Nine Mile Bluff

The Wild West Coast. Absolutely worth the trip. Nine Mile Bluff is nine miles North of Greymouth.

It has been a long day though. Dinner now, hot shower, and bed.



15089. "Nine Mile Bluff". Oil on panel. 8x10in. $150.

And plein air painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz

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Branford Park. Autumn Begins

There will be a lot of Branford Park paintings to come over the next few weeks. Branford Park in autumn is one of Nelson's delights. The foliage is just starting to turn. The poplars and willows have mostly done their change, and now all the wonderful maples are turning. A plein air painter's delight.

I'm off to the West Coast in the new truck tomorrow. I hope to spend a few hours at Cape Foulwind, then work my way down the coast to Hokitika. Back on Sunday.

Cheers!



15088 "Branford Park. Autumn Begins". Oil on panel. 8x10in. $150

Any plein air painting form this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz



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The New Truck

It is truck trade in time. The old one had given me great service. Taken me confidently through some quite challenging situations, delivered me to some amazing plein air painting locations and brought me back safely again.

But Tempus Fugit. On the way back from Blenheim a couple of weeks ago a fan belt broke on the far side of the Wangamoas, inevitably out of cell phone coverage, and it cost me much time and expense getting it back to Nelson before night fall.

It was long out of warranty, but even so it had been regularly serviced, following the recommended intervals. Stuff happens. Ok. I realise that. Even so, I have a challenging year ahead, with much off road adventuring in the Deep South, crossing braided rivers, up remote valleys, following the snow.

Heck, it's a tough job, but someone has to do it. Heh.

Anyway that's my justification for getting a new truck. If it wasn't for the
wilderness calling the outdoor painter in me, I'm sure that I could think of another reason...



15087. "The New Truck". Oil on panel. 8x10in. NFS

Most plein air paintings from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz



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Car Park Sunday

I'm really starting to enjoy these Sunday afternoons in the Downtown car parks.

You certainly see a slice of life. Once I've nailed the problem of the cars I'll start on the people.

Autumn colour adds a cheerful note as well I think.



15086. "Car Park Sunday" oil on panel. 8x10 in. NFS



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A Giant among Trees

Just a typical autumn day that really couldn't make its mind up what it wanted to do. A grey start. Sunny for a bit. Drizzled for a while, then sulked for a couple of hours. Given all that I wasn't sure what I was going to paint. I just wandered down the valley, waiting for something to catch my eye.

I saw this huge Lombardy Poplar near the river bank, and thought yes. Today we have an appointment with destiny big boy. But when I went to compose the painting I realised that I simply couldn't fit him in.

If I went far enough away to include the whole tree, everything else looked like the unkempt edge of an unmown lawn. If I made something of the foreground shrubs and willows, and included the nice line of the hills, I simply had to cut him off at the knees.

O heck. That's what I did in the end. A giant among trees.



15085. "A Giant Among Trees" oil on panel. 8x10in. $150

Any plein air painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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Sunday 29 March

Rain has been forecast for tomorrow.
No problem.
We will meet again at Montgomery Square at 2 am.

Personally I am finding painting in the urban environment an interesting challenge, and just a little out of my normal comfort zone. This is good.
I'm not sure that our development as an artist is necessarily found in being comfortable.




"Car Park Mum" oil on panel 6x8 in.
Rainy day painting. Montgomery Square.


Essentially all painting is concerned with is colour and shape. The motivation for painting is found in the subject and our response to it. The interesting challenge is to allow enough emotion through to drive the painting process, but moderated with enough detachment to allow a considered analysis of our mark making. Grin.



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Rabbit Island. Full Tide

What a lovely autumn day at Rabbit Island. Not a cloud in the sky. Well, maybe just a few clustered around Mt. Arthur, but here at the Island not a one. Today I arrived an hour before high water, and left an hour after. There was very little wind and the channels were mostly glassy, with tidal streaks and the occasional little zephyr drifting away.

Tony is right. I could spend all year here and not exhaust it's possibilities. But then, my valley is lovely, as is the foreshore, the marina, the port, the delightful municipal gardens, and the heritage buildings down town. Not to mention the snowy mountains that will be waiting down South later in the year.

I think I'll settle for painting at Rabbit Island every week or so.



15084. "Rabbit Island. Full Tide". Oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150

Any plein air painting form this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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Maitai Showers

Heavy showers all afternoon, but fortunately with long enough intervals between to get this done. There is no doubt that such plein air painting experiences are character building. Heh.

I also love the raking light at this time of the year. I gives a nice sense of drama to the composition. Also lots of warm notes from the changing autumnal trees.



15083. "Maitai Showers". Oil on panel. 6x8in. $100

Any plein air painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz

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Our Valley

I had a lunch date with friends this afternoon, so I painted this in the morning. Normally I try to get all the chores and everything else done early in order that I can concentrate on my daily plein air painting, knowing that it is the last and most important task of the day. No distractions.

Today I went up on the hillside behind my studio first thing, and caught the sun just coming around the hill and starting to light up our valley. I had forgotten how lovely it is at this hour. Perhaps I should get up there early more often.



15082. "Our Valley". Oil on panel. 6x8 in. $100

Any plein air painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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Clouds over the Maitai

Weather changing fast here today. (In Auckland too I believe. Just ask the cricketers).

I was going to paint several different possibilities but the blue, blue sky started to cloud over rapidly. So there was my subject. I had to paint rapidly too. Once again I started a plein air painting but being autumn it ended up largely a memory painting. By the time I had finished the cloud cover was ten tenths, and it was quite gloomy.

Guess it will rain next. Sigh.



15081. "Clouds Building over the Maitai" oil on panel. 6x8 in. $100

Any plein air painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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Rainy Day Quinces

Another rainy day, so rather than stand under a veranda down town I set a still life up on a covered deck outside and painted that instead.

I love these quinces. They are quite luminous, brighter than lemons, and perhaps just a little warmer in hue. I started with cadmium yellow pale, but found myself reaching for the cadmium yellow medium before I was finished.



15080. "Rainy Day Quinces". Oil on panel. 6x8 in. $100

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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Car park mum

Today it rained. Well, drizzled actually, although some serious rain is promised later. Our plein air group met at the Montgomery Square car park to paint today, as there is always some shelter somewhere handy.

There are a surprising range of subjects in a municipal car park. I was tempted to paint reflections in the plate glass windows, but in the end genre proved too tempting. I really enjoy painting cars anyway, and a car park has endless vignettes of people going about their business.

Today my attention was caught by this young mum wrestling with a child's car seat as the drizzly rain set in. Blokes have their own challenges in contemporary life, but this is a peculiarly modern mum one.

In the event she was ultimately successful and drove off. I managed to get most of the action down, and finished it in the studio.




15079. "Car Park Mum". Oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150.

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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Miss Otago Redux

You really don't know what to expect. The weather forecast was for drizzle turning to rain later. Instead the clouds cleared away and we have had a lovely day. Quite a strong breeze down at the marina, but a good day for painting, and apparently cricket too.

The old lady is still sitting there, so I followed my old friend Tony's advice, and having found a subject I like, to concentrate on it, and paint it to death.

Well, she's not dead yet. Some life still left in the old girl. I really must paint her in the autumn mists still to come, and given an adequate brolly, perhaps even in the rain. Grin.



15078. "Miss Otago. Redux" oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150.

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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Rain over Moutere.

Ok. Here it is then: the first painting of the changing season. Sigh. Right on the equinox, the weather has turned South.

It was not too bad standing in the subdued afternoon sunlight on the edge of Rough Island, looking over the Waimea Estuary, but the Moutere hills looked a bit battered. Heavy clouds, wind stretched, with passing showers loomed over them, and I had the feeling that it would not be too many hours and the meadow where my easel was set up would be catching it too

Rain due any time now. A lovely bowl of quinces on the table in front of me. I think that tomorrow's subject may well be a plein air still life painted on the porch.



15077. "Rain over Moutere". Oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150.

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz



Tomorrow's still life?

Clouds over the Maitai Valley

One of the things I have learned about clouds is that they tend to repeat themselves. Today was a case in point. I saw these amazing clouds building over the ridge behind our house, but by the time I was set up,they had dispersed.

Even so, I scrubbed what I remembered into the sky and started painting the hills. By the time I had finished them the clouds as I remembered had reconstituted themselves. Never exactly the same, but then, painting clouds is not an exact procedure.

By their nature they are fractal, and ever changing. It is rather like painting water, which they in fact are: You have to paint the process, the flow, rather than try to nail the precise shape and edge.

Great day today. It could have been apples, they looked good too, but I settled for the clouds.



15076. "Clouds over the Maitai Valley". 8x10 in. $150

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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Apples

Today I headed out to paint more clouds, but there was almost nine tenths cloud cover. Quite gloomy. Not enough blue sky. Poor light. Even the boats in the marina looked sad. Never mind. I went back home and painted this apple tree.



15075. "Red Apples". Oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150.

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz

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Location:Maitai Valley Road,Maitai,New Zealand

Mt Arthur behind Clouds

It rained quite a lot today, so the trip to Nelson Lakes was postponed. Never mind. The rain cleared later in the day so I went down to the port and painted this view of Mt Arthur, looking through the cut, across the Bay.

As usual, when I had finished I noticed a cheeky seagull watching me, perched on a post, so I included him. (See detail).

One of the interesting observations about my painting practise is how it changes with different subjects. Normally I have a bad habit of painting most of my work with just the one brush. Painting clouds though requires such a range of different mark makers I find myself using a dozen brushes ranging from a large flat bristle to a very small sable. Has to be good for me.



15074. "Mt Arthur, Behind Clouds". Oil on panel. 8x10in. $150



Detail of "Mt Arthur behind Clouds." Cheeky seagull...

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz

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Cloudscape

I really don't know why I put myself through it. Painting clouds is one of those subjects that seem so fixed, yet change so dramatically in minutes. Forms in light that seem so massive yet evanescent. Edges that are clearly marked, yet fractal. Tonal structures that stay the same tone, but very subtly change in temperature, modelling the form. And don't get me started on translucence.

But I really love them. It is just that outdoors, on the spot, my efforts seem so clumsy in the face of nature, but back in the studio today's effort doesn't seem so bad after all.

This is the season for dramatic cloud effects. The equinox is at hand. I'm off to Nelson Lakes tomorrow, so I'm hoping to find Mount Robert wreathed in clouds.



15073. "Clouds over the Maitai Valley". 6x8 in. $100

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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The sky at Monaco

It may be partly the season, as we are within a week of the equinox, or it may have something to do with the passing cyclone, but the sky today over Monaco was as dynamic as I have seen it for a while.

One of the interesting effects of shortening days, and the lower track of the sun across the sky is the dramatic modelling of the clouds. Wonderful to paint.

I can see a week or two of apple trees and cloud studies. What fun!



14072. "Clouds seen from Monaco". Oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150

Any painting for this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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Apples

Ahh! That's better.

I'm really looking forward to my next apple tree. They are challenging, but really fun.
I'm so used to apples in the studio. Apples on a tree with constantly flickering and changing light. Wow!



15071. "Apples." Oil on panel. 6x8 in. NFS


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Apples

Not a good photo. Not a good painting.
Started too late

Will finish this tomorrow.



Sun went.

Apple trees are more complicated than I thought.


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Miss Otago. Reprise.

It was lovely to meet up,with a friend from Facebook for the first time today.
I have exchanged comments with Ian Given on several occasions over the past few months. It was good to go out painting together.

We had a go at the old trawler, Miss Otago. She has as yet not left us for her last voyage. Lovely sunny day again. It made the hills behind her much brighter than usual.



15070. "Miss Otago". Oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150.

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz

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Crabapple Tree

I struggled with this one. We have a lot of apple trees and they are all heavy laden. I think that I will spend the next few days painting them. They are delightful, but not easy to paint at all.

These difficult challenges are what make plein air painting so fascinating, (and frustrating too), at times.





15069. "Crabbapple Tree" oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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Tahunanui, back beach

Again, a very hot day, and good to be able to stand under the shade of a tree and paint.

This is part of the back beach at Tahunanui, Nelson's big beach. A favourite dog walking area, as they can roam free, off their lead. I was visited by several dogs while I was painting this. They are always glad to see something a little different.

Being so bright today there was a lot,of contrast, but I did not want to play the heavy shadow game, so I went all light and Inpressionist instead. I think it works. I'll try again soon.






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Waimea Estuary

It was a lovely early autumn afternoon today. I went out to Rabbit Island, and found a nice place to set up my easel. Almost any direction can be good as a subject, but my eye was caught by this little fisherman's shack tucked under some big trees. The tide was full and starting to run out as I began to paint.

No problem. There was plenty of water still by the time I had finished. My bigger challenge was the dappled shadows cast on my panel as the sun moved. They can play havoc with your sensitivity to nuances of tone and colour.

Of course one can always move the easel, but when caught in the white heat of composition it is easier to press on and take a chance. On this occasion I think I was lucky.



15067. "Waimea Estuary." Oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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Falling Tide, Monaco

There has been a lot of rain over the past two days, and we have had a full moon. Hence a very high spring tide that went over the road in places. By the time our group arrived at the end of the peninsular the tide was starting to fall and the clouds to clear.

One of the advantages of painting at a particular location over several years is that you can pretty well anticipate what the weather and tides will do. Sure enough, as I started with the sky, the blue steadily increased, and by the time I reached sea level the tide had retreated sufficiently to give me a nice beach.

The dinghy that had been floating offshore was now beached and the rocks were starting to show. What had started out as a not very promising subject had developed into a reasonable composition.



15066. "Falling Tide, Monaco". Oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz

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Sweet Sheer

This is an old launch moored in the Marina that I have been meaning to paint for ages. Today is the day. The weather has been decidedly dodgy, with frequent showers, but cleared in the afternoon long enough to get this done.

It is only a 6x8 and I had to work fast. I managed, but it was a close run thing.

I call it "Sweet Sheer". The sheer line is the sweeping line at the top of the hull that runs from bow to stern. With her plumb bow, this old lady has the sweetest sheer in the fleet. Most modern yachts and launches have an almost straight sheer line. That is so sad.

A boat with a lovely sheer line is like a pretty girl in flattering jeans. You just can't help looking at her in 'sheer' admiration.



15065. "Sweet Sheer". Oil on panel. 6x8 in. $100

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz


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Hanging Basket III

Whew! What a day. It started out with high winds and torrential rain. Then after the front passed it became a really pleasant afternoon. I found this basket of flowers tucked under a veranda that had escaped the drama of earlier part of the day.

Then I had to go to Blenhein late in the day, and was seriously delayed in getting this post out. My bad. I'll do better tomorrow.










15064 "Hanging Basket III" oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz



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Hanging Basket. II

Second hanging basket. I had better get on with these as I love painting them, but their season draws to a close. Poor weather threatens, and possible high winds. Who knows what will be left in a week?

Today I found a much better place to stand and paint. I was in the shade, but the basket was across the road in bright sun. Excellent. A bit far away, so I may need to detail it a bit back in the studio, but I'm happier with this one.

My plein air painting show, "Summer Flowers" is less than a month away, and I would love to have some hanging baskets of flowers in it.




15063. "Hanging Basket II". Oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150.

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

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Hanging Basket

Today I painted another of the flowering baskets that hang all round Nelson city.

This one was hanging in the open, over the town bridge. I painted it in full sun, including sun on my panel.

This was not a good idea, as the painting turned out much darker than I expected once I was back in the studio. Never mind. I'll have another go later this week.



15062. "Hanging Basket". Oil on panel. 6x8 in. $100

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

rosswhitlock@inspire.net.nz

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Cable Bay.

This is the Southern headland of Cable Bay. Rocky, rugged, it is the northern face of Mackay's Bluff. Over the millennia the seas of Tasman Bay have chewed away at this cliff and spread the rubble 20km from here to Haulashore Island, forming the famous Nelson Boulder Bank.

So much geology. History too. This is the bay where the Pacific Telecoms cable came ashore generations ago. But when I first saw these cliffs I was not aware of all this. I was just inspired by their majesty. I still am. This remains one of my special painting subjects.

You can see from the sky that the persistent high is breaking up and moving away. Rain due tomorrow, with wind. I'm glad I had the opportunity to paint this: The calm before the storm...



15061 "Cable Bay Headland". Oil on panel. 8x10 in. $150.

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Hermit lsland

The Waimea Estuary is huge. One of the biggest in New Zealand. I believe that there are hundreds of islands, some quite large, like Rabbit Island, and many very small, like this one, just of the end of Monaco, the peninsular suburb of Nelson.

This little Island, barely a hectare at high tide, has this ramshackle dwelling tucked behind some low growing coastal trees and shrubs. I don't know if anyone in fact lives there, but one passing local told me once, "That's where the hermit lives."

This may be so, or not, as the case may be, but I know if I ever felt a compelling urge to do the hermit thing, I can't imagine a more interesting and evocative setting.

Actually, I don't know what a hermit does. Do they sit and watch the tides come and go? Watch the seagull quarrelling over fishy remnants? No newspapers. That could be a blessing. I could read all the great books I promised myself I would read before I grew old.

But no. Probably not. I'd most likely continue to paint en plein air every day. Without distractions perhaps even twice a day. Now there's a thought...



15060. "Hermit Island." Oil on panel. 12x9 in. $150.

Any painting from this blog may be purchased by emailing me at

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