Favourite Drive Thru’s:
1) Farnborough Gate – Rusthless efficiency, a handy proximity and Comet and Curry’s for a bit of window shopping on a Sunday morning. Marc, if your listening, lets do breakfast.
2) Chichester – Breakfast on the way to Brighton or tea on the way back. With added Goodwood road.
3) Wandsworth – Probably best that I left that job in Chelsea; I’d be a right fat B……
4) Petersfield – They’re all miserable and the parking is rubbish but as a New Years Day brekkie on the way down to the seaside it’s perfect.
McDonalds is a bit like Marmite in that people love or hate it. It’s quite clear that those who say they hate it have obviously never tried the sausage and egg mcmuffins.A very good client is only coming to the open studio, (5-20 June. For further details visit http://www.surreyopenstudios.org.uk/ ), if I give away free tickets to NYC with every painting purchase. I think it’s a great idea, and one I am looking into, although I can’t see many people really wanting to go to Newbury Youth Club.
This blogging lark is hard work. I suppose I knew it would be, talking about my work instead of producing it. I feel I have slipped into a time management nightmare. Preparations for the open studios are not helping; The garden has turned jungle almost overnight, and that bathroom won’t paint itself. Frantically trying to rustle up paintings because some of my best work is on a boat in the Atlantic, which I realise is a cool thing to say, until I add that it’s not going, it’s coming back. Finger’s crossed it makes it back in time…
Pevensey was an Easter trip away a few years ago. I took loads of these photos; have produced a few paintings, (the classic ‘Fairy Lights’), and have got a nice selection of photo cards. So I could be repeating myself if I talk about sneaking around in the dark spooking the campers. So I won’t. Instead I have an arty tip: If your aim is quantity not quality, don’t pick a pic where a third of the image is windbreak. Not that I’m saying my aim is quantity… next project… 204 portraits done in a day.
We were spoilt on our Scottish beach site. The midges couldn’t get to us because it was too windy and the rain was doing stuff somewhere else. So, after a few days back in proper Scotland we thought we’d escape the bad weather and move a bit. South. As we drove through continuing rain we tuned in to the radio for a weather report. Nothing. The further South we went, the worse the weather got. Eventually arriving in England, we rang around a few sites who told us that fields were waterlogged.
Reaching Sheffield felt like we at the end of our street; It’s only a couple of hours to a warm dry bed. Turned out that if we’d gone North it was glorious, but we didn’t know because it was the weatherman’s day off.
Driving passed the Tinsley cooling towers on the edge of Sheffield, we took this photo to go with the Angel of the North we had taken earlier. This one was much more interesting to paint. Hearing on the news the next day, (in our warm and dry house), that they were due to be demolished that week was just weird.
You’ve probably walked passed one. Skillfully placed and carefully chosen for their location, iconic 70’s game characters invade our cities in ever growing numbers. Mosaics dotted around Paris began appearing in the 90’s and have spread in their hundreds. Maps are produced to show exact locations but part of the fun is spotting strategic sentinels when out and about. Remembering to look up is important, but can be tricky in a city where dog owners are not entirely responsible.
The invasion is spreading throughout the world, from London to Tokyo, LA to Melbourne. Someone is watching you, and it’s not just the government or some creepy old store detective.
Look up.
Ahead of next months open studios I am in the midst of a clean up. What should’ve been a simple tidy and vac has become a complex yet satisfying furniture and tool sort. First to go is the oak table I rescued from a skip in Stoke; lovingly peeling back formica before sanding, sanding some more and oiling; it has been dragged from subsequent house to house over 20 years of gradual use as number one painting table. Rest in pieces old friend. No longer will I hear ‘You could sell the top as a picture’.
Next to go is my 436 piece collection of allen keys, free with every piece of furniture I have ever bought. Just keeping one seems the sensible option until I try to find it…
The shed in this picture sits on the edge of the Trent and Mersey Canal in the heart of Stoke. It was spotted on a recent tour of places I lived as a student. I know how to show someone a good time. I particularly like the stereo – essential fisherman’s kit. You can imagine the resident, struggling to see the difference between the cloudy brown homebrew he is drinking, and the stuff he dips his rod into.
