In Print

 I was delighted to receive my copy of Stuart Woodhead's new book 'Joy Laurey - The Girl Who Pulls The Strings' as one of my Christmas presents.

I had met and corresponded with Joy Laurey over several years in connection with my research for the painting 'Diamonds'. Joy created the marionette 'Mr Turnip' for children's TV in the  1950s and I used his image to symbolise my childhood in the picture.

Stuart Woodhead had read about this connection on my website and came to interview me about Joy and   I was pleased that he wanted to use 'Diamonds' as one of the illustrations for his book.

You can see the front cover of the book, the painting and a replica of Mr Turnip on my recent Instagram and Facebook posts.

No Chocolate?

 Foe most of the year, my painting 'Limners' has all it's doors open or all closed, depending on whether my pop-up gallery is operating or not.

However, at this time of year, as its based on an advent calendar,   each door is opened separately depending on the date. (you can see it displayed on my latest Facebook and Instagram posts)

 Their are 37 doors behind which are tiny paintings relating to  our family Christmas. If we have visitors I ask them to open the latest window. My grandchildren often ask why there is no chocolate inside - but there is no pleasing some people!

Happy Christmas!

Deck The Halls

 We used to live in a house with a large holly tree in the front garden. Every Christmas I would cut sprigs to decorate the living room and hall.

In 1983 I wanted to portray a holly wreath in a painting entitled 'A Christmas Carol'. Although it was summer I got the local flower shop to make up a seasonal wreath from our tree.

In the painting I hid the ghosts of our past, present and future. Maybe you can find them in the picture - it's on my latest Facebook and Instagram posts.

Nativity

 I've just put out our  nativity scene which comprises sixty five figures! They include humans, animals and angels, both good and bad. You can see it displayed on my recent Facebook and Instagram posts.

I had to scramble up into the loft to find most of them, but a few chosen figures have been sitting in my garden gallery all year in their own showcase.

 These were the figures I used in one of my latest paintings 'The Wasp and The Ring'. If you look very closely at the picture you should be able to spot them.

On The Other Hand

I've been experimenting with the 'freedom' areas for my latest painting 'Dreamtime'.

Although I always had Chinese brushes at college for the students to try, I never had any of my own.

Investing in some the other week, I began using with them to show the flowerheads I collected and pressed during our walks by the river in Lockdown (my painting is interpreting a dream I had about escaping from the pandemic).

I realised I was using them is a stiff, western way ( a thing I always told the students NOT to do!) so I resolved to try and be freer and looser. A friend suggested I try painting with my other hand but this only gave me a headache!

I want the flowers to look as if they have been tossed in the wind so I shall just have to keep practising.

After all, a Chinese master would have taken years to perfect his craft.

An Aversion

 I did my last tour of the season of Ted Coney's Family Portraits last Sunday, (reopening in April 2022). Covid restrictions, which meant having the doors and windows open, made the house to cold to proceed any longer.

However, I felt the tour went well with visitors particularly interested in my painting 'David's Journey', which I produced some thirty years ago. My brother, David had just turned fifty at the time and I wanted to show him on life 's journey. I used Muffin the Mule and his friends to represent David and his family as I felt Muffin was an icon of the 1940s when David was born.

Unfortunately one of my visitors said she had an aversion to puppets but I hope it didn't take away her enjoyment of the picture to much. She did ask to photograph it.

You can see the painting ( and Muffin)   on my latest Instagram and Facebook posts. 

The Colour Red

 You'd think that Cadmium Red Deep Hue and Cadmium Red Deep would be the same but they are not!

I wanted to use the former to stain a canvas for my new painting 'Dreamtime' but was worried there wouldn't be enough so ordered some more. I was given the latter but it lacked the luminosity of the 'hue' and was £20 more. I'm still experimenting on preliminary canvases and could see the difference.

I got what I wanted eventually and you can't have too many reds.

Apologies

 Many apologies for messing up the photograph I have recently shown on my Instagram and Facebook posts. (they appear below)

I had already displayed my painting 'Minglelands' - a work about my daughter's marriage, and decided to show another picture to back up my ideas. This was one of my daily sketches of the site as well as the logbook charting our archaeological dig.

I didn't think the photo had worked as it said 'no wifi' so took another. Both came through eventually. The pictures were the wrong way round and  were displayed as video though only a single image. 

I am more used to a Kodak camera and keep forgetting not to press the button so hard! 

I hope to improve.

Averting Disaster

 I've just cycled to Wicken Fen  to do some more research for my current painting 'Dreamtime'.

I found a likely spot to make a watercolour sketch where the reeds had parted and I could see  the river. I noticed a post stuck into the ground by the water's edge and  decided to lean my bicycle against it.

While  sorting out my folding chair I heard a creaking noise and on turning around saw my bike and the post slowly disappearing  into the river.

Luckily I managed to hoist the bike, the post (and myself) back in the opposite direction, but it was a close shave. The things we do for Art!

Accidental Sale

 I've been making experiments on small canvases before starting the final painting, for many years now. I like to try out lots of ideas before I do the final piece.

Selling them came quite by accident. I was asked to donate a painting to a charity auction and it was suggested that I might like to give one of my preliminary canvases. To my surprise it made a fair amount of money so I have been selling them ever since.

Currently there are three for sale from a recent painting, 'The Wasp and The Ring' at the Babylon Gallery, Ely.

You can also see the final painting and preliminary studies on my Instagram and Facebook posts.

Window Wanderland

 We've been getting our contribution ready for the 'Window Wanderland' event in Ely which starts tonight.

I've put up our collection of shadow puppets from various countries in the window, back lit with lights.

I used the collection alot when I was teaching  and recently was inspired by some of the images when I made the painting 'Against The Light'.

I even made my own puppets of Laurel and Hardy (to represent two brothers) to use in the painting. This work is currently showing on my Facebook and Instagram pages

In The News

 I appeared in the local paper last week (see my Instagram and Facebook pages) to publicise the reopening of my pop-up gallery for a limited season, giving tours around my work.

I'm usually photographed with one of my latest paintings for press photographs but decided this time to be with my old bicycle. This was partly because it is usually on display propping up one of my signs but also  it is very much part of the collection. It appears in my painting 'Bicycle Thieves' and ofcourse, propelled me 800 miles to Scotland to research for my painting 'Diamond Sutra'.

Size Matters

 It seems because of Covid and Brexit there is a shortage of stretched canvases - well here in Ely, anyway.

Normally, I would wait until I  had thoroughly prepared my experiments and compositions before purchasing the final canvas, when I was sure about it's shape and size.

However, as there are very few  for sale, once I had a rough idea of what I wanted for my new painting 'Dreamtime' I went ahead and bought one!

I shall have to make my ideas fit the canvas, rather than the other way around.

Fallen Angels

 I've come to view my collection of objects as just as important to me as the paintings which were inspired by them. Some, like 'Encore!' (a puppet theatre) have gradually turned into an installation.

I noticed while I was getting ready for my first tour last week that the theatre needed  attention. Two  gold angels had fallen off the front of the proscenium arch and some gluing was required.

We used this model for many years to entertain our family and after all our shows were over I set up the puppets to represent my father saying goodbye to his three sons. In the painting, we  become the puppets.

 You should see images of this on my Facebook and Instagram posts later today.

Keep The Magic

 I did a guided tour around my pop-up gallery today, the first since everything stopped in March 2020.

I had a lovely group of seven people and I think they appreciated that I had all the doors and windows open and we did everything possible to keep each other safe.

However, I did wickedly keep the curtains closed and the main spotlights off for a few minutes when they entered one of the upstairs rooms. This was so they could enjoy the puppet theatre and  dolls house with their own miniature illuminations to the full.

Then I had to let the daylight in and the magic out. My next   tour is on 3rd October.

Guided Tour Anyone?

 I haven't conducted an inhouse guided tour around my pop-up gallery since December 2019. However, I promoted my Virtual Tour in 2020 and earlier this year I did Open Studio, which saw visitors looking into my new garden gallery, studio and garage as they walked around the garden.

I now have my first booking next week for a proper tour around the house and I'll view this as a practise run for how I'm going to conduct the event in these Covid times.

I plan to keep all doors and windows open and only stop and chat about the pictures and objects in the three larger rooms in the house, though I'll still show the same number of paintings..

If that goes well, then I hope to be open for bookings from Sunday 3rd October.

Drawing Freedom

 I felt like a real artist the other day as I set off on my old bicycle, wearing my ancient panama hat to go off painting and drawing along the river Great Ouse for my new painting 'Dreamtime'.

I needed some images to represent 'freedom' to contrast the constraints of being trapped inside a Victorian puppet theatre (well it was a dream).

It was an extremely hot day and although I enjoyed the trip, the results were not amazing. As we spent alot of last year discovering the riverside, I feel this is the area I want to try and capture, as my painting symbolises escaping from Lockdown.

A True Confession

 I wrote an article in 2009 entitled 'A True Confession' (you can still read it if you scroll down the NEWS AND REVIEWS page of my website).

This was about a marionette I had been captivated by called Mr Turnip on T.V. in the 1950s. I later went on to use the puppet as a symbol for my childhood in a painting called 'Diamonds'

Recently I was contacted by a guy in Lincolnshire who had read the article and wanted to know more. It turns out he is writing a book about Turnip's creator Joy Laurey, whom I had met on several occasions while researching for the painting.

We had a very interesting morning together and I hope what I was able to show him (letters, photographs, drawings etc.) was useful. He is hoping for the book to come out later this year.

Hurrah!

 At last, we have managed to get my posts from Instagram to appear on my Facebook page as well! This means that I can present something more visual and even show the odd video. (some will be odder than others)

Currently, you can see a section of my painting 'Katy's Gold' linking to a tiny bit of film of the Sheringham house we have stayed in annually for the last forty years,

We were there last week, with twenty members of  the family

On The Edge

 I've been thinking alot about edges recently. I had three requests to stain the edges of  canvases I sold during my Open Studio event - which I was happy to do.

 Normally, with a  preliminary study, I leave the edges quite rough but fully appreciate some people want it to look a bit neater.

I've also been staining the edges of the nine small canvases which make up my painting 'Memento Mori.'  I envisage them displayed in a box- like frame rather like a cabinet of curiosities  so the edges need to be the same dark colour as the background, so they can dissolve into it.

Need A Boost

 I am trying to make one small video a week on Instagram to illuminate my paintings and the collection.

Last week I posted my painting, 'The Enigma of the Chinese Mask' and then went on to show the puppet 'Mr Turnip' (his head was based on a Chinese mask).

I thought it would be more fun if I could animate his hand, eyes and mouth but couldn't get a signal in the room he is based in. Although I could have moved him to another location, I knew I needed stronger WIFI anyway because of other things I plan to do in the future.  (more parts of the collection to be shown soon)

After some research I invested in a booster and eventually got it to work. You can see the results on my Instagram feed

Drawing Drama

 This week I've been working on preparatory drawings for my next painting 'Dreamtime' - ( you can see a very short film of my first sketch on  Instagram.)

I set up the Pollacks Toy Theatre at various angles and used a lamp to add dramatic lighting.

I even ended up sitting on the floor so I could see the theatre from a very steep angle.

 Four of the drawings were photocopied at different sizes and I've been cutting them up to arrange the composition.

The image is based on a dream I had in the midst of the pandemic, of being trapped inside the theatre and couldn't get out.

 The final painting will show Hazel and I escaping from Covid.

Still Here

 The best thing about my recent Open Studio events  (apart from selling alot of preliminary canvases and prints) was meeting former students again and their parents, after forty years.

Many took photographs and I think there was a feeling on their part of not quite believing I was still around!

Mind you, I think some  were even more excited to see the Morris Minor again as I used to drive it to school fifty years ago.

A Wobbly Gem?

 I have now produced two, 30 second videos to promote my Open Studio events (last one this weekend - lets hope the weather holds).

The first video  using my hand held phone to 'discover'  my 1931 Morris Minor, and see who was in the driving seat (you'll need to view, to find out).

The second film was more ambitious. I wanted to experiment with my new tripod and let the camera gently glide into the studio to see  my latest work in progress. 'Memento Mori' uses painted bubbles so I wanted real bubbles to be gently floating over the surface.

Although Hazel manipulated the bubble machine for me, I really needed a third person to hold the tripod.(it kept moving)

After several unsuccessful attempts I opted for a  still shot of the painting with a few bubbles wafting across it.

Watch out for my next wobbly gem later today.

Instagram

 Having purchased a phone for the first time,  I've just launched on Instagram!

 I needed something more visual to advertise my work, though  have only just been introduced to the mysteries of hashtags. So far I have posted a few of my paintings and taken a couple of photographs showing my preparations for Open Studio weekends (still two to go)

So please follow me on Instagram and watch out for some videos to come (maybe even later to day if I can persuade Hazel to help)

An Extra Slice

 I had planned to open four areas  off the garden, when I start Cambridge Open Studios tomorrow (three weekends in July) but have now added an extra space.

I've got displays in the garage, garden gallery, studio and through the French Windows of the dining room.

 However, providing visitors wear masks, I am also opening our hallway. They can see two films running simultaneously, postcards for sale and photographs of six generations of the Coney family.

 And hanging on the door is the poster I made when I first took part in Open Studio back in 1984.

To Sum Up

     One of the things I was most concerned about at last week's Ely Arts Festival was how I was going to sell anything when visitors don't seem to carry cash anymore.

With my daughters help I managed to purchase a Sum-Up device, (which looks a bit like a calculator) and a nice young man at the Apple store showed me how it worked.

I sold one of my preliminary canvases for £75 and I managed not to charge 75p or £75,000.

I feel I am now ready for Open Studios , which starts for me on 10th July (see my website for more details)

Almost Ready

 As I'm opening to the public this weekend (Ely Arts Festival) for the first time in eighteen months, its been a busy time, getting everything ready.

I've just cleaned the Morris (it's central to my display in the garage), painted bits of my old bike (to hang a display board on at the end the lane) and got  signs printed and laminated for the one way system. A stand   has been done up to take two paintings I don't have places for on the walls.

As I have to be 'Covid Secure' I've got sanitiser for the entrance and exits of the garden and a QR card for track and trace

To attract people's attention I'm going to have my automatic bubble blower working which should link to my latest painting where I've used bubbles to represent each member of the family .

Am I excited?   More apprehensive at the moment.

And Princess Margaret said No

 I've just been interviewed for Cambridge 105 Radio about my forthcoming open days for Ely Arts Festival and Cambridge Open Studio.

The interview was recorded in our garden so I was able to show one or two pieces of memorabilia that we could talk about.

I 'd made a scrapbook  in 1984 to record my first Open Studio and the interviewer was most interested in a letter I had received from Kensington Palace.

As I was charging admission with the proceeds going to Save the Children fund, I had the mad idea of inviting it's president to the opening.

I received a charming letter from a lady-in-waiting who stated that Princess Margaret would have to regretfully decline as she had another engagement.

It's true, she had - I saw it in  next day's newspaper.

Covid Secure?

 I've  had a letter and  follow-up phone call recently, to check I am Covid secure before I reopen the gallery in late June.

It galvanised me into doing a risk assessment and getting a QR card printed, and made me think how I could open safely without too many restrictions.

Ofcourse I am not doing tours just yet (hopefully starting in September) but opening the  new garden gallery, garage and my studio. I also aim to have a display of my preliminary canvases which will be seen through the open French windows, with the table placed firmly against the frame.

I plan to operate a one -way system around the garden so only hope this will be enough to satisfy the authorities  (I've been promised a visit).

The Past Informing The Present

 I always like to take a sketchbook when I visit a museum or gallery and on our recent trip to Oxford it was no different. We've just spent a day at the Ashmolean Museum and I saw some interesting clay figurines that I felt like drawing.

I think they were male and female images presenting gifts to the Greek gods, though I got distracted (there is so much to see) and didn't write down exactly what they were.

I have a vague idea for another painting in the future (not the next one) and the gods of war, peace and love could be very useful.

The Chosen Few

 Cambridge 105 Radio put out a request to all artists taking part in the Open Studio scheme this July (me included) to let them know, if they wanted to be interviewed on air to promote their work.

They must have been inundated with replies because their next Email basically said 'Don't call us, we'll call you'

I was content with this because I 'd been interviewed by them twice last year to promote my Virtual Tour and felt I mustn't be greedy.

Anyway, I got the call and someone is coming here to make a recording on 16th June.

I'll have to think of something new to say!

Make A Date

 As long as the pandemic doesn't get any worse I intend to open Ted Coney's Family Portraits during June and July at the following times:

As part of Ely Arts Festival: Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th June 12pm -4pm

As part of Cambridge Open Studios: 2nd, 3rd and 4th weekends in July  12pm -6pm

Admission is free as I won't be doing guided tours just yet. Visitors will be able to look into the garage, studio and my new garden gallery to see various displays. I also hope to open the hallway of the house where I'll be showing two films alongside a photography display of six generations of the family.

Postcards, tour guides and preliminary canvases will also be for sale in the garden or from our French windows if wet and windy!.

To keep everyone safe I'll also be operating a one way system around the site.

Bubblegun

 I'm working hard to get my latest painting 'Memento Mori' to an 'interesting stage' before I reopen for the Ely Arts Festival and Cambridge Open Studios this summer (more details next week). The painting consists of nine small canvases and I'm currently working on number eight.

All the paintings have a variety of sized bubbles in them to represent each member of the family. 

When I reopen (admission free as not a guided tour) I want to attract  passing visitors and hopefully I have found just the thing to do it!

We saw an automatic bubble making machine outside a toy shop the other day and I bought one. The plan is to have it attached to the back gate pumping out bubbles for all its worth.

In Perspective

 Do you remember the nightmare I wrote about in my 19th March blog when I was trapped in a Victorian puppet theatre and couldn't get out?

 I am hoping to use this experience as a basis for my next painting 'Dreamtime' (about Covid) and plan to use steep perspective to dramatize the event.

Recently, I have been looking at David Hockey's use of perspective in his designs for the opera and his way of creating illusionary space to dramatic effect. I saw an exhibition of his work once where he had been using a miniature theatre to test out his ideas. On display were photographs of him at work and the actual model he had been using.

Dear Diary

 'No Frost At Night' is the title of a new exhibition which has just opened at the Babylon Gallery. As well as the five artists who were asked to respond to some weather diaries from the 1960s, the public were also asked to participate.

Two week journals were given out to anyone who wanted to use them, on the understanding they would be displayed in the exhibition alongside the artists work.

I produced a painting diary. I reflected on my last work, 'Eggheads', the progress of my current painting 'Memento Mori' and my plans for the next one entitled' Dreamtime'.

I tried to keep it varied by including, as well as writing, sketches, coloured studies and photographs.

You can see the exhibition (and read my little diary) in Ely until 23rd May.

Thankyou !

 I've just posted a donation of £200 to NHS Charities Together appeal which was largely made up of money made from my Virtual Tour.

Although the appeal is over, you can still try the Virtual Tour, which is available from my website (www.tedconeysfamilyportraits.co.uk) for 99p a go.

A virtual tour was made several years ago for people who couldn't visit the house in person but when the pandemic hit it seemed the best way to promote the business.

I hope to reopen Ted Coney's Family Portraits in late June/early July with the studio, garage and new garden gallery on display in the first instance.

Recollections of Prince Philip

 'Phil the Greek is dead' This was the news I was given by a member of the railway staff as  I stepped off a train last Friday.

It got me thinking of the times I had met Prince Philip when working as Head of Art at Hills Road Sixth Form College. He came on a visit to my department in 1991 and asked (after looking around the room) if I ever through anything away. He then made an unscheduled flight into the sculpture studio and promptly banged his head on an artwork hanging from the ceiling.

Several years later when we had won an award for our work in the community, I met him again at Buckingham Palace. I cheekily reminded him of the incident with the sculpture. He laughed and  said

' Not that bloody place'.

You can see my first encounter with the Prince in the MEDIA page on my website.

Electronic Sketchbook Restored

 I always show how one of my paintings has been put together on the Electronic Sketchbook, when visitors come on one of my tours. (remember those?!) 

 I have four paintings on the screen and when I click on one , it automatically shows images  of my trial studies, early observational drawings and artists references. 

A few months ago I noticed that the icon  to start the sketchbook had disappeared. Although I saw it fleetingly when I switched the computer on it always vanished before I could do anything.

My daughter and her family finally came to visit us for a day over Easter. My son-in-law, who works with computers agreed to have a look. Within a few minutes he had found the icon lurking under the surface. Hurrah!

A Birthday Christmas Present

  It was my birthday last week.

 Perhaps the most intriguing present I received was from our next door neighbour, She'd heard that I have a dolls house which has been developing into an installation since I obtained it to help with my research for a painting, 'Fools Gold'  (which you can see on my PRINTS FOR SALE page).

 When I said  I had carried on collecting objects so that it looked as though the house was frozen in time on Christmas Eve, she gave me a knowing look.

I was presented with the most beautiful   box of  cards, wrapping paper, trees, paper chains, all in miniature. It turns out she is a dolls house enthusiast and makes everything herself.

There are pictures of the house on my Facebook page.

Count Me In

 I've now started working on the final canvases of my picture  'Memento Mori'. Each member of the family is represented  by a bubble in  the nine paintings.

I thought I had completed the first one when I realised I had missed a bubble out! At school, I was always rubbish at Maths.

Luckily, without changing the composition too much, I was able to paint an extra bubble in the far off distance.

I'll need to be more careful with the next one.

Apocalypse Now

 I was visiting an art  college  and wandered into a large modern building, where high up, I saw a Victorian puppet theatre. As I got closer I realised that there were people inside  and they invited me to join them.

Everyone began to leave but the only way out was to jump up,  to climb out of a slit in the back wall. I didn't have the strength to do it.

When I awoke, the dream was so vivid that I was able to write it down. It was the start of an idea for my next painting! I see my entrapment as a metaphor for the pandemic from which we are trying to escape.

It will be called 'Dreamtime'.

Click and Collect

 Although our local art shop has been closed since Christmas, I 've managed to get what materials I need through a click and collect system.

I email the head office and arrange a time to collect stuff from the Ely shop when someone will be there.

Recently, I've managed to get the nine canvases for my current painting 'Memento Mori' as well as some oil paints which I was running out of.

The shop should be opening again on 12th April when restrictions are lifted.  Lets hope it does, as Click and Collect isn't quite the same as mooching around to see what you could buy.

Light Over Dark

 Although I have some way to go before I've created the perfect bubble, I am starting the final painting anyway.

'Memento Mori' comprises of nine small canvases and I have just finished staining them black before I start the painting. I decided to work 'light over dark' after looking at Millais' painting 'Bubbles' in which the said bubble hovers against a dark background.

Millais apparently had a sphere of crystal especially made for the purpose. I've had to rely on photographs from the Internet and some pictures that Max took of him and Sebastian blowing bubbles a while ago.

I did however, retain a glass Christmas bauble which I thought might prove useful. 

Some Offering

 I've been rereading my Mexican Day of the Dead book recently. I had originally used it for reference when painting 'Ofrenda' (you can see the picture on the PRINTS FOR SALE in my website)

I had made the painting to celebrate the life of my mother and always imagined the word ofrenda meant altar. However I was wrong. It means offering. It seems obvious really as in Mexican culture the relatives celebrate their loved ones by  laying out special foods and objects on a kind of altar.

I'm not about to change the title though  as my picture used the Mexican tradition as  only one of its influences and I think the two words are interchangeable anyway.

Guilty Secret

 I've noticed for a while, big packs of brushes and sponges in different shapes and sizes in the children's hobbies section of W.H. Smiths. Those sort of funny, stiff brushes  used for gluing.

 There aren't many shops open at the moment, and these packets were going down pretty quickly. Obviously, lots of people are doing more arts and crafts at the moment.

Although not  needed  for my current painting, I finally succumbed and bought a set before they had all gone.

 Sometime I want to do some free marking making experiments (I already have a set of wire brushes)  for a picture were chaos is an important feature. Dots, dashes, scratchy lines etc. are just what I'm looking for.

Smudge And Smear

 We've all been thinking  about bubbles recently, so maybe that's one of the reasons I decided to use them to depict the family in my new painting 'Momento Mori'  (see my blog  20/11/20)

I 've been trying to experiment with their translucency  and its very difficult. Sometimes the bubbles look more like coloured footballs even though they show parts of my Morris Minor behind.

In fact, the most successful are were I've painted a quick smudge and smear to create the illusion of a bubble rather than a long detailed analysis.

Perhaps thats the answer ?

You Did Ask Me

 I've recently been interviewed on a local radio station in connection to my appeal for NHS Charities Together. (it is now a podcast on  Cambridge 105 Radio) 

As well as been asked about my pop-up gallery and the Virtual Tour I was also thrown an interesting question at the end.

What advice would I give  young artists starting out on their profession? My answer was the same  I had given to a group of amateur painters when I opened their exhibition last year.

Don't make  selling work, the main focus of your endeavour. Do something else to pay the mortgage and bills. Then one is not  tempted to make work which will bring in the money and you are more willing to take risks and experiment further.

Suffer For Art

I knew I had to make the nine close-up drawings of my Morris Minor before it went off for it's annual service, MOT and urgent attention to a  petrol leak. 

I needed the watercolour sketches so I could begin experimenting for my next painting 'Momento Mori' of which they will form an important part of the nine canvases

Although it was freezing cold weather, I steeled myself to make the studies, one a day, until they were finished. Each one took about 90 minutes  and I also got Hazel to photograph the same views so I had further reference.

The car passed it's MOT and the leak has been fixed, so I'm hoping to drive it a bit more in this, its 90th year.

Dance Of The Crazies

 My nephew heard what Hazel and I had been up to on New Years Eve and suggested that he would write a poem about it if I would make a sketch.

You can now see the results on my Facebook page - go to www.tedconeysfamilyportraits.co.uk and click the icon.

In Good Company

 To my delight,  Cambridge Independent newspaper have done a full page spread on my Virtual Tour this week, after all (opposite a full page article on the singer Olly Murs!).  There was a large image of me with my painting 'Dear Reginald Owen', a photograph  with the Morris and another detail of the painting.

It was seen by  Radio 105 who subsequently asked me to do an interview. With this new publicity, I have decided to extend the appeal for NHS Charities Together until the end of March, which will be a year since the pandemic started. 

Hopefully that will bring in more cash via the tour or donations.

Momento Mori

 I first thought of the idea for my new painting seventeen years ago when we were on a visit to the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver.

There was a canoe displayed with one persons lifetime treasures inside and apparently it stands as a kind of memorial for a their life. At the time I resolved that I would try and do something similar only I would swop the canoe for my 1931 Morris Minor!

Over the years that followed I've had several ideas how I could represent my life through objects which remind me of  family and feel I'm getting closer to what I want.

It's not that I think I'm going to die anytime soon, it's just that the Morris will be 90 years old this year and I want to mark that in some way.

Forever Christmas

 I've just displayed three new Christmas presents - a board game, a bowl of nuts and a black cat.

They have gone into the dolls house, which seems  to have evolved over the years into an art installation. Since I first started collecting items  to use in my painting 'Fools Gold' (which you can see in the PRINTS FOR SALE section of my website) I have used the house and its contents several times. Most recently in 'The Rashomon Effect' which can be viewed in the CONTACT US section. You can also see photographs of the actual house on my Facebook page

With  tree,  lights, decorations and wrapped presents, it is Christmas waiting to happen.