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.