Monday 28 September 2009

Havn't I seen you in the papers?

Hello There! I was standing by my bike on the train from Cambridge (with myTed Coney's Family Portraits poster displayed on my crossbar, remember) when the woman next to me suddenly said ' I know who you are, you were in the papers' I modestly nodded and gave her the lowdown on the gallery. She seemed interested, so maybe all the advertising is beginning to pay off. Mind you, she never came on Sunday, but these things take time. Have a nice week Ted

Thursday 24 September 2009

An extra snow angel

The Art Auction has been booked for 22nd November to raise money for the Babylon Gallery. I have decided that my contribution will be to make a copy (well, as near a copy as you can get when painting snow!) of one of my snow angel pictures. The 15 paintings representing 15 female members of the family makes up the painting 'Snow Angels and No Angels'. The extra one will symbolise Fay, our second daughter, who was stillborn over 30 years ago. I started the painting last weekend and it will be interesting to see how near I can get it in appearence to the last one. Just a thought. Wouldn't it be awful if nobody put a bid in for it ? Ted

Friday 18 September 2009

Almost a Sandwich Board?

In my efforts to advertise TED CONEYS FAMILY PORTRAITS I have come up with various cunning ideas to implant my 'keyhole' loggo into the minds of the people of Ely and Cambridge. In the back windows of my 1931 Morris Minor (which, ofcourse is an important exhibit, as it has been used in some of the paintings) I have placed my flyers so that when I drive very slowly down the High Street people may see them. I have also placed a poster on my 1940 bicycle so when I travel between Ely and Cambridge (most of the journey is by train so bike is often static) I get the odd quizical look. As the bike has been used for the journeys to inspire my paintings 'Diamond Sutra' and 'Snow Angels and No Angels' it seems an entirely appropriate to use it in this way. And anyway it might be more effective than the internet!

Monday 14 September 2009

A Visitor from Japan

We had an interesting visitor to stay with us over the weekend. Roma is an artist who has been living in Japan for 20 years. Although I didn't give her a formal tour of Ted Coney's Family Portraits, we did get to talk about quite alot of my paintings over the course of the time she was with us. Yes, she was rather trapped here, but Roma did keep asking me about the work, so hopefully she wasn't just been polite. She did have to clear her room on Sunday morning (which is part of the tour!) for a genuine tour in the afternoon and then put it all back again for Sunday night. Luckily, I did have some visitors, otherwise I might have felt guilty about all the disruption

Monday 7 September 2009

A good idea or what?

Caroline from ADEC spoke to me about organising an Arts Auction to raise money for the Babylon Gallery. My first reaction was, of course, that I never sell my work nor give it away.
Then I got to thinking what a good publicity story it would be if I did something and got the story in the local newspaper. I need to remind people I am closing for the winter from mid December and if they want to come to Ted Coney's Family Portraits they had better get here fast.
My current painting 'Snow Angels and No Angels' has 15 individual canvases, each one dedicated to a female member of the family. However, I have one spare canvas left with the imprint of the snow angel already there (I had images of my paintings of the snow angel, the corn dolly and the sand mermaid printed onto smaller canvases, 5 of each) I think I am going to redo a second version of the first painting for my still born daughter FAY, for the auction
Who knows, the advance publicity could also help it be sold for a higher price.
Best Wishes Ted

Wednesday 2 September 2009

National fame or International fame?

I got a call from my sister-in - law, Julia, to say that her son had seen Ted Coney's Family Portraits being advertised under the 'Things to Do' section of the Weekend Guardian. How cool is that? The thing is, I have no idea how it got there, so a bit of a mystery.
My nephew, Andrew, who is editor of a magazine called Hot English contacted me last night about the article he is writing about people who have galleries/museums in their homes. Although the magazine is published in Spain it is syndicated all over Europe and aimed at people learning english. As well as featuring such famous people as Charles Dickens and Sir John Soane, he also wants to feature me! I will keep you posted. Ted