Display Of A Different Kind

Readers of my blog may remember the fun I had  when I took part in the Celebration of Business exhibition in Ely Cathedral last year. As part of my Ted Coney's Family Portraits display I exhibited my 1931 Morris Minor, which resulted in the car breaking down inside the Cathedral! Well, this year I'm going for a less ostentatious affair with the central part of the display being my latest painting
'Another Year'. Although this painting is about four female members of the family, the central image is of Ely Cathedral at different times of day, so I thought it most appropriate for the exhibition. As one can now buy prints of this picture from UKPHOTOGALLERY I have written to the Dean and Chapter with an offer. I said I was willing to donate all my commission on every print sold, if they agreed to display the painting for a few months. Well, it is a business exhibition! However, the Dean may not think the painting is appropriate (though it is about birth and death), so I am not getting to excited. The painting is back from the framers now and I am sorting out what information to put on each of the display panels which accompany it. As my pop-up gallery opens a week later, I thought this exhibition would be a good curtain raiser.

Mystery Solved

I didn't recognise the name of the female who bought one of the prints of my Morris Minor the other week. However, I got a lovely surprise when a picture of it appeared on my (Ted Coney) Facebook page which solved the mystery.  It appears that the young lady had jointly bought the print with Will Tuck an ex student of mine for Will's cousin, Michael, for his  birthday. Mike (another ex student) had then posted the picture to me, showing him holding a framed version of my drawing with a jolly comment. It should soon be on be on the Ted Coney's Family Portraits page on Facebook as well. I was asked to do a little story for the Hills Road Staff Newsletter to announce the opening of the gallery in April, so as Will and Mike were students at Hills Road as well, I made that the theme of my comments.
You can see this on the NEWS AND REVIEWS page on my website, as soon as Daniel has had time to put it on.
 

A Riverside Experience

I've just been to see Aileen at the tourist office about my idea for encouraging coach parties to discover Ely's Riverside. The various attractions down here are joining forces to produce a leaflet about what we do, for the Tourist Office to promote with the various Coach companies they are in touch with. Thats the theory anyway! I say 'WE' by that I mean Ted Coney's Family Portraits ofcourse, as well as Peacocks Tearooms, Waterside Antiques, Babylon Gallery and the boat ' The Liberty Belle'. Ofcourse, visitors will always visit the Cathedral first, but hopefully we are offering a viable alternative for the afternoon. Just wish the house was bigger so I could take more than six at a time.

A three Pronged Affair

I guess you could say that Ted Coney's Family Portraits is a three pronged affair. The main part is doing the paintings and opening the house to the public, ofcourse (first tour of the season is 14th April!) but also the sale of prints of my work and my outreach lecture.
I've just had my first sale of a print since UKPHOTOGALLERY restarted it's business the other week and this was for the drawing of my Morris Minor. Last night I got a call from a lady from the W.I asking me if I would do my lecture 'On The Edge' for them as the title sounded intriguing. The booking is for January 2014 so I've got a bit of time to prepare for it! You can see details of these ventures on my website.

Frames

I am now steadily preparing for the next season of Ted Coney's Family Portraits which opens on Sunday 14th April. My last finished painting 'Another Year' has gone off to be framed and another painting 'Walking Sticks' has just been delivered back. This has been reframed to blend in more with each of the four canvases which make up the work. Before, they were all framed with a rather harsh metallic silver, whereas now, each frame picks out one of the main colours in each painting.
 I also took two family photographs to have new mounts put in as they looked rather tatty and full of tiny insects! I replaced the mount with purple card in our wedding frame as, although the photo is black and white, our wedding clothes were purple - well it was the 70s! Visitors see all these family photographs (all six generations of them) when they arrive at the start of their tour.
p.s. Daniel has just posted more of my photos of my latest painting 'Love That Dares' on the website, so you can see how it is progressing.

 

Photoshopping Knitting

As part of my annual apprasel at school, I said I would like to have some trainnig in the use of Photoshop, so I could see how it could help the students develop their ideas for Painting and Graphics. I thought (craftily) the best way into it for me, was to see how it could work when trying out my own ideas. After drawing the knitted boats last week (for my next painting -
 'If  The Boats Come In'), this time I took some photographs of them, ready to work with Tony , my long suffering teacher. I had also taken some digitol photos of the real toy sailing boats, just to see which would work best. My hour's lesson was so disturbed by students coming in to ask questions, that we didn't get very far, but we took some close-up shots of a knitted scarf and started to project these onto my boats. We hope to project a knitted rough sea onto the background next week. Will it be useful? To early to say, but it certainly gives me an insight into just how clever the students are - and how creaky my brain has become!

Knitted Drawing or Drawing Knitting?

I often tell my students that they must not treat drawing like knitting. In other words, they must keep alert and not let the drawing become repetitive and merely filling in the shapes - rather like knitting, infact. Ofcourse knitting demands it's own skills and I certainly couldn't do it, but imagine my dilemma when I started drawing knitting, last week! I was making some preliminary sketches for my next painting 'If The Boats Come In' (I am having a break from my current painting 'Love That Dares' while I decide what to do next) and was doing some drawings of knitted boats that my sister-in-law, Julia had made for me. I tried to draw every weave and wobble of the wool and also keep the shape of the boat. I used a soft pencil and coloured pencils to try and achieve the texture and my next challenge will be to have a go with oil paint, which ultimately I shall be working in in the final painting. Julia has just let me know that she has finished knitting the sea so I shall be making a stab at that, too. In the painting, the knitted parts eventually turn into real boats and water, so I feel this painting is going to push my skills to the limit.