165. Dudley Canal at Merry Hill
Acrylic on deep edged canvas
300mm x 300mm
£150
Exhibited at "8 days 4 artists", Eagle Gallery, 15th - 22nd November 2025
It’s quite thrilling entering a project blind, also a little frightening. Here, we were 5 days up at the Copthorne hotel, Merry Hill near Birmingham. My wife was volunteering at the lace guild in Stourbridge and I was the plus one. So, my time was split between taxi services, shopping and drinking coffee at the Merry Hill shopping, bemoaning the lack of a TG Jones in such a large shopping centre and said art project. The 3rd floor hotel room officially had a view and so I was to spend the rest of my time here painting it.
One of the challenges is what kit to take when one is preparing to portray an unknown view. I took two canvases one 30cm square and the other a slightly bigger rectangle. Of course, the pastel media and pads were not used but my painting brushes and other kit came in handy.
The 30cm square one which won out had already been on travels before. I had pre-painted it orange and taken it to Leek in 2014, where I had completed a series of paintings in the wild (no’s 55,56,57 and 60). I had begun a piece which was a view through some door windows at the residence on the lake side. This was unsatisfactory and remained banished to the loft until now.
I mention Leek, as there are some textures in this picture that will forever belong in Leek!
The first thing to do was sketch with pencils on paper. This helped me discover what I wanted to commit to canvas. It was quite a complex view, and so I started to draw one of the two compositions I considered on day one; the difficulty I had drawing these complex shapes altered my final choice of view. I ended up with a view between the two initial choices and in retrospect it seems an obvious choice – the canal.
There’s a certain thrill to be had with live painting as the sun moves, rains come and go, cars and vans depart. I needed fairly rapid execution, and I also took numerous photos that would assist in finishing off in the studio once we had returned. The danger can be that the image is a “greatest hits” piece where not all the elements feel connected. In this instance, I’m quite pleased with the result, and the sharpening up process back at base brings the work beyond being a sketch.
Interesting facts:- the big blue/grey object before the horizon trees is in fact a large factory roof. (Not a lake if you are wondering) and the foreground foot bridge was opened by Michael Portillo M.P. 13th May 1994. So there!
300mm x 300mm
£150
Exhibited at "8 days 4 artists", Eagle Gallery, 15th - 22nd November 2025
It’s quite thrilling entering a project blind, also a little frightening. Here, we were 5 days up at the Copthorne hotel, Merry Hill near Birmingham. My wife was volunteering at the lace guild in Stourbridge and I was the plus one. So, my time was split between taxi services, shopping and drinking coffee at the Merry Hill shopping, bemoaning the lack of a TG Jones in such a large shopping centre and said art project. The 3rd floor hotel room officially had a view and so I was to spend the rest of my time here painting it.
One of the challenges is what kit to take when one is preparing to portray an unknown view. I took two canvases one 30cm square and the other a slightly bigger rectangle. Of course, the pastel media and pads were not used but my painting brushes and other kit came in handy.
The 30cm square one which won out had already been on travels before. I had pre-painted it orange and taken it to Leek in 2014, where I had completed a series of paintings in the wild (no’s 55,56,57 and 60). I had begun a piece which was a view through some door windows at the residence on the lake side. This was unsatisfactory and remained banished to the loft until now.
I mention Leek, as there are some textures in this picture that will forever belong in Leek!
The first thing to do was sketch with pencils on paper. This helped me discover what I wanted to commit to canvas. It was quite a complex view, and so I started to draw one of the two compositions I considered on day one; the difficulty I had drawing these complex shapes altered my final choice of view. I ended up with a view between the two initial choices and in retrospect it seems an obvious choice – the canal.
There’s a certain thrill to be had with live painting as the sun moves, rains come and go, cars and vans depart. I needed fairly rapid execution, and I also took numerous photos that would assist in finishing off in the studio once we had returned. The danger can be that the image is a “greatest hits” piece where not all the elements feel connected. In this instance, I’m quite pleased with the result, and the sharpening up process back at base brings the work beyond being a sketch.
Interesting facts:- the big blue/grey object before the horizon trees is in fact a large factory roof. (Not a lake if you are wondering) and the foreground foot bridge was opened by Michael Portillo M.P. 13th May 1994. So there!
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Live painting from the Copthorne hotel.
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