Re-Henge: Dragon Roots - SOLD

Dragon Roots, ink on paper, 29 x 29 cm

The serpentine roots of the Avebury beeches, last seen in Henge, led me to imagine a mythical creature dozing on the bank. Has it become one with the trees and the earth, or is it just very well camoflaged?

Henge

Henge, oil on canvas, 50 x 50 cm

What is a henge? In short, it is a prehistoric ring bank and ditch, with the ditch on the inside. The word is a backformation from Stonehenge - which doesn't actually have a henge! It's all a bit confusing, but what is certain is that the large earthwork that encircles Avebury (village and stone circles) is called a henge.

Lone Stone - SOLD

To stylise or not to stylise, that is the question. Do both!

The stone - and the tree - is at Avebury. The curly foreground vegetation isn't.

Acrylic on box canvas, 30 x 30 cm

SOLD

Roots (Avebury) for the Prince's Trust - SOLD

This is a further development of the ideas being explored in Avebury Roots 1, 2 and 3.

Last week, I was surprised by the arrival of a 20 cm square canvas in the post, with the request that I create a painting on it for the Prince's Trust to sell at the Reading Contemporary Art Fair. This was what I painted.

I might have to do a few similar pieces for my stand at the fair, too...

Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 cm 
Sold by the Prince's Trust for £45

Avebury Evening

Well, it was late afternoon, early evening.

Publicity! Not the Royal Academy!

Here's the official publicity flyer thingummy from the Llewellyn Alexander.

At the Gallery

Detail of Avebury Sheep

I confess, I'm a bit scared of commercial art galleries. I feel out of place; I don't have the money to buy anything (and it's not as though I have empty walls), I didn't go to art school and I don't really understand the art world. It doesn't help when the stereotypical literature associated with these places is pretentious rubbish that uses very big words to tell you virtually nothing. Or so it seems.

Not The Royal Academy

Avebury Sheep has been for a little wander around London.

Avebury Sheep

Way back in 2007, when my daughter was still learning to walk (it must have been spring), I took her to Avebury, with her pushchair. I also took an old-school 35mm SLR loaded with monochrome film.

My photographs weren't all what you'd call stunning; in fact, the source for this painting was a little underwhelming, technically. I think I got the exposure wrong. But the composition worked, I thought; and I loved the two lambs sheltering in the lee of the stone. And there was enough information to make a painting... if you ignored the fact that there were no colours.

So I made the colours up. Based on what I remembered, and what I knew...

I remembered that the stones were reddish. I looked them up: they are sarsens. Sarsens are sandstone (which explains some of the weathering). Sandstone varies quite a lot in colour, but does tend towards the red and the yellow.

This post has been republished with an improved photograph of a slightly improved painting (I have darkened the shadows on and around the foreground lambs).

Oil on canvas, 55 x 46 cm
27 December 2012
For sale