Morning Glory (unfinished)

Considering all that's happening at the moment, it's no wonder I'm enjoying this peaceful scene.

I won't be posting for a little while...at least until I've sorted out a painting area in France and some sort of internet connection.

Big Day On The Horizon...

Countdown to the big day...I'm getting quite excited.

Moving On

It's time to clear the decks and start afresh. Saturday sees my last day at the gallery, so I'm taking the opportunity to have a drastic clear out. Every painting will be considerably reduced, so there will never be a better time to take advantage and grab a bargain. It's so busy at the moment that I'm unlikely to do any painting beyond commissions before going to France, so please bear with me if you are following my blog.

Touch Of Gold

To say, "If I had it to do over again, I'd do it the same way" is the reason you just did it over again. - Robert Brault.

Yes, and I just did it again when I really wanted to do it differently. This is the larger canvas version of the 6x6 I painted in January of last year. Yvon's woods are a great resource for artists...I suppose any woods are. The photo doesn't do the painting justice, but never mind.

Time Out

Life is all about discovering things that do matter in the end." -Robert Brault.


What discovery could possibly matter more for tired legs than finding a vacant seat on a sunny day and not having to rush back to anything.  Those memories of snatched time when we close our eyes as the sun bathes us, really do matter in the end.

Newark Market

                   SOLD

If reality weren't reality, it would be a darn good impression."                     -Robert Brault.


I've been busy in all kinds of areas and have been tangled up in reality in a sense...reality being the name of our estate agents. One week on the Newark market, so to speak, and we have a buyer. I get the impression they got a bargain and that changes are afoot...

Scribbles

Wiggins Destiny

 

We never give up wanting things for ourselves, but there comes a day when what we want for ourselves is someone else's happiness."  -Robert Brault.

Bradley Wiggins writing history. Robert's quote fits perfectly how I felt as I sat on the edge of my seat for the entire Tour. I so wanted him to succeed (along with the entire nation). To be fair, I was as happy as he was when he won, but I knew his happiness must have been infinitely sweeter and deeper.

This had to be a very quick oil sketch as he was gone in a flash :)

I've been ill over Christmas and the New Year and last week was the only time I had to complete jobs  before putting our house up for sale. Sitting in the gallery wasn't the priority, although I did hanker for a  comfortable safe seat as I perched myself precariously on top of a ladder (not the best activity for old men).

My Little Friend

 "Be happy, and a reason will come along." -Robert Brault.

I wonder if the reason I've always been happy in the company of a robin is down to the robin sharing company with me?

SOLD

Watching The World As I Paint

Sitting in full view and painting my commissions in the gallery for this week. The exhibition is going well and I'm enjoying chatting to customers. I'm aware that I often have an audience standing outside watching me paint and it doesn't put me off in the slightest...I quite like it.

I'm also aware of what's happening in the world and was as shocked as any decent parent the world over concerning the tragedy in Connecticut. It was heartbreaking to see the faces of those children and teachers.

As I paint, I ponder the US gun laws and wonder why they are so jealously guarded against a continuing backdrop of such senseless waste. I'm just an individual foreign helpless onlooker (and goodness knows we have serious problems ourselves here in the UK), who perhaps doesn't understand and has no influence whatsoever regarding a possible solution, but sense a resolve in US hearts to find a way. I was touched by these words of Robert Brault and thought I'd share them...

A Mother's Reverie

Child lost, do you suppose
That we could ever be apart,
That though you’ve left my yearning bosom,
You could ever leave my heart?

Do you suppose that though the years
Bring what they may of joy and strife,
I’ll e'er forget that once there stirred
Within me your sweet precious life?

Do you suppose that there will come
A morning when I’ll not arise
To live again that day when last
You turned to me your trusting eyes?

Child dear, I know you dwell
Within the Lord’s protective might,
But do you know how brave you were
And how I long to hold you tight?

Young Guns Revisited

SOLD

"Man is rated the highest animal, at least among all animals who returned the questionnaire." -Robert Brault.

Who knows why I decide to mess around with paintings already done. I try to resist...I really do.

Stranded

"We are each multliple personalities, trying to hide the fact by always choosing the same spokesperson."  -Robert Brault.

Here we go with abstraction again. I swear I am two different artists. This is inspired by a trip to the beach. I found myself looking down on some multi-coloured seaweed drying out on the sand.

Oh, my goodness! I photographed this under a very bright spotlight while still in the gallery last night and I've come in this morning to see it's nowhere near as bright in the cold light of day. They are two different paintings. I think I'll keep the brighter version as an option for anyone wanting a print.

Snow Glow

"There are no strangers. There are just people you know whom you haven't met yet." -Robert Brault.

People come in the gallery where I'm painting and just chat. I feel I've known some of them all my life.

I was reminded while painting this winter scene that snow isn't always white. I also realised that I enjoy the challenge of painting its various moods. This is a warmer interpretation...it has a glow.

Snow Patrol

"We don't always get to where we want to go, but we always get to where we're going.  -Robert Brault.

The above quote is perfect for the above painting.  I didn't get to where I wanted, but I sure got to where I was going for now. 
I'm painting in St Marks Gallery for the next two weeks while my exhibition is on and I'm loving the experience. I'd forgotten how nice it is to interact with people during the working day. I'm really pleased I can connect to the internet in the gallery...saves taking my computer home to upload my work.  We've had carol singers and African drums today and I wasn't distracted at all.

Snowfall

"Each day is an opportunity to travel back into tomorrow's past and change it."                                                                                                                   -Robert Brault.

Whenever I experience the first fall of snow, I generally feel optimistic enough not to change the moment I'm in at any price. I wish it was the case for everything I experience in my daily routines. I'm beginning to see sense, however, in applying to my life the rule as often as I can of measuring twice before cutting. In art, I rarely think about what I'm doing because it's a lot easier to scrape it all off the next day and start again.

Final Stage

"Most obstacles in life have no power to stop you but only to make you stop yourself."  - Robert Brault.

I once thought of Lance when reading this quote and, to a certain extent it still applies to him, but now I think more of Bradley and his triumph over the obstacles Lance left in the wake of his uncovering...as well as all the other obstacles he needed to overcome in becoming the first Brit to win it. Bradley isn't featured in this painting as it happens, but he's in there somewhere. Although Cav won the final stage, we all know who the day belonged to.

I'm in the final stages of preparing for my exhibition at St.Mark's Gallery along with finishing off my commissions and didn't think this 15 minute sketch of the Tour de France would suffice for today's offering...I managed two in the end.  Hectic times...so many obstacles.

Impressions Of Paris

Paris seemed our private "parc"

For us alone its charm beguiled

For us the Champs stretched to the Arc

For us the Mona Lisa smiled.  -Robert Brault.

I'm missing Venice, Rome, Naples and Paris, so I carried out a mind and heart visit and quietly promised myself I would drop by before too long. I wanted to do something different and this is different...for me at least. It's a style I feel I want to develop, if I can.

Undergrowth

"The artist uses the talent he has, wishing he had more talent. The talent uses the artist it has, wishing it had more artist".  -Robert Brault.

Such are my feelings, today. I tried hard to capture the essence of undergrowth and feel I halfway got there...hence the title (there's a double meaning in there somewhere) :)

Sky

SOLD

"It's my luck that every time I feel I completely comprehend God’s plan, I don’t have a pencil with me." -Robert Brault.

But I do have a brush, and every time I look at a sunset I marvel, then when opportunity presents itself, I paint. This is a DailyPaintworks sky challenge which was given by Jill Bates. I've taken just a portion of the photograph given and have included just a smidgeon of artistic licence...not as brave as Marla Laubisch. The reference photo was taken in Florida and was in fact a sunrise, not a sunset.

I've Got You Martin

Another seascape of Martin & Sarah having a splash around. I've changed it around already. The waves were a little too deep for my liking on the previous sketch. I also struggled with Sarah's face...I know it's indistinct, but it still has to resemble her and now I'm happier.

Families

SOLD

No, it wasn't ours, but I really liked the composition. We were on a French beach and my son and his wife and daughter were just to the left...couldn't resist cutting them out in favour of someone else. :)

I painted another at the same time but changed the sex of the central figure looking at the two children wading out...I don't know why. It's amazing how a few scratchy indistinct figures can be changed in an instant to convey something entirely different.

Oh, all right then...here's the second one.

Quite a few changes really.

Splash and Crash

This is my last ditch attempt at rescuing a previous painting that lacked atmosphere. If you recall, I was overpainting a painting at the exact time that someone was buying the original version online. I couldn't  recreate what it was that the customer liked, so he chose another instead. I've changed it again, but in a hundred years or so when they scan it, they'll find the original 'Crash'. I tend to see lots of colour in crashing waves and have decided not to mute them this time.

Lesson learned...although I doubt I'll ever completely stop trying to rescue paintings.

Book!

Ken Devine -A Daily Painter's Journal - 2012.

At last! My Blurb book with 150 images has been published and is available.  The details will appear in my sidebar once I've figured out how to add the link, and you'll be able to view every page.

I have one on my shelf right now...I'm quite impressed with it.

So, where have I been of late? I've been ill...nothing serious, but feeling considerably better and ready to paint again.

Reflection of Gold

6x6ins. Oil on board
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A return to Yvon's pond...a popular theme for me. I love to just sit there on the bench and throw crumbs to the goldfish. I've painted this in colours to reflect their existence.

Featherbed Rock

6x6ins. Oil on board
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I decided to give more substance to this painting...changed the sky colour, added dioxazine purple to the left, more highlights to the cliff face, added a truer reflection of the caves and a more detailed foreground. I've changed it all really.

And Again

6x6ins. Oil on board
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Just when someone clicked to buy one of my paintings, I paint over it. This is the painted over one. Now I have to paint another to match the original. Lessons to be learned...lessons I never seem to learn.

Going to Town

6x6 ins. Oil on board
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I wanted to do a quick sketch of the road to town, so that's exactly what I did. I love it when I do what I set out to do. 

Towards Billio

6x6 ins. Oil on board
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This is another section of the scene painted previously as you look out towards Billio over Yvon's woods.

Room With A View

6x6 ins. oil on board
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David & Eileen tell me that the skies over Yvon's woods look particularly nice, so I grab my camera and this is the result. This is the view they have every morning from their bathroom...I have to go outside and block their view if I'm looking for a scoop.

GICLEE PRINTS

Just to let you know that a great deal of my artwork is now available as quality giclee fine art prints the same size as the originals...including the above image which is still available as an original in my DPW gallery. 

Check out my PRINTS tab above for full details.