Painting styles
Chris Deuchar
> From: Bruce Peckett <bpec...@halfcut.demon.co.uk>
> Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 23:29:44 +0000
> Subject: Re: Re Embellishments
>
> If you look at Rons style today, you will see that the leaves are
> seperated from the flowers and that the flowers are more widely spaced
> so that petals of one colour do not overlap those of another colour.
> This cuts down dramatically on the delays involved waiting for paint to
> dry. As Ron had to find a way to make money out of this skill when the
> dockyard work dried up, developing this quicker method made sense.
I'm not totally convinced by this "waiting for paint to dry" argument.
A lot trad painting works best when the substrate is still wet - I
suppose with the petals as you say - particularly when there aren't
too many swags on the boat...
> Modern work, decorative and sign writing, tends to be "thinner", smaller
> and more spread out than the dockyard painting that was applied to
> working craft.
True but a lot of this can be laid at the door of poor layout
and technique rather than paint drying (except Ron!).
> An exception to the above was the work of William Hodgson in the 1930's.
> Hodgsons' style or roses was much more realistic than the stylised
> southern pattern and led to the style we know today as "knobstick". It
> takes much more effort to do well but is really attractive. You rarely
> see knobstick work commercially as it takes significantly longer to
> paint than the simple southern flowers.
There are one or two exceptions (of course!) but the ones that really
annoy me are those who call something "knobstick" when it blatantly
isn't. Hodgson and his pupil (forgotten the name - only died a year
or two ago..... - possibly even "out-Hodgsoned" Hodgson!) put their
flowers together in such a simple, but subtle, way that makes them
complex. Many of todays knobstick painters (apart from the vile
perpetrators referred to above) achieve a similar effect but use a
more complicated technique. This is what takes the time. I doubt if
Hodgson , or ?????, took any longer over a swag of roses than (say)
Frank Jones did at Braunston.
Tony Lewery is one of the best for knobsticks these days. Roger
Fuller was quite good at one time too - very "Hodgson" - he now
claims to have lost it!
Chris D
chris....@nottingham.ac.uk tel 0115 951 6264 fax 0115 951 6267
Just published: "A Boaters Guide to BOATING" 3-75GBP + 0-75 GBP
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Bruce Peckett
In article <A3BC2...@szn1.agric.nottingham.ac.uk>, Chris Deuchar
<SB...@szn1.agric.nottingham.ac.uk> writes
>> From: Bruce Peckett <bpec...@halfcut.demon.co.uk>
>> Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 23:29:44 +0000
>> Subject: Re: Re Embellishments
>>
>
>I'm not totally convinced by this "waiting for paint to dry" argument.
>A lot trad painting works best when the substrate is still wet
Yes it does, however, with with the more modern paints, you tend to run
out of time to do it! It's much easier to avoid too much paint on paint
> - I
>suppose with the petals as you say - particularly when there aren't
>too many swags on the boat...
That's really what I was getting at, when your doing a lot of decoration
it doesn't really matter but when your only doing small jobs it does
become significant
>
>> Modern work, decorative and sign writing, tends to be "thinner", smaller
>> and more spread out than the dockyard painting that was applied to
>> working craft.
>
>True but a lot of this can be laid at the door of poor layout
>and technique rather than paint drying (except Ron!).
I didn't mean that this was to do with paint drying (don't *think* I
linked the two, didn't mean to anyway). I wouldn't describe it as "poor"
layout if applied to a modern boat provided that it isn't described as
traditional and it's what the owner wants but I especially dislike it
when applied to historic craft and claims are made about recreating the
traditional livery!
It's not just on boats, modern sign writing practice exhibits exactly
the same change compared to work done 50 or 100 years ago. This is often
a problem when a professional sign writer is engaged to letter a boat -
he usually *can* do the job right but only if you explain your
requirements clearly and preferably show him some old photo's to
emphasise the point.
I;d like to restate that I did not, do not, and will not in the future
imply that Ron Houghs work is anything other than top quality. His
workmanship is second to none. I personally don't particularly like his
style but that's a matter of personal taste.
>
<snip>
>
>There are one or two exceptions (of course!) but the ones that really
>annoy me are those who call something "knobstick" when it blatantly
>isn't.
Me too!
> Hodgson and his pupil (forgotten the name
So have I
>- only died a year
>or two ago..... - possibly even "out-Hodgsoned" Hodgson!) put their
>flowers together in such a simple, but subtle, way that makes them
>complex. Many of todays knobstick painters (apart from the vile
>perpetrators referred to above) achieve a similar effect but use a
>more complicated technique. This is what takes the time. I doubt if
>Hodgson , or ?????, took any longer over a swag of roses than (say)
>Frank Jones did at Braunston.
Methinks you mean Frank Nurser, Frank Jones worked at Leighton Buzzard!
(And is my favourite of the old dock painters BTW).
However, nit-picking aside, I think they would have taken a bit longer,
but I'm talking the odd minute or two per flower as there are extra
brush strokes involved and some shading of the petals that isn't present
in other styles. I'd agree that most modern painters of "knobstick"
(quotes used advisedly) tend to paint the flowers artistically rather
than with the free brush technique that should be used - this takes an
age to do and is never going to look absolutley right.
>
>Tony Lewery is one of the best for knobsticks these days. Roger
>Fuller was quite good at one time too - very "Hodgson" - he now
>claims to have lost it!
Where, maybe I can find it! :-)
--
Regards
Bruce Peckett
Half Cut - Contemporary folk music & fun from the canals of England.
Reply to: Bru...@halfcut.demon.co.uk Website: http://www.halfcut.demon.co.uk