Hugh's Fish Fight

Today I am posting without any illustration, a rarity if not a first for me.
I would like you to consider joining the Fish Fight, a campaign that I believe is a chance for us to help overturn the European fisheries policy which forces fishermen to return perfectly edible dead fish to the sea, simply because they have caught their quota of a given species.

This waste is not a new problem. I remember discussing this ridiculous situation at least half a dozen years ago with local fishermen. However, the campaign IS new and I applaud Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstal and his team for having the balls to fire us all up.
www.fishfight.net


Rant over.

New Year....new start ?

So, it would appear my little vacation from writing this blog has turned into a gap of over a year.

I think maybe that the extended gap is an illustration of two things; firstly how compressed time has become for all of us, and secondly how stale my online output was becoming.

A fair amount of water has flowed under my creative bridge since we last spoke. Sales have been appalling, but the lack of commercial pressure has created space for me to reflect on the work and try to come to some conclusions about where I am heading.

Teaching has become a much larger, and much more rewarding part of my week, than I imagined.
I am surprised on at least a weekly basis, by how inspiring teenagers can be. The best of them throw themselves at creative tasks with a clarity and bravery that makes me think hard, and work harder.

The result of these and many other things has led me back here, to try and record my artistic path......no matter how erratic the frequency of the musings, or the quality of the results.

When I thought about it, I realised I missed the time and reason to reflect, and I missed the sense of disparate community and support from you, dear readers.

I am, it transpires, glad to be back.

....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.............