Monday 30 October 2023

Winter Charcoal drawings 2023

When I really need to focus for a show, I set myself a tight set of parameters, I think this is one of the main things an artist can do to make large project seem achievable. In April this year I set such a goal for my second outing of the year at the 'fishslab' gallery in Whitstable. I'd spent the colder months gathering reference material. Bone like trees, swollen rivers, reflected woodland ponds, tangled out of the way places. I felt these spaces leant themselves really well to black and white drawing. Below are some of the pieces from the show. All drawn in charcoal pencil on cartridge paper at 40x50cm.   



 



Saturday 28 October 2023

Blean Woods Pool


A recent smaller oil piece on panel, working quickly to capture the essence of this particular time of year. Painted in situ and fine tuned in the studio. 32x32cm, Sold. Similar works available soon for around the £200 mark.

Thursday 26 October 2023

Ripe Figs



There comes a time in the year when fruit appeals to me as a subject, late summer. There's a simplicity to painting still life, a modest subject can really allow you to explore colour subtleties. These ripe figs were begging to be cut open and captured. Two slightly different ways of painting here, in the second I'm trying to dissect up the painting surface into more graphic shapes, something I think pushed me forwards with subsequent work. The upper piece sold quickly but the 'figs in a bowl' are still available.  39x32cm (framed), oil on board.

Wild Monstera


'Wild Monstera' 2023, oil on canvas 50 x 50cm. Painted recently on return from a trip to Sicily. Using simple scenes like this to build my new collection and refine my style. This is one of a series in development in the studio currently. Email inquiries to phillhosking@yahoo.com.  

Wednesday 4 October 2023

Blean Wood Pools



During recent months I've been pushing my painting style in a more graphic direction and while painting landscapes, switching my focus from obvious scenes, towards the abstracted and textural. Above are two reflected canopy scenes from Blean Woods near Canterbury, bringing the canopy above into the composition. I loved how I was able to use the reflections to describe the scene in much more depth.  I painted these for a submission into a group show, both oil on canvas at 42x30cm. Available for purchase here unframed. 

Friday 7 May 2021

Studies from 2020/21






When preparing for my recent show, which was so rudely interrupted by covid, I made quite a few one day paintings that were intended to occupy a kind of study corner in the show, a little nook where the style was loose and experimental. Things that were just in my line of sight on a daily basis that I felt drawn to. If you look at anything long enough, and study it with fresh eyes, there's great beauty to be captured, even the presence of a spray can, a mass produced object. Varying levels of success here, all in oils, and on board. I feel the orchid painting has something about it that's worth pursuing, something about the composition and the cutout bold shapes is unusual for me, a more flat composition defined by the bold shapes. I worked this one up quickly, always a sign I'm in the zone on a piece.. 

Tomatoes, Dendrobium Orchid, and fungi ,Oils on board
30x30cm
&
Spraycan study - 35x 23cm

Whitstable- late Autumn sky

 This painting is based on an epic sky from late autumn 2020. Off the back of some plain air work I was doing at the time, I developed a real desire to expand on photos I'd taken. Here, taking a standard format shot of a sky over Sheppey and expanding it out into more of a panoramic. I'm using the mixer brushes in photoshop quite heavily here, this is a delightful way to work when you get the settings just right. I think even though it's digital, my mark making still has some umph to it. Large image painted at 600x600mm

To be printed in Gicle' paper ideally.

Late Autumn sky 2020. Phill Hosking.