Wednesday 28 October 2015

Bake Off, With A Bike

With great trepidation, I carefully wheeled the two parts of the wedding cake home, on my bicycle. I had put the mock wedding cake in the basket and hoped I didn't loose too many flower decorations on the way. (they are made of royal icing)
I was reminded of our own wedding, over forty years previous, when I had to drive the cake some three miles to the reception. When I got there, to my horror, all the icing had been shaken off! I carefully pieced it altogether again and all seemed well until we did the traditional cutting. The bride and guests were surprised when all the icing keeled over, simultaneously.
Anyway, I got my new cake safety back and have begun drawing and making colour experiments of it for my next painting, ' Bicycle Thieves'.
I'm picking up the three brides next week. Wish me luck.

Saturday 24 October 2015

Live To See The Day

I've taken two bookings for my outreach lecture for October, recently.
It was only after getting involved with the planning, that I realised they are for October 2016 not 2015!
My talk 'On The Edge' is about some of my family paintings which hover between abstract and figurative  images and I mix live performance with video clips of me talking, from over thirty years ago. The contrast between my two ages is going to be even greater next year.
You can see more details of the talk on my website and bookings can be taken for this year and next. Perhaps it would be pushing it, to look even further into the future.

Friday 16 October 2015

A Blog Reblogged

Ely I - a magazine about life in Ely, asked  if they could use one of my blogs in the September issue.
I had written a piece about my 1931 Morris Minor breaking down at the annual Aquafest and being rescued by the A.A. The patrolman had signed off his report form with the words 'Worn Out Member' and that became the title of my blog.
In the magazine, the article comes complete with a picture and you can still see it at the top of my NEWS AND REVIEWS page.
It's easier to spot now as Daniel has moved all the Radio, Film and Television material (OK, only one TV appearance, but I'm working on that)  to a new MEDIA page.
 

Friday 9 October 2015

Trophy Wives

Over the summer we visited Colchester Castle, which was built on the site of a roman city. I made some quick sketches of the  small female  statues of some of the gods they worshipped.
I thought they could be useful for my next painting 'Bicycle Thieves' ,as it involves  female figures on plinths appearing  rather like statues, to represent the three members of the family who aren't married but have partners.
To help me get the shapes right, I bought three bronze sports trophies and have been drawing and painting them at different angles. I've missed out the various sports equipment they appear with, as I wanted a simple figure of a woman on a plinth.
 

Thursday 1 October 2015

Me, Caveman

When I show visitors my very first family painting 'Life Cycle' I always compare my need to make the work, to the caveman's feeling of power over the beasts he wanted to capture, by making drawings of them.
So I was delighted to receive, from my seven year old grandson, a postcard photograph of a cave he had visited on a recent visit to France.
I now use it on every Ted Coney's Family Portraits tour to make my point even clearer.
When I told my grandson of this he seemed pleased and said
 'Why Grandpa, I sent you it because the drawing of old bison reminded me of you.'