The Mould Of Time

I try to get any 'house' jobs done while Ted Coney's Family Portraits is closed for the winter. Last week we hopefully, finally, got the mould sorted out in the living room. One of the problems of living in a 300 year old cottage is that wet seeps into the walls and then starts to show. In this case it was hidden partly by the bookcase, but was beginning to creep alarmingly near some of the paintings. The main problem was the paving stones (owned by our neighbours) which  were touching the outside of our wall and causing the rainwater to get trapped there. Luckily, the people next door were very understanding and the stones have now been removed. Ross came to temporaly remove the built in bookcases and I cleaned the wall of mould. I then gave it a quick spray with my white blocker (which miraculously hides all stains) and the job was done. Last year it was the hallway that developed mould, I wonder where it will strike next time? 

Comings And Goings

At the beginning of the week I ordered stretchers and canvas for my new painting, ' Another Year'. It only took a couple of days to arrive and I was able to put it all together before going off to visit the grandchildren. At the end of the week Jonathan arrived (in the middle of the night as usual) to take away my current painting ' Dear Reginald Owen ' to be framed. I agonised about how far I wanted the gaps to be inbetween each canvas, so I hope I got it right. He also took away a much earlier painting ' My Dolls House ', which had been framed by my dear old dad, some thirty years earlier. As part of my quest to get the whole collection to the same professional standard of framing, I usually try and get one extra picture framed each year. Jonathan has been given the deadline of the end of March to get the framing done, so they can be on display, when Ted Coney's Family Portraits reopens on 15th April 

Painting in Reverse

I've been working in the Cathedral again for my new painting, ' Another Year. ' I have decided to do an inner circle (did I tell you the whole painting is a circle?) using the image of the lantern from the inside. Talk about suffering for your art. I practically had to lay on my back to get a decent view of it. Just as
I had nearly finished painting it, a friendly verger appeared and suggested I use their mirror stand to work from, rather than stretching my neck backwards. This seemed a good idea, especially as it had a lower level mirror for disabled visitors who could look through it, while still remaining in their wheelchairs. Soon he trundled the thing towards me, after wheeling it the full length of the building. It was only then that I realised that it would be no good, as the image would be in reverse! Never mind, I need to return again on a sunnier day to do another picture, as I want to capture how the coloured light from the windows bouces off the other side of the structure. Although doing that in reverse might cause me even more problems?!

Turning A New Page

Daniel has just finished putting together a new page for my Website entitled GROUP VISITS and this is the first extra page since Ted Coney's Family Portraits was set up over three years ago. This added page also incorporates all the information about visits made by schools and a new section on how students could access information from our collection of art books for their projects, both written and practical.
While Daniel was reorganising the website, he also put the fifteen paintings which make up 'Snow Angels and No Angels' in a rolling sequence, on the HOME page. What do you think?