Friday 29 January 2016

Bicycleness

I've been working on my new painting 'Bicycle Thieves' recently. I have stained (that's rubbing the paint on with rag) the background  colour of each of the two canvases, with a dark blueish purple.
However, I wanted to try to create a sort of 'bicycleness'  feeling to the surface before I put the other images on top.
I came up with the idea of laying tape across the wet paint, giving the edge a rub with my hand and then peeling the tape off to reveal the surface underneath. I found that if I rotated the tape it suggested the spokes of a wheel. Does that make sense?
You will be able to see my efforts soon, once Daniel has uploaded the images I take at the end of every day's painting, onto my website.

Friday 22 January 2016

What You Wish For

I always hope I'll get a few interesting Christmas presents which will be useful for
Ted Coney's Family Portraits or to help me with my painting.
This year I got a beautiful miniature set of wooden kitchen utensils from Emily for the dolls house (which appears in the painting 'Fools Gold') and a stamp with Sooty on it from a family friend, (commemorating 60 years of Children's T.V), which I'll display in the Sooty Pyramid ( used in the painting 'Ofrenda').  .
Leo sent me a book on Maori meeting houses for a painting I'm planning, after our visit to New Zealand.
I also mentioned to my brother, David (when he asked me what I wanted) that I'd like him to find me a very small suitcase, as the beginning of a collection of five, to represent five great aunts for another painting I want to start researching for, in the summer.
 I did say, if it proved too difficult, he could always buy me a bottle of wine instead.
I got quite excited when I saw the suitcase shaped parcel under the Christmas Tree. Inside it was a bottle of wine!
However, I did manage to purchased my first suitcase today, from our local Antiques Emporium.

Friday 15 January 2016

Be Like You

I received a 'round robin'  letter from an old college friend of mine from fifty years ago,  she had sent out over Christmas. In it, she stated that she intended to have an exhibition for her 70th birthday in the gallery her husband had built her last year in one of their farm buildings.
She sited me as someone who had organised an exhibition for his 70th - at the Babylon Gallery, two years ago, so maybe she is following my example.
I wish I could copy her  and create extra gallery space for Ted Coney's Family Portraits, as I have many extra paintings and no space to hang them.
Perhaps 2016 will be the year I am able to acquire a few more walls?! 

Friday 8 January 2016

That Man Again

One of my jobs as a volunteer is to keep the 'What's On In Ely' stand filled up with flyers and leaflets at the Station. I started doing this a few years ago so I could promote Ted Coney's Family Portraits by putting my flyers there.
The stand is in the ticket hall and although undercover, the damp makes some of the material (not mine) curl up, sometimes.
The original stand has now been replaced by Ely Perspective (a group who  promotes Ely) with a more enclosed one and it was decided that a photograph should be taken of all those involved, and sent to the newspapers.
It seemed only natural that I should be holding my flyer (with it's distinctive keyhole logo) in the photo and you can see the resulting press story on my NEWS AND REVIEWS page. Our photo was only small when it appeared in the paper, so maybe the press are getting bored of seeing pictures of me?! Well, I was featured rather a lot in 2015.