Paul J Best

Joined Artfinder: Dec. 2013

Artworks for sale: 463

(31)

United Kingdom

Updates from Paul J Best's studio

  • Opulence

    Opulence

    I have enjoyed creating my latest painting 'Opulence I' where I have incorporated real gold leaf and powdered pure ultramarine pigment with reflective paints. I feel that we deserve a bit of opulence at the moment!

    20 June 2021
    Aerial series

    Aerial series

    This week I have been creating a series of paintings inspired by colourful satellite aerial views of estuary landscapes. They make very striking abstract images!

    14 May 2021
    Betula Seasons

    Betula Seasons

    I have enjoyed creating a series of four paintings inspired by the changes in Silver Birch woodland ( Betula pendula) throughout the seasons. These paintings have been created on a gold painted base and will reflect light within a room in a similar fashion to mirrors.

    14 May 2021
    Cape Town Harbour

    Cape Town Harbour

    I was pleased to have recently received a commission for a painting of Cape Town Harbour through Artfinder. Whilst I have some doubts about the integrity of portraying convincingly a place that I have not in fact visited, if the client is happy that the painting evokes happy memories, then I believe that I have painted with artistic integrity! I am always very happy to take commissions and to listen very carefully to the client's brief. In this instance I see the painting as theirs rather than mine.

    29 April 2021
    On Mute

    On Mute

    Many of us are having meetings on 'Teams' or 'Zoom' platforms at the moment and stretching our broadband capacity to the limits. Occasionally there will be that moment before having to go 'on mute' or to stop the video when some inspirational technicolour background effects can be seen. There is also some wonderfully wild hair out there...probably never to be repeated! My wife has been reluctantly shearing me with electric clippers..

    22 March 2021
    Primrose Woods

    Primrose Woods

    I have enjoyed creating a Diptych this week Primrose Woods I & II, celebrating the flush of primroses in the Hampshire landscape at the moment and experimenting with incorporating powdered copper into the painting which adds a special quality.

    19 March 2021
    Landscape is Everything

    Landscape is Everything

    Landscape is everything.... It is a fusion of people and place and nature.. the genius loci...the special sense of place. It is alchemy... there is a magic in landscape because it it is so difficult to completely define. It is something that you feel and experience as well as see. Exploring landscape fully requires the use of all of the senses.. sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste and an elusive sixth sense which is intuitive....a sense of time, history, human interaction and perception. Landscape is everything......

    14 March 2021
    Welcome Blue sky

    Welcome Blue sky

    Just amazing blue sky for the last day of February in Hampshire....or did it just feel that way? The sky is blue today but it is a different blue somehow. In this simple painting I hope that I have captured that shimmering and iridescent blue using layers of my trusty 'Golden' Phthalo Blue ( green shade ) and eye wateringly expensive 'Golden' Interference Blue (Fine ) with 'Golden' Interference Gold ( fine) to bring the bare branches of the tree to life. I just love these American 'Golden' brand paints ( no I am not sponsored by Golden but would be very happy to be) Expensive but then you and I are worth it. As my lovely wife would say.... it is all about cost per use! I tell her that my obsession with Golden paints is like her love of Clarins cosmetics and she can then appreciate this.

    06 March 2021
    Cliveden House Summer Borders

    Cliveden House Summer Borders

    I am currently enjoying working on a series of paintings inspired by the spectacular summer flower borders at Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire which I visited last July. I have been saving this for dull days in February !

    22 February 2021
    Comino

    Comino

    I have really enjoyed being transported in my mind back to sunny Malta this week in creating my latest painting 'Comino' which is inspired by a photograph that I took over the side of a boat that had taken us to the Blue Grotto at Camino off the coast of Malta in October 2019. How great it was to be able to swim in the cool deep clear water here. There was no hint of any Global pandemic then and we had no idea of what a freedom and privilege this would soon prove to be. One thing is for sure; this past year is a lesson in how to treasure our loves, joys and freedoms.

    12 February 2021
    Isle of Wight Series of paintings

    Isle of Wight Series of paintings

    ' Newtown Creek I ' continues my series of paintings inspired by the wonderful Isle of Wight. The National Trust salt marshes at Newtown Creek form a landscape with exceptional character and are well worth a visit.

    05 February 2021
    Millais homage

    Millais homage

    I have enjoyed creating my painting 'Dew-Dreanched Woodland', my homage to Sir John Millais and his fabulous 1890 paining 'Dew-Drenched Furze'. His title is derived from his friend Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem 'In Memoriam'.

    03 February 2021