We took advantage of the hot weather last week to spend a couple of days in Worthing.
After a long walk to Shoreham (well, long for us!) we sat on the beach and while Hazel did some beachcombing I made a little drawing in my sketchbook.
I picked out some elderly couples sitting on their beach chairs taking in the last rays of summer. With the pandemic getting worse, it did seem like a poignant moment.
I witnessed the enactment of John Martin's theatrical display of his work, at Tate Britain in 2011.
All the lights were put out and then dramatically switched on again to show some of his blockbuster paintings just as they were displayed in the 19th century.
I've been reading his catalogue again recently and realised that this presentation may have influenced the use of lighting on my tours (when the pandemic allows me to do them again) This works particularly well when visitors enter one of the rooms in complete darkness except for the lighting in the dolls house and puppet theatre. Once the room lights are switched on, you see the paintings which were inspired by them.
In my Virtual Tour (available from my website:www.tedconeysfamilyportraits.co.uk for 99p, with all proceeds going to the NHS Charities Together appeal) I fly back in time to 1930s Hollywood in my 1931 Morris Minor to discuss one of my paintings.
And you can't get more theatrical than that!
From the burning down of the Crystal Palace in 1936 to the present day pandemic, I have used evocative newspaper headlines in my current painting 'Eggheads' to denote each generation.
My painting about brothers, starting with my father and his half brother, shows four generations of our family through the male line. I wanted something to denote the passage of time and the headlines seemed an immediate way of doing it. Luckily I had collected reproductions of old newspapers which I recently rediscovered in our loft.
Hopefully you will be able to see this painting in progress on my new improved website, soon.
Thirty six years ago I opened our house as part of the Cambridge Open Studio scheme. This gave me the idea of doing guided tours around my work and formed the basis of Ted Coneys Family Portraits.
This summer I was to have taken part in open studios again as well as reopening my pop-up gallery in the usual way. However, the pandemic meant that everything was cancelled.
A book has recently been published about the history of Cambridge Open Studios and as I was one of the first to take part I was interviewed for my memories. You can read my contribution on the NEWS AND REVIEWS page on my website in the NEWS 2020 section.
I see that an early visitor diplomatically said how much they liked our curtains!
