Channel Markers

Channel Markers - 27cm x 19cm - Acrylic

John Constable recommended that artists should sketch or paint the sky everyday. Here he goes into some detail about why:

"The sky is the ‘source of light’ in nature, and governs every thing. Even our common observations on the weather of every day, are suggested by them, but it does not occur to us. Their difficulty in painting both as to composition and execution is very great, because, with all their brilliancy and consequence, they ought not to come forward, or be hardly thought about in a picture…"
(John Constable from a letter to Rev. John Fisher, 23 October, 1821)

Port Marker - 22cm x 29cm - Acrylic on Board

The forth of the series of recent paintings of Rye Harbour. I was once told by a teacher not to place the subject of a painting in the absolute centre of the picture. Good advice of course but since then I have always liked doing just that, not so much out of contrariness as out of curiosity although the former plays a part.

Rye Harbour III - Acrylic on Board - 17cm x 22cm

The third Rye Harbour painting. I don't usually paint so many pictures on the same theme at the same time but here I was trying to find what it was that I liked about the place. The building with the red roof belongs to the farm beside the river and I have been told about riotous parties being held inside, as befits a building with a scarlet roof (it's cadmium red in the painting). The building has become a bit of a local art cliche with many artists painting it but I had to do it nevertheless. Presumably it is painted red because it's on the port side of the channel. The painting works for me mainly because it's so simple.