Thursday 28 August 2014

Being Professional

I've just asked Daniel to add the information about studying Painting and Printmaking at
Bath Academy of Art in the 1960s, to the Home page of my website.
It seems obvious now that it should be included, but I hadn't really thought about it, until recently.
Having my Retrospective at the Babylon Gallery has given me a taste for pushing the work to a wider audience.
 I have decided to try and get another exhibition  within the next ten years (80th birthday party?). It won't be easy, because as I don't sell my paintings,  I can't approach a commercial gallery.
As I intend to  refer to the website, to any Curator's I approach, it seems only right that I should have something in about my early training.
I've already had a very nice letter of refusal from the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, but that was before we put this information in.
 Maybe I'll try him again in a few years time.

Thursday 21 August 2014

Did The Boats Come In?

When I made my painting 'If The Boats Come' (you can see it on my website) I used the model boats we always sail at Sheringham every year, as a metaphor for returning members of the family.
Since some of the boats in the painting are represented as knitted and beginning to unravel (or are they been drawn in?) the work attempts to raise  questions about family ties, and how strong they might be.
The attendance at the get together was disappointing compared to other years, when nearly thirty family members had come for the weekend. However, there had been a good turnout at Magnus's wedding at Christmas and my 70th birthday brought  twenty six of us together. Another group of the family  had lunch in France earlier this month and some will be meeting up again for Emily's birthday in a few weeks time.
 Leo (from New Zealand), Max and Ben did ring us up while we were in Sheringham, to see if we were coping without them  - and yes, we still sailed the boats.

Wednesday 13 August 2014

The Three Bears

I have used the TV puppet, Sooty, several times in my paintings, namely for 'Duet' and 'Offrenda' (you can see the latter in the link from the PRINTS FOR SALE page on my website).
 Visitors to  Ted Coney's Family Portraits  always see the archive material for each painting and the ones using Sooty are no exception. I have a collection of  ephemera dating back 60 years, including puppets, models, books etc.
I already had  Sooty handpuppets from the 1950s and 1980s, so I was delighted to discover a third one from about 1970 in the loft (did we breed it?) recently.
Sooty has gradually transformed from a pale yellow rat like creature into the cuddly orange teddy bear he is today.
I noticed that Sooty has recently returned to television, where he first appeared in the early fifties. To celebrate,  I bought a Sooty comic from the newsagents to add to my collection. (about every ten years it's interesting to see how the style of graphics changes) 

Sunday 10 August 2014

Chips Off The Old Block

We have just had a wonderful holiday in France, staying with our family.
Many of the best moments  were with the grandchildren.
There was the morning spent sitting side by side with Poppy (aged three), each of us doing a painting in our sketchbooks, of the old farmhouse we were staying in. Poppy was sharing my watercolour set and was reminded to wash her brush every time she needed a new colour, which she solemnly did.
The other was with Barnaby (aged six) looking around an art gallery.  I showed him some Renaissance paintings and the artist's use of gold leaf to bring out the religious nature of the work. I reminded Barnaby that I had used gold leaf to represent him in a more abstract painting (entitled 'Minglelands' ) about his parents marriage. He then questioned me closely about what gold leaf was and how to use it.
'Like working with butterflies wings' seemed to satisfy him.