I spent yesterday at Padstone Day Services in Bromsgrove making an oil study of a tree at the back of the centre. Padstone is a Day Centre for people with learning disabilities where my wife, Diane works as a Senior Day Centre Officer.The centre is due to close in a few weeks due to cuts being made by Worcestershire County Council, and relocated at a much smaller building nearby. The new building is currently being refurbished and has lots of large wall spaces they are keen to fill with some paintings, so I’ve been asked whether I would consider making something. The tree motif was suggested by the staff, as it is a tree that is fondly thought of by service users and staff and is always viewed from many of the rooms in the centre, and could represent memories of Padstone, which will soon be demolished, at the new location. So yesterday I went along for the afternoon to view the tree myself and make some studies to get a feel of it myself as a possible subject.
It was a great tree and a beautiful day to paint outdoors, but I wish I had allowed more time. I painted these two panels in a few hours and was just going to add more on the side for the outward expanding branches when I had to pack up. I was just getting to the point when one starts to lose themselves more in the activity and really start painting after drawing and building things up.
It may seem obvious but David Hockney’s trees (above) were obviously at the forefront of my mind after last week’s exhibition. They did help me, as I’ve not done many things like this, and made me a bit bolder with the colour, particularly in the building behind, which I enjoyed (it also was beginning to develop into a Hockney type ‘joiner’). I’ve also been thinking a lot about ‘portraits’ of trees as a subject in the edgelands, so this was not unrelated, which is why I thought it would be worth exploring. And it was. I enjoyed it. I’m just not sure if this ‘portrait’ of the tree would be the best idea to make a suitable painting for the new centre. It was a good ‘edgelands’ subject though…
1 comment:
Shaun. Congratulations on your Arts Council Grant. I hope it allows you to make the progress you're hoping for. I like your idea to memorialise this tree. Are you familiar with Mondrian's paintings of trees? I've always rated the early stuff he did on his way to pure abstraction and particularly the way his trees pay as much attention to the negative spaces between branches as the branches themselves.
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