Work in Progress
The Waterloo and Great War anniversaries have kept me extremely busy for the past couple of years involving large commissioned battle scenes, portraits and stamp and coin designs. The 1815 bicentenary has now long since passed but it seems there is still quite a deal of interest in all things Napoleonic and I have been approached with a view to painting some earlier Peninsular War subjects when current work permits. I look forward to what will be difficult but extremely interesting projects. The First World War is still keeping me busy and I am constantly preparing canvases for a variety of diverse compositions revolving around both battle scenes and family portraits of sadly long lost relatives; touching, challenging and ultimately a great honour. Other historical subjects have also been happily dovetailed into my work schedule and I have been able to revisit my passion for the 17th and 18th centuries recently. It seems interest in both periods is still very relevant as I have a series of English Civil War, Pirate and American Revolution paintings proposed for the coming months and if all goes well, into the following year.I continue to draw and experiment, when I am able, with slightly different techniques choosing lately to attempt silver point drawing and pallet knife work but neither stray too far from my particular style and I strive to incorporate these new ‘skills’ within my own personal observations and abilities. The wonderful thing about painting is that one is always ‘learning’ and because of this, striving to improve.
Over the years I have been approached by a number of interested parties to produce what they like to call a ‘coffee table book’ of my historical paintings. Never feeling that I have had enough of the right quality or subject matter in the past I have ‘side-stepped’ the issue but at last I have come to understand that I can ignore this request no longer and so this year will hopefully see me making some kind of headway into what will become ‘The Historical and Military Paintings of Chris Collingwood’. I already have one publisher anxious to become involved, with a sound offer of producing a large format edition and I am in negotiations with other interested parties concerning distributions and promotion.Now the serious hard work begins ...firstly I will need to sort out the images associated with my chosen timescale, starting from the classical period and progressing through to mid twentieth century that will mirror my website content. A few obvious omissions will undoubtedly be apparent, however, by the time this project comes to its conclusion I will have hopefully filled in at least one or two more of the blatant gaps. I will need authoritative text to accompany the reproductions of my paintings and I have begun to contact various accredited authors, whom I have dealt with over the years and who have kindly tendered their services, promising to write on their particular fields of expertise.Please watch this space for further updates.
