swans & boats at riverside park, Southampton acrylic painting

Swans and boats at riverside park, southampton, UK

This is painted in Acrylics on a 16" x 20" canvas. The subject is Riverside Park, on the outskirts of Southampton, Hampshire,UK. Plenty of swans can be seen on the featured river, known as the River Itchen. The water still has a large salt content at this stage and many sea birds can be seen as well as fresh water varieties. The area is popular with canoeists and yachtsmen using the water, and families and friends walking through the park or fishing from the banks of the River Itchen.
The painting is based on a number of poor quality mobile phone images, taken during a summer evening. A complete composition is built up in photoshop and then redrawn on the canvas.Painted in 2012.
http://www.martindaveyillustration.co.uk 
 

Boats at Weston Shore, Southampton, UK oil painting

Boats at Weston Shore, Southampton, UK

This painting depicts the area of Weston Shore, Southampton. The large river (estuary) is the river solent and sees large commercial ships and passenger liners heading toward Southampton, seen in the background. Netley abbey is close by.
The painting is created in oils, with an initial acrylic base layer. It is based on a number of photographs taken on a cold but sunny autumn afternoon. Painted in 2012 on a canvas 16" x 20".

Bursledon windmill, Southampton, UK, oil painting

Bursledon windmill, Southampton, UK

This is a windmill at Bursledon, Southampton. It is the only working windmill in the county of Hampshire, UK, and is currently undergoing maintenance. It is hoped that the restoration will be complete in 2014,when the mill celebrates its 200th anniversary. Visitors are able to see flour being produced at Bursledon windwill, and view the other vintage farm buildings on the site, as well as the nature reserve.This was painted in the winter of 2012 in oils on a canvas measuring16" x 20". The image is quite timeless in a way, with nothing from the 20th century in the scene.

Exhibition at Bursledon Brickworks,Southampton,UK

Exhibition at Bursledon Brickworks,Southampton,UK, April 2012

On Sunday 15 April I exhibited work at the Bursledon Brickworks industrial heritage museum in Hampshire,UK, during their 'spring steam up', the second of which I have attended. Over 60 artists and crafts people attended and the event seemed well attended by the public. As well as showing four paintings (1,2,3), one of which is not on this blog curently, I did a small painting on site which draws attention. The painting was of 2 cows in a field, painted in Acrylics and is shown further down in the post.
In the two following photographs I can be seen at my stand, showing four oil paintings (one hidden from this angle, and display boards with colour printouts of other pieces of work. I prefer this location, rather than being beside a wall as more work can be displayed and I am not so easy to miss! It also give space for people to view me from behind while working.

interior of Bursledon Brickworks showing the art and craft fair

Two cows in Field

The painting that was produced during the day at Bursledon Brickworks was of 2 cows in a field, painted in Acrylics on a canvas board measuring 10" x 12". It drew a lot of interest from other artists and the public. The use of acrylics is rare for me as I usually use oil paint , but is a good medium to use at times like this because it dries quickly ( in seconds) so a painting can be built up speedily in front of the public, providing some entertainment, rather than literally watch paint dry.

Southampton Bursledon Brickworks small railway engine

This is another demonstration painting produced in Acrylics during 2011 at an autumn crafts fair again at Bursledon Brickworks. The painting is 10" x 12" and is of one of the steam engine rides held at the museum.

from the website... 
This painting of two cows standing in a field was done in acrylics on a canvas board measuring 12" x 10".
It is a smaller painting than the more usual sizes I work to, but this was done as a demonstration painting in public at Bursledon brickworks art show, so a quick drying, small scale project was needed. I did prepare the drawing and canvas the day before however. The artwork is based on a photograph that had three cows within it, but it looked too confusing.

Titanic paintings at Southampton art Gallery on display

Retracing the Unsinkable. Titanic painting exhibition at Southampton Art Gallery.

titanic wreck: save our souls. this is a composite of the three stages of the painting.

         titanic at sea: full speed ahead. this is a composite of the three stages of the painting.


The paintings that I submitted to the gallery are discussed in an earlier post. Here I am showing them hanging at the gallery themselves.

The exhibitions formal title is Retracing the Unsinkable Southampton City Art Gallery's Biennial Open Exhibition 2012. It runs from the 17th March – 29th April 2012

The blog page showing the two Titanic paintings in full is here.

One of the paintings on the wall with some of the other works.

Martin Davey with titanic wreck: save our souls

Martin Davey with titanic at sea: full speed ahead

Titanic oil paintings

Titanic paintings. Two paintings on show at Southampton art gallery 2012.

Titanic at sea: full speed ahead

Titanic wreck: save our souls

This is a set of two paintings depicting the Titanic, the ship in the famous marine disaster of April 1912. They are both painted larger than my usual oil paintings, at a size 27.5" x 19.6", though did not take that much more time to do than normally. Drawings were prepared from looking at many photos, drawings and paintings of the ship. I thought it important to get as many details correct, though I'm sure I have missed some fine details! But hopefully the right impression is created as the ship looks 'right'. They were painted between november 2011 and jan 2012. The 'Titanic wreck' being the first.

Titanic at sea: full speed ahead
In this picture I wanted to convey the bulk of the ship, and its unstoppable power. It seemed that a low angle shot was required to convey this although it means that most of the canvas is painted black! but I like to think that in this case it is allowed, the ship is black in reality. The big dark, alien man made shape has an interesting quality slicing through the naturally curvy, colourful water of the ocean.
The lone figure standing near the Titanic's bow mainly is there to give an idea of scale. There is another figure, almost hidden, in the form of a lookout posted in the crows nest, on the large mast. I suppose the painting is not a happy one despite its drama. The main figure is perhaps contemplating his future on the trip to New York. In the sky heavy clouds can be seen, mixing with the dense smoke gushing out of the funnels, indicating the relentless power of the Titanic.

Titanic wreck: save our souls 
This picture depicts the wreck of the titanic. The painting may look odd in terms of perspective, but is correct. When the ship hit the ocean floor the bow buckled and was forced to pointing slightly downwards when compared to the rest of the ship. This then caused a hole to be ripped on the hull, on the left side of the painting. Additionally the ground has been forced upward by the bow digging in to the sea bed.
Of course the image is a 'fantastical' view. In reality the view is pitch black at this depth in the ocean. The light from the submarine would never be able to light up the ship like this. But close up photographs do reveal a vibrant, orangey/ red colour to Titanic's hull, with the yellow 'rusticals' running vertically down. The submarine itself is based on 'Alvin' , the vehicle that discovered the Titanic, together with the small robotic probe tethered to the main unit. Finally the mysterious lights lined up along the bow are up to the viewer to decide. They could be the 'lost souls' awaiting rescue.

collection of animals enjoying time at an animal funfair, digital dainting

collection of animals enjoying time at an animal funfair.

This image was painted in photoshop to a size of A4 dimensions, during january 2011. The title is "animal funfair", and portrays various animals enjoying a trip to the fair. The animals featured are a mother bear and her cub, snake, crab, pig, lion, dad and son tiger, crocodile, cow and several horses, monkeys and elephants.I wanted to set the scene at twilight as fairs seemed exciting to me, with the light bulbs gradually replacing the fast disappearing daylight.
An image like this is drawn on the computer, then painted in a traditional, layered way similar to conventional painting media.