Phone Home

Another painting with red as it's theme albeit this time in a smaller area. I wanted the trees to be a threatening presence towering over the telephone box although I think that I may have over-animated them to try and get the idea across. The countryside beyond basks in a golden light of promise as a contrast to the the more unsettling foreground. I am quite pleased with the soft focus background and intend the next painting to be based on this golden light idea which uses a yellowish transparent glaze over a light blue/green sky which seems to give an extra luminosity to the colour.. 12" x 12" oil on board.

"Unrecognised talent"

Just came across this on the new non-improved Google Image Search...."often unrecognised talent"....Oh well, that was then, this is now as they say.

Egg And Soldiers

Painted from life, based around a blue/yellow colour combination. I like the difference between the hard focus on the egg and the soft focus in the background; I think I will do this more often in my paintings. 12" x 12" oil on board.

The Last Stop

I wanted to paint something a vivid red and chose to do a picture of a London bus in a scrapyard as it looked too cliché in a London street situation. I am becoming quite obsessed with red at the moment, not sure if the next one will be centred around red....we will see. I actually have plans to do a painting of a boiled egg and soldiers on a plate with a gingham tablecloth next which is set around blue and yellow as the main colours but I might carry on messing around with reds. 12" x 12" oil on board.

Chalk Farm

I wanted to paint a red building and remembered the many tube station entrances in London that are decorated with red tiles and chose Chalk Farm as it has a large expanse of them on the Adelaide Road side. I wanted a Hopper-like feel to the painting so I emptied the streets of traffic and pedestrians apart from one figure walking out of the picture in the shadow cast on the station wall by a nearby building. The colours in the finished picture remind me of the illustrations on boxes of toys from my childhood such as Bayko and Airfix kits. 12" x 12" oil on board.

Painting pre-selected for Royal Society Of British Artists

I am pleased to see that "Approaching Rain, Devils Dyke" has reached the pre-selection stage for the Royal Society Of British Artists exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. I now have to take it up to the gallery in late January for the final judging stage which I hope I am able to do as this painting reached the same stage for the Royal Institute Of Oil Painters exhibition at the same venue a couple of months ago but I was unable to take it up due to ill health. 18" x 36" oil on board.

"It's Time For Your Bath!"

A companion picture to "Duck o' War", it's another of my rubber duck paintings. I was interested in painting warm and cool whites and the chance to paint a nice richly coloured subject within the neutral space. Painted in my bathroom, oil on board 12" x 12".

Pavilion Bus Shelter

Difficult painting to photograph but here is another painting of Brighton, the location very near in fact to the previous painting "Tina's Place". I might try this again one day as I'm not sure that I have managed to get across what interests me about the juxtaposition of the two architectural styles. Two day painting, 12" x 12" oil on board.

Three paintings in a Knightsbridge gallery

Easy Street

Royal Motel

Artist's & Illustrators magazine has very kindly chosen three of my paintings for a show in a central London gallery. The exhibition is the Artists & Illustrators First Annual Exhibition and will be held at the Osborne Studio Gallery on Motcombe Street in Knightsbridge from the 5th to the 19th of February 2013. It is basically a celebration of the Winning and Highly Commended entries in their "Artist Of The Year" competition and also showcases the best of the artists that have work in their Portfolio Plus section on their website. The three paintings are "Easy Street" (on the shortlist for the prize), "Battersea Sunrise" and "Royal Motel". It is particularly gratifying to have the last two included as they were painted very recently and it is good to get such positive feedback so quickly after completion.

Battersea Sunrise

Tina's Place

This is a cafe converted from a 1930's public toilet in The Steine in Brighton. I have been consciously using more saturated colours recently although this one has turned out a bit more naturalistic than I originally intended. Basically I am substituting a more saturated colour in the shadow areas from my usual neutral (and realistic) tones as well as putting more colour into the middle and high values so that my paintings become less tonal and hopefully move away from the realistic and illustrative. I don't see the point of recording what is in front of you when a camera can do that job much better than me. 12" x 12" oil on board.

Angel's Diner

Here is the first painting of 2013, a diner in Florida called "Angel's Diner", the oldest in Florida. Based on a red/green colour combination but using a fuller palette than I usually employ. 12" x 12" oil on board.