Location: United Kingdom
“Painting is a poem without words”
Horace
I was first given a go with oil paints as a child in the 60s and have used them ever since. I think it was Ruskin who said that mountains were the beginning and the end of landscape. They certainly got me going! The coasts of Britain and Ireland, music and the theatre also get me going, as does the magic and nostalgia of steam railways, a painting genre I have tried more recently. I find the Buttermere, Crummock and Loweswater valleys in the English Lake District very attractive and I like to cycle out to paint en plein air whenever possible. I call the results “oil sketches”. My ideal is to produce, in about 3 hours, a good, lively-looking painting which can be hung, still wet, as soon as I get it home.
The plein air sketches are higher priced, the fortunate result of a coincidence of opportunity, fair weather and my developing skill. Perhaps it’s true to say that they cannot be repeated. The lower-priced paintings were made in the comfort of the studio, but prices may also reflect the length of time taken with some subjects.
“But you know all pictures painted inside the studio will never be as good as the things done outside.” Paul Cezanne
Also in recent years, I have made paintings of subjects as diverse as red squirrels, puffins, angels, a shipwreck, the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and seascapes in Ireland and the Scottish Isles.
“A painter’s taste must grow out of what obsesses him in life that he never has to ask himself what is suitable for him to do in art.”
Lucian Freud
email: brook829@btinternet.com
http://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/painterpete
https://www.facebook.com/peter.brook.925
http://brook829.wix.com/painterpete
“Painting is a poem without words”
Horace
I was first given a go with oil paints as a child in the 60s and have used them ever since. I think it was Ruskin who said that mountains were the beginning and the end of landscape. They certainly got me going! The coasts of Britain and Ireland, music and the theatre also get me going, as does the magic and nostalgia of steam railways, a painting genre I have tried more recently. I find the Buttermere, Crummock and Loweswater valleys in the English Lake District very attractive and I like to cycle out to paint en plein air whenever possible. I call the results “oil sketches”. My ideal is to produce, in about 3 hours, a good, lively-looking painting which can be hung, still wet, as soon as I get it home.
The plein air sketches are higher priced, the fortunate result of a coincidence of opportunity, fair weather and my developing skill. Perhaps it’s true to say that they cannot be repeated. The lower-priced paintings were made in the comfort of the studio, but prices may also reflect the length of time taken with some subjects.
“But you know all pictures painted inside the studio will never be as good as the things done outside.” Paul Cezanne
Also in recent years, I have made paintings of subjects as diverse as red squirrels, puffins, angels, a shipwreck, the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and seascapes in Ireland and the Scottish Isles.
“A painter’s taste must grow out of what obsesses him in life that he never has to ask himself what is suitable for him to do in art.”
Lucian Freud
“Plein air oil sketch, 10/7/14 Crummock Valley”
Plein air sketch just finished, 10/7/14.
Cezanne made several paintings of the Mont St. Victoire. I seem to like to return to this view of the Crummock valley from a farm gate in a little place called Foulsyke. I remember doing my first one in the late 90's, then another 2 within a few days of each other in 2003, and another one after that.
When I sat down by the hedge to start this one, the sun was beating down strongly, and at such a moment I think I understand something Monet said - "All my life, I've been engaged in a battle with the sun"
It can bounce off the white canvas & dazzle you, or at another angle it will light up the canvas from behind, which is also a bit awkward. But it was a good day for an oil sketch!
As I squeezed out my first colours, a tractor roared up to the gate. The farmer opened it & drove in "I hope I'm ok to sit here!" I said "Not my field!" said he. "No, your ok! I'll just skim your bit. It'll be hot sitting there!" He was right - for this lovely view, I face the sun and the hawthorn hedge at my back offered no shade. The farmer went on & cut the field,(as the photo shows) but kindly left me my thistley patch. About 3 hours later, I had my oil sketch.
A painting based on a fortunate encounter with a flock of sheep & their shepherd during a recent cycle ride. I just had to remove the shepherd from his quad bike, give him a crook & voila!
“Plein air sketch, 1/8/14 Magheraroarty, Donegal”
The morning of 1/8/14 was very wet in Donegal, but the heavy rain began to clear around midday. The painting shows the rain clouds retreating south.
“Oil sketch, 5/9/15, Helvellyn seen from Castlerigg”
I was looking for a painting site yesterday & ended up at the Castlerigg Stone Circle, then returned to the Castlerigg area today to try an oil sketch. It's been a bit of an "iffy" summer, so I was keen to try to paint on one of these good late summer days. There was a cold bite to the wind when I began about 10.30 am, but the weather held and by my 2.30 pm finish it was warm in the sunshine.
This painting celebrates the puffins seen among bluebells on the Treshnish Isles in the Outer Hebrides. The canvas is pierced with eylets, like a deckchair or sail canvas, and is stretched on a frame of driftwood found on the Isle of Ulva near Mull.
“Rimsky's Dream, Scheherazade”
I have always loved the symphonic suite, "Scheherazade" by Rimsky-Korsakov. I asked my beautiful Indian friend to help me make this painting. Between her hands appears, as though in a crystal ball, the image of the sea and Sindbad's ship. The painting with that title is also in this portfolio.
My attempt here is to portray Sindbad's ship riding the swell of the Arabian sea, as told by Scheherazade in the Tales of One thousand and One Nights and so well evoked in the music of Rimsky-Korsakov in his symphonic suite, "Scheherazade".
“LNER - K1 on the North York Moors Railway”
In a cloud of steam, this K1 loco sets off with the North York Moors' set of teak LNER carriages. The wooden frame has been yellow-metal leafed, & carries the LNER lozenge of the old London & North Eastern Railway.
England's deepest lake, in the Cumbrian Lake District. This view was once voted Britain's favourite in a TV vote.
A few years ago, we stayed in this idyllic Irish cottage in Donegal. I'm the model for the fiddler!
The Donkey by G.K. Chesterton
When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.
Here’s something a bit different. When I first read this poem by G.K. Chesterton in “The Rattlebag” anthology, I was brought up short by the revelation of those last two lines... “So it’s that donkey!” Since then, I’ve been thinking on and off about whether I might be able to make some sort of painting about the poem.
A minor challenge was finding a donkey to photograph, and getting him or her to pose in a way helpful to the composition I had in mind. I photographed a couple of likely candidates grazing in a small field opposite “Supervalue” in Dungloe in Donegal, but they would not really pose as I required!
In the meantime, my wife Ann had taken up working at a stables, where one of the residents was a grey donkey named – Peter! I just needed a good photo, and managed to get one when I visited the stables just before Christmas.
I began painting the picture, a sort of tableau of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, in January 2014, and it was more or less complete by the middle of February. During that short time, sadly Peter died.
So this is it – in paint at least – his “One far fierce hour and sweet”.
“Melbreak & Crummock Water, 18/9/15”
Yesterday was a great day for the plein air sketch! Little or no wind, a great sky, warm sunshine and a dry-stone wall at my back. I wasn't even blown from my perch towards the end, as often seems to happen! I discovered as the afternoon wore on that a footpath passed the spot right behind my wall,(I normally try to keep out of sight) but this led to a pleasant conversation with some kindly visitors about what I was doing, which was nice. So here's Melbreak & Crummock Water, 18/9/15. I hope there may be a few more painting days as the Autumn colours start to come.
“Melbreak & Crummock Water, 18/9/15”
Yesterday was a great day for the plein air sketch! Little or no wind, a great sky, warm sunshine and a dry-stone wall at my back. I wasn't even blown from my perch towards the end, as often seems to happen! I discovered as the afternoon wore on that a footpath passed the spot right behind my wall,(I normally try to keep out of sight) but this led to a pleasant conversation with some kindly visitors about what I was doing, which was nice. So here's Melbreak & Crummock Water, 18/9/15. I hope there may be a few more painting days as the Autumn colours start to come.
“"Incoming!" Puffins, Sumburgh Head, Shetland”
I gathered some driftwood from the seashore in Unst, Shetland, and used it to frame these puffins. Puffins sometimes make a bit of a "hard landing" (as I believe human aviators call it), so this group may soon be in for a surprise!
“Derwentwater & Catbells, 8/10/15”
Derwentwater & Catbells, sketched from the Boatyard Isthmus, 8/10/15. Today's weather forecast was good, but this morning the fells gathered the clouds over Keswick and Derwentwater. I took a chance and strolled out to the Boatyard Isthmus. The dark clouds gradually parted during the afternoon, giving the chance to make an oil sketch. Catbells may be becoming my "Mont St. Victoire"!
Ullswater, in English Lakeland. The upper reach of the lake seen from a fellside near Aira Force.
Underskiddaw is a parish located at the foot of Skiddaw, near Keswick in the English Lake District. The plein air sketch was mage in 2013. If anyone buys this one, I will donate the proceeds to the Cumbria flood relief fund, providing a receipt as proof.
“Crummock/Buttermere valley 2/8/07”
I managed to get my painting kit to the top of Loweswater Fell to make this plein air sketch on the evening of 2/8/07.
“The Loweswater Shepherd”
“Magheraroarty 1/8/14”
“Puffin Sail!”
“The Sea and Sindbad's Ship”
“Wastwater”
“The Fiddler of Toome”
“The Donkey”
“Ullswater in Spring 2015”
“View from Underskiddaw”
