprets shadows, he never overworks them and never paints them too dark. That's the mark of a plein air painter who is observant and keen to get his colour mixtures, spot-on!

Above all, I love the overall composition and the combination of the organic and inorganic elements in the scene!

David Pilgrim with his paintings

DAVID WALKER

White Hoarding in Morning Light, David Walker

This guy was the one who stole the show in this exhibition. A discovery!!! He mainly paints in watercolour but his transition to oils has been incredible. Let me put it as William Wray put it, "One medium will inform the other....."

I saw his work and I was shocked, I thought of Jeremy Mann and William Wray! But this is neither of them, this is David Walker who takes two awards on the day and makes my  mouth water as he explains his slick technique as a designer!

You can see this concept instantly when viewing these paintings. I can talk about what excites me here all day long. Is it the application of paint? The lost and found edges in the shadows? The overall abstract design of the piece? The balanced tonal values used or the way he handles the light in the whole scene? Well, hold your breath because this is a guy to watch!

I'll say no more!

David Walker with two of his paintings on show

DOUGLAS GRAY RSMA

Passing Gondolas, Douglas Gray

I can't remember seeing his work in the ROI exhibitions in the past but I have always been fascinated by his work in the Royal Society of Marine Artists Exhibition at the Mall Galleries.

To me he is just a great lover of light! He knows how to capture it and make you just want to walk right into his transforming scenes!

I like this one because of the atmosphere. Can atmosphere be painted? Can it be captured in paint? Well, Douglas has the answers and this piece makes you feel the heat of the light as it moves from the  horizon.  Another great feature is the warm and wonderful rippling effect of the Venice waters. It is just a delight to behold!

HAIDEE-JO SUMMERS

Sails up in Harbour, Paimpol, Haidee-Jo Summers

I had seen this piece on Facebook before seeing it in the flesh and it just made me think once again that the images we see on the computer screens never do paintings the justice they demand....you have to come up and see it live!

When I saw it live, I was able to appreciate some of the lovely use of lush colour and loose stokes which almost looks flat in the painting when viewed on-line.

The treatment given to the water in those lovely interlocking horizontal strokes are one of the main reasons why this painting is so appealing.

It also takes a vast amount of confidence to use red the way she has done here. It's the mark of a confident, hardworking and lively painter, who has won many awards and is doing a fantastic job in the plein air realm at the moment!


HASHIM AKIB

East End Market, Hashim Akib

Everyone who has seen my Rush Hour paintings knows I am a fan of crowded scenes. It is no wonder why I was drawn to this fabulous piece by Hash.

It was painted in acrylic and the colours are nothing but static! They are vivid and harmonious!

I love the way he uses the square brush stroke! It keeps the viewer well engaged and excited!

Dynamic! That's the word I was looking for and I really would love to own one of his paintings one day, he makes every stroke count!



MARYAM FOROOZANFAR

Alan, Maryam Foroozanfar

You can't walk away from this piece, it won the An Award and rightly so because it has the mark of a maturing painter who knows what to put in and what to leave out!

This is not something easy but most of the time it works out as a result of proper planning and preliminary sketches.

I've known Maryam to paint very detailed pictures but now she is opening up her free spirit and I'm just loving it!

There's just something spooky about this, a bit of mystery, the overall application compliments the mood so badly.....you just want to know what was going through his mind.

I love the static drama inherent in this piece!

A far more clearer image of this painting is seen below, as the one above was taken with the glass over, as framed in the Exhibition.

Alan, Maryam Foroozanfar

 MICHAEL TRAVIS SEYMOUR

Navel Oranges, Michael Travis Seymour

Some may look at this and say, "Just a bowl of oranges, right!"..... No, I'll say a carefully designed still life with every force and tempo that keeps me activated and involved from the first sight of it. 

The lovely treatmernt of different textures, the emergence of the light and the one orange that didn't want to be in the container, freely allows the eye to go in and out of those uneven negative spaces with such ease and flow.

One of my favorite Still Life paintings in the show!

MICHELE DEL CAMPO

Rubbish, Michele Del Campo

Michele Del Campo!!! I just love his name! Sounds like that of a movie star! I had to include the picture of Michele with his painting below so you can appreciate the size of this amazing piece!

I have seen a series of works that Michele has executed on this scale and they are all so great to behold!

This particular piece titled, "Rubbish" is  a lovely exploration of some of the things we take for granted and the beauty around them. I would never have seen this as a painting concept but Michele is a story teller, picture director and an intelligent painter!

Everything here is carefully planned and executed to precision. He uses lots of oil colour, it's thick, bold and vibrant!

I really love his attention to detail and how on the overall this piece stands out as a successful abstract explosion of colour when one looks at it with eyes almost closed!

Michele Del Campo with his painting.

STEPHEN KING

Winter Oaks 2012, Stephen King

This was chosen for my love of trees! Bare bone beauty! I love the way he takes us on a journey through the skeletal system of woods in the winter!

Again the drawing is also what I love, the attention to detail but not over-worked! He selects what he wants us to see and exaggerates the chiaroscuro on the middle tree to evoke some excitement and interest!


TIM BENSON VPROI

Waiting, Tim Benson

I am not sure whether I got the right colours on this one (photography), but this happens to be one of my best paintings in the show.

I am passionate about faces and I love the painted face. But this piece is electric! I mean, I get a buzz, a sensation, a feel for the three-dimension, it's basically SCULPTED PAINT!

I just need to be this bold in the New Year, I now regret missing his Masterclass at the Mall Galleries, I'm not missing any other one!

Tim is always working hard, he once did a striking 30 minute oil sketch of me which is not in this show but below.

While being a model and observing him paint, I must say,  he paints with a stern looking face, with movement, energy, attitude and flair!

The Sketcher- sketched in 30 minutes by Tim Benson

 


 VALERIE SMITH ROI

Rosie, Valerie Smith

This is amazing! Valerie works only from life! She told me she can't work any other way! 

I just love this piece! The mood on the ladies' face is striking! Her use of colour and brush stroke applications just lures me to want to paint right now! Look at that "chequered" dress! The handling is second to none!

There are not many portraits in the main category of the show but this is one outstanding one and ticks all my boxes for a very successful portrait!

WILLIAM CARNEY ROI RSMA

Polperro, Cornwall, William Carney

This is my best little painting in the show! Why? It's all about less is more! The limited use of colours, the way he has applied the brush strokes in the most haunting manner!

It's almost as if I should just live with this one for the rest of my life. I am sure this was not the colour of the scene-What William has done is to bring in a romance of his own and transform this scene into a mini-paradise!

THE SYMPHONY OF SUBTLE GREYS......It's the greys that make the colours sing- I once read somewhere...... and this painting sings the most harmonious rendition of a solo composition from William in his unique painterly voice!

I HOPE YOU HAVE ENJOYED THIS TASTER OF THE EXHIBITION, NOW GET DOWN THERE AND ENJOY UP TO 300 PAINTINGS OF SUBLIME EXCELLENCE- PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT, SHARE, LIKE, TWEET and ALL THE OTHER THINGS TO SEND THE WORD OUT THERE AND DON'T FORGET TO BUY ONE FOR A GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT- you can even do that online!

Look out for another post on this exhibition which features the young artists (Under 35 category)- I have always loved this section since winning the First Prize in 2007!

Winning the First Prize at Pintar Rapido in London 2013

Adebanji painiting "The Summer Buzz at Kensington Church Street"

On Saturday we had a great Plein air Festival in London called Pintar Rapido. The Borough of Kensington and Chelsea hosted up to 400 painters who registered to take part in this one day competition. Roger Beckett, the founder of this event in London got the idea from Spain and did a brilliant job to put this altogether in London for the first time.

My Winning Painting! -photo by Roy Connelly

The rules were simple, choose a spot in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and paint it in a day! The Artists registered at 9.00am at the Chelsea Town Hall and got the painting surfaces stamped, then they all went to their favourite chosen spots around Chelsea to work on their pieces. We were all to come back by 8pm with the finished works ready for hanging. all the works were to be on display the next day at the Chelsea Town Hall, where all the paintings would be for sale and the winning painting would receive £1,000!

Prof Ken Howard (middle) announcing the winners and Roger Beckett (founder of Pintar Rapido in London) looks on. photo by Roy Connelly

I went to Kensington Church Street, and I painted it from Kensington High Street. I discovered this street while commuting on the 328 bus, once the bus got to this street, the trees looked great, they cast their shadows on the buildings and it really made a long lasting impression on me. I decided that I'll paint it as it was the place my heart really went out for!

This is the scene where I painted- Kensington Church Street

I started painting around 10am and finished around 4pm. It was hot, boiling but I enjoyed every bit of it! My wife and kids came around and Ruth did a short video of me speaking about the event.





I couldn't go for the Exhibition on Sunday because of my Church responsibilities, but I was  so pleased to have Prof Ken Howard call me to break the good news that I won! He said he thought it was a good painting! That really made my day!

For this painting, I used Winsor and Newton Artist Acrylics with all the mediums like slow dry medium, impasto heavy body medium and flow enhancer. I worked on a  Winsor and Newton 24" x 30" linen Canvas.

Here below are some stage shots at particular times of the day of how the painting developed.

STAGE 1

STAGE 1. 10:06am- I lay out all my colours, 15 colours in all. Titanium White, 3 yellows (cadmium lemon, cadmium pale and azo or deep yellow) , Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, a Sienna Red, 3 Blues(Cobalt, Cerulean and Ultramarine) and 3 greens (Hooker, Sap and Viridian).  I use three mediums-Slow dry, Impasto heavy body medium and Flow Enhancer. I also have a tear off disposable palette and  the main palette I used is from Daler Rowney, it has a cover to preserve the colours. I attach a little orange bucket for my water to rinse the brushes and a Cass Art bag for dirty rags.

STAGE 2

STAGE 2- 10.16am- Here I do my normal 'griding', dividing the ground into 16 squares and 4 diagonals. This helps me plan where things are going to be on the surface. It's almost like I have an imaginary square in front of me with these squares and diagonals. I measure the distances according to these squares.

STAGE 3

STAGE 3-11.30am- Here I paint very very quickly, plotting perspective lines, The sky and the initial underpainting for the buildings. Everything is carefully measured. My palette has a big patch of blue as you can see for the sky.

STAGE 4

STAGE 4. 12.03noon- I now begin to make impressions of every interesting shape under the tree. It's very hard to just focus on the shapes and not try to paint things! Once I get the right shapes they pop up well!

STAGE 5

STAGE 5 12.48noon- For the next 40 minutes I just determine to play with the trees! It was such a delight! I have always longed to paint these trees and ever since I read a book by Norman Battershill on Trees, I have fallen in love with painting trees. I painted the cool shady areas first, with mixtures of Green with Alizarin Crimson and Cobalt blue and for the light areas I added Yellow Ochre and the warm yellows.

STAGE 6

STAGE 6 13.43pm- I then make sure I focus on the roads and shadows around the roads. The roads look easy but they took a long time to sort out. A few cars and buses line up down the road and I'm lucky that each time the bus stops for the traffic to pass, it stops at the same place, so I was able to use so many buses for the same one in my painting.

STAGE 7

STAGE 7- 14.11pm- I still worked on the roads adding middle platforms and leveling the area for things to work out.  I also add details on the buildings along the road that vanishes under the trees.

STAGE 8

STAGE 8 16.13pm- Finally I do the detailing and make sure there are figures moving about, there were loads of people but I was beginning to get tired here, so I just added a few in strategic places to help the composition. I added a bit more flicker highlights to the trees and then I just left every other thing that might do- out, so I don't work it to death!

While on my way back to my studio on Lots Road, I met a group of Painters around Lots Road painting.

Some painters around my Studio on Lots Road.

 If you are interested in seeing how I use Acrylic to Paint, I have a DVD available with TOWN HOUSE FILMS, Click HERE for the details.

SPECIAL QUOTE
"I'm always constantly sketching, this is the secret to painting rapidly, keep a sketchbook and sketch everyday!!!"-Adebanji Alade