Posted by Peter Corr on in abstract, Abstraction, Art, art exhibition, art gallery, art materials, art technique, artist, black and white, blackandwhite, cambridgeshire, colour field painting, Contemporary abstract painter, fenland, Landscape Painting, paint, painter, painting, photography, texture

Exhibition in Cambridge

The Locker Cafe

18th July – 18th August 2109

Opening Times:

Mon – Fri 8:30 am – 5:30 pm, Sat 9:30 am – 5:30 pm, Sun 10am – 4:00pm

If you are in Cambridge between 18th July and 18th August come along to the Locker Cafe, just opposite Tindalls art shop at 54 Kings Street. I will be displaying a range of paintings and photography from the last couple of years so there should be something of interest for everyone. The Locker cafe is a lively ‘arts’ based cafe founded by father and son team John and Adam Hodges in 2017. The paintings are primarily large scale abstract pieces in a variety of media including acrylic, bitumen, cold wax and oil paint. The monochrome photographs are based on the Fenland landscape.

Posted by Peter Corr on in abstract, Art, art gallery, art materials, art technique, artist, cambridgeshire, colour field painting, Contemporary abstract painter, paint, painter, painting

Roswell Pit

Acrylic Landscape Painting

This painting is based on the artificial lake called ‘Roswell Pit’ which is located on the edge of the City of Ely in Cambridgeshire. The work is something of a departure for me as I have used acrylic paint and a glazing medium and not oil paints and cold wax. To achieve luminosity and translucency I have applied multiple layers and short strokes of colour with a hatching technique. It is perhaps difficult to categorise the painting style but I see elements of Magritte and Surrealism, Monet and Impressionism and possibly aspects of colour field painting in the relative flatness of the picture plane.

Posted by Peter Corr on in abstract, Abstraction, Art, art gallery, art materials, art technique, artist, colour field painting, Contemporary abstract painter, new forest, paint, painter, painting

UnderWood
‘UnderWood’ Oil on Canvas 100 x 100 x 4cm
gold abstract painting 100 x 100 cm oil painting on canvas

This is a multi layered mixed media oil painting on a high quality canvas frame. This painting represents a development of my New Forest series and continues my engagement with nature and land. The surface consists of multiple layers of oil and cold wax, with a marked impasto and pronounced textural qualities.

The gold paint has a soft patina and mirrors elements of the colour and tones of the immediate environment. Gold leaf has been applied selectively to some of the vertical forms and provides intense points of a golden reflective light.

The abstract nature of the work reflects the process of growth, flowering and renewal. This painting is concerned with serenity and contemplation. The falling and rising arcs of paint are designed to be both hypnotic and calming.

Posted by Peter Corr on in abstract, Abstraction, Architecture, Art, art gallery, art materials, art technique, artist, Contemporary abstract painter, fenland, Landscape Painting, paint, painter, painting, texture, UK

Striation
abstract landscape painting
‘Striation’ Oil on Canvas 60 x 60 cm

This is an experimental painting on canvas using tar, oil paint and cold wax medium. Just recently, I have been trying to include more elements of drawing in my work, allowing the hand to make incisions without consciously controlling or dictating the final outcome. I guess I am attempting to eliminate myself from the process, to achieve a sense of originality and inevitability about the marks, undoubtedly a foolhardy enterprise. How can it be possible to draw without prior awareness of drawing? I recall the ‘blind drawing’ exercises we worked on in art classes; they often produced surprising and unexpected results. However, many of the students never quite grasped the purpose of these techniques and often felt they were creating interesting but more or less random ‘drawings’ lacking in observational skill.

How as an artist do you suppress and override all those aspects of knowledge surrounding line and form that we acquire over years of practice? The lyrical and poetic qualities of line become part of our skill set, our DNA, the sweep of the arm, the motion of the wrist; curves and contours, all the motor skills associated with looking and recording though drawing become ingrained and established.

I intend to explore and discuss this aspect of drawing further in the next few posts. I’ll be looking at the use of unconventional drawing implements and the significance of the material we choose to work with.

Detail from ‘Striation’
Posted by Peter Corr on in abstract, Abstraction, Art, art gallery, art materials, art technique, artist, Contemporary abstract painter, fenland, Landscape Painting, paint, painter, painting, texture

Land
oil painting on canvas, landscape, abstraction
60 x 60 cm on Canvas

I took the opportunity during my Fine Art degree course at Manchester Art College to work in the print room. I really loved the process of etching, preparing the copper sheets, drawing into the wax surface, revealing the bare metal and immersing the plate in sulphuric acid. The depth of line being controlled by time and the concentration of the acid solution. It is always a magical process and difficult to predict the outcome. I guess in many ways I have come full circle; that was over 40 years ago and I’m still drawing, scoring into surfaces and creating marks.

This series of paintings use tar, oil paint and cold wax and to some extent they can be manipulated to echo the qualities found in intaglio etching. Many artists say they begin a work without preconceptions and just allow the image to emerge and take form.

One of the assumptions about this technique is that it leaves open the opportunity for the spontaneous and unexpected to arise as the work progresses. This may be the case with particular pieces and you may occasionally ‘get lucky’. I prefer to think that this approach is often quite calculated and measured. It is about generating visual ideas through accident and chance, then looking carefully and reflecting on what has been produced and intervening to strengthen those qualities.

The ‘detail’ images shown below will give you some indication of the nature of the marks and the subtlety of the wax and tar surface. Beeswax is a beautiful medium to work with; selective burnishing enhances reflective qualities and a sense of depth and texture.

‘Land’ Detail
‘Land’ Detail
‘Land’ Detail
Posted by Peter Corr on in abstract, Art, art exhibition, art gallery, art materials, art technique, artist, Contemporary abstract painter, Landscape Painting, new forest, paint, painter, painting, texture

New Forest Painting

I have just been working on a commission based on one of my recent New Forest paintings. It has taken over two months from start to completion and I am genuinely pleased with final outcome. For those of you who have worked on a commission before you will know that they can sometimes be problematic. I think it is extremely important to be clear about the nature of the painting process and to communicate this through discussion with the other party.

Each painting is inevitably unique and few artists would be able to recreate an existing painting or exact copy unless the style owed more to photographic realism and/or geometric precision. You will see from the close up details that this painting has been developed through the application of successive layers of oil paint and cold wax medium. The raised surface and tactile nature of the work embodies the textural qualities of the subject matter.

Landscape painting of a forest, heavy impasto and texture

Posted by Peter Corr on in Art, Fuji x100s, photographer, photography, street, street photography, UK

Charles & Camilla in Ely
Prince Charles with Camilla in Ely, Cambridgeshire 27.11.2018

No one could ever accuse me of being a Monarchist and I know you must be thinking this is not my usual usual genre but, I was in Ely marketplace this morning, I had a camera with me and so why not.

I couldn’t be certain what Camilla was saying to Charles but I think given the body language, he may well have been taking directions.  To be fair to both of them, they spent a great deal of time talking with the people of the town and they seemed to be upbeat and enjoying the experience…..they really tried to talk to everyone, now that is professionalism.

Posted by Peter Corr on in black and white, blackandwhite, cambridgeshire, fenland, Fuji x100s, monochrome, photographer, photography, photography, UK

White House Road..not a hill in view

landscape photograph monochrome Fenland road
White House Road: Fenland

I think late Autumn and Winter are probably the best seasons for landscape photographers living in the Fenlands.  I know that Cambridgeshire doesn’t have the dramatic landscapes of the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales or even the Trough of Bowland, but it does have something special.

At this time of year the landscape maintains a gritty and determined resolve.  There is a complete absence of pretension and prettiness.  The uneven roads and tilted telegraph poles, the isolated columns of tall trees,  vast skies with fields stretching to the distant horizon makes me feel as if I have been cast adrift on an open sea.

John Clare: The Fens

There’s not a hill in all the view,
Save that a forked cloud or two
Upon the verge of distance lies
And into mountains cheats the eyes.
And as to trees the willows wear
Lopped heads as high as bushes are;
Some taller things the distance shrouds
That may be trees or stacks or clouds
Or may be nothing; still they wear
A semblance where there’s nought to spare.

Posted by Peter Corr on in Art

Fenland Road
Fenland Road, Cambridgeshire Fuji X100F Black and white photograph
Fenland Road

There is something compelling about the roads and rivers of the Cambridgeshire Fenland. In fact, there is something compelling about all roads and rivers wherever they may be. Ever since the invention of the camera, roads have long held a particular fascination for photographers.. There are so many associations and connections for us; they are often used as symbols to reflect upon significant moments in our lives. If you do a little research you will find that roads feature in a wide range of poetry and songs. Below is a well known poem by Robert Frost about making those critical choices.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Posted by Peter Corr on in Fuji x100s, photographer, photography, photography, Travel Photography, UK

The River Great Ouse
The River Ouse, Cambridgeshire, Sunset
The River Ouse, Cambridgeshire

There was a magnificent sunset this evening in Cambridgeshire and I captured the evening light on the River Great Ouse, not far from Wicken Fen.The sun had just disappeared below the horizon and the sky became a kaleidoscope of colour. The image was taken with a Fuji X100F on the Velvia film simulation setting.

Posted by Peter Corr on in Hong Kong, photographer, photography, street, street photography, Travel Photography

Shaolin Buddhist Monks
Shaolin Buddhist Monks, buddhism, martial arts, physical endurance
Shaolin Buddhist Monks

I found this striking image from my Hong Kong collection. I believe these are Shaolin Buddhist monks who are trained to perform feats of incredible physical endurance. Skeptical commentators maintain that the spears are blunted and the angle of the body combined with the raised head ensures the body weight  falls on the lower thighs. Even if this were the case, this is a genuine spectacle and simply spell binding to watch. For anyone who may be concerned, the young monk pictured was completely unscathed although I have to say his expression betrays a certain level of discomfort and anxiety

Posted by Peter Corr on in Architecture, buildings, Hong Kong, monochrome, photographer, photography, sea, Travel Photography

Star Ferry, Hong Kong

Hong Kong.jpg

I have been looking through some old hard drives and came across a set of images from a visit to Hong Kong. This was taken in 2006 with a Canon 40D and 50mm f1.8 lens. Hong Kong is a very exciting city and nothing short of paradise for a street photographer. I’ll keep checking through the various files and folders and see what else I have in storage.