Image: Exhibition poster. 1977. NOTHING TO DO WITH THE QUEEN. 1977 was the Queen’s jubilee. Street parties were planned throughout the UK and I was involved in holding my first one man show in a London gallery. As today the spirit of nationalism was palpable. Being more of a fan of Johnny Rotten and The…
Image: DANCERS. Watercolour and Gouache on Handmade Paper. 66 x 57 cm. 2000. DANCERS. After the last wordy blog I thought I would just post an image for you to enjoy. This is my second painting about dancing used in my blog posts, this one being twenty years old. It always surprises me how little…
Image: ‘DON’T MESS WITH ME’. Mixed Media Collage. 10 x 10 cm. 2011. TO APP OR NOT TO APP IS NOT THE ONLY QUESTION. The Isle of white is the designated place to roll out the new NHSX contact tracing app and we are told it will require a 60% take up from the public…
Image: Graving Dock, the Stover canal, Teigngrace. RESTORATION Our daily walk today took my wife and I along the river in the Teign Valley, through a worryingly inquisitive and frisky heard of young cows, to the footpath which skirts the old Stover canal. The canal was opened in 1792 and closed in 1940. It runs…
Image: WAITRESS. Acrylic on Slate. 11 x 25 cm. 2014. THOSE WHO SERVE. The recent announcement of one off payment for essential service workers is welcome of course but does it just sweep the problem under the carpet? To summarise: The Financial Times lists doctors and nurses as “key workers” and also include delivery drivers…
Image: Acrylic on French Newspaper from Nov 23rd 1963. 2016. PARADIGM SHIFTS. Events and discoveries that changed the world. I immediately think of Einstein’s theory of relativity, the assassination of JFK, the moon landing, 9/11, the financial crisis of 2010, the development of the internet and of course the Corona Virus outbreak: but there are…
Image: THE KISS. Mixed Media Collage on Card. 20 x 20 cm. 2011. THE KISS. The lack of close personal contact is a large part of what makes this imposition of social distancing so terribly hard to bear. I remember well that in the 70s, during the early days of our relationship, my future wife…
Image: TV PRESENTER WITH BROWN SHADES. Acrylic on Handmade Paper. 1985. Thought I would stop preaching for a change and give you something to read. Paintings like the one above often give me ideas about the people in them. This is a prose poem I found in an old sketch book, based on an imaginary…
Image: The Three Graces. Mixed Media Collage. 20 x 20 cm. 2010. GRACE. This overpainted collage is a tongue in cheek take on the three graces, a favourite subject of artists and sculptures since the original Greek work of 2C BC. Grace has always been a human attribute that is treasured, accepting with grace the…
Image: Photo, Art shop Melbourne, Australia. 2017. A SENSE OF PROPORTION. Imposed isolation gives us time to ponder on what is important in life. The preservation of art and culture may be something to consider. Quotes come from: (Rian Hughes from the book: CULT-URE ). ‘From a practical standpoint, art if functionally useless, -no-one ever…
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