It's been quite a layoff for me, for a variety of reasons, but I'm back to the painting now! I wasn't planning on another Vulcan painting, but I was commissioned to paint this one by a customer who had seen my previous painting 'Where She Belongs' but had contacted me just after it had sold. What I loved bout this commission was that it gave me another opportunity to place the aircraft in another 'proper' landscape - this time the English countryside of Yorkshire. This is a scene from quite a few years ago, and it was my customer's first encounter with the Vulcan. She was gliding with the Sutton Bank Gliding Club which flies from the top of the bank just to the left of the painting. In a break between flights she was sitting on the hilltop when a lone Vulcan flew past just below here level - a sight which has stuck with her for many years. I was asked to produce a painting evocative of that memory. I very much enjoyed painting this scene of the rolling countryside below Sutton Bank as it recedes to the indistinct horizon. It was a good challenge to paint that many trees and fields without labouring the point, but this is the strength of watercolour! I'm glad to say that the customer loves it, and that it does evoke the memory it was painted for. I liked it so much that I have created a limited edition print run, available here.
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'Where She Belongs', watercolour, 52 x 34 cm. This is the very beautiful Avro Vulcan B2 bomber, XH558 'The Spirit of Great Britain'. This aircraft type, revolutionary when introduced to the Royal Air Force in 1956, was the mainstay of the British nuclear deterrent force for most of the Cold Way. Designed and built to do the dirtiest of dirty jobs for her country, she served for almost 30 years, during which time she became one of the most-loved aircraft at airshows and among aircraft enthusiasts across the UK. This aircraft, 'The Spirit of Great Britain' has been kept in flying order since her retirement for display purposes, but will touch down for the final time in October. She has been undertaking a farewell tour of all the locations that host a grounded Vulcan and this painting captures her as she flies down Bassenthwaite Lake in the English Lake District. This painting has lots of meaning for me, not just because I love the aircraft, but because I saw her just a few minutes before this at Carlisle.
If you have seen the youtube video of the Vulcan at Keswick recently, this painting shows the aircraft about 2 minutes before the video starts; Bassenthwaite is the lake in the background at the start of the film. It is sad indeed that the Vulcan will no longer grace our skies in the UK: this aircraft just needs to be seen, heard and 'felt' airborne. So this is my loving tribute to her and her type - captured forever 'where she belongs'. Sometimes you just need to let go with the colour. This is 'Lossiemouth Dawn', inspired by the midsummer sunrise over the coast. This old bridge spans the River Lossie just before it meets the sea, and connects the town with the beach and the lovely dunes. Looking northeast into the early morning summer sun, the sky is on fire, gently reflecting on the slowly moving water. What a great morning to be alive!
This will be just a quick post, as for once I've remembered to take photos of the painting as I did it, so it will feature in my other blog at www.robwighamwatercolours.blogspot.com. This is 'Lossiemouth Departure', watercolour, 50 x 34 cm. It shows an XV Sqn Tornado GR4A dressed in the XV Sqn Centenary colours getting airborne from RAF Lossiemouth after a storm has cleared. I really enjoyed this angry and windblown sky!
It's not often that I revisit scenes I've painted previously but on this occasion I couldn't resist it. We're back at Lossiemouth Beach, a few miles from where I live. Every time I have painted this beach previously, the painting has sold almost immediately - which is great news! But now that I am trying to include a range of professional-quality prints among my work, I wanted to produce another painting from which I could produce prints. In any case, I don't need much excuse to return to Lossiemouth, as it's so beautiful! Normally in the summer, it's pretty crowded but in this scene, a family has it all to itself - just the way I like it! I particularly enjoyed painting the spray from the surf, which characteristically hides the distant headlands behind its soft white veil.
I've chosen to produce the prints of this image to fit a 14 x 11" frame size, which is part of my on-going drive to keep costs down for my customers. This is a very affordable and easily available frame size, and I've kept my print prices down to the very bare minimum. Check out my Coastline Gallery to see! This painting probably encapsulates everything I love about being an artist. It is a view of the River Spey, where it is crossed by the old Craigellachie Bridge. The 200 year-old bridge no longer carries motor traffic but it is still in excellent condition and a beautiful landmark. On the day I visited, the weather was cold and wet (the weather's forgotten it is supposed to be Summer here in the UK!) and very soggy underfoot. Although it isn't shown, the river is actually bending sharply to your left behind this viewpoint, so this view is very soggy indeed!
I'd been looking for inspiration because the grey skies were starting to sap my artistic morale, so I decided to make up my own weather! For me, painting is all about capturing the beauty of light, and I decided to create a strong sun behind the bridge and clear the skies of cloud. This is the result: 'Evening Light, Craigellachie', watercolour, 33 x 25 cm (13 x 10"). I have been able to play with nature and change Her mood, and present the scene as I want it. I could perhaps have changed the weather slightly with a photograph, but I could not have done this. That's what I love about painting - it's Summertime! I'm incredibly excited this week to have taken delivery of my very own giclee printer, which now sits in my studio. Giclee is a professional printing process used to produce artist's prints; they are inkjets with many more colour cartridges than normal printers and they work at very high resolutions. In this way, they can produce very high fidelity work, at an incredibly small droplet size, with a much larger range of colours than normal printers can reproduce. The most important difference, though, is the ink. It is pigment-based, rather than dye, and so produces results which are extremely lightfast. If they are properly framed behind glass, the prints are expected to remain in good condition for 75 - 200 years! Just like my watercolours, I'm using archival paper to ensure you will receive a high quality print which will last and last. This is the first painting which I have produced my own range of prints from and they look absolutely beautiful: 'Covesea Lighthouse from the Beach'. I hope that by printing my own work in the studio, I can bring you the best quality prints at the best price possible. In line with this idea, I will size my prints from now on so that they will fit off-the-shelf frame sizes available from many commercial outlets. This will save customers money on framing costs, making my prints even more affordable ! Well, it's been a little while since my last post, as I've been away to Austria on Holiday. Back now, feeling refreshed and back into the painting. This painting has been gestating in my mind for some time now, and I've been chomping at the bit to get home and create it. It is 'Armed and Dangerous', watercolour, 50 x 33 cm: The painting shows two Typhoon F2s of the RAF's 6 Sqn, based at RAF Lossiemouth, on Quick Reaction Alert duty over the North Sea. Recently, there have been several QRA scrambles of Typhoons to intercept Russian aircraft approaching UK airspace without permission and these aircraft have gone up to intercept and escort the intruders clear. This, together with my thinking that the Typhoon is a gorgeous-looking aircraft, made this painting irresistible for me! I'm sure it won't be the last painting of Typhoons that I do, so watch this space! I'm really enjoying my aircraft paintings at the moment, but I won't be neglecting the landscapes either...! |
AuthorA professional artist living and working in the beautiful north of Scotland. My work is realistic and quite traditional, though strongly interpretational in nature. My inspiration is the beauty of Nature, and the wonderful colours and moods she shows everywhere. Archives
April 2022
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