IlluxCon 10

I am pleased to see that I have been accepted for the Main Show at IlluxCon 10 to be held in Reading PA in October 2017. I am in much esteemed company as you can see from the List of Accepted Artists.

50,000 Page Hits

I am pleased to see that this blog has now had over 50,000 page hits. I would imagine that I could have got there earlier if it wasn't for the fact that I have been unable to regularly post step-by-step progresses through paintings for the past five months. Thank you to all the people who have visited!

Faeral

Phew! Finally finished (bar a few tweaks when I look at it again in a few days time) after starting it in October. Only managed to get a few hours work done on it every four days or so due to being away a lot from my studio to help out my elderly parents 150 miles away. 
Inspired by seeing shots of my model Naomi Wood taken at a music festival in the summer I asked her to pose in the head dress that a friend had made for her. One of the shots Naomi described as  "feral" when she crouched down with her fingers touching the ground and I decided that that was what I wanted, a feral fairy, which  I condensed together for the title "Faeral". I saw her as some sort of woodland nymph/fairy suddenly glimpsed in the dense branches and roots, a few shafts of light catching her face and body. I wanted the figure to merge into into the background so I kept the colours within a pretty narrow range of reds to yellow/greens, the complicated setting trying to distract the eye so the denizen of the woodland mixes in with her realm. It is very hard to photograph this picture as the figure is a bit less distinct against the background than it seems here. I might do another one whereby the figure is much more hidden behind branches etc...
Oil on linen 20" x 30"
There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Saharan Sunset sold

"Saharan Sunset", one of my paintings from the Roadside America series has just sold through Artfinder. Oil on linen 20" x 16". The painting was featured in the June 2015 issue of Artists & Illustrators magazine as a step-by-step demonstration, the article was called "Saturated Colours".

Wild Edge Gallery

I have recently sent three paintings to exhibit in a gallery ran by a friend of mine, Erica Sharpe, in Wedmore, Somerset UK. They are "Morning Mist, High and Over", "From The White Horse" and "Light on the Ouse". All three are located in the East Sussex countryside near to where I live, the last two paintings starting out as plein air pictures in oil on board that were finished in the studio. "From the White Horse" was a finalist in the Landscape Challenge of International Artist magazine published April/May 2012.
The address of the gallery is:
9 Borough Mall,
Wedmore,
Somerset
BS28 4EB
01934 710451

Morning Mist, High and Over

From the White Horse

Light on the Ouse

Faeral - stage 13

Managed to get a few hours' work on it this morning so I carried on working on the figure. Still a way to go yet but I am getting to see how much I want her to merge into the background colours. Hard to photograph as the digital camera tends to over saturate and adds too much contrast.

Abend Gallery Miniatures Show

The 26th Annual Holiday Miniatures Show opened on the 2nd December at the Abend Gallery, Denver Colorado. It runs to the 31st December and I have six paintings in the show, all are 12" x 12" oil on board:

It's Time For Your Bath!

Battersea Sunrise

Born Under A Bad Sign

Duck O' War

High Over Madurai

Piccadilly Circus 6pm

 

Faeral - stage 12

Finally managed to get something done after a week's layoff due to being away and getting my tax accounts together. I have put some preliminary work into the figure, making sure that she doesn't stand out too much from the background to try and get across that she is a denizen of the woods and forests and we're not meant to see her if we ever came across her! The colours in the painting itself are nearer to more burnt oranges and reds, an Autumnal picture I suppose influenced by the current season.