Eggheads

While we were staying in Bristol the other week I had a new idea for a  painting about brothers.
 I am one of three brothers and have two sons. Both my brothers have sons and some of them have boys.
Later in the day we went to a wonderful exhibition featuring clowns and how each face is unique to a particular performer.
The design of make-up is painted on a ceramic egg and authorised by the Clown Egg Register.
I was so convinced that these images will be useful  that I got Hazel to buy me the catalogue for Christmas.
Ofcourse I probably won't get around to making the picture for a couple of years but it's good to start thinking about different possibilities
Happy New Year! 

Ulterior Motive

We've had a nativity scene for many years which has been added too by various members of the family.
Poppy is especially good at spotting angel figures in charity shops.
Last year I customised a wizard to become King Herod and  recently purchased a roman soldier.
As well as it reminding children and  grandchildren what Christmas is all about, I also have another ulterior motive.
I am going to use some of the figures for a painting featuring our newest grandson, Sebastian, demonstrating the forces of good and evil and entitled ' The Wasp and the Ring'.
Happy Christmas!

Open For Christmas

Last week I did a presentation for the Rotary Club in our house, where I talked about two of my paintings. Members also had mulled wine and mince pies, with their donations going to charity.
I was also  in the process of opening my painting 'Limners'.  comprising of thirty seven miniature pictures and based on an advent calendar. It was day six and I invited one visitor to do the honours. The theme for that day was a section of a blow-up birthday cake - given to Leo for his fifth birthday.
You can see the whole painting on page 2 in the PRINTS FOR SALE  section of my website where it  also features in a short video made by UK Photogallery.

Teacher And Artist

We've recently seen an exhibition  of  graphic work by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis in Bath. Clifford was principal and Rosemary, a tutor at Bath Academy of Art some fifty years ago, when I was a student there.
At the time I never saw any of their own work, which, looking back, seems a pity. They always appeared very remote and unfriendly and not very inspiring. Yet they produced a fine body of work as viewed in the current exhibition.
I have always been uneasy about showing my paintings to students but I guess having a website helped.  I always have a poster for Ted Coney's Family Portraits attached to my bicycle (discreetly parked outside the school) so those who were interested, would find it eventually.

Goodbye Mr.Turnip

I've just done my last tour of the season for Ted Coney's Family Portraits ( opening again in  spring 2019).
I had a group of seven visitors and they seemed very interested and asked lots of questions.
I  selected 'Diamonds' as one of the paintings to talk about and they were particularly intrigued that I had used a puppet 'Mr Turnip' in the picture, to represent my childhood .
Mr Turnip used to appear on 1950s children's television and I was so fascinated  that I collected  images of him  in a scrapbook.
In 1987  I decided to use Turnip in a painting about  the house my parents had lived in for sixty years and were about to leave.
I  tracked down the woman (Joy Laurey) who had made  and animated Turnip on TV all those years ago and she consented to me having a replica made. 
You can see the replica on my Facebook page and the painting (and preliminary drawings) on the PRINTS FOR SALE section of my website.