....and there's more

The top one is up for an opening bid of £25.00, the middle one is £10.00 and the bottom £15.00.
G'wan, you know you want to........

Some of the work available........

Just a sample of what's available today.
The top one has a starting bid of £10.00, the middle one is £40.00 and the bottom (in all senses of the word) is £35.00.
How can you resist ???

What are you doing tomorrow ?

If you fancy an evening out, why not come along?

This is the second sealed bid auction we have done at the shop. The last one was three years ago, and I said then that I would do another in three years time, so here we are.

Currently there are 58 pieces of work up for grabs. Each one has a minimum bid price, the cheapest of which is £10.00, rising to £150.00 for the most expensive.

A tally is kept of the NUMBER of bids per piece, but not HOW MUCH has been bid. This means that if something started out with a minimum price of £20.00, and there are three bids on it already, you have to make an educated guess to outbid the competition.......sort of like analogue ebay, but with the added advantage of wine and great company!

I'll post a few images of things for sale over the next twenty four hours, so keep checking back.

Anyway, we kick off at four, and the bids get opened at seven, be good to see you.

hey-ho

So, PDF files, what are they all about ?

At the risk of sounding tetchy, why can't I create a simple table, then e-mail it out so others can fill it in ?
Currently that's a rhetorical question, by the way. I no longer care. I've moved on. Oh yes. It's not bothering me. Not at all. Bothered I am not.

No, really.

Back to the easel then, hope you dear readers are all well, speak soon.
X

I was sent this by e-mail......

........and I want to make it very clear that I am not leading a double life.

My irregular wafflings on here have detailed some of the thoughts trials and tribulations of a struggling artist.
I now find that my namesake is quietly undermining me with his burgeoning jewelery business, somewhere in our nations capital.

It would appear that somewhere in the dim and distant, a branch of the family escaped the daily grind of digging out coal in rural Leicestershire.

I wonder if the dynasty was formed with cash gleaned from a well concealed night shift find, at the end of a seam deep below the Vale of Belvoir.............

we can be a bit short of surf.........

..........on our coast.

But not today.

Got up later than planned, and didn't get wet myself, but there were several folk up and at it early on.
I took these pics at what used to be a secret spot.......but judging by how many people were in the water, I guess the word has spread !

Nice to get back behind a camera, I'm in the mood now, so off to a place called Sea Palling to get some more pics.........I might even take the board.........

Follow Ed to Paris

This is my good friend Ed Foss, (the one at the bottom of the picture)

Today he has set off from London, accompanied by his team-mates and several hundred others, to cycle from London to Paris in Aid of the Royal British Legion.

You should be able to follow his progress here;
http://norfolknomads.blogspot.com

Give him a look if you have a mo', and leave comments of love and support, he's a top bloke.

it must be summer..........

................because I have failed to post for sooooo long !

Anyway, no boring excuses, the image above may help you understand my lack of application. The image was taken a few hundred yards from my house, one morning last week.

Would you be stuck in front a computer ?
I think not.
While spending a more than reasonable amount of time on the beach, I have managed to do some work.
Working from holiday makers on the beach comes with it's own problems. I can deal with the sand in the paint (texture), I can deal with the sunburn (struggling for my art), but I do wish people would STAY PUT !

In other news, the eldest teenager has had her GCSE results, (OK) and is starting College in a week, the other teenager begins his GCSE courses at the same time..........more joy.

Hopefully more regular post's will commence as of now, but life keeps getting in the way a bit !

Later.

nobody here but us chickens.....

I spent some of yesterday sanding down and re-priming a couple of metre square canvases. The work on them was more than a year old, and part of a series that didn't quite hit the spot.

Not so long ago, I would have been really reticent about obliterating stuff that had taken a fair time to produce, but lately I have been embracing the cathartic elements of destroying old work.

There is some masochistic joy to be had in gleefully slapping white primer over carefully modulated brushstrokes, and the re-primed surface has a kind of two and a half 'D' ghost image, which is interesting to work on top of.

I'm hoping that a couple of ideas floating around in my head will come to fruition on these refreshed surfaces, a fair amount of development is needed, but they will be engaging if all goes well.

If you have a moment, and an interest in craft skills and/or poultry keeping, nip over to;

http://www.nicklyonsnorfolk.co.uk/

Nick is a fabulous craftsman, to whom I have a couple of coincidental connections.
Like me he is an artist, also like me he has had to embrace a little diversification in order to weather the vagaries of artistic fortune.
Now, even more strangely, he is a former Eastern Daily Press photographer who gracefully retired from the industry to pursue his painting.
Before you ask, yes, his last post was the Cromer office...........Fate?Coincidence?Dark Forces?, you decide.........

onwards

So, Open Studios is closed, so to speak.

I'm pleased to say that I had a good one. Around 250 visitors over the seventeen days, some interesting and interested people, and a good level of sales.......hurrah !
I even had a 'runner'.......that's someone who comes in and is frightened by the sheer level of filth on display, stays for no more than a minute, and immediately goes out through the door like a long dog.
I like that, it makes me feel like I'm getting it bang on right.

In other news, the Dark Princess, (my daughter), is more than halfway through her exam's and has also managed to get a pair of shoes for the Prom..........hurrah again !

That's all I have for you, except to say a big thank you to all of you who sent best wishes for the show, and even bigger love for those who were close enough to actually turn out and visit.

Off now to claim some spurious expenses from the public purse.
Later.

Hawt.....

.......that's the yard at the studio.

Great day today, lots of odds and ends done, drank beer outdoors with the fabulous two at lunchtime, (my landlady's), also my man Beachfreak nipped in to say hello.

The smells of hot sand and the sea, warm concrete and that odd 'green' odor that is as rare as the true early British summer day.

Under normal circumstances it's easy to let days like today pass by unremarked upon. Today I feel happy and content to be alive where I live, and lucky to be able to share it with my nearest and dearest.

this one..........

.........sold almost as soon as it was hung.........

................I wonder why.........?!!

Birthdays-n-stuff......

Sunday evening, on the beach, Bank Holiday Monday to follow........what's not to like ?

Some of you may be familiar with the Gingerwitch.....(pictured above paddling in the balmy North Sea).....but even if you 'aint, there is no doubting her skills.
The weather she ordered for her birthday was bright blue from dawn till dusk.
I think it would be foolish to let her keep any of your hair or nail clippings.

In other news, Open Studios has been going well. Two weeks of frantic activity to get it all ready, a fantastic opening do on Saturday the 16th, and lots of visitors since. Can't complain really, which brings me neatly to the end of this.

Love to all. xxx

My dog don't get enough.....

walks that is.

I need to motivate the brats to help out. Cash might help I suppose, but they did promise to help out if we got a new puppy..................I allowed myself to be deceived, 'cos I wanted another dog.
Another task for today's list then !

Dad jobs.....

We all know that Dad's bare the crushing weight of responsibility for their offspring with quiet dignity.
None more so than the figure in the painting above. I was watching and daubing away as he and his two small boys started the sandcastle.
Within ten minutes the famous North Sea 'fret' had crept up behind them, cold damp and visually disturbing.
After a further quarter of an hour, Mum whisked the youngsters off to the Beach Cafe for warming Tea and Bacon Sarnies.
He and I stuck at our tasks. Him, because he knew the sandcastle had to be complete before the tide got to it........I, in solidarity for his unflinching application to the task, finished my daub.
Twenty minutes passed, we exchanged a brief nod of shared recognition, and went our separate ways.

Nose to the grindstone........

I was lucky enough to be in London yesterday. I was even luckier to have four hours to kill before my train back to dear old Norfolk. A swift five stops and one change tube ride later, I was at the National Gallery.
An even swifter twelve quid later, I was feeling somewhat inadequate standing with my mouth open in front of 'Large Bather', by a certain Pablo Picasso.
The current show; Picasso Challenging the Past, is a stunning whistle stop tour of Picasso's work. Just in terms of chronological spread, you get bodily propelled from the late 1800's to the early1970's. In terms of style and content, you are by turns assaulted and caressed from flayed sheep's heads to minotaurs via self portraits and harem's of nudes. I loved it.
As a student I found the man's work aloof and confusing. Yesterday, with a few more miles on the clock, I found myself beguiled, bewitched and breathless.
These four pieces are mine, not Pablo's, but in his own words;
"Like all artist's, first I am a painter of women".

it's all good........

Been frantic for a couple of weeks, but all positive stuff.

This piece was the one I was struggling over for a couple of days last month. I'm happy with it now.
I have had a run of working fairly small, but it was nice to let go on this one as it is much larger. (3ftx2ftish).

Lots more to say/show, but tight for time. I'll be back later.Out.

oops...

I seem to have been AWOL for a week or two.
My absence has been completely unintentional, I keep meaning to post something, but somehow the moment just does not arrive.
Anyway, what with the aforementioned birthday celebrations, painting, gardening, kids on holiday from school, friends visiting with their gorgeous new baby and daily admin, I have been fully engaged in other stuff.
The painting is going well. Not enough nudity, but some nice stuff from the beach this last few days. Good weather and the arrival of the first tourists of the season have helped.
The piece at the top is a quick 20 minute sketch done at the life class, the one below took a little longer.

I have to photograph several other pieces of new work, I'll do my best to get them up on here this week.
That will be all.

16 years ago today.....

our daughter was born.

I can't succinctly put into words how parents lives are measured by the growth of their children. However, the panicked feeling of time flying by, is easily offset by the warm glow of pride in one's offspring and their bright, fresh, shiny lives.

Another milestone in her life, and ours. The passing years proving to us all, that nothing stays the same.
That fact alone is worthy of celebration, all the more so when blessed with a beautiful, funny, intelligent young woman for a daughter.

16,177

..........is the number of you who have popped in since the 21st of March 2007.

Who'd have thought so many people would be interested in two years worth of my waffle ?

Thank you one and all.

windy Sunday

There's a brisk northerlyish wind blowing across the beach today. We had friends up for a couple of days, so the canine companion has been thoroughly walked. I didn't notice any reticence on the face of the dog, but all the humans looked a bit sheepish when we got to the top of the cliff. It was a bit parky, to say the least.
On the subject of the beach, lately I have been collecting bits of sea battered debris to make sculpture with. Suddenly there is very little rubbish along the tide line, I think the easterly wind we had all last week has dragged anything interesting back out to sea. Maybe this week will yield more treasure.
Painting is going better, with a biggish piece better than half finished, I'll put it up on here when I have finished it.
I'm also getting into stencilling T-shirts with my good friend Tony. As he keeps saying; "We're in the rag trade".
So creatively, I have ideas coming out of my pores, all I need now is a succession of thirty hour days, with no need for sleep, and three or four models to sit naked in shifts !........I can be contacted in the usual way.........

early start

Getting organised to go and entertain teenagers is all very well, but it does mean getting the old carcass out from under the duvet at 6.00am.

There are side benefits to this enforced regime, such as eating breakfast, walking the dog and edifying code like grunt-ver-sation with my very own teenage offspring.

It's all about education folks.........

repetition

I have been mostly painting the same small area of a canvas today, over and over again.

I can't seem to get it right, so it's been a bit paint/scrape/ paint/ scrape ad nauseum.

It would be fair to say I have nearly disappeared up my own arse today, so on that note........here is a much nicer one from back when I could create nice work.
(That would be last week then).

dreamin......

Just been lurking about on ebay, watching auctions on a few impractical fantasy items. Sort of window shopping for the desk bound.
Great fun, but the temptation to put in a bid on a beautifully dilapidated 1968 Citroen DS was almost too much to resist.
Me and my beret would look fabulous in it.....cracked leather seats, funky one spoke space age steering wheel, hydro suspension, Serge Gainsboro on the stereo, Disc Bleu clamped in the side of the mouth, squinting enigmatically through the smoke......oh yes.

Up top is the last pose from this weeks Tuesday life class, very Galic in style, as it happens.

that'll be a new hard drive then......................

It just goes to show, threats of violence only work temporarily. The laptop really was poorly, very poorly.
Having now had the techno equivalent of a heart and lung transplant, the dear thing is on fire. Fast, steady, dare I say reliable !!! Outstanding.

In other news, I have been mostly teaching for the last couple of weeks. Covering for illness.......... a bit like fire fighting, you feel suitably heroic doing it, but you can get a bit smoke damaged.

Now we are out of February, things are speeding up alarmingly. Open Studios is looming in to view. I think I will have enough work done, but I would like to be embarrased by the amount, rather than trying to convince visitors that the use of white space in a gallery is essential to show the work at it's best !

The life drawing class is up and going well, the piece at the top is really a study of hips legs and feet, I was feeling a bit colour-radical, and I reckon I got away with it.........

.....by way of a change

....I'm on my daughters laptop, as mine has rolled over again.
Makes a change for me to be hogging her machine !

Some of you may know that I'm a part time team member and governor at North Walsham High School. Currently there are several staff and pupils from the school making a feature film in Romania........yep, Romania.
The Major Domo of this project is Mr James "Francis Ford" Coulson, he is being ably supported by Miss Emma "Viewfinder" Cooper, who is DOP, Mr Dominic "Drama" James, who is what I believe used to be called a factotum, and Mrs Suzanne "Mutti" Eke, who is a force of nature......Not to mention the students who are acting/producing/lighting/doing the stills/sound/tea etc.
I think this is a bit of a major acheivement, and I would really appreciate it if you go over to;

http://vpositivemovieblog.blogspot.com

and leave them as much positivity as you feel able.

The film itself is a 'film noir' vampire flick, written by James and supported by a great team at home and on location in Romania, and no small undertaking for hard worked teachers and students.

Please go and give them much love.

thoughts of summers past

Just finished this.

I used some photographs and sketches for reference, and painted it onto a canvas prepped with fairly lurid pink ground. Hopefully the little bits of pink showing through have helped to give the impression of a warm summer morning.

The boat in the painting was called the Valerie Teresa, she was one of the last wooden crab-boats working from the beach at Cromer. Some of the best days work I have ever had were spent on board this boat, with her owner, John Balls and his sons.
John has since moved to North Devon, and the boat no longer sits on her carriage below the gangway.
I miss them both.

don't panic......

.......just because I might be.

While sorting out some work for an upcoming exhibition, an away fixture incidentally, I realised that I'm a bit short of finished work.
The five pieces promised to the aforementioned show constitute about half of my current stock.
I do have several of the small nudes that I have posted recently, but somehow I have to finance frames for them.....maybe I'll sell something at the weekend.....not likely in mid February, but it could happen !

bookworm

One of my real guilty pleasures is reading. Whenever I get a few minutes I like to get into a book. I can even read in the shower.........indeed, my multitasking knows no bounds.
This evening I have finished re-reading a book that I had sort of skimmed a few years ago. Without going into too much detail, it's a story of danger and dastardly deeds on the high seas, the true tale of a disastrous shipwreck off the coast of Australia in the 1720's. A cracking yarn, and well worth re-visiting.
Oh, in case you fancy it, Batavia's Graveyard by Mike Dash is the book in question.
So, what are you reading at the moment ? Got any recommendations ?

it's been taxing..........

filing a tax return online.
I'm not going to have a rant, mostly because I have nothing left to give. Suffice to say, that by the time my unique user identity number arrived in the post, I was already late. And that has cost me £100. Outstanding.
The best bit, apart from managing to exit the site, was the THIRTY TWO......count them...32 ...character successful receipt reference code. What are the chances of typing that in without making an error ?
About the same as me getting my return filed on time next year I guess.

On another note, my good friend Tommy Two-Sheds was back in the hospital this week. That will be two weeks running then.
A swift appendectomy last week, followed by rushing back in this week with a post op lung problem, that turned out to be not one, not two but three blood clots in his lung.
According to my sources, his employers are not too happy with the amount of time he has had off sick. What the fuck is that about ? Welcome to modern Britain, home of the understanding boss.
I think he should go back to work, fall over, then sue the wankers up the road and back.
I feel so bad for him, that in my capacity as Director General of Sam Robbins inc. I shall be having a half day off tomorrow. Solidarity, that's what we need more of round these parts.

Get well soon Tommy. X

as requested by.....

Travelling But Not in Love, here is a male nude.

The funny thing about pastel work, for me at least, is that the less you do the more you get away with.
For instance the feet on this piece have no toes, but if there were, my feeling is that the eye would be drawn to them too much.

Incidentally, referring back to the 16th Jan post, and vigour/immediacy in general, I think this has a certain amount of what I'm getting at.

It might be time to browse through some old sketchbooks........

hahahahahaha Trumpets !......

So, threats of violence worked.

In the end, I took it outside and read it the old horoscope. All that 'tekie' stuff may have had some effect, but the real power lay in creating an atmosphere of fear. Somewhere in the deepest recesses of it's circuitry, it heard my sincere threats.
Obviously it had previously listened to my coaching, then polite requests, followed by child like pleading and lastly infantile begging and sobbing. All this it heard and silently mocked me.
However, show it the four pound club hammer out in the yard, and lo an image was browsed, uploaded and resides above.
In the valley of the laptop, the artist with the hammer is king, oh yes.

In the style of Don from Hotel Room Nudes;
'up above is Lucile, painted last Thursday, in Mundesley'.......I'll be staying a while.

I'll tell you how bad it's got.....

I have fannied about with this poxy machine for days. I know it's contours better than I know those of my wife.
I am basically a creative person. I think in pictures, not 1's and 0's, so it makes my head hurt.
I don't need to know all this stuff. I have a lot of things to think about, and not much RAM left on the old hard-drive. Why will it not obey me ?
I have emptied trash, cleaned disks, de-fragged things, burnt images to cd's, checked for contigious memory, operated McAffe like a pro, and gasped my way through a pound of roll-up tobacco.

STILL it won't upload image files.

If the present, frankly rather rude, winter conditions prevail, I am going to have to do a Titus Oates and nip out for a long walk.................they never did find his body you know.

argggggggggggghhhhhh

Sorry, sorry sorry.

Shitty computers, I hate them.

Thanks to all of you for commenting on the stale and boring post below.

While you wait for me to get it together, go over to Paul Robinson's site at the top of my links. He's a very talented painter, and a very top bloke.........off you go then.

issues......

.....with uploading images, AGAIN !

As soon as I cure it I'll post something marginally more interesting.

That will be all.

out and about

A cold wind and horses that won't stand still.........it's a tough life.
The biggest positive to be drawn from the weekend, from a painting point of view, was the fabulous light. Just being out in it was inspiration enough.

I have made a couple of attempts at the local nags in the last week. Great practice for speedy work but proper bloody hard to be accurate.

More tomorrow, have a lovely evening.

vigorous.......

and immediate, that's what I'm trying to preserve in the work.

I have a tendency to fiddle, you see. Now, when I work in charcoal or pastels I work quickly with a certain flow. However, sometimes when I paint, I get bogged down in the detail and the end result can look overworked and tired.
Enter the new Pochade box. I think the small size of the work, and the compact nature of the palette and box are helping the speed and flow of the work.

So, here are two of the first pieces done from life. Each one took about thirty minutes.
Off to find some more willing ladies to be immortalised..........If you are reading this, fancy laying around naked and you are in Norfolk, drop me a line............

it's been a while.......

It's 2009 then. Stunning revelation I know.
Before you ask, I have not just woken from a RipVanWinkle like snooze, I just find January a bit trying. The first week always vaporises in a haze of post Christmas malaise, and before you know it, there are only eleven months of the year left.

In an effort to avoid feeling guilty about wasting time, I have been out and about painting with a new plan, and a new piece of kit. It's called a Pochade box, and is only new to me. Painters have been using them for ever, the likes of Monet and co. were big fans. In terms of results, the work is small, (8"x6"), and hopefully executed with flair and speed.

The nice thing is that all the paint, brushes and bits go into the box, and there is room for three boards in the lid. All I have to do is pitch up on the iron horse, open the box and crack on.
It's early days, but I'm very happy with the results so far.

I do need some thicker socks though......