Friday 26 October 2012

It's Finished!

Yes, it's finally finished. My painting 'Another Year' that is. I've been painting it from 24th February - 13th October and started making preliminary sketches and taking photographs of Ely Cathedral from the previous June. Nigel from UKPHOTOGALLERY came to take pictures of it yesterday, with a view to adding it to prints of my work for sale on his website. You can now see the final version on the NEWS AND REVIEWS page of  Ted Coney's Family Portraits website, though it will move to my new PRINTS FOR SALE page, once Daniel has got it up and running.
I had the mad notion that I might ask the Dean and Chapter if they would like to exhibit the painting for a while next year, in return for a portion of the money raised from each print sold, going to the Cathedral.
The painting is about birth and death after all, and although it is not  a traditional view of the building, it does (dare I say it?) maybe use the structure in a different way. In the meantime, you can still see the painting here on Waterside, until I close on 25th November.

Friday 19 October 2012

Fools Gold ?

I  decided to do my  'Puppets and Dolls' tour, when I opened Ted Coney's Family Porraits last weekend. This was for one of my most loyal visitors, who had already been twice before. I knew she would be interested in this one, as she is an artist herself and often weaves interesting stories into her fabric artworks. At the last minute another couple arrived who had not booked and although it was nice to see them, it threw me slightly. One of the paintings on the tour is 'Fools Gold' - a sad tale about some relatives of my mothers, but one which is difficult to tell. As I used the dolls house, which is on display, it seemed a pity not to include it, but more arkward when you are not sure how people will react. Anyway I went for it - they did write 'beautiful storytelling paintings', so hopefully they wern't to shocked.

Friday 12 October 2012

Popping Up And Down

I've been looking at my diary and there are not many Sundays left before I close
Ted Coney's Family Portraits for the winter. Only five infact, though I could also do the odd Saturday as well if anyone asked me. The beauty of being a pop-up gallery is I can be a bit flexible.
My last tour will be on 25th November though and then I will be starting as artist in residence at Primavera Gallery in Magdalene Street, Cambridge on Fridays from 7th December. Still alot to do before I start, but gradually getting organised. My two new canvases have been ordered, my experiments of how I am going to paint them continue and one of my other works ' Walking Sticks ' is being reframed to diplay in the gallery. I am also hoping to get my current work ' Another Year' put on a laptop, so I can show from begining to end, how one of my paintings have been put together (you can see this on my website - nearly finished).

Sunday 7 October 2012

Another Year, Another Day.

Have been trying to resolve all the problems with the outer edge of my painting 'Another Year', during the last few weeks. Daniel has posted some of them on the News and Reviews page of my website but have taken more photos of my struggles, since then, which you will see later.
I had wanted to paint tiny marks of dappled light near the top of the painting, which I had recorded in the Cathedral at different time of day. However, in my painting they just looked odd and raher fussy, so I got rid of them. Now I am trying glazes of transparent colour, which seemed to go well until I tryed to rub them back too enthusiasticly. Only the little daps of colour I had erased earlier started to show through, but not in a good way. Will try again tomorrow when the paint is dry