Jon Nagl's Artblog

Three views of Edinburgh

I'm horribly behind on posting about new work up at the Shop here, but there's three new pieces that have gone up in the last 24 hours and, shockingly, none of them contain the slightest hint of bare naked human skin. Instead, there's two watercolours painted during lunch breaks in central Edinburgh and an oil painting (based on this smaller piece) of the view across the Forth from Castle Von Naggle on one cloudy day. I really ought to do more of this sort of thing, shouldn't I?

City Dome Observatory - mounted watercolour - £45

This is part of the old Observatory on top of Calton Hill - you can read a wee bit about the history of it here and here. It's not as derelict as the windblown long grass in the painting might suggest, but who can resist a little drama?

Edinburgh Castle in Purple - mounted watercolour - £45

Edinburgh Castle. Nuff said, really. Would love to spend a day sketching it sometime.

Purple Rainclouds (April 2015) - oil painting on box canvas - £60

The view from Aberdour on a cloudy day, looking out across the Forth towards Edinburgh. A view I should be documenting a lot more in drawn and painted form than I have in the last few years. The summer months ought to see that change, especially these sunsets with great fluffy clouds of pink and gold dwarfing Edinburgh and the Lothians. Soon, soon.

Unfinished, unclothed, uncut

Three new pieces up for sale over yonder - firstly, a watercolour painting/ink drawing from a lunchtime last month. I've drawn the National Monument - or, er, Edinburgh's Disgrace - a couple of times before, but this was the first time I've done a decent watercolour & ink piece of the unfinished Parthenon.

The monument dominates the top of Calton Hill, just to the east of Princes Street. It was designed during 1823-6 by Charles Robert Cockerell and William Henry Playfair and is modelled upon the Parthenon in Athens. Construction started in 1826 and, due to the lack of funds, was left unfinished in 1829. This circumstance gave rise to various nicknames such as "Scotland's Disgrace", "Edinburgh's Disgrace", "the Pride and Poverty of Scotland" and "Edinburgh's Folly". - Wikipedia

The small size of the watercolour paper I worked on fitted a window mount perfectly, so it's looking rather natty, all ready to go into a frame.

National Monument, Edinburgh (May 2014) watercolour and ink on paper, mounted (£45)

Also, there's another piece from the first life drawing session this month - a complementary colours painting that inadvertantly has a hint of the Obama-ize photo filter about it.

Complementary 6 (June 2014) oils on canvas paper (£75)

Finally, here's a still life oil painting from last weekend, returning to the thrilling world of citrus fruits.

Lemon (Uncut) (June 2014), oils on canvas (£60)

So there you have it. Play us out, U2!

 

Banana, nude

Two new pieces up ye olde artte shoppe. Firstly, a still life that was painted back in April but has taken bloomin' ages to dry off enough for varnishing. It's a #naptimeoilpainting (the hashtag I use whenever publishing a picture of one on Twitter) and has a nice curvaceous energy to it as I rushed to get it finished before The Boy returned from his brief sojourn to Nod.

Banana (April 2014), oils on canvas board (£55)

Secondly, one of the oil paintings from life drawing earlier this month. A nice quick one, working with three colours and very little time.

Complementary 4 (June 2014) oils on canvas paper (£75)

Me sell sea shell

Seashell in Blue and Ochre (May 2014), oils on box canvas (£60)

Newly listed: Seashell in Blue and Ochre (May 2014), an original oil painting on a box canvas, varnished & ready to hang, of the eponymous seashell painted several times bigger than the subject itself. Yours for £60 plus p&p - click here to see more.

A feast for the eyes

As muttered the other day, I've not written any blog posts about making art for weeks on end because, er, I've been making art. Which is good! Since it clicked that I could splash together quick oil paintings during the Boy's naptimes, rather than noodling around online, my painted output has shot up from zero to plenty. Between this and my daily drawings, this year's already been more productive artistically than the last three years combined.

Even so, it's a bit shoddy if I'm posting new paintings up on my Facebook page (when they're probably only going to be seen by 4 or 5 people, thanks algorhythms) but not doing the same here, on my own cheery corner of the internet. So this is a bit of a catch-up splurge, with all future new pieces getting a post of their own. Click through to each piece to learn more, such as my struggle with the identity of a lemon.

As you'll see, it's all still life oil paintings, because a) it broadens my repertoire beyond naked bods, b) the lighting for painting landscapes isn't very interesting at midday and c) they present an interesting challenge in their own right. They've made me aware of my own limitations just now, but the more I do, the more I learn. On top of that, I'll be making my way through Michael Friel's Still Life Painting Atelier book over the coming weeks and months, so I'm hoping by the end of the year there'll be a tangible improvement in my work - which means I'd be able to ask more for it. Hooray! Until that happens, I'm keeping these all priced pretty low - I think they're good (wouldn't stick them up for sale if I didn't) and look rather lovely up on the wall, I just know there's better to come.

Blood Orange (April 2014), oils on canvas (£60)

Lemon Lime (April 2014), oils on canvas (£60)

Red Bell Pepper (April 2014), oils on canvas board (£45)

Garlic Bulb (May 2014), oils on canvas (£60)

Little Pine Cone (May 2014), oils on canvas (£60)

Butternut Squash (May 2014), oils on canvas (£60)

Sweet Red Pepper (May 2014), oils on canvas (£70)

Avocado (May 2014), oils on canvas (£60)

Tomatoes on the Vine (May 2014), oils on canvas (£70)

Making time, clouds and a tomato

One of the excuses I gave myself over the last few years for not drawing or painting was that “there’s not enough time.” This was, of course, bunkum. While free time has been a rarity ever since that big fat positive in summer 2011, there’s always been pockets of it to be found. Minutes rather than hours, sure, but time all the same. Instead, I wasted it online, consuming other peoples words and pictures rather than making my own, telling myself I didn’t have any time, that even the simplest sketch was too great an undertaking. 

Well, nuts to that. As part of this year’s reboot of whatever creative spirit I’ve got left, and triggered by the daily action, I’ve learned to seek out those little pockets of potential in the day. One cracker is the 40 minute commute to work (of which more shortly). Also on workdays, there’s my lunch break – usually just half an hour, but still! 30 whole minutes!

That’s all very well for my three days a week at the office, but what about when I’m at home looking after Bagl? No doubt a time will come when I can cheerfully draw and paint with him around, joining in, playing or watching with awe, but we’re nowhere near that yet. And although I could save any drawing and painting until the evening, that means working without daylight – not so good for still-lifes, nigh-on impossible for any plein air pieces.

 

Now, there's naptimes. Bagl's naptimes are relatively short compared to other sprogs - 90 minutes - but it works for him and means a reasonable bedtime. I’d convinced myself that naptimes were far too busy to do any drawing. After all, there’s all the essential things to be done - washing to sort out and hang up, lunch and tea to prepare, cleaning and tidying, titting around on the internet… ah. Ahhhh.

 

Turns out, if you remove the internet from the naptime equation, there's still a decent chunk of time left after getting all the chores done. It's not enough time for me to, say, write a novel, but a quick watercolour or oil painting? Go on! Sad to say, this realisation only hit me earlier this month, but I'm trying to make up for lost time.

 

Here, then, are the first three naptime oil paintings, all up for sale at £45 a pop (or with a nifty mini-easel display for a few dollers more) - two landscapes of the view from Castle Von Naggle, and a still-life of a halved tomato, each one painted in around 30/40 minutes, resulting in nicely expressive brushstrokes as I worked quickly to get everything down before young master woke. It's a pleasantly frantic way to work and shakes me nicely out of my comfort zone. And rather than beat myself up about the thought of how many paintings/drawings I could've got done over the last few years, better to think about all those future pieces waiting to be made. Well, until the boy drops his nap, then I'm nobbled...

 

Oil on canvas board (£45)

Oil on canvas board (£45)

Oils on canvas board (£45)