Work In Progress

You can now see the current stages of my painting 'Who Stole The Toothpaste?' in the
 NEWS AND REVIEWS page on my website. (click at the top of any page)
I'm trying to get a balance between the two layers - the lettering on the toothpaste pot and the downfall of Toad in the Courtroom.
In the third frame you'll see how I collaged the bits of green, crinkly £5 notes for the three faces of Toad.

A Black Mark

With over a 1,000 hits on Facebook, radio and TV coverage and 161 visitors over  two days, I was tempted to feel that my residency in Ely Courthouse was going really well.
However, the Mayor of Ely arrived in all his robes and chain of office and disaster struck.
I  put a little oil paint  on my palette as I thought that if I had a dull moment I could do a bit of painting. I never did, because there was a constant steam of visitors  to explain what my picture - ' Who Stole The Toothpaste ? ' was all about.
Unfortunately, The Mayor must have draped his robe over the paint because to my horror he had black on the bright yellow edging. I quickly gave the Mayoress some loo role and turps substitute and hoped she would get rid of it.
When I last saw them, she had made it much worse by rubbing it into an even bigger splodge. I felt very bad because the Mayor (a lovely man) had been my chief supporter in the beginning, when I  broached the idea of showing how I had used the Courthouse in my painting .

Art Object

I gave a tour of Ted Coney's Family Portraits last week for  new visitors and some who had been before.
One person wrote in my visitors book at the end
'Not just the paintings, the house itself is a work of art'
No wonder Hazel finds it difficult to live here sometimes.
 I do  wonder if I am becoming an art object as well? Though ofcourse Gilbert and George did that years ago.

Art On The Move

As part of the initiative to get my work more widely known, I will be Artist in Residence in Ely Courthouse next weekend 15th and 16th June as part of the Isle of Ely Festival.
I also continue to give talks about my work and will be in the Cathedral Centre in August to present
 'On The Edge' to a group .
 Though I do need to get out of Ely! I am still waiting for Daniel to complete my on line portfolio but then hope to send it to various galleries. In the meantime I have just put in a submission to Kettles Yard, Cambridge for their open exhibition, so I might get lucky. However, so will hundreds of other budding artists, so I mustn't get to hopeful.