All the text here is a copy of text found on other pages of the site. I've put it here so that it is more accessible to the web crawlers. I want the gallery to feel like a real one. The visitors walk in and are confronted just by images. it is only if they want to look closer that they will encounter any titles or commentaries.
The Title of this painting is 'Summer Rainstorm In Haga'.
A large gilt-framed mirror hangs on the wall beside an open window. The wet roofs of the houses seen through the window reflect the light from a gap in the otherwise dark sky. The mirror reflects the interior of the room. It is lit by a bedside lamp that equals in intensity the reduced light outside. On the bed is a nude girl. She seems to be somewhat prostrated by the oppressive late afternoon heat.
Haga is an old working class district of Gothenburg, in Sweden.
This is one of the biggest paintings that I've done ( around 4 X 5 feet). It conveys the feeling that I wanted, but there is something lacking in the composition*.
I've painted 2 other versions. With these I've kept the mirror to reflect parts of the room that would otherwise be difficult to include even with the impossible geometry. In the version at top right, I've used warm colours in the right half of the picture and cooler colours in the left, but not as dramatically as in the original. In the version beneath it, I've excluded a lot of room to the right, but I think the effect of the unseen light source is still there.
Going Down To The Lake
My wife comes from eastern Finland. This is one of my more realistic paintings. The thundery cumulus building up over the lakes is typical in the summer. They get some cracking storms there.
Pihlajaniemi
This is in Pihlajaniemi in eastern Finland. I think I could work out some interesting abtractions from this.
Forest Interior
I lived in Sweden for nine years, and did quite a lot of stuff there. Mostly because of the change of scene I guess, but I've always had a feeling for the north. I like the slanting cathedral-like lighting effects you get in the forest. This picture was only sketch really and I had to trim it to get it into a frame I wanted to use.
Nonetheless, it was accepted for the 1992 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London.
I plan to develop this theme on a larger more definite basis, and probably square, like the Frant Beech, further along.
Forest Interior
And again the forest. But this time, on the edge of a clearing, rather than in among the trees. I've done quite a lot of these. Working with simliar groups. Experimenting with style. Sunlit trees...
Sunbather
A sunlit rock at the edge of a shallow inlet with some back-lit trees as a backdrop, caught my attention when I was walking by a lake one summer afternoon. The spot seemed enchanted. I made a sketch of it later that evening. The painting, and the sunbather, came along a few years later. I know the pose is rather contrived. I wanted it to fit in with the style of the composition, in which nothing is realistic.
Shadows And Reflections
This is a very simple picture, but I like it. When I look at it I feel I'm there. Also, thematically, it leads well into my next picture.
Evening Bather
In Sweden, in the summer months, office hours are 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. In the northern latitutudes this leaves a lot of the sunlit hours to enjoy. It's nice to have a quiet dip before spending the evening in the town.
Evening Tram
...and here we are...on our way to the restaurants. This bridge over the river was one of the first things to impress me when I arrived in Gothenburg. If you know it, you'll realise that I've taken liberties with its construction to give it an amusement park effect. The perpective is deliberately odd. The picture needs to be hung well above eye-level to work the way I intended. If you want to see how the bridge really looks, go here...
Evening Newspaper
I find it reassuring, that in these days of media overkill, that there are still some around who are content just to sit and enjoy reading the evening paper.
Evening On The Avenue
This is a wide street in Gothenburg with restaurants and bars sprawling over the pavements and, back in the 70's, big american cars cruising up and down. The figures silhouetted in the evening sun have no particular place to go.
Evening Traffic
For this couple, oblivious of the traffic, the evening has started well....
Evening Sun Through Trees
...while, in the forest outside of the town, the evening sun provides a spectacle without audience.
Sun,Trees, and Water
One more summer picture, before winter comes. This is an impressionistic treatment of a theme I've spent a lot of time with....light coming through the trees.
Snowbound Rushes
I'm not entirely pleased with this one, but it has some elements which I feel I could use to better effect sometime. It shows bullrushes collapsed under the weight of snow...but it's the background that I feel has some potential for further development.
Snowbound Rushes 2
Like the previous picture, this painting depicts clumps of bullrushes collapsed in the snow. I'm very pleased with the lighting effect.
View From Huvudsta Centrum
While in Stockholm, I lived in a little self-catering unit on the 11th floor of Huvudsta Centrum. The room itself was a bit depressing, but fortunately, it had this terrific view out over the inland sea. It was constantly changing. In this picture, I've tried to illustrate the way that water vapour behaves in cold dry air, and how the sunlight fills it.
Silence
On a still day in winter the silence in the forest seems absolute. The faintest stirring in the air makes the dried up oak leaves rustle secretively. It can be vaguely alarming at times.
Boats On A Blue Shore
I've lived in a number of coastal towns. The next few pictures have a coastal theme. This one is based on an early pencil sketch I did back in the 60s. I was very impressed then with the works of Ben Nicholson and Victor Passmore. I'm not sure this shows, but anyway I'm still as pleased with this one now as I was then. I just wanted to use a few simple shapes to evoke the feeling of boats having a very permanent presence on the shore. Such that you might expect to find, on returning after many years, that they not appreciably moved.
Boats On A Red Shore
There's less permanence here. This is based on another pencil drawing. It's quite possible I did it on the same day as the one to the left. I used to draw a lot.
East Coast Town
This is no town in particular, but it's on an eastern coast, and it is early evening. The buildings in the foreground are in the shadow of a railway embankment. I'm on the train, heading south.
Lønstrup Lighthouse
This scene is on the danish west coast. I wasn't there at night, so I don't know whether people walk up to it along the cliff top path with torches, but I imagine that they might. I used to live near a lighthouse. It was out of sight behind a headland, but I could see its beam sweeping round like a slow pulse, illuminating the low clouds and the sea mist.
Red Glider
I learned to glide when I was at school. I haven't done much since, but I have happy memories of it. In this picture I haven't spent much effort on the glider itself, but I think I've managed to create the feeling of unpowered flight.
Red Glider (Turning Point)
Another picture of the red glider. This time as a metaphor.
Frant Beech
This old beech tree is in Frant, on the edge of Eridge Park. It's reckoned to be around 400 years old.
