In A Silent Way

Autumn Approaches - Details 25 to 28 mixed media

2011-10-07T21:27:00.000+01:00

St Mary's Island, Whitley Bay, pen and acrylic on heavy block paper

2011-04-16T11:53:00.002+01:00

Blue and yellow

2011-04-05T19:35:00.004+01:00

Lindisfarne 2011

2011-03-06T20:04:00.000Z

Pencil and pastel studies of Lindisfarne, Northumberland for a class demonstration on landscape painting.

Responses 4

2011-02-06T20:00:00.000Z

Responses 3

2011-02-06T19:59:00.000Z

Responses 2

2011-02-06T19:58:00.000Z

Responses 1

2011-02-06T19:57:00.000Z

Untitled Event Painting (Study) 2010

2010-12-27T16:31:00.000Z

Pencil, watercolour, graphite on cartridge paper. A new version of the "event series" started in the early 1980's. Unfinished:

Full painting (study) 2010

Left hand detail with main characters dancing

Right hand detail with Boucher garland in white

They said it would keep snowing...

2010-12-02T13:17:00.000Z

and it did. Whitley Bay, November 2010, walking from the Rendezvous Cafe back to the Spanish City.

Snow in Gateshead 25&26 Nov 2010

2010-11-26T20:35:00.000Z

Charcoal ground overlaid with colour pastel

2010-11-12T16:44:00.000Z

I teach several art classes in Gateshead. Here are some small sketches in charcoal and pastel used to demonstrate to my class of adult learners. I like the way a charcoal ground mixes the overlaid colour in random ways forcing you to be much more intuitive.

Pastel painting: Mist. October 2010

2010-10-07T19:58:00.002+01:00

Pastel landscape study September 2010

2010-10-02T13:03:00.001+01:00

Tynemouth Pier, March 2010

2010-04-25T21:12:00.000+01:00

Indigo Dream Detail

2010-03-15T22:03:00.002Z

Indigo Dream detail is a new work from a new project.

Mixed media on paper and computer. enhancements.

Tone drawing of old radio internal parts.

2010-03-09T22:39:00.000Z

Tone drawing of old radio internal parts.
Soft graphite on heavy white cartridge paper.

Sketch: Lesley reclining

2010-03-09T22:35:00.000Z

Pencil on cream paper, very quick sketched scheme
for a painting in oils.

BSL line 4

2010-01-14T23:15:00.002Z

BSL line 4: pen, pencil on paper

BSL line 3

2010-01-14T22:52:00.004Z

BSL line 3: pencil on paper

BSL line 2

2010-01-14T22:51:00.003Z

BSL line 2: pen on paper

BSL line 1

2010-01-14T22:50:00.003Z

BSL line 1: pen, pencil, paper.

Xmas on the windscreen

2010-01-01T17:49:00.000Z

Xmas on the windscreen - a digital picture taken 26 December 2009.

Toy Story

2009-12-15T22:35:00.000Z

Toy Story - a still-life. Toys do have a life of their own. They create and give safe harbour to some of our most precious memories that connect generations, friends and families.

Eye to whose eye?

2009-11-29T20:04:00.002Z

Eye to eye is a watercolour and pencil detail. As we look eyeball to eyeball with ourselves in the mirror who is looking at who? As we look into the eyeball of a portrait, no matter when it was created, who are you looking at? The eye of the sitter or the eye of the painter? Are we looking through our eye to the eye of the sitter or through the painters eye and back again? Or all of them?

Stil life in silver, green and brown

2009-11-09T21:24:00.002Z

Still life in silver, green and brown. A photo composition taken using my new digital camera - to add to my sketchbook "tools". We'll see how it goes...

On graphite ground

2009-10-08T19:17:00.001+01:00

Self portrait on graphite ground, drawn by removing layers of graphite under tungsten light.

Cumberland Basin, Bristol

2009-09-09T15:56:00.003+01:00

Cumberland Basin, Bristol. A pencil on cartdrige paper panorama made up of several individual sketches. This was done during my student years at Bristol Fine Art department. It measures approximately 2.5 metres wide by 12 centimetres tall. I did a series of panoramas in Bristol and north Cornwall in the 1970s and 1980s. You will need to click on this image to see it enlarged.

The Case of Roger's Knee

2009-08-14T17:03:00.002+01:00

Roger Conlon, portrait detail. A large oil on canvas painting of Roger. Surface texture, rhythm and pattern, cool colour range were the guiding principles of this painting.

In life there is Art, there is Football, there is Sir Bobby

2009-07-31T18:39:00.004+01:00

Sir Bobby Robson, Newcastle's finest. 1933-2009.

http://msnsport.skysports.com/gallery/detail/0,20501,12739_4005702,00.html#photo=0

Scene 3

2009-07-21T11:31:00.002+01:00

Scene 3 - Nez discovers all was not what it seemed in his past life. Memory fabricated by parents, friends and enemies alike left him undeniably alone and confused.

Young Mum

2009-07-09T21:57:00.001+01:00

Young Mum, mixed media on white paper. Detail from double portrait of my Mum and Dad.

Foiled reputations 4a

2009-06-19T09:58:00.003+01:00

Foiled Reputations 4a - three dimensional object in aluminium with added colour.

Foiled Reputations 1A

2009-06-11T09:30:00.003+01:00

Foiled Reputations 1A - a new self-portrait, deep relief on aluminium.

Event series - a new interpretation

2009-06-08T12:42:00.004+01:00

Event Series - new interpretations: This is a composite image from a very large oil on canvas from my ongoing "Event" series. This new image is a result of playing around with some new nifty and stupidly cheap software. It is producing a completey new persepctive on my earlier works as I put them through the process and is helping me to think and see in new ways.

Early Summer, Cornwall

2009-05-18T21:21:00.002+01:00

Early Summer, Pendeen, Cornwall. Oil pastel on heavy watercolour block paper. Summer is nearly here again though with recent temperatures we could be forgiven for thinking global warming was a media plot to fill a schedule

Newcastle Library Demolition and a Canny Song

2009-05-07T11:19:00.003+01:00

Thanks to IluvNUFC on You Tube for this great video and song.

Fragments from the Fireplace 1

2009-04-24T17:47:00.002+01:00

Fragments from the Fireplace 1 is a new work done this week. It is a reworking of a large set of drawings done 30 years ago. The new work will be a reappraisal of the whole series.

Kingswood, Bristol

2009-04-21T14:54:00.003+01:00

Kingswood, Bristol. A small pencil sketch near our old house in Kingswood, Bristol. Happy days!

Walk3

2009-04-13T20:16:00.003+01:00

Walk 3 - a small sketch, life-size, tells the story of a walk along the Anglian beach; a David and Goliath tale of the small stone redefining the larger stone; it's a story of every walk along every beach. Always interesting and for a while completely new to the one who picks up the stone.

Walk2

2009-04-07T11:45:00.001+01:00

Walk 2 - a pencil and graphite sketch. So small you can hold it inside a closed hand whilst its memories span the universe and time as we understand.

Walk 5

2009-03-30T09:38:00.002+01:00

Walk 5 a pencil drawing on white paper of a stick pciked up on a walk near Ullswater. The memories this stick holds, now locked into the page, are brought to the front of my mind anytime I see the drawing. This is a truly strange and powerful aspect of image and memory that goes right back to our earliest processing and communication skills.

Boldon Colliery 1979

2009-03-26T21:56:00.003Z

Boldon Colliery, Tyne and Wear. A small study in oil on canvas on board looking across fields, still farmed to this day, to the iconic landscape of my early years. The pallette is starkly characteristic of the contrasting hues of farm and factory yet the scene is a friendly one in my memory's eyes.

Near Warkworth, Northumberland

2009-03-26T21:48:00.002Z

Near Warkworth, Northumberland, and somewhere between the cottage and the town on a sunny summer afternoon in 1975. A small oil on canvas on board, this was an escape into a childhood that was not mine but which I had the privilege to get to know so well.

Soundwell Road, Bristol

2009-03-19T16:26:00.002Z

Soundwell Road, Bristol is a small oil on canvas on wood study that started innocently enough - really just to allow me to explore how many greens I could make in one picture. Still it created something more than a process and I ended up with a surprise picture with an atmosphere of a full growth English garden in the warm summer days that you get down in the south west.

The Dome, March 2009

2009-03-04T17:57:00.002Z

The Dome is a pencil sketch done this morning. The light pretended to be a herald of summer to come whilst the air foretells of snow later this evening. The light contained that most paradoxical of colours - a cold yellow.

Dear Stanley

2009-02-26T10:49:00.002Z

Dear Stanley is a small intimate oil on canvas glued onto board. Stanley Spencer is one of my all-time heroes. I recently saw a small but wonderful show of his work in Newcastle's Laing Art Gallery which brought back home to me the real power and humanity of this quintessential English painter and story teller. It was like the welcoming smell of real coffee in the mid-morning. Visit here for more on the great man: http://www.stanleyspencer.org.uk/

The art plot thickens....

2009-02-25T12:55:00.004Z

I recently was tracked by a dogged art detective called Kim. Kim invited me to join the campaign http://www.myartplot.com/ I have to say, after initially being a bit put off by the choice of mono photos on the home page (why is there no artwork there?) that I like have warmed to site and the easy way it works for users and visitors. The shopping area is practical and I particularly like the random search button that takes you to the registered artists in the MyArtPlot community. Indeed I too have succumbed and have my own presence in this relatively new community http://www.myartplot.com/users/Bernardqu/ I am not sure that there is a "fight" (as described in the "about" myartplot blurb) to create art communities of this sort (free, informal, pragmatic) but I like the enthusiasm and apparent informality of their campaign. There is also an air of unpretentiousness about the site too which is good. Take a look and see for yourself.

Roger's Head

2009-02-21T19:05:00.002Z

Roger's Head is a a detail from a large oil on canvas. The pallette is a very close one using only earth colours and no black. I have no idea where Roger is these days but my memory of his companionship is a fond one.

Detail: The Comedians

2009-02-02T14:42:00.002Z

Detail: The Comedians is a large oil on board painting after a rather amazing small canvas by extraodinary but tragically short-lived French painter Jean Antoine Watteau, 1684-1721 who could magically conjoin melancholy and sweetness in one painting. For some unspecified reason my Mother always liked this painting more than any of my other works. This detail is almost one half of the finished work.

Detail: The Event Series, Goya's woman enters

2009-01-28T22:10:00.002Z

Detail: The Event Series, Goya's woman enters is a close up detail from a very large oil canvas. The edge between past, present and future is blurred yet the sense of being between times/worlds is very tangible, almost real. I want people to feel they are witness to something that may have happened, is happening or is about to happen and use their own imagination to complete the story. This is the basic concept behind this long running series of images which started in the late 1970s and is still running.

One hand two heads 2007

2009-01-04T22:18:00.002Z

One hand, two heads 2007. A small pencil drawing on yellowed paper. As one year goes, another arrives as sure as the doubt stains the optimism.

Doreen (Granny)

2008-12-03T13:54:00.002Z

Doreen (Granny). Its been a while since I uploaded any of my work so here is one of my personal favourites from my archives. This one was done in Bristol when she visited Lesley and I in the 1980s. It's a large pencil sketch on heavy water colour paper. We will all be thinking about our dearly loved and sadly lost 'head' of the family this Christmas and remembering her exceptional warmth and good cheer - and of course her prodigious festive cooking.

Tales from an old sketchbook/3

2008-10-29T11:16:00.002Z

Tales from an old sketchbook/3 is the third of a short series done in 1978. Oil pastel and pencil on paper this one is based on a number as the starting point.

Tales from an old sketchbook/2

2008-10-23T17:25:00.002+01:00

Tales from an old sketchbook/2 is another page from an early sketchbook. Done in oil pastel and pencil on A4 white medium paper, this is the head of a man seen through memory. The process involves the careful building up of layers of oil in wax then removing and reworking the surface.

Tales from an old sketchbook/1

2008-10-13T22:04:00.003+01:00

Tales from an old sketchbook/1 is an A4 oil pastel on paper landscape. I have had quite a clean-up in the house and found some old sketchbooks - this is from 1978. I like the way the edges of the paper have become marked over the years of storage and somehow add to the picture. I will publish images from these old sketchbooks over the coming months.

On the Beach 2006

2008-10-01T10:58:00.002+01:00

On the Beach 2006 is an A4 drawing in pencil and ink on white cartridge paper. People in their mid years have related this to their family holidays from childhood. Curious.

An Event (series)

2008-09-09T15:10:00.003+01:00

An Event (series) is one of the many pictures created around a sense of an event about to happen or that has just passed leaving the viewer to figure out the details of what might have been or may be to come. This version is a very large oil painting on canvas done a long time ago but still feeding my imagination.

Rod and His Genie 2

2008-08-06T14:25:00.004+01:00

Rod and His Genie 2 is a smallish oil on canvas painting developed from the first 'genie' picture featured earlier on this blog site (see January 2008). It's me having some more fun with an old friend (at his expense of course). This time Rod's 'genie' girlfriend appears any time he fancies a cuppa - she lives in his tea caddy in the kitchen. Rod has a particular fondness of tea.

Gilles

2008-07-24T23:49:00.001+01:00

Gilles - a small pencil drawing. One of numerous studies for a large oil-on-board painting based on a Watteau painting.

Goya enters the event

2008-07-19T18:49:00.003+01:00

Goya enters the Event is a small detail from a large oil painting on canvas from my long running Event series. These Events are built up over time from memories and a wide range of visual stimuli sources that gradually find their narrative. This picture making process is, I suppose, the story writing phase of creating each Event. I like to leave it up to the viewer to interpret the story or stories that are suggested on the canvas and to form their own imaginings - in a way its a bit like the freedom of reading a book when your visual imagination allows you to hold a unique picture of that book, almost independent of the picture in the authors mind.

Two for the price of One?

2008-06-29T12:51:00.003+01:00

Old Man, Antwerp (above) is a very small pencil drawing on soft yellowed paper. It was done from memory of seeing a group congregated on a street corner near the railway station in Antwerp about two years ago. For some reason when shown in an exhibition and when people see prints of this innocent study everyone seems to react very strongly (fortunately in a positve way) towards the image. Then I found an image (below) drawn from a Watteau painting that I had done as a study for a large oil painting almost 30 years ago (yes I am that old)....

I was amazed at the cycle of experience it suggested and wonder if what motivated me to draw the man in Antwerp was somehow prompted by my earlier drawing? One can only ponder but it is a beguiling thought when you wonder about the process of making images. Well I thought the images are linked even if you may not see it that way!

Yellow Cat 2008

2008-06-14T14:07:00.002+01:00

Yellow Cat 2008 is another variation from the Cat series. The series has been produced over a period of some years. See previous blog postings.

Violet Cat 2008

2008-06-14T13:55:00.002+01:00

Violet Cat 2008 is a small study in oil pastel on textured coloured paper. A variation on the original line drawing done some years ago of one of our cats.

Fireplace Fragments 3

2008-06-03T17:26:00.001+01:00

Fireplace Fragments 3 is one of the series described in the preceding two posts on this blogsite. A series of small drawings in pencil, graphite and colour on cartridge paper.

Fireplace Fragments 2

2008-06-03T17:24:00.002+01:00

Fireplace Fragments 2 is one from the series described in the preceding posting. A series of small drawings in pencil, graphite and colour on cartridge paper.

Fireplace Fragments 1

2008-06-03T17:08:00.003+01:00

Fireplace Fragments is a series of small drawings that collectively form a nearly lifesize image of one of our old fireplaces in Bristol. I remember the flat where we lived was not heated and so we borrowed Doreen's old tin parrafin heater. The smell of mothballs from the pellets used to combat the parrafin fumes and the huge amounts of water vapour that condensed on all the windows still fill my mind with horror! The heater was a very interesting design and colour and so it became the focal point of this series. I will include a few more from the series in the next few postings to my blog.

My Mother

2008-05-14T21:09:00.002+01:00

My Mother is an A3 sized mixed media image mostly watercolour, pencil, colour pencil, pen, gold paint, cut outs and glue. The small photo when Mom was young (in the background) is in stark contrast to the photo I took of her when I was in my mid twenties. Mom was extremely reflective and was quick to criticise herself and others. She always said she was only really happy in her younger days though I also have many happy and fond memories of her. I too am represented in the picture as a column on the left of the picture as you look at it. I have used this photo that I took of Mom many times as her deeply etched face seems to say many things.

The Gold Cat

2008-05-02T12:03:00.003+01:00

The Gold Cat is about the elegance of movement and form of our furry friends that is highlighted by putting all the 'detail' in the edge of the shape, where one shape meets another. I also wanted to play around with the negative and positive dynamic to see if this enhanced the qualities of our, now sadly long departed, friend. It is made with gold paint and pencil on hard white paper.

Urbino (revisited)

2008-04-21T14:10:00.005+01:00

Urbino (revisited) is an A3-sized rambling in pencil and graphite on white paper. The image was also treated very gently in Photoshop to tease out other qualities, following my nose as the image changed. I like to play with my favourite painters creations, trying to bring them into my lifetime and see where they take me. Here I have returned to one of my all time heroes, Titian.

The First Nightmare

2008-04-14T10:02:00.004+01:00

The First Nightmare is one of the more developed studies for the graphic novel I am currently working on with Sid Smith. This image is in pen, pencil and graphite on white medium grade surface paper. The image follows the outline supplied as text by Sid. We are trying to keep the spontanaeity as strong and fresh as possible, so his words give a framework, but more importantly a lift-off point for my images (in much the same way, I guess, that most readers respond to words with scenes in their mind that may differ from those in the mind of the writer). Similarly the images then hopefully spark Sid's imagination when he writes the next sequence of events in a hoped for equal process between writer and illustrator.

Mr and Mrs Cannaby 4

2008-04-04T17:50:00.002+01:00

Mr and Mrs Cannaby 4 is a small (1/3rd A4) version of a larger work done on comission late last year. I was, as ever, intrigued by the relationship between people and people and their chosen special objects and of the memories and messages they give out. I was also interested in the 16:9 ratio (roughly) that has come to dominate our view of the world hence the stretched layout here.

Self Portrait in green and yellow 2006

2008-04-03T15:02:00.005+01:00

Self Portrait in green and yellow is a straightforward study mainly in watercolour on medium paper with emphases in pencil and pen; the image is roughly A3 size. It was done without preliminary studies. At the time I was doing a lot of thinking about what I wanted to do with the next stage of my life...the jury is still out of course but I am devoting more time to my artwork than for many years which feels right.

One hand two heads

2008-03-23T13:57:00.003Z

One Hand Two Heads is a small pencil drawing on yellowed paper. It is from the same series as Twisted. The words were 'in flux' and this prompted two figures to present themselves. I don't know (yet) who the hand represents - is it a third character or does it belong to one of the two figures in the picture? This is a story still in the making.

Room, Study 2006

2008-03-13T15:59:00.004Z

Room, Study 2006 is just that - a study. This is a pencil drawing on medium white cartridge paper that is almost purely about the sense of space and of light, using tone and line and the interplay of intercutting and overlapping shapes. I enjoy these 'quiet' exercises as they can tone up your eye and your sensitivity - its a bit like going to the gym I suppose. Also the ease of the medium allows you to enjoy aspects such as composition quite spontaneously so you can almost walk through the space as you draw, picking up ideas for future reference.

Speechless

2008-03-07T15:22:00.008Z

Speechless is one of the drawings from the same series as Twisted (see previous posting below). The word this time was, of course, 'speechless' and the feeling was 'uncertainty, confidence'. It reminds me of those African sculpture heads that so intrigued Picasso leading to his Les Demoiselles d'Avignon - though I hesitate to link myself to an artist as great as Picasso, but he has been and is so inspirational for me particularly when my confidence evaporates. Whether we like their work or not, artists like Picasso encourage us to be free in our method of expression and to respect that freedom whilst developing skill and discipline.

Twisted

2008-03-01T12:04:00.002Z

Twisted is a small pencil drawing on yellowed paper from 2006. This is from a long running and continuing series of explorations prompted by a word or a few words (in this case 'trust') coupled with a feeling that then literally generates an image by way of my hand being guided purely by instinct - as far as is possible. Sounds a bit contrived when explained like this (i.e. clumsy words) perhaps, but that could not be further from the truth. Instinct is intrinsically honest and with discipline memory and visual laziness does not taint the image. The image that emerges sometimes takes my mind full circle back to words prompted by the image and here those words were: "There are times when you cannot even trust yourself".

Self portrait as a tarnished angel

2008-02-20T22:17:00.004Z

Self portrait as a tarnished angel is in oil pastel, oil paint, pen and pencil on board. It is about A3 in size. Based on an earlier, more straight forward drawing, this was done in Bristol some years ago. I was trying to allow my minds eye to follow the details of my face and figure with as much autonomy as possible to see what is really there - a spirit if you will. I began this exploration, letting my minds eye or inner eye freedom to 'see' the reality or the possibilities, in the late 1970s/80s . I still do this today and I believe that I see more 'clearly' now than ever before.

Self looking down

2008-02-10T22:20:00.001Z

Self (looking down) is one of many self portraits done regularly over the years. I think my first serious self portrait was when I was 16 or 17 years old. The one shown here is, for me, a typical line drawing using a soft pencil on A3 medium surface paper. Line has such immense power yet appears to use very modest means. This is deceptive as line can be varied to such an extent that it conveys depth, tone, surface properties, light and shade, and, sometimes even colour can be implied by the graphite in the pencil. Yet for all this virtuosity the line of a pencil always maintains a sense of understatement that gives a drawing breath and intimacy. It is also immediate in terms of execution which helps to minimise the distraction between observation and imagination, that is, line retains a high sense of integrity and honesty.

Protoype Image 1

2008-01-31T16:39:00.000Z

Prototype Image 1 is one of a series of prototype images for my current adventure with creative partner Sid Smith. We are building a graphic novel. Work started on this project in the autumn of 2007 and it is progressing well. The style of imagery has now more or less been agreed. The images are produced on paper using graphite, ink and pencil. Each image is no bigger than A4. Sid and I jointly research for image source materials and ideas. Clicking on this image enlarges it so you can see the texture and marks that help create the atmosphere of the scene. Our story is developing well and images are being produced regularly. There is a link on this blog if you want to see more images from the novel. The working title is 'A Scent of Cinnamon' - see link below in the right hand column.

In Between

2008-01-24T17:36:00.001Z

In Between is a large oil painting on canvas, approximately six by four feet. It was painted from life after several studies and sittings. The figure is my father who at the time was recovering from serious heart problems and heart surgery. I wanted to create a sense of slipping and tension but also to suggest more than one way out of the of the situation. Details such as one foot on the floor whilst the other touches the table/map, that is tipped up almost parallel with the picture surface, are important to what I was trying to express. I also wanted to leave the scene fairly sparse but at the same time fill the space. Despite a seemingly clear concept in my mind when creating the picture, a lot of the story ('on and off stage' as it were) developed intuitively during the making. Though my Father was agreeable to being the subject he told me later that he found the completed picture too close for comfort in his situation.

Family Portrait 2006

2008-01-17T13:29:00.001Z

Family Portrait is a large drawing on rough surface paper using pen, oil pastel, pen, ink, pencil, watercolour pencil. The shoes each represent one of our three children. Shoes are one of those items that quickly assume the identity of the wearer and as time passes the identity of the wearer becomes stronger and more vivid in their shoes. They harbour their own memories and sentiment. Many artists from Van Gogh to Emin recognise this process in their clothing and personal belongings. I too am fascinated by the way our seemingly inaminate posessions become as much a part of the person who owns them as say the way their hair changes over the years. I am currently interested in how other possesions with less maleable material may also acquire this relationship with their owner.

Rod and His Genie

2008-01-11T21:06:00.000Z

Rod and His Genie is an oil painting of an old friend done some years ago. It is based on observation enhanced by imagination - imagination that itself is based on my understanding of Rod. The sense of humour is very important in this picture reflecting Rod's own sense of humour. Rod is sitting in his bedsit in Bristol with one of his "women" in this case a genie that appears whenever Rod feels the need for company by simply switching on his kettle - then out of the mists of steam she appears, ever reliable. I never saw Rod with a girlfriend at that time and this was my way of helping him out at the time! There are several versions of this picture and preparatory sketches. As far as I know Rod still has this picture. He is happily married now with children so I guess the kettle is gathering dust in his loft! The picture is quite small, about 60x40cm.

Partners

2008-01-04T15:57:00.001Z

Partners, graphite on yellowed paper, shows two personalities that decided to appear from somewhere in my memory and imagination. This drawing initially emerged out of thoughts about time and distance in relationships. As is often the way with my work, when I started letting the image come out it found its own story independent of my original thinking but its hugely interesting when that happens! In the last few years this is mostly how my creative process works when conceiving an image. I am also interested in how putting two "figures" together inside a frame invariably creates its own narrative different for everyone who looks at the image. This drawing is quite small measuring about 20x15cms but in my minds eye it is a large image. It was created in 2006.

Parents

2007-12-26T21:54:00.000Z

Parents, is a mixed media double portrait (it includes images of my mother and father) on paper made in 2005/6. It is based on a drawing I made of my father sometime in the early 1980's not long after he had suffered a serious heart attack and then had extensive heart surgery. The images of my mother are a photo taken when she was in her late teens/early twenties and a photo I took in the 1980's. She was always talking about how her happy days were those of her young adulthood rather than the latter years of her marriage to my father. I wanted to explore/express something about the relationship between my father and my mother. I made the figure of my father in the foreground as the most important figure but I also wanted to suggest that he was perhaps less permanent and that is why he is semi transparent. I wanted some of this "story" to be obvious and some to be open to interpretation by the viewer - partly because I still do not understand fully my own relationship with my parents.

Girl, sun, stars and animals (study)

2007-12-20T18:28:00.000Z

This is one of the earlier studies that prompted "Girl, sun, hands" below. Again this is on paper. This one is really a workout for a painting that is still forming in my minds eye.

Girl, Sun and Hands

2007-12-20T16:57:00.000Z

This image, as with many of my images, came together as part of the process of putting together several motifs (in this instance: hands, head, sun). I have always been fascinated by hands and their power, albeit symbolic as much as physical. Hands can communicate our thoughts and feelings better than many words and can form a powerful visual element of the narrative in a picture.

The hands are my hands drawn from life. The image of the girl started out as a photograph then became a laser print on technical draft trace paper which has then been hand coloured and shaded. This picture has two previous versions. It may be that I wll leave it as is or it may become the vehicle for a larger painting. This version was created in 2006.