Places to Paint: David Hockney and East Yorkshire

The Hockney Trail is a new website which provides an insight into all the places where David Hockney has been painting in East Yorkshire - and in particular those which can be seen in the David Hockney RA - The Bigger Picture exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts

This is a major contribution to the "places to paint" theme which I return to periodically on this blog.  If I can locate the place where John Singer Sargent painted a painting, then surely it's possible to do the same for a contemporary painter like Hockney?  This website would suggest that's the case.

The Hockney Trail website

It was also bound to happen - and, as it happens, this website has done the job rather well - BUT with a major caveat (see end).

The Hockney Trail provides:

• a Google Map of various locations where the paintings were painted.  
• details of which Ordnance Survey Maps cover the area
• details of where Hockney country is - and facilities in the area eg places to visit, eat and sleep
• details of various locations of Hockney paintings of East Yorkshire
• Kilham Road and the location of "Tracks into Wheatfields"
• the A166 - at the location for the painting "Garrowby Hill"
• the location for the painting of "Bugthorpe Valley"
• the location of the paintings of "Three Trees near Thixendale" - the paintings which you encounter - in all four seasons - as you enter the exhibition
• the location of "The Road to York Through Sledmere" (which is my version of the location of this Sledmere painting- done while sat with page 92 of the catalogue open in front of me!)

I made a few discoveries of my own.  First here are the locations I've found since reviewing the website

• this is the location of "The Tunnel" which is the subject of a number of the paintings in the exhibition - and also one of the films.  It's on the right of the Kilham Road to the west of Kilham, going towards Langtoft.  It's a long straight farmer's track between his fields

Hockney's Tunnel

David Hockney
A Closer Winter Tunnel, February - March, 2006
Oil on 6 canvases, 182 x 365 cm
Collection Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Purchased with funds provided by Geoff and Vicki Ainsworth, the Florence and William Crosby Bequest
and the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation 2007
Copyright David Hockney / Collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Photo credit: Richard Schmidt

This is Woldgate and the location of Winter to Spring in Woldgate the major installation in the main Gallery at the RA (see yesterday's post Hockney: 51 iPad drawings on paper - Winter to Spring in Woldgate).  I estimate it's about 10 minutes from Hockney's house in Bridlington and is a brilliant spot to be able to get to quickly when the light looks good.

• Woldgate is an old Roman Road which runs between Bessingby Hill on the outskirts of Bridlington and the village of Kilham.  
• This is the Hockney Trail page for Woldgate.  

Woldgate

and this is one of the digital paintings Hockney did on his iPad in this location.

David Hockney
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) - 2 January
iPad drawing printed on paper
144.1 x 108 cm; one of a 52-part work
Courtesy of the artist
Copyright David Hockney

I have to confess this location hunting is addictive.  I think that's it for today - but I'll be back.......

The second thing I discovered yesterday is that East Yorkshire has the Wold Wide Web - with links to pages about all the villages in the Wolds.  How about that for an example of Yorkshire humour?

But how long will it be around?

My only query about the The Hockney Trail website is whether or not it's authorised.

It doesn't seem to have any sort of formal association with either the artist or any of the sponsors of the current exhibition at the Royal Academy.  I don't think it falls within the normal copyright exemptions for the use of Hockney images given the adverts which are visible in my other browser which doesn't block adverts (you're seeing the advert-free version - and I'd written most of this before I realised it had them!).

My current thoughts are that maybe the originator is well intentioned but maybe not aware of just how jealously the Hockney empire protects the copyright.  I think he might find somebody giving him the virtual tap on the shoulder sometime soon.  It would also appear that maybe the images of some paintings have already been taken down......

PS  I am by the way posting a scheduled post.  I'm actually currently sat in the RA having lunch with my sister after having just seen the exhibition for the third time!  Join the Friends of the RA and go as many times as you want - and take an adult family guest for free!


Links to related posts about Hockney and the exhibition:

• David Hockney RA talks about landscape painting
• Hockney: sketchbooks, iPad sketching and the Yosemite Valley
• Hockney: 51 iPad drawings on paper - Winter to Spring in Woldgate
• MAKING A MARK: Review: David Hockney RA - A Bigger Picture 17 Jan 2012
• MAKING A MARK: Review: David Hockney - A Bigger Picture 02 Jul 2009

A Vermont Pond - Autumn Landscapes #10

The Pond on Rice Farm Road

The look of Autumn varies depending on place, the type of trees which grow there and how much rain or sun that place has had.  This pastel painting of The Pond on Rice Farm Road demonstrates that some places are still green rather than red/orange/yellow/brown.

This is what Roderica Tilley (Rodrica Tilley's Pastel Paintings) had to say about her work

It was an exquisite fall day in my neighborhood two weeks ago...and the days here have been mostly soggy for months. I spent the afternoon painting this Vermont scene amidst the birds (?) rustling in the cattails next to me and quite a few leaf peepers driving by on the dirt road.

That was two weeks ago and Black Mountain, where I live, has turned into winter rather suddenly. This is another of the Transitions series. 12 x 16 pastels.

Rodrica has recently moved from Montrose, PA where she lived for 35 years to a new home and studio in Brattleboro VT.  Her series Transitions are are seasonal landscape paintings of PA and VT and the long stretch of I-88 in NY that connects her old and new home.

You can see some of Rodrica's recent work in a group show called Fractured which opened last Friday at The Butternut Gallery and Second Story Books in Montrose, PA.  The exhibition continues until December 24.

Rodrica also has an interesting project in which she is trying to produce landscapes of all 50 states of the USA Fifty State Plein Air Painting Project.  As you can imagine with a project like this postings are periodic - I'm adding it into this blog's blogroll.

Seasonal Landscapes

This is the last in the series of autumn landscapes by art bloggers - which I have greatly enjoyed doing.  Apologies to those work was not listed.

However on Thursday watch out for the post in which I declare the new three month season of winter landscapes open!

Autumn Landscapes - Sheffield Park

This is my personal contribution to the posts on this blog about Autumn landscapes.  Last week we travelled to Sheffield Park which is the only National Trust place I know which increases its entrance charges for the Autumn Colour season!

Sheffield Park - 29th October 2011
pen and ink and coloured pencil, 11.5" x 16"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The garden was originally laid out around four lakes by Capability Brown and an arboretum of native and exotic trees was subsequently established.

It contains many fine specimens of trees (eg Black Tupelos) and a high proportion of these - particularly the acer/maples and beeches turn a very fine colour in Autumn.  Hence the high number of visitors who turn out to look at the colours of Autumn.

Certainly it's a very fine place to paint in Autumn - particularly given the reflections of the colours of the trees in the water of the lakes.  The photographers are also rather keen on it.  I think I saw more heavy duty expensive cameras with huge lenses on our visit than I've seen for a very long time.

Arboretums are certainly a great place to paint and draw landscapes in Autumn!

How to mix natural greens for landscape painting #1

How to mix greens for landscape painting is a perennial topic and right now it's very topical in the northern hemisphere given the fact the trees are now all in leaf and it's warm enough for plein air painting to start!

I'm going to be exploring the topic of mixing greens over the course of a few posts.

I'm starting with a great video by Jan Blencowe (The Poetic Landscape) on YouTube which very graphically illustrates how you can mix greens for landscapes by mixing black and yellow.

Jan recommends using Mars Black as it's non-toxic.  She also uses transparent yellow, yellow ochre and ultramarine to demonstrate the range of greens which can be produced.

Tony Johansen identifies Mars Black characteristics as being:

• only black available in acrylic ranges
• only major black pigment that is 
• non-toxic, 
• a good drier, 
• safe to over paint 
• can be used in all media without reservation. 
• It is dense and opaque with a warmish brown undertone

One thing - the video was uploaded over two years ago and the reference to website http://www.thepaintingadayproject.com/ is redundant as that site no longer exists. You can find Jan on the two links in the first sentence of this post.

Places to paint: Paul Nash and the Wittenham Clumps

I'd like to draw your attention to a brilliant website.  It's one of a kind.  However I think its scope and design might work very well for other websites about landscape painters and the places they paint.

Paul Nash and the Wittenham Clumps

Paul Nash and the Wittenham Clumps is totally devoted to one painter and one place.

• The artist is Paul Nash (1889-1946)- one of the UK'sleading landscape painters.
• The place is the Wittenham Clumps.  These are two chalk hills which are crowned by the oldest planted hilltop beeches in England.  They rise above the the flat landscape of South Oxfordshire and are apparently visible for miles around.

100 years ago this year UK landscape painter, Paul Nash , discovering the Wittenham Clumps and what he saw as a magical landscape.

From 1911 he proceeded to paint them on a periodic basis throughout his career as an artist

Take a look at the website and the amazing level of effort which has gone into recording a unique relationship between painter and landscape. It's extremely well done and provides a unique perspective on the development of an artist's work in relation to one landscape motif.

You can see:

• the paintings of the Clumps
• a list of where all the paintings are
• photographs of the Clumps over time and as they are today
• A selection of some of the paintings, sketches and collages done at three art workshops for adults and families which were held at the Earth Trust Centre, Little Wittenham on Friday 11th March and Saturday 12th March 2011 - to mark the centenery.

The website is a project by Anna Dillon and Christopher Baines.   I've been corresponding with Anna and found out that they met due to a shared passion for the work of Paul Nash, plus they both live near the Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire.

To celebrate the centenary of Paul Nash's connection with this landscape, they made this new website in order to explore the many paintings he made in the area and also to encourage people to visit the area. The project has been supported by North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

I've certainly been encouraged to visit next time I'm in the area!

How to draw and paint trees

Autumn Forest in oil pastels by Martin Stankewitz (How to draw a tree)

The trees are fabulous at the moment - and we should all be out making the most of them as landscape motifs!

For those who need some help in how to approach this, here are some links to very experienced artists and bloggers who have been writing about and drawing trees this year.

Stapleton Kearns - http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/

In the earlier part of 2010, Stapleton was writing about tree anatomy and how to look at trees - to understand their structure - and how to paint trees

• Branch control - about the need to simplify trees to paint them well.  The number of branches need to be controlled.
• Habits of branching - considers the different ways and angles in which trees throw out their branches
• Telescoping branches - considers how branches join, taper and create angularity in their form 
• Trees and balance - looks at how a mental plumb line helps you to see where the weight is in the form of the tree - and considers how the different parts of a tree (trunk, branches and foliage) achieve an overall balance
• Hidden bounding lines for drawing the forms of trees - about finding big shapes, critical lines and establishing relationships between trees and between trrees and the landscape
• Design problems in the placement of trees - how the four most important lines (the edges of the picture plane) relate to trees - and common mistakes to avoid
• Perspective in the masses of trees - emphasises how trees have perspective too
• Color and light in different parts of a tree - talks about how the light at different times of the day affects how you see and best picture trees
• Transparent branches against the sky - studies the approaches of different artists (Constable, Corot) to painting branches against the sky

He also has some tips for drawing and painting sky holes - those bits of trees that the birdies fly through - and various other aspects of drawing and painting trees

• Skyholes part 1 - about trying to find some order and relationships within the grouping of sky holes
• Sky holes 2 - about what colour to paint the sky holes so they don't jump out
• Sky holes 3 - studies sky holes in paintings by master landscape painters

How to draw a tree - http://www.draw-a-tree.com

This is Martin Stankewitz's blog - his emphasis is much more on drawing trees.  His recent posts have included:

• Drawing with oil pastels – autumn forest - demonstrates the use of oil pastels for vibrant colour in the company of wild boars
• How to draw simple leaves includes a tutorial “How to draw leaves” which explains how to draw simple leaves in various positions.
• Lost in wrinkles of bark – draw a tree trunk - illustrates just how much there is to draw in a tree

Pastel Pointers -  http://pastelpointersblog.artistsnetwork.com

Richard McKinley also has some tips for

• sky holes when working in pastels - see Pastel Tips for Sky Holes
• what to do When the Light Comes Through the Trees

and finally....

Here's a link to a newspaper article about Stourhead - one of the classic tree landscapes in the UK - which is always renowned for its autumn leaves

How to draw a tree by Edition Handdruck

My friend and ace artist/draughtsman/printmaker Martin Stankewitz (Edition Handdruck) produces delightful plein air pen and ink drawings and then fabulous monotype and giclee prints from the drawings and sketches.

Martin is very fond of drawing trees and recently he's been sharing his enthusiasm for drawing trees in a number of different ways

He's been very busy creating a whole set of resources and different ways in which people can share what's learned.

How to draw a tree is a visual summary of my experiences in drawing and sketching trees from life.

Rather than teaching a drawing method the little booklet shall encourage the reader with example drawings, mainly in pen and ink, to own explorations and to use the own handwrite.

The text concentrates on important aspects of tree drawings as proportions, trunk and branches and how to depict foilage of trees.

How to Draw a Tree

These include:

• a blog called How to draw a tree
• a book about How to draw a tree

How to Draw a Tree - the blog

the book cover of 'how to draw a tree'

PLUS a whole suite of 'how to draw a tree' sites aimed at helping people improve their skills in drawing trees.

• How to draw a tree - tree drawing
• How to draw a pine tree
• How to draw deciduous trees
• How to draw coniferous trees
• Forest diary - keeping a nature sketchbook

To give you a taster, the first of these includes:

• Learning by doing - tree drawing from LIFE
• Three critical points in depictions of trees
• Rythm and patterns in foliage
  
• Some tricks that help to get a convincing tree drawing
  
• How to draw the trunk of a tree
• plus some examples of how he applies basic principles in his own drawings in different media
• and some examples from well known artists from the past and the present

"How to Draw a tree" is a gold nugget of art education - and in my view is it's well worth investing some time in studying what he has to say. I need to improve my tree drawing and I'm going to be reading it from end to end more than once!

motifs from Martin Stankewitz's 'how to draw a tree' information websites
copyright the artist/printmaker

Martin is German and he lives in Maulbronn in southern Germany. However his English is excellent and his advice and information is very easy to understand. He also includes a 'translate into English' option on all his blogs.

Overall, I think his resources are a really refreshing change from all the normal 'how to draw a tree' books which seem to be produced these days. I highly recommend exploring all the resources Martin has to offer.

Other landscape blogs by Martin include:

• Edition Handdruck - for the original fine art prints he produces
• Wandern und Zeichnen - hiking and drawing
• A year in the vineyard

Plus you can purchase his original monotype prints or buy reproductions of his fine art prints

Art postcard Tree landscape by editionha
postcard printing by Zazzle.com

TIP: Foliage and Sky Holes

Richard McKinley (Pastel Pointers) writes about When the Light Comes Through the Trees on The Pastel Pointers Blog and references John F. Carlson's theory of how to tackle values in the landscape (see Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting)

pastel painting by Richard McKinley

(see more on his website)

Having dark, upright trees against a light sky produces one of the most beautiful and difficult to handle situations in the landscape: sky holes. The amount of visible sky holes depends on the density of the foliage, but as an artist friend often said, “You have to give the birds a place to fly in and out.”
When the Light Comes Through the Trees

Richard goes on to provide some very useful commments about the issue of the colour and tonal values of the birdie holes and the foliage surrounding them. This is a recommended read.

Thanks to Richard also for his lovely pastel painting of trees - and sky holes for the birdies!