Six of my Shelf Portraits were on display at the Affordable Art Fair Battersea Spring last weekend with the Nicholas Bowlby Gallery, and were much admired 🙂
Heading down to London…
Heading down to London in a minute to set up for Parallax Art Fair this weekend…
Get free tickets online at:
or just turn up and queue….http://parallaxaf.co/tickets.html
I’ll be at Gallery 17. See you there!!
Living Room Literature
The lovely Sarah Wah of Living Room Literature is displaying some of my work on her walls in her cosy flat, where she runs bespoke ‘sociable-but-serious’ literature courses for small groups of people looking to nurture or rekindle their love of books without leaving the comfort of a relaxed home environment. What a lovely idea!!
Dr Wah is a superb teacher, someone who can bring literary works alive for her students and who has the knack of passing onto them much of her own enthusiasm and close engagement with a wide variety of texts. Her love for literature is matched by her ability to ease you into understanding and appreciating the language, the structure, the meaning – everything, that is, that adds up to the beauty of the finest writing. She has a patience and a preciseness that keeps opening up new possibilities for her students.
Professor Gordon McMullan | Director, London Shakespeare Centre
New 'Shelf-Portraits' for Parallax Art Fair…
‘How to Build a Girl’ rsw2017 oil on canvas 12×24″
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‘Simple Cookery’ rsw2017 oil on canvas
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Colour
About ten years ago Mary Loney shut me in a small room with a still life set up and some acrylic paint. I had avoided painting entirely up to that point in my life, mostly due to the fact that I was terrified of colour, or more specifically, trying to replicate colours.
When I started painting with oils I limited myself to four tubes of paint: alizarin crimson; prussian blue; naples yellow and white, mixing all colours from these, starting with single object compositions – suiting my restricted palette.
I have spent ten years in my comfort zone of artefacts and possessions – they have a general tendency to remain the same colour between sittings, unlike nature – whilst expanding my palatte to two reds; two blues; three yellows; two browns and white.
Maybe one day soon I will feel brave enough to attempt to use nature and the great outdoors as my subject matter and imagine that I might be able to do it some justice.
Until that day…..there is photography….
Shelf-portraits at Living Room Literature
Lovely to see my shelf-portraits hanging on Sarah Wah’s wall at ‘Living Room Literature’
I hope they inspire some creative literary conversations among her students!
Sarah runs bespoke literature courses in the cosy setting of her living room.
What a fabulous idea! http://www.livingroomliterature.com/
Reverence at home…
It was lovely to be able to hang ‘Reverence in its brand new bespsoke home in Sandra’s new kitchen last weekend. It looks perfect – just like the real thing!
Brand new Shelf-Portraits 'Green Brontes' and 'Winter Pollen'should be back from the framers in time for Northlight Winter Art Fair this weekend :-)
‘Green Brontes’ rsw2016:
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‘Winter Pollen’ rsw2016
significant artefacts…
What a joy to paint this ‘portrait’ of this old Batterwhip which has lived in Nancyann’s kitchen draw for longer than she can remember! It is a beautiful object, and at some point in the past has had an old builders scraper welded to it to make a new handle. Made a refreshing change from painting book ‘Shelf-Portraits’!
Northlight Winter Art Fair this weekend!
Preparations under way for the Northlight Winter Art Fair this weekend. I’ll have art-prints and cards for sale, and some mugs! Also on display will be my latest Shelf-Portrait paintings….
