On the last day of Automn Original painting by Rob Miller

On the road to Simonstone
Acrylic on Canvas
50cmx70cm

Finally finished this painting, well almost, unbelievable, its actually taken me nearly a full year,  beginning with working on the idea when I arrived back from Andalusia out in the fresh air on some clear late automn days, when I began looking at Lancashire through an Andalusian pinturas eyes. And, in that process began it when I was working in a shared studio in a  cramped, dark corner at the back of a old spinning mill, but instead of the clack of looms I  listened to sawing machines and  to rock fm. My two easels were situated underneath a large gas fired heater which dried the paint quicker than the Andalusian sun. I struggled here, I think with all the politics that one finds in shared studio space, and also within the limitations of the cramped working area,  it was difficult to work the painting on both vertical and horizontal planes without resorting to being a reborn hippy and squatting on the floor which of course I did not do...So  I think at the time I struggled to find in the the painting in the studio the same poetry that I had experiencd on that cold bright late automn day near Simonstone.

 

In the studio it was easier draw and paint the Thames in Black, White and grey and  more productive I did sell a couple of drawings that I made there though I was forced to wait a long time for my money and the person replaced the drawings in the folder mixing charcoal with pen drawings, luckily none was too smudged. The mill conditions led to a good atmosphere for deep winter drawings (I notice from a recent exhibition in Sussex that a colleague who shared the same space, who I shall not name, thought so to, she has made some strikingly similar black and white tonal works of London). 

 

 Luckily yesterday, I re found the Simonstone work  and within the hour had made changes. I like it now, it shows the airy light and demonstrates the higher quality of liquatex when mixed with a blending medium a quality that's starting to appear in the oil paints that I'm working on. Work is available at Artisan Fine Art Gallery Bolton 01204 844820 www.artisanartgallery.co.uk