Cute 'n' Funky

Here's those aforementioned cute 'n' funky little Welsh block canvasses, beautifully presented in groups on my grandma's old carpet on the floor of my studio!

How good do they look...!

East Fortune Air Show

Spent a lovely day over on the east coast on Saturday, at the East Fortune Air Show.

There were displays by the Red Arrows, along with historic aircraft and acrobatic displays.

As well as the amazing aircraft, I had a seat on a rug by a rather smashing bit of foreground in front of a field. Luckily the weather was fine, if a little overcast (hence the lack of blue sky).

Now, you must also remember that I only had my little teeny tiny Olympus camera - same one I take photos of Welsh beaches and rock stars with.  But you should have seen some of the lenses on cameras that people had!!  They were like the Hubble Telescope...

Pretty good, even though I say it myself, with my little camera.  

It reminded me of this... The Battle of Britain by Paul Nash.

New Set of Wales Paintings

Here's a cute little set of new canvasses based on the photographic material I gathered in Wales last month on the Gower peninsula.

The canvasses are all 8" x 8" block canvasses and will be presented unframed.  They are nice and chunky, and are designed so that they can hang on the wall in groups.  I think they look pretty good.

I've done them in acrylic, so that the paint doesn't stand too proud of the surface, and they have a nice fluid look about them with just a little texture.  Acrylic is a water-based paint (but don't get it on your clothes!), but you can still get a nice thick buttery effects with it, or a thin wash if really watered down.  

I think that they look really fun and contemporary.

Big Clouds, Rhossili Bay (Acrylic on linen, 8 x 8)

 Dark Sky, Bracelet Bay (Acrylic on linen, 8 x 8)

 Foxgloves, Rhossili (Acrylic on linen, 8 x 8)

Grasses and Sand, Worms Head (Acrylic on linen, 8 x 8)

 Pink and Yellow Flowers, Bracelet Bay (Acrylic on linen, 8 x 8)

 Sunset, Worms Head from Rhossili (Acrylic on linen, 8 x 8)

 Trees, Caswell Bay (Acrylic on linen, 8 x 8)

 Wet Sand, Rhossili Beach (Acrylic on linen, 8 x 8)

All these paintings will be on show at the Lime Tree Gallery in Bristol later in the year.

Wales Revisited

Back in 2012, I did a show called The Great Welsh Journey at the Lime Tree Gallery in Bristol, which was accompanied by a rather fine little booklet.

Well, I'm just back from the Gower peninsula, where I've spent the last week taking photographs in preparation for another show that reprises the original exhibition.  The idea is that I go back with fresh eyes, and revisit the locations again over a long period. 

So... recognise these...?

Rhossili Beach.

Worms Head (top left in the booklet).

Caswell Bay.  Hullo, tree!

Bracelet Bay, the Mumbles, just outside Swansea.

Beach Huts at Langlands Bay.

The previous time I went, it poured torrentially, and I got drenched, and all my cameras got soaked.  

This time it rained torrentially again, and me and all my cameras got soaked.  Fortunately, I got a really good day at Rhossili, and dashed out between showers everywhere else.

Lots of new work in the pipeline then!

 

Up for Auction

There's a couple of rather sweet lily paintings of mine coming up for auction online.

(I should point out that, as always, it's not me putting them up for sale - it's the owners who bought them originally from the galleries!)

They were painted back in 1994 and are of the lilies in the glasshouses at Kew Gardens.  Interestingly, I went back there to paint the waterlilies again for my show in London in February of this year.

Both are in their original gold frames, and are oil on prepared paper.  Looking good for 22 years old!  They were sold as a pair through the Bridge Gallery at Gartocharn in September 1995.

Here is Pond with Pink Lilies (not Pond with River as it states in the auction catalogue), and the image size is 5" x 7" (that's excluding the cream mount and the frame).

This is Lilies at Kew, and the image size is 10" x 8".

How cute is that?

The paintings are being sold as Lot 295 in the Scottish Contemporary Art Auction at McTear's on 10 July at 1pm, with an estimate of £100-150 for the pair - which is an absolute bargain for such lovely little pictures!  

I do hope they get snapped up by someone who appreciates them.

Here they are on the McTear's website here.