Thursday 24 September 2015

Out Of The Shadows

I've been working a lot on my current painting 'Against The Light' over the summer.
You can see the work in progress on my website on the NEWS AND REVIEWS page.
As you will see, I have been playing a lot with shadows, both translucent, coloured ones and more solid monotone shapes.
There's an old Chinese story about how the soul of a dead person was conjured up as a shadow.
I guess, I'm trying to create the same feeling.

Friday 18 September 2015

Postcards Galore!

With some trepidation I went back to the Cathedral shop where I had deposited some  postcards, depicting my painting 'Another Year', just over a year ago.
I couldn't see any of them on the stand (had they been stuffed in a drawer somewhere?) but to my surprise, the assistant said they had sold all 100 of them and could they have some more!
 Although it's one of my family paintings, the picture uses an abstracted view of the Cathedral as it's central image.
I am delighted to say they are also interested in taking some of my prints of the same picture.
You can see the painting (and order a print!) on my PRINTS FOR SALE page.

Thursday 10 September 2015

Is It Really You?

At the start of a tour of Ted Coney's Family Portraits I usually show visitors my 1931 Morris Minor, partly as it seems to break the ice but also because the car appears in at least one of the paintings they are about to see.
I  retell the story of how I drove up the aisle of Ely Cathedral in the Morris - only I never felt they quite believed me.
As I had some photos taken of the event  (you can see them on my Facebook page in the photo section), I decided to have one of them enlarged and printed onto canvas, so I could show visitors when they arrived.
Although the photo is very definitely Ely Cathedral, Hazel wondered why I had it printed onto a canvas, making it look a bit like a painting!
Anyway, a family of five who were visiting the other week seemed to enjoy it, particularly the teenage boys.

Wednesday 2 September 2015

Don't Mention The Death Word

I've been on the radio again recently, talking about Ted Coney's Family Portraits (ofcourse!). This time it was Cambridge 105. Before I arrived, I had written myself a little note, reminding me not to talk about any of my paintings which had been sparked off by a death in the family. I had done this on the last radio programme ('For You In Loving Memory') but I resolved to sound a bit more cheerful this time as I worried it might put visitors off coming on the tours.
The interview seemed to go fine and as it was being recorded, I was told when the talk was over. However the nice chap who had been interviewing me continued to ask me  about the work, in a relaxed way.
Only then did I produce my bit of paper and made a joke about not revealing paintings which had a gloomier starting point. He then got into a  discussion about those.
When  I went out on air, I had the distinct impression that the  programme featured  the very paintings I had decided to keep quiet about!
You'll find the interview at the top of the Radio section of the NEWS AND REVIEWS page on my website.