Friday 25 January 2013

What The Papers Say

The other week my comments were on the front page of the local papers, when I likened Ely to living in the Soviet Union! This was in connection with the proposed car parking charges, the District Council want to bring in, inspite of a petition of 9,000 residents who are against it. I was also incenced by a questionaire the Council have put out which just assumes it will introduce the charges, even though the final vote has yet to be taken. This week, there was an angry letter from someone  taking issue with everything I had said. I would have thought that most people would have realised that my comments about the Soviet Union were not to be taken literally, but this person didn't agree. Anyway, it keeps my name in the public eye which is free publicity  for
Ted Coney's Family Portraits - though I think I will keep  my head down for a while now, as I don't want to become a hate figure in Ely!

Friday 18 January 2013

A Lovely Idea

Christine, the gallery coordinator at the Babylon Gallery did one of the tours at
Ted Coney's Family Portraits before it closed for the winter in December. Alongside her job she is taking a curating course at Norwich University. Last week she told me she would like to curate a retrospective of my work for the gallery next year! As I will be 70 then, it seemed like a brilliant time to have a show. I am not getting too excited though, as Christine would have to find the funding from somewhere, (about £2,000) as the Babylon Gallery gets no outside money of it's own. Also, Christine may leave, the gallery may close and I may die. Still, it's a nice thought to keep me going over these long winter months, while I'm painting in my tiny (cold) studio.  

Friday 11 January 2013

No Monty Dom

I've always hated gardening, so it was with some hesitation that I dragged myself into our tiny courtyard garden last Saturday to attack the last of the dead shrubbery which was hanging against our old wall. Hazel has very much taken possession of this space and all I usually do is move pots around under her instructions. However, I would be the first to aknowledge that the garden is very important to the success of Ted Coney's Family Portraits so it does have to look nice, as it is the first thing they see. It is here that visitors hover, while they are waiting for their tour to begin and where I collect the admission charge. Also, they walk through it as they go over to see my 1931 Morris Minor in the garage and back again when they visit my studio at the end. If it is not raining, it is also at the garden table that they sign the visitors book and hopefully, write something encouraging. So as I say, it is pretty important, so maybe I should learn to love gardening more. 

Friday 4 January 2013

In With The New

Since the beginning of 2013 I've been taking down all the source material for my painting
 'Another Year' from my studio and consigning it to a plastic bag. I am now filling all the pinboards and my easle with photographs, drawings, scraps from magazines, postcards etc.for my new work
'Love That Dares'. This is partly so I have everything to hand when I start painting, but also to inspire me and keep me going over the year ahead. As the painting uses Muffin the Mule (as well as Charles Darwin) I have dug out the material I collected over twenty years ago when I visited the puppet's creator, Ann Hogarth in Budleigh Salterton. At that time I made drawings and photographs of all the puppets that appeared with Muffin for another painting, about my brother David becoming fifty - entitled 'David's Journey'. I am looking forward to using all this material again, but in a different way.