‘Rendezvous at The Labia’. Work in progress. 07/06/17

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Strange title possibly ?! The Labia is South Africa’s oldest working cinema and is such an iconic place. It was founded by Princess Labia around 1945 I think, and is one of my best go to places to visit when I am in Cape Town. It is a small theatre but has four screens and has a small bar with snacks available, both of which you can take in with you to see the film. The usherette is a fabulous local who has been at the Labia for as long as I can remember and you can get home made popcorn which always smells delicious and costs a fraction of the stuff you buy here in England. It’s a real favourite with the locals and shows all up to date films plus more arts based ones. I love it. I came out from the film and saw this young woman on her phone. The lighting, the pose, the colour of that wall – my favourite shade of blue – all conspired to make me feel a painting coming on. I will be adding in more zestful colours as I go along and need to accentuate the lights and darks more…

‘Bristol North Street Blues…Reds & Oranges’. Completed. 01/06/17

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This is a wonderful piece of street art which I felt would really compliment one of my paintings featuring my trademark female. The colours are so vibrant and alive, although the painting of the geometric shapes proved very taxing for this impatient artist. I like the result at last. It was a cold morning in April when I set this up and am indebted to the model as she braved the east winds of Bedminster to slide past this street art. She attracted many an admiring glance in her high heels and red dress as the rest of the population on North Street wrapped up in scarves, hoodies, gloves et al. I always have mixed feelings about street art. I love the immediacy of it all, and can stand watching for ages as these artists produce such wonderful imagery with their aerosols and paints, usually using a small postcard as a guide to the finished large piece. I say mixed feelings, because sooner or later the said piece is destroyed by a new work being painted over it! This is particularly true of here in North Street where we welcome Upfest every year. This is, I think, the largest…

‘Bristol North Street Blues…Reds & Orange. WIP. 18/05/17

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A painting I never wish I had started 🙂 It’s a great subject, full of colour and a lot of time and thought went into the composition for what would be a square canvas work. But oh those patterns ! I do not want to fall back into painting too tightly, too realistically, as I believe I am too impatient for that; but how does one achieve these geometric shapes with all their beautiful angles, colours and tones ? Answers please, on a postcard to…… The solution possibly this time around is going to have to be a fairly realistic take on the patterns, but go more freely when painting the woman and the foreground. Will be interesting to see how this one pans out. My aim is to paint a series of Bristol based works with recognisable backgrounds for the trademark woman in the foreground, and then in similar vein for Cape Town which I know pretty well now and have a deep abiding love for. Both series will involve a lot of colour 🙂 I am thinking about adding more words to some of the paintings, along the lines of ‘Don’t Be A Dick’ as this brought a…

‘Dont Be A Dick’ completed. 10/05/17

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‘All students need to know about color is the basic color wheel and complimentary colors. There are many books on color theory; do not waste your time and money’. (Sergei Bongart) I don’t know this artist, but his quote about the colour wheel is spot on, and something which I find myself doing without thinking these days. Red always compliments green as can be seen in so many portraits painted by many artists. Green is nearly always used as an underpainting before the pink and red tones are painted on of the skin. Blue and orange are my personal favourite and I use these colours a lot, as shown here in the front of the cafe. I could have gone for the original brass finish and darker browns and golds, but to me that is too boring. Colour brings life to a painting. These two colours are very Mediterranean and symbolise warmth and sunshine. Lastly, purple and yellow, again a Mediterranean feel to these two colours. If I need to shade down yellow in one of my works, I rarely, if ever, use brown to provide shade. A touch of purple does the trick. So this painting is finished and…

‘Bristol’s North Street Blues…. Oranges & Reds’. 4/5/17

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This is a new painting I am working on alongside ‘Don’t Be A Dick’ which is nearing completion. As with ‘Don’t Be A Dick’, I am interested in painting local, recognisable, sometimes iconic scenes as a backdrop to my usual trademark female figure. So for Cape Town, we have the House Of Machines cafe with its eye catching Dont Be A Dick (no apostrophe!) and the bright red walls of the State Of The Art gallery where I show my art (http://stateoftheart-gallery.com ) to set off the girl with her ubiquitous mobile, a statement of our times. So it is with ‘Bristol’s North Street Blues…’. North Street is the lively, vibey street where I live, home to cafes, bars, independent shops and of course the street art festival Upfest held every year when graffiti and street artists descend on North Street from all over Europe to paint their distinctive scenes. I am particularly drawn to this recent street art which appeared and I decided to place my model in the front of part of it, sliding by in a bright red dress, oblivious of the scene beside her. Again, possibly a statement of our times. Hopefully, when this painting is…

‘Don’t Be A Dick’ work in progress 27/04/17

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My son takes great exception to the fact that there is no apostrophe in the lettering in the cafe window featured here. He thinks I should put the apostrophe into the ‘Dont’. Normally I would agree, but the lettering doesn’t feature in the original, and as I hope this painting will one day soon hang in the gallery opposite the cafe, I feel it must reflect what the cafe shows. Sorry son….. The gallery is the red building reflected in the cafe window and is State Of The Art on Shortmarket Street in Cape Town (http://stateoftheart-gallery.com ). Drop in if you are passing, especially on First Thursdays when loads of galleries stay open in the evening on the first Thursday of the month in Cape Town. So much great art to see. I am getting down to the detailon this piece and should start pulling it altogether next week. Really becoming one of my favourite artworks. Painting large works for me. If you are in Bristol UK at the moment, go along to a great restaurant off Millenium Square which is showcasing an exhibition of art by Clifton Arts Club. I am showing some of my art there and…

‘Don’t Be A Dick’ work in progress. 12 April 2017

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This is a larger piece which I am hugely enjoying. Beginning to pull it together now and making the composition work. Because of its size (80 x 80 cm) which is large for me for an oil painting, I am breaking it down into four quarters and working one quarter at a time. In an orderly clockwise direction. Or at least that was the intention ….. What REALLY happens is that I start mixing some fabulous pink or blue or vivid red paint on my palette, begin putting it on said quarter and then my eye is drawn to a completely different area where I think that colour would work as well. So off I go, and my neat plan is screwed. However, the advantage of this is that the colours are really drawing the picture together and if you are looking at one part of the painting, your eye is then automatically drawn to another, different part of the work. Clever stuff, eh?! This piece, as mentioned in the last blog, is for the gallery in Cape Town (see previous blog for details) and I am now gearing up to paint similar works for the Bristol gallery (again see…

‘Don’t Be A Dick’ detail.

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As I am painting a much larger work, 80 x 80 cm, I can’t really post work in progress each week as not of a lot of progress would be shown. So for this week I show a bit of close up detail for those of you interested in seeing how I work. It has been interesting painting a larger work, as it enables me to paint in a looser style which I am much enjoying. I can also be more experimental with colour and am looking forward to trying out jewel bright pinks and oranges on the red paint of the gallery building and blues and pinks elsewhere. This particular painting is for the gallery in Cape Town http://stateoftheart-gallery.com which incidentally is the red building shown there. Hopefully, it will be one of a series and I am now excited about painting a similar series with a Bristol vein for http://greatwhiteart.com in the UK. I remain, as always, committed to painting the female form, but I like the idea of local, recognisable buildings in the background to add interest to the piece. Time will tell! If you are in the New York area, please come along to ArtExpo at…

‘Don’t Be A Dick’. Work in progress. 29.03.17

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My apologies for no blog for a couple of weeks. I have ongoing back problems which are affecting my ability to paint as much as I did. I was also away in Cape Town on a working holiday and have come back inspired by the colours, warmth and enthusiasm of Africa as always. Cape Town is a vibrant melting pot of art, and I met some wonderful talented artists on my trip. I have a mass of photos to work from and the first is shown here. It is larger than previous works (80 x 80cm) and I am painting it for the gallery in Cape Town that takes my work, State Of The Art, http://stateoftheart-gallery.com. It is mainly a successful online gallery but now has a physical presence on Shortmarket Street. If you are in CT, go in and have a look at the great work on show there, a lot of figurative art which is always good to see. This photo is taken from the gallery looking across to the local cafe opposite called House of Machines. There will be more reflections in the window of the cafe as I work the painting up. The woman in…

‘Throwing Shade’ Completed and available.

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Well, I asked and got so many suggestions for titles for this piece, so thank you to all on Twitter for your ideas. A difficult choice to make, but in the end I liked the contemporary feel of this title. Thank you Mark Pearson! You can make of this composition whatever you like. It could be a woman looking out to see seeing storm clouds on the horizon and comparing it to her life. Or she could be seeing the calm waters and flat horizon and she at lasts feel at peace. Or she could just be hot and cooling off under the parasol! This is why I so love painting narrative works, as the viewer makes up his or her mind as to what is happening. What I may intend to happen is probably completely different to what the viewer sees. I have a wealth of new images from my stay in Cape Town and can’t wait to get started; but will probably paint something completely different initially to give me a change from painting water…. http://stateoftheart-gallery.com in Cape Town are now showing my latest street art Graffiti Line Art. They are a great online gallery with a physical…

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