I was working in the studio the other day, completely absorbed. I was plotting the design of my next painting, 'The Counsellor' moving bits of paper about on a large drawing board.
Stepping backwards to sit down I completely missed the chair!
Although I landed on the floor with no bones were broken and only a slightly bent little finger to show for it .
My redeveloped website is nearly finished. Giles has now gathered together all my latest paintings in THE COLLECTION page. They were previously scattered about the website and added as I finished them.
Every so often I took a photograph to show the various stages as the painting progressed. You can see the image take shape once you click on the painting.
One picture - ANOTHER YEAR does take rather a while to run through. Apologises. I hope it will be speeded up in the coming days.
The staff from the Norris Museum came on their second visit today and confirmed they want to have an exhibition of my work in one of their galleries in early 2024.
They were particularly interested in my painting and installation entitled 'Forget-Me-Nots' as this evokes memories of the past through objects. You can see a section of the installation on my latest Facebook and Instagram posts.
As I shall be eighty in early 2024 (if I make it!) this seemed like a good time to have another exhibition!
Just to let you know that my Virtual Tour is now available again. It had been off air while my website was been redeveloped (its nearly finished).
In my latest Facebook and Instagram posts I show a still from the film, where I fly back in time to 1930s Hollywoodland while doing the research for my painting 'Dear Reginald Owen'
In the virtual tour, the last thing I wanted was to stand beside each painting and explain what they were about. Colin (who made the film) had the idea of using my Morris Minor rather like the Tardis to make the link with my ancestors. I hope you don't think its too naff.
A few years ago I used pure turpentine to thin my oil paints. That was until I realised that it was making my wife ill (I painted in the living room at the time).
Since then I've always used turps substitute, which has been fine.
The other week I went to our local Wilko which usually has stacks of the stuff and all the shelves were empty. ' Transport problems' were blamed for the missing bottles, but I wonder?
I did manage to get some elsewhere but it was much more expensive. Maybe I will have to experiment with water based oil paints in the future.
