My Paintings

I thought it time I made a blog for showing my oil Paintings!

The first is the one of me walking the Ebro Camino where the beautiful Holde took a photo of me talking to Christopher. She kindly gave me permission to use it and I made the painting from it, Thank you dear friends
I think all the others are from photos I took on my Caminos combined with my own memory of the time. I cant carry canvases and all the necessary paint gear when hiking chuckle









Here is the place we all dream to find at the end of our long hike, no matter which Camino we choose to walk. This painting shows the Cathedral at night under floodlighting, you sit on that stone bench and realise the crowds have thinned and you have (llagedo)





Maybe remembering the moment around midday while you were at the service inside, as in this painting where you see the swinging of the giant incense burner that you saw probably with tears in your eyes and blamed it on the smoke.



The North Camino, I think produced the most subjects for my renewed effort at oil painting after 20 odd years of not touching an artists brush. My style had changed! I could no longer use the pallet knife to the same degree as I used too, but I feel my work has taken on a finer quality this time.














On second day out from Irun I come down a steep path to the small town of Pasaia on the banks of a river to catch a ferry across in drizzling rain. Here I stopped for a welcome coffee! I loved the reflections on the wet plaza stones. Even the tourists help make the painting!
















I remember coming out of the dark woods and seeing this dazzling sunlit church by this other river estuary. I added the coming storm cloud to break up the blue sky for my painting. This was the second painting I attempted after a 20-year rest from painting chuckle




To show more of my old style, here is the first a small painting of a street Francesca and I passed while on the Mountains of Leon. I was walking the Ebro but now we were on the French Camino it had rained here too. it has not been framed as yet.









While talking about small painting here is the test I did before I painted my large one of Christopher and I, just to see if I could still paint those hard portraits, chuckle.

Getting back to that North camino.

My latest painting is of Castro Urdailes.

On this day we had walked 27 kms by the time we got here. I was dumbstruck by the beauty of this place. I was walking with Paco who came from Galicia. We wandered around the port and onto the other side and up and around that cathedral and castle on the far side. Where but Spain could you see a colourful port with brightly coloured boats, a cathedral and a castle, also that huge old arch plus a fine restaurant all in the one view! Not that we ate there chuckle we found a cheap dive around the back streets and I was to pay dearly for that mistake that night!!!!




Caminos depend so often to being in the right place at the right time. I arrived in Oviedo with paco and Miguuel (also an artist). I phoned to meet an old Camino friend. We met and she greeted me warmly then took me to her place, she showed me her hometown. Just as we got near to her street we saw a wedding and the bride was just coming out of the church while traditional dancers performed for them in the plaza. I was with a good friend, in the right place at the right time! “¡El tiempo correcto y la buena compañía, son lo mágico del Camino!”
I used this photo I took for the cover of my book on the north Camino My search for the four leaf clover before painting this picture











I love the city of Oviedo and returned again this year. Only this time it was very wet but this gave me wonderful coloured reflections on the wet stone paved streets and the slippery marble laid in the plazas plus the bright umbrellas as people hurried to and fro

The arch under the Ayuntamiento (town Hall)


There are still many more I might paint from that first North Camino walk. I go now to show some others I have painted, of things seen on my last Mozárabe trip in 2010, as was that last one.

First a pretty young Spanish lady's portrait from Cordoba.










Back to real rural parts of the Caminos. Having done my camino from Cordoba to Merida I set out again from Zamora on the Portuguese Via del plata. On the way I am not sure if Janis and I had crossed the border but I think we had. I was amazed and fascinated to see people ploughing with two bovine animals! Were they cows or oxen? The cart intrigued me as well! The wheels were made of iron and very different to Galician carts with their almost solid wooden wheels. The old lady with the stick? Was she there to show the cattle where they must walk? The other lady was planting potatoes I think. We were too far away to go to ask questions but they waved to us then continued with the turning of the plough, while a strange assembly of dogs continued to bark at us



On that same hard Camino Castrelos

A cold mountain top with the sun setting behind him, a laughing shepherd brings his flock home











There might be more paintings later from this and other Caminos but for now two paintings of the lovely city of Madrid when I stopped a few days on the way home.








First
This incredible young man and his sweet ballerina as she danced on her points and then came to rest in this wonderful pose in the plaza in front of the Royal palace.















Much later after visiting my dear friends Antonia and Amador, I had to run for cover under the arches of the plaza Mayor! A huge summer downpour made the gargoyles join in and spurt a deluge of water onto the umbrellas below. Restaurant customers ran to where I was sheltering but the Spanish waiters carried on regardless under the umbrellas as if it was a normal occurrence for 11 at night in July! I love those reflections and soft lights. I should have stopped for a brandy.






Then last for now home to see the sleepy smile of my grandson Benjimin

My Paintings

Septembers blog up to the 1st of October

This Painting is much bigger than any of my resent work as yet unfinished it has taken a long while most of this month mainly because we had a short holiday in Denmark WA but I have got over most of the difficulties I had with it and in this photo you can see it is coming on well. I have some of the hardest part to do yet the people, but the girl on the left is complete and the one in pink too the next two men are not, nor is the main girl although I think her smile is. the last couple on the right haven't been touched as yet . There is a considerable change needed in their drawing as the man's back is a little to long but should not be too much problem.























Now all complete on the 9th of October












This next painting of a sailing ship also slowed the Santiago painting down as halfway through doing the dances painting, I was asked to paint a drawing of a sailing ship. It was a drawing done by her 12 year old son, so I take no credit for the drawing. He had been described this ship by his grandmother and told that this ship represented the island his grandmother had emergreated from many years before




At the end of the month I also was treated By my daughter and family to an art lesson that was right out of my comfort zone! This was to paint from life! here is the result so far, I am quite pleased and may finish it after I have completed the Santiago Dances











In my garage sat a painting I had done while living in Spain. I found it had deteriorated over the 25 years being dragged about the world so I cleaned it then repainted the sky and varnished it afresh and found it came up looking as good as when I first painted it. The funny thing is I am sure I could not get that ship looking so wet and real now as my ability of using the pallet knife has been very hard to relearn but it is coming back, I used the pallet knife in the Santiago dancers painting for much of the back ground buildings and stone paving of the square and even a lot of the model was done using it!
Well that's about all done this month painting . Until next time
abrazos
Mike