Another painting to drive me mad with patterns to paint, much as in ‘Bristol North Street Blues..Reds & Oranges’. I don’t think of these little problems when I set up a composition. Once I have seen what I want to paint, I tend to jump in and photograph it without heed of the consequences… My problem is that I am far too impatient to be a truly realistic figurative painter; I used to want to be, but now accept that it’s just not me. So with the panelled glass of the window of the pub, I am going to attempt a more impressionistic interpretation and let the eye of the viewer make up the rest. At the moment I feel the glass is too bright for the rest of the painting, so will paint a glaze over it next week when the paint is drier. The Hare is a lovely little pub on North Street where I live. It is a darker green than painted here, so I have used some artistic licence to liven it up a bit. I find I often use the Colour Wheel for deciding colours without realising it (Google for more info). Green…
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‘Rendezvous At The Labia’. Work in progress. 21/06/17
This is a larger work than usual for me, 80 x 80 cm (32 x 32″) and is one of a series I hope to be sending off to Cape Town gallery, State of The Art (http://stateoftheart-gallery.com) which is an online gallery with a permanent presence about to open at 50, Buitenkant in August, moving from Shortmarket Street. I have in mind to paint pictures using iconic Cape Town backgrounds, much as I am intending to do with Bristol at Great White Art gallery, (http://greatwhiteart.com). These backgrounds could be recognisable like the above, or involve street art and graffiti. The paintings will always have my trademark woman somewhere in the composition. The above work is so called, because this girl is sitting just outside the Labia cinema in Cape Town, South Africa’s oldest working cinema so I am told. People smile at the title, but said cinema was opened by Princess Labia in the 1940’s. I have been adding in much more colour than is in the original composition as I felt the painting was getting a bit sombre and I am in the mood for brighter colours, so will probably add in more next time when I get…
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New work in progress…The Hare on North Street. 14/06/17
I am working on a series of paintings at the moment with my trademark woman in front of an interesting and recognisable Bristol backdrop. I have taken a lot of photos of North Street, the street where I live, as it provides a centre each year for Upfest, a street art festival held in July. Graffiti and street artists from all over the Uk and Europe descend on North Street and cover virtually every available space with some pretty spectacular art. I have also been roaming around the ‘people’s Republic of Stokes Croft’ which is a myriad of wonderful paintings, murals and street art as it is a hub for artists, much like North Street. I am very excited. Further afield, I have been wandering around the streets of Camden and Kentish Town in London for the same reason and in the future hope to paint several paintings featuring some amazing backdrops for my woman sliding past, and no doubt including Amy Winehouse somewhere, as she and Camden are synonymous. I plan to do the same with Cape Town and my ‘Don’t Be A Dick’ was the first painting I did which gave me the idea for all of the…
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