Work in progress

Detail

Detail

I have had a good week in the studio working on this painting, almost finished I think. I hope everyone has a happy creative weekend, the weather forecast here is rain, rain and more rain so being indoors painting sounds like a very good idea.

Night Paintings 15 to 21

I have had a bit of a break from the night paintings, a combination of going to bed to late and a little lack of inspiration. The first two paintings are from my previous set before my break, and the following four are new.

Top Ten Part 1

Last Year I watched a programme presented by the art critic Alistair Sooke, it was about the top ten worlds most expensive paintings. It got me thinking about my own top ten art works, not expensive art just things that I like and if I could own just one what would be my ultimate number one. So in no particular order ( I will reveal that in the last part ) the first two paintings that have made my top ten are:

The Dessert: Harmony in Red ( The Red Room ) by Henri Matisse was painted in 1908. Apparently the canvas started out as Harmony in Green and then was transformed into Harmony in Blue and finally ending up as Harmony in Red. I love the flat picture plane of this painting and the way the blue pattern from the tablecloth continues to climb up the red wall. Currently the painting resides in The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

Betty by Gerhard Richter completed in 1988 a beautiful painting of a moment captured in time, the original photograph was taken in 1978 and is the artists daughter Betty when she was ten years old. When I saw this painting I was immediately struck by it's mystery, what is Betty looking at, I like the contrast in colours and the softness of the hair and that beautiful red and white patterned jacket.

If I remember correctly at the time of the programme numbers one and two of the worlds most expensive paintings were both Picassos.
I would be really interested to know what would be in your top ten and if you could own just one piece of art what would it be.

One Year On

Exactly a year ago I did a short post on a blossom tree that is directly opposite my house. It is the very dark pink variety which flowers a little later than the pale pink and white varieties. I wanted to photograph it exactly one year on to see if it would be at the same stage of development, I thought the recent warm weather might have had some affect, but in the case of this tree it looks exactly the same this year as last. The only difference being that I have a different camera so was able to take slightly better photographs.

As a comparison here are two photographs from 2011.

Easter Break

I often find that holidays offer up a little time for reflection and taking stock, yesterday I did a little studio tidying and took some photos of work in progress.

The grey/blue painting is the unfinished painting from a previous post, it has changed a lot with more changes still to come.

I love the way paint collects on knives, I like to let it build up and then I peel it off. I like the idea of making something out of left over paint, the pink painting behind my knives was a piece of board that I was using as a palette so I just had fun with the residual paint.