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On the following pages you will see examples of artwork created by artist Bob Hughes. Starting with his new AVI paintings style (Abstract Vector Impressionist) which he is developing then onto his more, Traditional style of painting. There are also examples of his Computer Generated (CG) digital paintings, Graphite drawings, En Plain Air paintings and some of his demonstration (art clubs and societies) paintings. There is also a link to another gallery where you can 'See Artwork on Walls, in this gallery you can see paintings and graphite portraits framed and on walls. By clicking on the links above or click on the images below, you will be directed to the appropriate page.

Below the images on this page is a new addition to Bob's website, a 3D art gallery which he created in ArtSteps. Click on the movie, sit back and you will be taken on a tour of his art gallery. You will not only see artwork from the pages of this website, but you will see the artwork in frames and on the walls of the gallery. If you want to look closer at any of the artwork, you can click on any image to see more information about the image, the gallery is completely interactive.

On the 3D gallery to the left there are four icons; Instructions, Full Screen Mode, Video Quality (normal or high) and finally, Sound-please note; there is no sound with this tour. You can get interactive with the gallery by clicking on the screen, if the door is closed, click on it to open, if you want more time to read the descriptions click and hold or scroll up or down. Click escape to go to normal view again, the tour runs for approximately nine minutes, each step is around eight seconds in duration, please note, the 3D gallery is best watched on a computer monitor .

The tour is best viewed on a computer monitor, laptop or tablet. If you are using a Huawei Android phone you may find that the app does not work on your device.

If you are looking at this website from outside of the United Kingdom, I hope you are able to read the information on each page clearly. I have designed this website myself, I am not a web designer nor do I want to be contacted by web designers thank you. I do hope that you enjoy

browsing through the pages and like what you see…thank you for your understanding.

AVI

This is a new exciting journey I am taking, developing a style which I call 'Abstract Vector Impressionism' or AVI. The idea for changing my style started when I was painting Gulliver.
I wanted to try something different but, at the time I really did not know what. I like the idea of changing an image into abstract shapes but at the same time keeping an impressionist quality about it. I spend a lot of my time experimenting with new ideas on my computer, it is a time consuming process and sometimes the ideas prove fruitless but I feel confident this is the way forward.

Traditional Paintings

Traditional Paintings

Welcome to my ‘traditional paintings’ gallery, here you can see a selection of my paintings on canvas and on panel. Some of the paintings here have their own story to tell, take ‘In Good Company’ for example, apart for being the escort ship to the Royal Yacht Britannia for the 1993 Battle of the Atlantic Commemorations (B93) which were held on the River Mersey in Liverpool, HMS Cornwall was also at the centre of an International incident in 2007. Click on an image below to see an enlarged version of the image then scroll to the next image.

Digital Painting

Digital Painting

In this gallery you can see examples of my CG (computer generated) digital paintings. I started experimenting with digital painting years ago. There is a learning curve that comes with this medium, not least of which is learning 'hand eye' co-ordination using a Wacom Intuos graphics tablet and a stylus (pen). How it works is this, you look at your monitor screen while you are working on a painting or drawing, while, at the same time you are actually drawing on the tablet with a stylus…it's tricky at first but you don't notice after a short time as it becomes natural to you.
I stopped painting digitally when I tried to enter them into art competitions and exhibitions…"digital paintings not allowed" they said. Another reason is you do not have a 'hard' copy of your painting when it is finished as you have with an oil painting or watercolour etc. your digital paintings are stored inside your computer.
Another important factor was the cost of printing artwork onto canvas, it is an expensive process but most importantly, you absolutely need to find the right people who can do the job such as fine art printers who specialise in this process, not to do so can prove to be disappointing and costly.
Now I work directly on to a Wacom Cintiq 27QHD (46.5 x 77cm), owning a Wacom Cintiq has been on my bucket list for years, it is an amazing piece of kit, now I can draw and paint directly onto the screen, but I use it primarily for planning and creating ideas for my none digital artwork such as my AVI paintings

Plein Air

This is my En Plein Air paintings gallery, the paintings you see here were painted on location in and around the area where I live in Sefton on Merseyside with the exception of FSC Preston Montford Hall Field Study Centre in Shrewsbury, I painted this as a demonstration piece for a group of students on a weekend painting workshop I was running at the centre which was organised by The Artists & Illustrators Magazine The Artists & Illustrators Magazine.
The plein air approach was pioneered by John Constable in Britain c.1813–1, but from about 1860 it became fundamental to impressionism. The popularity of painting en plein air increased in the 1870s with the introduction of paints in tubes (resembling modern toothpaste tubes).

Demonstrations

On this page you can see samples of my paintings which I painted for art clubs, art societies, small businesses and including painting workshops around the North West and Central parts of the UK and North Wales. Painting demonstrations are usually two hours long unless you have a workshop directly after the demonstration which could be another two or three hours long.
The actual real time you have to work on a painting is around 90 minutes, you have the introduction and any other business at the start, and then half way though there is a tea break were members of the group get a drink, and some come up to the artist to chat and ask for advice, I used this time to clean up and prepare for the final part of the painting session.
Although a demonstration is generally two hours long, getting to a venue can take hours, one example was when I had a demonstration for an art group in Penrith, which is 100 miles from where I live. You have to give yourself enough time to allow for traffic, which means, if everything goes well you could be sitting in your car outside of the venue waiting for it to open, which could be a while, on the other hand, if the traffic is bad you could get to the venue late which means you have less time and you hit the ground running…
Typically, I use acrylics and paint on Saunders Waterford or Arches 300lbs rough watercolour paper, this paper is less prone to cockling when it is wet and it is tough enough when stumbling. Occasionally, I will do a demonstration using oil paint on canvas or panel, but not every venue will allow you to use oils for health and safety reasons.

Graphite/Charcoal

Graphite/Charcoal

In this gallery you see will samples of my graphite and charcoal drawings. I use Saunders Waterford and Arches Full Imperial (76.2x55.9 cm) 140lbs Hot Press watercolour paper for my graphite and charcoal drawings, although, for 'Master Wood Carver Bernard Blackburn' I used CS10 board, apparently, this superb illustration board is no longer used these days. From time to time, I will be adding more content to this gallery

See Artwork on Walls