In the winter of 2011 during the very cold weather, I watched Red-breasted Merganser males displaying in a corner of Langstone harbour. I hope this conveys the half light of a very cold winter morning, against a semi-industrial backdrop. I have included just enough of the detail of the birds to recreate the overall experience of being there. It was re-created from a couple of very quick sketches made with very few lines to convey the posture of the birds.
David J Coleman
Figurative and Portrait Artist
Category Archives: Artwork
The crab apple raiders 2
This is much bigger than the original, (about 36 inches by 24 inches) and is a move towards cutting out everything that doesn’t contribute to evoking the experience of observation. I seek to create memorable images that convey the deep enjoyment of the visual experience of nature. The part of our field of vision that is actually in focus is a fraction of the overall visual experience. The rest contributes colour, rhythm, movement- all of the things that malke up our sense of being alive.
Gramps is 90 (2) checking the football results
Checking the football results
The Portsoken Volunteer project (2)
Brian is now a very good friend, and I have made a lot of drawings and a couple of paintings of him to date. The project is not by any means over yet, and I expect that this work will feature quite a bit in my end of year show.
The latest drawing is pretty well life sized. here is a small section of it showing the developments in my technique that have taken place in the last six months. It has been reviewed by Robin Lee-Hall, Tanya Russel, Rob Pepper and Brendan Kelly, all of whom have had positive but critical remarks to make. It is a great privilage for me but to have this standard of input but, well, more work required.
Gramps is 90
This is for my Children whose Grandfather is 90 this week.
I guess one gets better at this with practice. Tanya Russell seems to think so.
Portsoken volunteer project
Following on from the charcoal drawings that are already on mu blog. I am now working on two oil paintings. One of them is still at the planning stage but is based on one of these charcoal drawings. It is up for critical review on Wednesday 5th Feb by Rob Pepper and Robin Lee-Hall.
The sparrowhawk
Here is the detail inserted into “The flush”
“The flush”
I continue to try out many styles and themes related to my twin obsessions in art. One is nature based themes, and the other is painting people. These themes are not as far apart as may appear to be the case and I am using techniques that can be adapted to both. Gradually, they are converging on a settled overall style, but it is a really slow job. I have decided , for the moment, that I need to continue to pursue a fairly broad approach.
Here is a sparrowhawk which I painted onto a heavily textured surface that evokes the random foliage to be found on the edge of a wood, where the effect of the wind and light are more important than depicting detail. I have often introduced a small amount of highly figurative detail into semi-abstract landscapes. I have experimented a lot with figurative detail in this space and made several efforts to get it right. Here is the overall space which is about 60cms wide.
My fellow students think I need to try to position people in these spaces tather as I have positione birds and animals. This may be the next step.
Portraiture with Andy James
Andy James is a remarkable portrait painter and it has been a very special experience to paint under his tutilage. Here is portrait I did of a model called Fola, who is well known at the Art Academy.
The bluebell wood
This was painted several years ago, and the lady who purchesd it has recently been in contact to buy “the lookout”. She sent me a photo to make sure the frame matches reasonably well. I decided to post a copy for you to see. The grey partridge painting called the lookout is an oil about 16″x12″.
The bluebell wood
David J Coleman 