Story of a painting - 'The Fisherman's College Sozopol'

The Fisherman's College, Sozopol Bulgaria

I thought it may be of interest if I posted the progress of one of my paintings here on my blog.
Let me introduce an iconic image of the once great, but now faded Naval or Fisherman's College overlooking the Old Harbour in ancient Sozopol, in former Communist Bulgaria.

It is one of my favourite painting subjects, and one I have painted in many different styles over the years.
Earlier in 2012 I had painted my first full sheet painting (in fact three of them) for a local Silver Shop in Old Town Sozopol. I had been thinking of painting on a larger scale following my visit to Asia, and the influence of Malay Watercolourist Chang Fee Ming, who worked full sheet and transported his pictures rolled.
The reason I have avoided such large scale works before has been due to cockling of the paper.


The subject is right opposite the studio, overlooking the harbour, which was the first painting I did after we moved in during September 2012.

'Overlooking the College' Line and Wash

So, having had a few trial runs, I took myself over to the side of the fishing harbour and sketched the scene.       The sketch on the board remained untouched during that late Summer and became something of a joke with friends, as it never progressed. The truth was that, as it had been on display on my easel both inside and outside of the studio, it had been in such differing temperatures, that I had to keep re-taping the paper to the board.
In the intervening time we also had other distractions like the visit of a crazy Italian called Giacomo with his rowing/sailing boat Clodia on his way from London to Istanbul.

Check out the story of their epic journey together at 'man on the river'

'The Day Jac and Clodia came to tea'

Then came other paintings and line and wash versions for the tourists to the Town .....

'Defenses some necessary, some not' Line and Wash

'The Clock ticks for this once great Icon'

'Radost, Sozopol'

'The Approach to Marinaport Sozopol'

'The Boats Graveyard'

'The Boat and The Fisherman's College'

'Sozopol Panorama from Kalithea's Restaurant'

So ok I have been a little distracted by the Naval College it's true, but every time I see it's beautiful architecture, which reminds me of the top of the Empire State Building in New York, and see the way the light illuminates the tower during the morning and evening well you can understand my obsession  I'm sure.
Don't get me wrong my romantic view of the College isn't shared by many who had their Military training there.

Sun sets over the College

The forboding shape of the silhouette of the College on formerKirik Island. Where else in the world would such a beautiful building not be illuminated on a night.

The Original full sheet drawing underway at last

THE STORY OF THE PAINTING
As this is likely to take some time I will keep adding to the blog as the painting progresses. Though there will be a gap during the Winter inevitably due to my teaching commitments.

There were lots of corrections to the original drawing in graphite pencil before I was happy with both the perspective and the composition. Though this, for me was a record of the building before it crumbled. There had already been talk of it's conversion to a Casino, a plan thankfully rejected. As you can see I struggle with the sheer size of the board in my smaller studio in Bujaka.

One of the reasons to justify starting the picture was that I simply didn't have a brush big enough to paint the sky.
A friend brings me Kolinsky Sable brushes from Moscow, the quality of which are unavailable to my knowledge in
Bulgaria. The sky was painted with the biggest round brush I have, a japanese wash brush I bought in Plovdiv. The sky was painted quickly (it had to be) using a wet into wet wash of Cobalt Blue, Indigo with just a little Light Red to warm it up. I dried the paper naturally checking the tape as it dried.

Areas of light I wanted to keep were masked off using masking fluid, before I painted the sky. These included the masts, aerials and some tree details. This was dried using the hair dryer on a slow speed. It was applied using a cocktail stick. If you use a brush make sure it's an old one. I keep a rigger especially for this as the fluid ruins brushes, whatever you seem to do. It's rubbery solution sticking to the bristles once dry.

Once the sky is hard dry you can remove the masking fluid with the point of a mouldable putty rubber, revealing the white paper. Care has to be taken here as the rubber can lift off some of the sky depending on the colours you use.

The furthest 'plane' is then carefully painted using a darker mix left over from the sky. Here I suggested headlands hills and roofs.  The bare tree was also painted when the background was dry. The light on the painting is coming low and from the left a direction seen as the light fades. So the masts and aerials darker (right hand side) were carefully painted using a 000 rigger.

The next nearest 'plane' are the trees behind and in front of the building. These were painted wet in wet, darker Indigo being added to the right dark side too.

The furthest part of the building was also painted loosley using Red Oxide + Burnt Sienna + Hookers Green for the tiles, and dirty light wash of Indigo for the wall. Adding a horizontal stripe of Indigo under the roof always ensures that the roof sits on the building and doubles as shadow under the eaves too.

MORE SOON ........... HERE'S HOW IT LOOKS UP TO NOW

As you can see I also painted the first wash of the water using the same colours left over from the sky (always a good idea to mix more than you need) the reason I always use bowls and not a pallete. I added darks under each boat using a stronger mix of the same blue .

Story of a Painting - The Bottle Collector in Saigon

1.     

‘T' The Bottle Collector on the Saigon River in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam’

Whilst out walking one Sunday morning in the downtown district of former Saigon, we came upon the River, it’s docks and the rusty hulk of a large ship. Some way up stream through the tangled mass of weedy vegetation, on the fringes of this fast flowing River, I spotted this old lady and watched as she strained to pick her way slowly (and with great effort) through the weeds. She had to keep stopping to bale out her leaking and very old craft. In between she stopped to carefully fish out plastic bottles from the weeds with her home made net. When she made it into clearer water we noticed that she paddled with her feet ! She eventually turned around, and I commented what a great picture it would make if she were in the shadow of the massive rusty container ship dwarfing her beneath. The lady duly obliged and the scene was complete. She looked curiously at me several times as I kept cropping up at various places on the River bank, stalking her with my sketch pad and camera. Another title for this painting was ‘Recycling Saigon style’ but I felt that the elegantly dressed old lady deserved a more dignified title.

We can only assume that her efforts were worth the rewards for the bottles.

I hope it brings as much pleasure as I got from painting it.

Martin x

The Colourful Street Sellers in Saigon - Story of a painting

The Colourful Street Sellers in Saigon

This painting evolved, over the period we were travelling in Asia through the Winter of 2011/12 and I guess was influenced by street sellers everywhere we went.
The photographs and reference sketches were cobbled together to give this finished work.
Whilst in Malaysia and then Bali I was influenced by an artist called Chang Fee Ming, who I hope to meet in May. I discovered that Chang Fee Ming had painted, very beautifully in Watercolour, many of the scenes and subjects I was working on at the time of my own Asian painting journey. His book 'The Visible Trail of Chang Fee Ming' is now a constant companion and source of comparison. The influence of his paintings including those of colourful Sarongs can be seen in this painting, and the more detailed rendering I now include in hopefully all of my paintings to follow. 

My Original Sketch

 
WHAT DID I WANT TO RECORD IN THIS PAINTING ?
I started with a yellow base coat covering all of the paper except for the main character and her baskets, as I didn't want anything to dull the colours of the fruit or her bright clothes. I overworked the sky area on purpose because I wanted to emphasise the poor air quality in Saigon, due to the 5 million motorcycles found there. 

I was amazed at the weights that these sellers (mainly woman) could carry, and exaggerated this by the bend in the bamboo pole over her shoulder.

In contrast to the pessimistic atmosphere I created, I wanted the fruit, the flowers and the people who sold them to be bright and cheerful; adding distance to the finished painting, with the under painted city scape in the middle and background.

I hope you like the painting which, all being well will be featured in my forthcoming "Asia Experience" Exhibition in July 2012 in Burgas, Bulgaria.