Hello, Subscriber First Name and welcome to my January newsletter!

Ah, the long dark January! Which sucks slightly for going out and painting. But on drier days over the last couple of months I have been lucky enough to get out with my easel and get some paint on canvases. I’ll add some more images and information later in this newsletter so you can see what I have been getting up to. If any paintings catch your eye, let me know!

Thank you all so much for subscribing and for visiting my winter art sale back in December. And an extra special thank you so much to Ginny and Neil who each bought a painting which spoke to them! Your support and help is invaluable and I’m so happy they are going to new home.

It’s been a tough old time working out how to make a living from painting. Thankfully I have had some amazing funding from Arts Council England who enabled me to work with Joanna Henley for 6 months. She specialises in helping creative ADHD people to forge their careers, and her support has been amazing and I have been been learning so much. Thank you Jo and Arts Council England!

While it’s been raining I have been quietly recuperating, researching and figuring out how I can use social media in the future so I don’t burn out from it’s constant nature. Jo is helping me massively with this and in future my social media will be much more about directing people towards here - my newsletter! I hope this means so can actually see what I’m up to, rather than some instagram and facebook friendly silly 3-second hook video - something which I hate and isn’t healthy for me. But here I can take the time and thought to explain and understand my work, and hear from you about your thoughts too! Just email me at joe@joemeldrumart.co.uk to let me know any thoughts or questions (or help!) you may have. I look forward to hearing from you!

I’m not quite sure when I’ll be recording and releasing them, but I have also been writing more episodes for ‘The Secret Lives of Pigments’ podcast. So far I have episodes written for arsenic green, prussian blue, prehistoric pigments, and mummy brown, as well as a couple of episodes on choosing colour palettes and what all the different paints and paint terms mean.

So anyway, that’s enough background information - here’s what I’ve been painting when the weather has been kind enough over the last couple of months!

First up was a wintery Dartmoor scene, looking out from near Sharpitor towards Bodmin Moor in the far distance. It’s so elemental up there, and I was struck by the cold and the changability of the view, with the looming clouds growing skywards over the far hills. I’ve been refining my ability to remove paint to create a scene, rather than adding paint all the time. I feel this allows me to create bright light in a way which isn’t possible with applying paint - to get into the technicalities, nothing can be as reflective as a sanded/smooth pure white surface (except a gloss one, but then my paint won’t stick to that) because any brush-applied paint will have ridges and depth, creating shadows and scattering light. Using thin washes of oils and wiping away areas allows the smooth canvas panel brightness to shine through, tinting it where needed with transparent pigments, or blocking it with more opaque ones. It has taken a lot of learning and technical knowledge to get to this stage, and I have yet to see another plein air painter use this approach so I’d be interested to hear of any artists you know of who create work like this.

A more traditional one next with more thickly applied paint, down at Parade Ope on Plymouth’s Barbican. The low winter sun makes beautiful reflections from the higher building on the left throwing light back towards the building on the right. It was a real challenge to capture this one, the light and reflections was constantly changing, and the painting window before the sun shifted too much was narrow. and it was bitterly cold! So it ended up being painted over the course of three sessions. I need to take a better photo which shows the depth of the shadows better, but this painting was all about the light bouncing through and around this little alley. I’ve actually painted the same view about a year and a half ago when I was first setting out painting, so it’s good to see the progression since then!

Next up, I wanted to see if the wiping/reduction painting style could transfer over to architecture. I love Plymouth’s Royal William Yard with it’s collection of listed naval victualling buildings, all cut from local limestone and granite and embellished with Victorian solidity. The main drive is an elegant view, culminating at the gatehouse arch at the far end. The low winter light was doing it’s thing, and the contrast between the cold shadows and the sun’s warmth was starkly apparent as the solid buildings threw their shadows. I decided I wanted to forgo a lot of the visual information like cars, people, signage, etc) and reduce it down to a more elemental scene which talks about light and shadow, cool and warmth, perspective and composition, and wayfinding. I found the reduction/wiping technique extremely useful in capturing the basic shapes and forms of the scene. The angularity lends itself to linear mark-making, something which becomes easier with my silicone shaping tools.

I decided to try it again on another view of the gatehouse. I love looking through the archway to the spaces beyond, and I like the way light falls across the scene. But this one didn’t go well! I’m not sad because there is lots of learning to be had in ones which don’t work. In this one I used transparent pigments too thinly without adding more opaque ones to give better coverage. A bit more paint body would have helped! And standing close, measuring and perspective became distorted, bending the composition. Lots of learning to be gained!

But I am not to be defeated! I took this learning on the next dry day we had to attempt the same scene again, this time with better results. I’ve since gone out to do anther session on this one, working on adding the architectural details and capturing the shadows. I’m happily going to admit that this one is a fight, but it’s excellent practice and I will persevere until it comes together in a cohesive way.

Finally, another not yet finished piece but one which is showing real potential. I have always loved the cork trees at Mount Edgcumbe (near Plymouth) - they are extremely special to me and I have felt an attachment to them since I was small. But I’ve yet to paint them! As I was walking around, this view really spoke to me. The distant light of glimpses of the sea and sky filter though the gaps between branches and leaves (which are still out on the cork trees even in the winter). I loved the figuring out of the far light contrasting with the soft lower light streaking across from the setting winter sun. I need another sunny afternoon before the sun gets too high to go out and have another session on this one!