An apology for lack of posts

Eagle-eyed viewers of my blog will have noticed a distinct lack of posts recently. This is due to my father being in hospital in a different part of the country necessitating me being away from home for long periods. This has also meant that I have produced no new paintings for three weeks. This situation I regret will continue until my father is well enough to go home and normality will hopefully return at which point I will be able to get back to my home and start painting again.

Recent sales

Street Corner Symphony

It has been a pretty good month for sales this September with two paintings sold at the Brighton Art Fair, "Street Corner Symphony" and "Midnight Promenade" and another, "Easy Street", sold through an internet gallery called Artfinder. The Artfinder sale is very encouraging as it seems to indicate that art buyers are increasingly willing to buy off the internet at good prices without actually having the seen the painting in the flesh as it were.

Midnight Promenade

Easy Street

Brighton Art Fair

Apologies for lack of recent postings on this blog but I have been called away to Leicester while my father is in hospital. I have been able to rush back to Brighton and put up work on my stand at the Brighton Art Fair in the Corn Exchange. The Private View was last night and am happy to report that I sold a painting to a couple that have a number of my paintings already - that makes a big hole in covering my expenses but still need to sell another £300.00's worth of paintings just to break even.....
If there is anyone reading this in the Brighton area please come along, the opening times are:
Friday 20th September   11.00 - 7.30
Saturday 21st                  10.00 - 6.00
Sunday 22nd                   10.00 - 5.00

The Lonesome Road

A lonesome petrol (gas) station late in the evening, it could be anywhere...and it's closed. I fancied doing a moody slightly surreal painting using a lot of silhouettes and used a linen canvas that I had around as I thought it might suit this shape as opposed to my usual square format. I think that I prefer painting on canvas although I suspect that if I used a top quality linen I might change my mind. 20" x 16" oil on linen.

The Lonesome Road - stage 4

Getting a better idea where it is going now. I am going to finish it using glazes as there are lots of adjustments to make before it looks like how I see it in my mind.

The Lonesome Road - stage 3

Put in the basic underpainting today using a mix of Phthalo Turquoise and Permanent Orange as the root colours for the blues. Things need to get darker and moodier tomorrow.

Artists & Illustrators magazine - "Masterclass" on their website.

Artists & Illustrators magazine are currently featuring a "Masterclass' of mine from a couple of years ago on their website called "How to paint sunlit scenes" and is about how I painted "Summer In The City".  They are breaking it up into three parts and releasing each part daily from today. Here is the link:

http://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/how-to/oil-painting/964/how-to-paint-sun-lit-scenes-part-one

The Lonesome Road - stages 1 and 2

I'm planning on entering this for either the New English Art Club or The Royal Institute Of Oil Painters annual competitions at the Mall Galleries...or indeed both. Hopefully a moody painting of a lonesome petrol (gas) station somewhere unspecific, could be the USA could be anywhere. Pretty much a flat plain behind it, quite dark apart from the lights in the roof and the wan pool of light on the forecourt directly below. First "drawn" up with Ultramarine Violet and Liquin followed by a wash of Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Violet thinned with Liquin and turpentine. This will be my first painting on linen.

I Love You

This was originally an idea I had for Valentines Day but never got round to this shameless piece of commercialism until now when I thought that it might be a nice picture to show at the upcoming Brighton Art Fair. The timing is quite good on another level as well as although there are a number of meanings (in my mind) to this painting it could be seen as a riposte to all the Brighton-bashing recently seen in the national press. The colours were kept very warm with a red/orange - green/blue complementary combination. 15 1/2" x 15 1/2" oil on canvas.