"The Dark Hedges"

We discovered recently that a beautiful avenue of old beech trees quite near where we live are due to be thinned out. The trees are known as "The Dark Hedges". A trust has been set up to help with the work and plant new ones to eventually replace the old ones as they grow too old and eventually have to be removed.
Here's a photo of them I took today before the thinning takes place.

The Trust has distributed a leaflet about their aims. Here are some extracts from it....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This avenue of mature beech trees was planted in 1750. Don’t you think it is worth preserving?

The "Dark Hedges Preservation Trust" has been set up by local landowners, a local councillor, a tree specialist and other interested members of the public. A Bank Account has been opened in the Northern Bank Ballymoney.

AIM: To preserve the avenue of trees known as The Dark Hedges situated on the Bregagh Road near Stranocum.

Road Services have informed the local landowners that 26 of the trees must be removed as they are a danger to passing traffic. The 3 local farmers have agreed to foot the bill for this work to be carried out and have contacted a local tree specialist to carry out the work.

However we feel very strongly we would be doing this local community a great dis-service if this was not followed up by a re-planting programme to replace not only the trees that must come down but also others that have fallen over the last 200 years. This will be a major undertaking but we feel it is in the best interest of this community where The Dark Hedges is not only a tourist attraction but also a venue for wedding photographs and others and indeed has been called a Photographer's Paradise. The Dark Hedges features in many Tourist Board Booklets and is in this year's Belfast Telegraph Calendar amongst others. The Dark Hedges provides a wonderful habitat for birds and other wildlife.

To this end we appeal to local businesses and individuals for assistance with funding. It is estimated it will take up to £32 000 to carry out the re-planting of some 210 half -standard 5-7 year old Beech trees and our tree specialist has agreed to maintain the trees, free of charge, for five years following this work. He intends to make other features from the remaining stumps- such as carved seats etc and we hope local school children will get involved in the project.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you feel you would like to donate to this cause then please contact me and I will send you details about how to go about contributing. I hasten to add I am nothing to do with the Trust but would like to help by furthering their advertising.

Jekyll and Hyde rehearsal

And here is a corner of the set with my "walls, painting and curtain" in use (photo taken during dress rehearsal)

Backcloth material and paints?

I had a letter the other day from David in Arkansas, U.S. asking me "What kind of material is easily available and useful for very amateur set backcloths?"
Here's my replay...."Unfortunately I cannot advise, as here (in the UK) I use "canvas" and would have given you the name and phone number of my supplier. (I still can of course but it might be costly to ship the canvas over to you).
Trouble is our two countries speak a different language! Most of the details I have read about scenery painters in America talk about using "Muslin" for their backcloths. Now Muslin as we know it here would be useless to try and paint on (too thin and flimsy) but maybe what you call muslin is a different and more substantial material than ours. Anyway muslin in the USA seems to be the preferred material. My "Canvas" is exactly the same material as oil painters use (The Old Masters) except I buy it in huge sheets without any joins up to thirty feet wide and any length I require.
There is the same confusion with what paints to use too. Here I use vinyl matt emulsion. This is formulated to use on interior house walls. i.e. when decorating a bedroom etc. but is ideal for me as I can get it any colour I wish and - best bit - I can wash out my brushes in water. The vinyl helps stop the paint from cracking when the canvas is rolled up.
The nearest you have there would appear to be what you call "Latex" - which is a form of rubber here! I once contacted the paint manufacturers Dulux which is part of the huge international company ICI and asked them what is the difference between our emulsion and your latex. They didn't know. I said but you all belong to the same firm to which they replied "but we never speak to our colleagues in America" !
Of course the established stage scenery paint which is common to both our countries is "Rosco" but that is far too dear for the amateur (community) companies I work for.
Had a thought - if it is cheap and cheerful you are after. What about painting on bed sheets? I have done this successfully in a hospital. Stretch the sheet on a wooden frame (don't have any cross beams across the middle) I temporarily nail a frame onto a wall, then seal it with a mixture of paint, a little PVA glue and a little water. Let it dry over night when it will tighten like a drum. Then paint your scene on it after that. (I have also used cheap painter's dust sheets too.)Hope the above helps. Brian

"My" Canaletto

And here's my version of a Canaletto painting. I wanted something long to fit into this panel to take the bareness off the wall and form a point of interest. I chose this particular well known version of the bridge as a bridge symbolised the Jekyll and Hyde story (I cannot imagine any of the audience working this out but you and I know the reason!). This acrylic painting took me about an hour. The nearest audience will be about 40 feet away so no need to do any detail. Once finished I did a silly thing. I have a varnish which supposedly gives a crackle finish, so I covered the painting with a thin layer of that. Unfortunately it didn't work and just left a glossy surface. So glossy that the lights are reflected in it (hence the photo taken at an angle) This may also be a problem in the theatre so I might have to wash it off. The varnish is water soluble so no trouble to do that.

My CV

---

BBC - h2g2 - Brian Willis - U193126

---

Cut-outs, curtains and graining

CUT-OUT PROFILE EDGES. The only problem with the train engine painting (see previous post) is I was presented with the MDF (board) already cut out to what the designer and builders had decided was the outline of a steam engine. So had to paint to match that. In all cutouts - trees, window voids etc. I prefer to paint first and only when I am content with the result do I then cut out with the jigsaw.

GRAINING WOOD. Here is a clearer photo of the doors as seen in the background of the engine photo of previous post.

To paint the grain of these doors. I first of all put on a base coat of lightish brown. I did this all over the two boards, long before painting on the panels. Once the base coat was dry I then went over the boards again with a reddish brown and, as I painted, I occasionally added in some black and melded it into the paint. Then, before this top coat was dry, I crinkled up newspaper and dragged the paper from top to bottom to simulate grain. I could not do the whole two doors in one session as the paint dried too quickly so had to do strips at a time. I kept fiddling about with this work (repainting areas) until I was happy. I then let it dry and afterwards put in the panels, door furniture and shadows/highlights. Here's a close-up. The nearest the audience will be to these two flats is about forty feet.

CURTAINS. Now to paint the curtains.

Like the doors, I first put on a base coat of the main colour of these drapes. However, unlike the doors, whilst the paint was still wet, I added a darker colour to be the folds. In the background of the above photo I have left a little of the real curtains for you to see the various values of colour. The dark folds are darkest in the depths of the fold and get lighter as they near the outside. I often do this by first dipping a clean wide brush in clean water then dipping the edge of that brush in a dark colour. Now I do a few "practice" strokes on a spare piece of board which evens out the colour so that my brush is loaded with dark colour on one side which gaduates to clear on the other side. I then paint this as the folds. Next, once the folds have been painted, I put in the highlights of a lighter version (a tint) of the base colour. And finally I use a small brush to paint pure white to put in the bright front edges of the folds .
What also helps to give these curtains the 3d effect are the shadows I painted to help the illusion of panels and walls. Note the shadow on the rail is further out than on the wall. (I think that is the wrong way round! but it works)

Jekyll & Hyde - steam engine

At present I am working on "Jekyll and Hyde the Musical". As you can see my work is nearly completed. I'm not doing the whole set, which is mainly lots of steps and platforms etc. I am just doing small "arty" bits for them as this picture shows. There are items from three separate scenes here. In the foreground I am standing beside a scaled down front of a steam train engine. This will only be glimpsed as it to be surrounded by smoke. And behind I have painted some big double doors. On the left of the photo is part of a room interior with an imitation plaster cove and a quickly dashed off Canaletto painting to take the bareness off the wall. All the panelling on doors and walls are painted on with depth hinted at by painted on shadows.

FOOTNOTE.. "The Flying Scotsman"
The locomotive was completed at Doncaster works on 7 February 1923. It cost £7,944 and was given the running number No 1472. Following a short period on display at Marylebone station, the A1 express passenger locomotive No 1472 was put into service.

In 1924 the LNER were invited to display a locomotive at the British Empire Exhibition. No 1472 was awaiting repairs, so was re-numbered 4472 under the new LNER numbering scheme, named Flying Scotsman, and placed before an adoring public. This established a pattern for the LNER of using Flying Scotsman as a flagship locomotive around the UK.