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The paintings are in themed galleries.
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I've been painting for a good many years, though with periods of inactivity. Like so many other people these days, I took the option of early retirement. The theory was that I would have more time to paint. For some time I painted less than I did when working, producing only a few small landscapes.

Then I worked on some larger pictures of steam trains, a subject that I had previously tackled a few years earlier. These railway paintings are very time consuming, which is why there aren't many of them - each one takes me two or three months to complete.

Recent works have mostly been of two subjects - roses and reflections in water. The roses are very close-up views painted fairly large - usually about two feet square. The reflections are based on photographs and exploit the almost abstract designs that the camera catches. Although I usually follow the linear design that nature provides, I alter the colours and tones in various ways.

There's never an end to learning about painting. Sir Winston Churchill wrote in his book 'Painting for Pleasure': "When I get to heaven I mean to spend a considerable portion of my first million years painting, and so get to the bottom of the subject". I know the feeling, and wonder how he's getting on.

When I began painting I used oils and I have also produced some watercolours. However for almost all of my pictures I now use Winsor and Newton Griffin Alkyd paints. They handle much like conventional oil colours but dry faster - W&N describe them on the tube labels as 'fast drying oil colour'. They don't dry as rapidly as Acrylics, though, so it's possible to paint large areas 'wet-in-wet'. Within a few hours they are dry enough to over-paint without lifting the original layer. For glazes I use Liquin medium. I think Alkyds would be ideal for anyone who wants to start painting with oil-type paints and the results look like normal oil paintings.

I usually work with soft brushes, my current favourites being Winsor and Newton's Galeria range. For large areas I use flat brushes. For small details, especially in the railway pictures, I use rounds.

I finish my paintings using a mix of matt and gloss varnishes - about 75% matt to 25% gloss. This gives a pleasant sheen to the surface which enhances the darker tones without resulting in too shiny a surface.

The earlier paintings are on commercial canvas boards, a few are on stretched canvas. Currently I am using home made canvas panels. These consist of a sheet of quarter-inch thick MDF, suitably sealed, with medium-grain canvas stuck onto it using PVA adhesive. This gives a strong, rigid panel which I've found to be very satisfying to paint on and much less likely to be damaged than the lighter and thinner commercial boards.

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railways | roses | reflections | sussex | essex | indoors | coast & river | buildings

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Paintings copyright Roger Beckwith. All rights reserved.
Last modified March 3rd 2007.