Chimney pot seagull • SOLD

Chimney pot seagull • SOLD © Peter Gander

I’ve been itching to upload this 3rd painting in a series of seagull paintings. This particular one was commissioned by a previous painting customer in Whitstable who employed me to paint a picture of his house. His wife was particularly fond of the imperious expression I had captured in a previous gull painting, so I hope I maintained that here. She also requested a Victorian chimney pot. I did try alternative viewpoints, but this particular low angle was really the only way to convey that proud attitude! Watercolour and 5B pencil on Langton ‘grain fin’ 300gsm paper.

Ship in a bottle, Trafalgar Square, London

Ship in a bottle, Trafalgar Square © Peter Gander

Trafalgar Square is a walkable 20 minutes from my office in Tottenham Court Road, so I ambled down there the other day, on a balmy September lunchtime. The line drawing (Pentel NMF50, Superfine point) was done in-situ and I took a photo for colour reference to refer to later as it was not possible to both draw and paint the scene in the 20 mins I had before getting back. The Fourth Plinth has been set aside for contemporary pieces of art, though it was once destined to support a rider on horseback which hasn’t yet transpired. The Ship in a bottle is by artist Yinka Shonibare and celebrates the maritime history of the battle of Trafalgar - see http://www.london.gov.uk/trafalgarsquare/around/4th_plinth.jsp for details. The painting was applied to Daler-Rowney Pastel Paper, a little too thin (160gsm) for watercolour really, as it buckles, but the tinted colour, an oatmeal and the addition of white Conté pencil for the highlights made better use of this paper. It has a nice vertical grain and the overall texture lends itslef nicely to the mainly stone subject matter. Watercolour on Daler-Rowney Murano Neutral Pastel Paper with white Conté pencil.

Red phone box, Piccadilly

Red phone box, Piccadilly © Peter Gander

A painting of scaffolding-strewn Piccadilly near The Royal Academy, London. Once seen on every street corner in the land, the lesser-spotted red phone box now only appears occasionally in select sites, like the prettiest village green or by an iconic London landmark. It has long been replaced by matt black versions (awful) or even worse, the modern BT kiosk. I hear the decommissioned boxes shown have been made into personal showers, etc and I have seen one or two in country gardens in my commute to London. The morning light was bright and strong and created a nice burnt-out area on the top of the phone box. A limited palette keeps the piece harmonious. (I used a Winsor & Newton Cotman Pocket Plus half-pan painting box, which has 12 colours). Black Pentel Pen NMF50 (O.5 nib) on Daler Rowney Fine-Grain Heavyweight (200gsm) paper pad.

Spain, poolside sketches

Potted plant © Peter Gander

Candy, the neighbour's dog. © Peter Gander

Potted palm © Peter Gander

I recently had to whizz over to Spain to tend to some urgent family business and took along my sketchbook. Here's a few painted by the poolside at Eric and Annes, who kindly put me up. They live near Horadada, Alicante on Spain's east coast (Costa Blanca). Candy the dog proved a tricky subject as she was constantly on the move, so the sketch must have lasted all of 5 minutes. Watercolour & 5B graphite pencil.

‘Rude Britannia’ Maggie Thatcher sketch

Fiona and I visited Tate Britain today in Pimlico, London for the final few days of the Rude Britannia (love that title) exhibition of comic British art. Comic as in humorous, this was not exclusively paper comic-based stuff, though there was plenty of that in the form of Viz characters. No, there were bawdy Victorian etchings to contemporary sculptures and everything in-between. Artsists included my own personal hero Donald McGill, who was perhaps the most skilful/least crude painter of the golden era of 1950s & 60s saucy seaside postcards (see top right in the image). In the political room, where patrons were encouraged to draw their own caricature, I went over to the Spitting Image figure of our former British Prime Minister (now Lady) Margaret Thatcher, the perhaps infamous Iron Lady who was a prime target of the satirical puppet series from 1984 and another decade after that. Of course, all I had to do was copy the already-caricatured profile - all the hard work had been done by Peter Fluck and Roger Law. Anyway, it was still a pleasure to do another in-situ sketch. If anyone’s in London until Sunday 5th September 2010, go and see it!

Street people (SOLD)

‘Street People’ mixed media © Peter Gander • SOLD

Painted just a few days before the show and already sold (thank you to Simon Golding ;). For a change I used gouache in addition to watercolour to get those fiddly bits of (especially) light colour down on top of a watercolour base. (The alternative being to save the areas in white by using masking fluid, then watercolour). ‘The Street’, as you may know from previous posts, is a shingle spit in Whitstable that is exposed at low tide and is a popular spot for walkers, thus the ‘Street people’ title. I’ve even caught a bass when fly-fishing here after spotting some gulls swooping down over the feature. It was fun, if time-consuming, painting this, as people are obviously detail-rich, but I will be doing some more like this at a later date. Watercolour and gouache on Langton 300gsm rough watercolour paper.

Original painted postcards - seascapes

Low tide tracks © Peter Gander FOR SALE

During my recent art exhibition at The Horsebridge in Whitstable, to save me going quietly mad during the less busy spells (okay, and to look like a proper artist), I painted some tiny originals to sell. In the end I painted nearly twenty of them over a few days and here are a couple of favourites.

Early start © Peter Gander FOR SALE

This one exploits the rough surface with a dryish brush. I use a huge size 20 squirrel mop, useful for overing a large area quickly. 

Pebble path © Peter Gander FOR SALE

Linocut sketch: Navarrenx salmon poster/postcard

© Peter Gander

My brother David lives with his wife Lindy and daughter Nancy in a fortified medieval town called Navarrenx in the Béarn region of south-west France, close to the foothills of the Pyrenees. Navarrenx was the first fortified town to be built in France (in 1316) and reminds me of Canterbury near my home in Kent, as it has a wall and ramparts surrounding it and, like Canterbury, you cannot walk around the town without being aware that the place is steeped in history. A minute’s walk from my brother's front door is the ‘Gave d’Oloron’, a picturesque salmon river that I have fished myself - not for salmon as yet, but I have caught rainbow trout here, cooked on a riverside barbecue minutes after being caught! David and Lindy run Galerie Le Petit Chien and I have threatened to produce some Navarrenx-themed artwork many times before, so this morning I finally got down to sketching out this poster/postcard design en route to London on the train. By the way, any similarity to the golden age of travel poster design is purely intentional - I do love the retro feel that it has ;) The bridge is drawn from memory and I have since checked my pics of the bridge and it doesn’t have as many arches, so I will need to address that, but generally I am very content with the design. Fiona suggests I make the happy angler look in the direction of his quarry too, which is a fair point, as the two elements are a little disconnected. This will be a two-colour linocut, in black and a blue-grey and will be a tad smaller than A3 size. I will make handmade limited edition prints of this and I will also scan and produce postcards from these prints for their gallery too. Permanent pen and graphite pencil (grey areas) on parchment sketchbook. © Peter Gander

Piquillo

A piquillo poses. © Peter Gander

The last of my ‘piquillos’ sits in a plastic tub shielded from my cutting mat by a napkin. Bought from the deli round the corner from the gallery where I’ve stewarded for the last couple of days. Piquillos are a favourite basque tapas dish. Quite fiery are these innocent-looking peppers (more like a chilli pepper) which are stuffed with all sorts of things but in my experience, usually a creamy cheese. My brother lives in the basque town of Navarrenx in south-western France, so I am happy to report that I’ve come across these delights before. The heat of the chargrilled pepper is offset by the smooth, rich cheese. Note how the oil has taken on the hue of the mini red pepper. I can’t recommend them enough! Watercolour on Langton rough 300gsm paper.

Mini linocuts, framed

© Peter Gander FOR SALE

For my current show, I produced this cute little trio of linocuts, A Whitstable Oyster Yawl; Whitstable Seagull and the familiar-by-now Whitstable Fish Market Fisherman. They were hand-printed onto watercolour paper with a waterbased ink in a black-to-blue blend. They are edition numbered, signed and framed in a white box-style frame.

Boat by The Street, Whitstable

© Peter Gander • SOLD (2010)

Just east of the harbour on Whitstable's shore is a long shingle spit that, at low tide, extends a kilometre northwards out to sea. It has been nicknamed 'The Street' as it is a popular walking spot. Just visible on the horizon are the Maunsell forts. See previous post for images and info on these wartime relics.