My thought for the day from Winston Churchill: ‘Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm’. My beloved partner died in March from brutal, quick and aggressive cancer. During those last few months I did indeed lose my enthusiasm to paint. Since his death however, my enthusiasm has returned, albeit reluctantly, and I feel I am painting better than ever. I have freedom to surge forward and my brain is fizzing with new ideas for my street art inspired work. I am excited, energised and each day just want to paint more and more. But oh, how I miss my darling Les, would that he were still watching me paint as he used to. This new work will be a take on another Banksy that I saw on The Hidden Gallery’s Instagram page (@chrisathidden). Banksy’s website (Pest Control) doesn’t reply to my request to incorporate his work into my art, and Hidden Gallery reckons he would be fine with this angle, so on I go. This will be the last Banksy for a while as I have new ideas for the next piece which will be more locally inspired. There will be two young women…
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This title is a take on today’s society. Everywhere I look these days, everywhere I walk, every restaurant or cafe I sit in, I see people, particularly the young, glued to their smartphones. Sitting with friends at the same table, all their heads are down, scrolling away on their phones. How is this going to play out in the future? Where do we go from here ? And what is this doing to our backs ? (I have osteoporosis so am particularly interested in this aspect). So to the painting. I saw this Banksy copy and a germ of an idea started in my mind. I always try and get the street artist’s permission to use their work in my compositions, but have been unable to trace the artist who made this copy. Likewise I received no reply to my request to Banksy (Pest Control) so am having to keep my fingers crossed he/they are happy with this piece. A long time ago, an art dealer told me a touch of red in a painting always lifts it and results in more sales, so here we are! I am grateful to Natalia Green for being the perfect muse here.…
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This will be a street art themed painting eventually, but this week I have been concentrating on getting the young woman in place in the composition. So far so good. I am incorporating a (as I have now found out) a copy of a Banksy painting showing a girl on a swing. The original was painted under a sign saying PARKing and this artist’s copy isn’t as detailed as Banksys. I haven’t been able to find out where and who painted it, so am going ahead regardless and hope I won’t be sued…. My working title, so far, will be either ‘Babysitting’ or ‘Modern Babysitting’ depending on what I feel like when the piece is finished. It’s my take on the fact that the young seem to spend most of their time these days glued to their smart phones, to the detriment of enjoying babysitting, albeit for a stencil on a wall ! This painting is in oils and is on canvas board. If you would like to be kept up to date with what I am up to in the next few weeks please sign up for my Newsletter at the top of the Home page. I am also…
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