Thursday 31 August 2017

New Recruit

I made a painting a few years ago entitled 'If The Boats Come In' - you can see it in the
 OPENING TIMES page on my website.
 In it, I represented all the family by their toy sailing boats, returning  to the annual family gathering in Sheringham. The toy boats out at sea (family members in foreign lands) were painted as if knitted and the question I poised in the work was,  are they beginning to unravel, or were they been drawn into the pond?
This year, it was a great delight to take Sebastian, the newest family member, to the shop in Sheringham to buy his boat. As he is only three months old, I am not sure how much he will remember of the ensuing races, but hopefully he will enjoy this family tradition in the years to come.

Saturday 26 August 2017

For Our Convenience

We've just been visiting Sheringham, staying in a very interesting building which David had rented for the week.
It was right on the sea front and was formally a Victorian public convenience . It has now been converted into a very desirable residence, so it was nice to make use of it for a few days.
I had two attempts at the drawing it, one using watercolour and the other, sketching with a ball point pen.
I made it look a bit like Norman Bate's house in 'Psycho', although it was rather sinister when we approached it at night.
p.s. (It is called the 'Wee Retreat'

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Get Real

We came back to Cambridge from a school trip by a strange route I'd never seen before. The architecture looked more like Pisa or Florence.
Hazel came to meet me in  the Morris Minor and I was horrified to discover how rusty and damaged it was. I then realised we were loading up the wrong car. Mine stood gleaming in the sunlight on the other side of the car park.
I then woke up from a dream.
Over fifty years ago something very similar happened for real.
I had been out drinking with other students and we all dived into my Morris for a lift home. I couldn't get the car started but suddenly my eyes cleared and I realised that I didn't own a leopard skin dashboard !
There must be a painting in there, somewhere.

Friday 11 August 2017

He's An Artist

My six year old granddaughter is always drawing and painting and completely took over my watercolour sketchbook while we were on holiday, recently. I didn't mind as it's lovely to see her being so creative.
We were walking along the beach together when we came across some people painting the view on small canvases.
We went over to say hello and see what they were doing.
Poppy stiffed and remarked  'My grandpa is a proper artist'
I gave an awkward smile and we hurried away.

Wednesday 9 August 2017

Three Way Stretch

I've just done another interview for Star Radio, which you can hear on my website - just scroll down to the RADIO section on the MEDIA page.
It went well I think, but I  forgot to say that Ted Coney's Family Portraits had been described as a cross between a gallery, a museum and an open studio, which is a good way to publicise the experience.
However, this three way theme is developed visually when you click on the radio page. There is a painting of me with three heads (and only two eyes), made recently by one of my talented students. Well, he had been looking at Cubism.

Haka Powhiri

I have made a few tentative steps towards preparing for my next painting about Leo going to work at the other side of the world.
Last week I made some drawings of the old beams in our 300 year old cottage (laid on the floor so I could look up at the ceiling) to represent the UK and I shall contrast these with a structure of a maori meeting house to symbolise New Zealand.
Haka Powhiri is a chant of welcome when newcomers come ashore and maybe the title of my new painting - we'll see how it develops.