Virtually A Tour

 Andrew suggested that I had a virtual tour quite a while ago, which the public could pay for, via the website.
 I think the time is now right to organise this, as I was waiting to include my current painting
'The Rachamon Effect' to get to an 'interesting' stage before it could be  part of the film.
The theme for the new tour is ' Simultaneity' and will comprise of three pictures including a work in progress. This, I hope will make the tour more interesting and show me working in the studio.
I contacted Colin, who made the introductory film which is shown when people visit my pop-up gallery and he came over to discuss the project.
Daniel, who manages my website, confirmed that he can build in the payment element, so we are going to start filming June. Before then I've got to write the script - and probably get a haircut.
In the future ofcourse, Ted Coney's Family Portraits could become completely virtual ?!

Another Fine Mess

We've just spent the week with our grandchildren and have been helping the family get ready for Barnaby's Star Wars party. I knew he had been making silhouettes at school, so came up with the idea of printing silhouette shapes of Darth Vador and co. so we could cover the room with lots of strong images.
Working with a five year old was great fun but it did get a bit messy. Once we had printed the figures, , Barnaby enjoyed covering everything with glitter, stars and highlighter pens.
I have also been developing my ideas for the next painting 'Contre Jour', involving silhouette figures. My plan is to show my mother's two male cousins in silhouette using the Thai shadow puppet convention that only the women spectators saw the shadows, while the men saw the real puppets. I am using this to try and show the way  the parents each saw their sons in  very different ways - as rascals or angels.
However, I have come up with a further twist. I want to represent them as the 1950s Hollywood stars, Laurel and Hardy. This is because, they  have strong silhouettes, one being fat and the other thin and both wore bowler hats. Also, as a child I saw Laurel  and Hardy for real, on the stage. I thought them very funny and almost unreal, until I saw them the next day - as tired old men getting into a taxi, looking very grumpy. 

A Gleaming White Canvas

I think I'm ready to start my new painting, 'The Rashamon Effect'. This is about my grandmother meeting up with a former fiancée some sixty years after they had both married different partners.
Having produced four small canvases to work out how I am going to paint the four different viewpoints, I feel fairly confident, I know what I am doing. I want to paint the various sequences in either soft or hard focus.
My mother's view of the kitchen will be in very sharp focus and I will be mixing in a very cold blue with the blacks and white tones.
My Grandmother's view is through her magnifying glass (on a gold chain) and will probably be tunnel vision and out of focus. She will be looking into the bathroom, which again will be painted in cool colours.
Her former fiancées view will be in warm shades, out of focus and upside down. He will be looking into the bedroom (ofcourse!)
My viewpoint (as a twenty year old youth) into the dining room, is distorted by a brightly coloured kaleidoscope lens.
As the proportions of the painting are fairly normal I have treated myself to buying a canvas rather than trying to stretch one, as I normally do.. So my gleaming white canvas awaits.  

Twenty Three And Counting

It has been rather gratifying to learn  that so far, twenty three members of the Coney family  are coming to my 70th birthday weekend and attending the private view of my exhibition at the Babylon Gallery. The fact that I am treating them all to lunch the next day, may have something to do with it, but lets hope they like some of the pictures as well.
Ofcourse, all the pictures are about them, so it will be great to have them there.
Preparations for the exhibition continue. I have been writing the captions to go under each picture and these are awaiting Christine's approval. I was interviewed by Star Radio the other day about the forthcoming exhibition, and as this was pre-recorded, I guess this will be heard in the near future.
I have also commissioned another postcard,of my painting 'Another Year', to be on sale during the exhibition and have just sent some pictures to Caroline for her to use on the posters.
You can read all about the exhibition Ted Coney: A Retrospective on the NEWS AND REVIEWS page on my website.