Solo

The Art in Music 2018 exhibition was hung at Newbury Corn Exchange today, and this painting is part of that exhibition.

Beech Hedge - SOLD

Beech Hedge, A3 (420 x 297mm), acrylic inks on paper

This is one of the pieces I did for Artikinesis' exhibition We Are Forest. These beech trees are growing in a line between two fields and are part of a grown-out beech hedgerow.

SOLD

Forest cathedral

Forest Cathedral, A3 (420 x 297mm), acrylic inks on paper

This is one of the pieces I did for Artikinesis' exhibition We Are Forest. It is based on the overhead branches of the Cathedral Oak in Savernake Forest.

Forest Cathedral
A3 (420 x 297mm), acrylic inks on paper
£75

Winter trees

Winter Oak (detail)

Winter is the best time to capture the structural essence of a tree. On a bright, clear day, the branches are dramatically stark against the sky, the patterns in the bark are unobscured by the shifting shadows of foliage (and any undergrowth will have died back a little, affording better access to that elusive perfect vantage point...).

These two pictures have been created as part of my preparation work for the Artikinesis exhibition at Sticks Contemporary in Gosport.

Winter Beech (detail)

Winter Oak

A3 (420 x 297mm), acrylic inks on paper

£75 

Winter Beech
A3 (420 x 297mm), acrylic inks on paper

£75

Market Day (Basingtoke)

"Market Day", acrylic on canvas board, 40 x 40 cm

This is one of the paintings from late last year that I never quite managed to get a decent photograph of. The light was good today and I had my camera in the studio, so I did a bit of catching up.

The subject here is Basingstoke's bustling market at the "Top of Town" - the older bit of the town centre, a little uphill from the roofed-in modern shopping precincts. The large white building was once the town hall and is now the Willis Museum (run by the Hampshire Cultural Trust for the town).

This image was based on one of my pages from the Artikinesis colouring book, and painted for the upcoming North Hampshire Art exhibition, to be held at the Willis Museum in May.

Where does the time go? - SOLD

Acrylic on canvas, 10 x15 cm

I recently succumbed to the lure of a box of random mechanical watch parts. There are many fascinating tiny objects within; these are just a few of them.

SOLD

Rapunzel - a fairy tale painting in progress

 It's that time of year when family commitments mean that I don't get into the studio - or out in the field - much, and so it's been a little frustrating having a part-finished large work lurking in the studio.

Rapunzel is, of course, the well-know Brothers Grimm fairy tale. And it was a bit grim for the prince - when his night-visiting antics had been discovered by the witch, he got thrown down the tower into the thorns, which must have broken his fall because his only injury (a cruel one) seems to have been the loss of his eyesight.

This wasn't the end of the tale; he later recognises his love by the sound of her voice - she and her baby were turned out of the tower to roam the forest - and the little family lived happily ever after in the prince's court.

This image is not finished yet, and with the Artikinesis exhibition at Blake's Lock coming up less than a fortnight after the schools go back, it may be October before I raise a paintbrush at the prince and the tower again.

Blake's Lock - a teaser...

These are details from nine pieces that I have been working on for Artikinesis' Blake's Lock exhibition (17 September to 2 October). I've been considering the surface of the water and thinking about the Victorian turbines...

Painting local churches...

I'm not terribly clued up on the way the Church of England organises itself, but there are three churches in our local group. There's St Mary's (Kingsclere), St Paul's (Ashford Hill) and St Peter's (Headley)

It sounds a bit like a 60s folk trio.

But these are the churches. Norman St. Mary's, squat and sturdy; Victorian St. Pauls, elegantly be-spired; and miniscule St. Peter's, also a Victorian building, represented here by a pair of sketches.

On Saturday, I was at a charity event at St. Paul's, and I was there to demonstrate my knife-painting techniques. I had a gazebo, which was fortunate, as it rained quite a lot.

I had my acrylics...

40 x 40 cm, painted in the morning, when
there was a glimmer of blue sky and sunshine

 ... and I had my oils ...

41 x 33 cm, painted in the afternoon, when
the sun had disapeared but the roof was shiny

Both paintings were auctioned for charity on the day.

South Central

South Central, acrylic on box canvas 40 x 40 cm

There's a new Arts publication in town. Well, in the region. The central south of England. It's a bit of an overlooked region in many ways - it's almost defined by what it isn't. It's not London. It's not home counties. It's not south east, because it doesn't have that flavour. It's not holiday-destination south west, either.  It's in the middle.

I'm a midlander by birth; I grew up in the Midlands. That's the Midlands that sits between the North and the South. Leicestershire, to be precise. I've lived in the South East (Brighton) and I've lived in the North (Hull, which is, of course, North East). In the South East I was considered a northerner. In the North I was designated a southerner.

It's almost as if I wasn't allowed to be something else. But I was. I still am. I'm a midlander.

I wonder if I'm drawn to these in-between places? I felt more at home in Southampton (another place that I used to live in, and a city that is definitely south central - neither East not West) than I did in Brighton or in Hull.

Anyway, all of that is really just to try and say that actually, I know precisely where South Central is coming from.


And where is it coming from? Literally, it's coming from Fareham (a small coastal town caught between the two large Hampshire ports of Portsmouth and Southampton). In terms of its name and it's concept, is coming from the not-one-thing-nor-the-other, it's coming from the under- represented, the casually neglected. It's coming from Hampshire and West Berkshire, from Wiltshire and Dorset,

And the painting? Painted for the competition to be featured on the front cover, it didn't win (the winner was a wonderful map-collage-labyrinth by Michelle Rumney), but was included inside the publication. It was an attempt on my part to represent the region as I see it.

I also wrote a short article for the first issue about West Berkshire and North Hampshire Open Studios in which I interviewed the chair, John Brazendale.

The launch event was held last week at Sticks Gallery in Fareham, along with the private view for Beth Davis-Hofbauer's fascinating instalation, In A Room. I got my hands on a copy of the publication (and a couple of spares) there and then. It's good. It's very good. But I haven't read all of it yet...

Blue Guitar

A triptych riffing on my son's blue Ashton guitar, this is three 30 x 25 cm canvases, painted in acrylic. I used runs and drips and spatters in the background, but treated the guitar itself in a  more deliberate manner.

Carnation (commission)

Acrylic, 30 x 30 cm

This was a commision, painted towards the end of last year. It was to given as a gift. The gift was recieved and so I can now show it to you.

Shelves of Inspiration

Acrylic on wooden panel, 40 x 40 cm

INSPIRATION comes in many forms, in many places, in many things.

These are my shelves of inspiration.

My friends are here - in my address book.       My family are here - in my heart.

My art is here. My life is here.

Inspired by nature. Inspired by art. Inspired by words that come from the heart.
Inspired by living. Inspired by love. Inspired by beauty and joy in discovery.

Falmouth Harbour: Cranes and masts

Falmouth Harbour: Cranes and Masts

Industry and leisure, side-by-side in Falmouth harbour, both reaching for the sky.

Acrylic and Molotow marker on canvas board, 12 x 10"

More Carnations

Two stylised 15 x 15 cm acrylics.

Pumpkins 3

Come tomorrow, the two big pumpkins will have been carved into suitably scary lanterns. Not sure what will happen to the little one. It won't make much soup by itself...

Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 30 cm

Disjointed

I probably won't decide where each 30x30cm painting will go in the final array until I hang it at Proteus, so here are (just a few of) the many possible combinatons. There are actually 40320 ways of arranging eight paintings. I don't think that I will try all of them.

The Baingstoke Project will be on display (with static Disjoints) from 16 to 26 November 2014 at Proteus Creation Space in Basingstoke (the venue is featured in one of the paintings).

Full exhibition details on the Artikinesis site:

Farleigh Wallop!

Farleigh Wallop!, acrylic on board, 2 x 4 foot

This badly photographed painting is to be part of Artikinesis' Basingstoke Project (if there's room for it in the exhibition - it's a little on the large side).

Mini Pumpkins

Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 cm each

It's that time of year. Pumpkins and squashes are in the shops; some will get carved, some will get eaten, some will get painted... and its possible that some will get all three. These two mini pumpkins have managed one so far.

Doubly Disjointed

Passing the Ghost Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 cm Location:  Joice's Yard, Basingstoke On artikinesis	Yellow and Blue Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 cm Location:  Crown Heights (from the Anvil car park), Basingstoke On artikinesis

Two little squares of two bits of Basingstoke. My plan is to make a square number of these square paintings (4, 9, 16 or even 25... ) to be part of artikinesis's Basingstoke Project.

The series - the piece as a whole - is to be called Disjointed in reference to the isolation of each image and the way in which we (or at least, I) build up a mental picture of a big town: a series of  places that we know how to get to from our starting point, but do not necessarily know how to get from one to the other. Hence, the places are disjointed.