THIS IS NOT A CUSHION, it's a pencil drawing of a piece of paper stck on a door.

Some people seem to think that art should always and only be about pretty things like flowers and country scenes etc, and while there is nothing wrong with pretty things, there is more out there that is of interest and I think an artist can find interest, if not beauty in all kinds of subjects.

A couple of times people have commented on my choice of subject, (which is hardly radical; it must be said!)
One fellow said:' You're weird; you are' another asked if I was desperate for subjects (I was drawing a scarf)

HEy you people: open yer eyes to the plethora of possibilities all around you and put those post cards and calendars away; at least for a while!

heavy cold or 'flu-like virus' as I prefer to call it is
still lingering on, I always fell that if a spell of unwellness lasts more than a week it had well and truly outstayed its welcome! them germs are surely 'having a laugh'!

Anyway, thought I might place the painting done while ill (oh; his devotion to his art) with the one done pre virus; the sick one is definetely less calm, but the calm one is not well proportioned, the question is can I be bothered to correct it?
the darker one needs a bit more work to the lower right as well as more elephants.




















over the past few days my 2nd youngest daughter (I have 5) has been entertaining/annoying us by asking:'if it rains on your wedding day, is that ironic? referring to the well known pop song 'ironic', which many people think was, ironically, completely lacking in irony. no; if it rains on your wedding day it isn't ironic, just disappointing, now if you were a weather forecaster and having predicted sunshine- no it still couldn't be ironic, just embarrassing.

now if you were a lion tamer and you got bitten by a hamster, would that be ironic? or if you travelled back in time and accidentally killed the grandfather of the man (or woman) who invented the time machine you travelled in trapping you in the past, what would that be; just plain silly?

I think good examples of irony are hard to come by. suggestions in comments are welcome

well here at last (about 2 minute later) is the next step in the long gravelly path to mediocrity
redrew with brown + blue while listening to John Mayer live (good music but why the screaming schoolgirls?; flippin heck!)
Includes a lush version of the Police's ' Message in A Bottle)

at present listening to Simple Minds 20p from South Shields Market; not bad.


I think the folds are too exaggeRated and look a bit painful like a cushion after being run over by a truck


Oh here's a watercolour of the horse's skull I did a while back I felt that the paper which I think was Sanderson's was a bit like blotting paper the paint soaked straight in like it had no size, but struggled on and not a bad result even though I say so myself.nEED A BETTER PHOTO

Copious Snot; could be the name of a caracter of a Dickens novel but it is in fact the aftermath of my 'flu-like virus' 4 hankies per day where does it all come from?

anyway enough about mucus, on to my current painting which I thoughtg I'd chronicle, a la: 'diary of a nobody'

I started with a thin stain of brown with plenty of turps and rubbed out light areas with a rag (or was it my hanky? no; it was a rag.


step 2 paint in dark folds and begin to paint thicker light paint for light bits (obviously!)















step three had a brainstorm and decided it needed
more blue, repainted with ultramarine















next day think.. this is a bit rubbish so find a rusty ols pallette knife and scrape first the knife then the painting













for some reasonm this posting will not allow anothe picture so I will have to end on a clifhanger.. and then..................

have had/am recovering from a 'flu-like virus' that is much worse than a cold but not as bad as the flu which killed millions after WW1.

Speaking of colds (and it was much worse than a cold) am I suffering from false memory (initially types false mamary! actually that would make a good joke, lots of female 'celebrities suffering from false mamory syndrome!)

enough about mamaries, back to memory, did 10CC ever have a single called Youve got a cold? am I mad?

anyway too ill to paint much so this may be aready on, although I did more to it , still may be old old old,

work calls, must be off.

1

this is Heather, my wife and Ruby-Jane, my granddaughter. The painting needs a bit more work. I think it would work better in Oils, it's in Acrylic which isn't so sympathetic for doing cloth (in my hands anycase!)

Someone asked me to describe the solo in Stairway to Heaven without using the word 'nice', I'd better put it on to aid memory, but will have to wait until Firth of Fifth (Genesis finished, this also includes a lush guitar solo; fairly sublime. andf I hate turning music off in the middle of a track)

anyway here goes, Stairway to Heaven, lovely recorders at the beginning, The Move used to use recorders I remember from way back on a song I think called 'Curly' that's some way back. Apparently when Rolf Harris recorded a version of Stairway to Heaven he got death threats from die hard Zeppelin fans, (who could possibly want to kill Rolf Harris?) speaking of whose musi: Alice Cooper does a great version of Sun Arise on Love it to death replete (whatever that means ) with an amusingly off key solo.

But back to Led Zeppelin, I love Ramble on from 2nd album, but in it the singer bemoans the loss of his lady love to 'Golum the evil one' anyone who read LOTR knows if Golum nicks yor girlfriend it isn't because he fancies her , he fancies eating her!

back to StoH; the solo is upon us in all its magisterial splendour;

It soars heroically, it fiddles around most pleasantly, it swoops and dodges, it stabs the airwaves beautifully before reaching a piercing denouement: a duelling fretboard finale...

in other words... nice!

I've just checked denouement in the dictionary to see what I meant! what's the point of having all these words unless we use them folks, I want all my 2 or 3 readers to make a point of using this word in casual conversation next time we meet. Right?

I painted a new version of the cushion in oils yesterday evening. Oils are better at representing soft edges than acrylic in my experience. The drawing isn't quite right, the shape a bit distorted.

I had done an acrylic underpainting to get the tones and shape.

For the oil painiting I used Ceruleum blue, crimson and yellow to mix a soft grey and lots of white with spectraflow to thin and speed up drying time.

Really enjoyed painting in oils I usually use acrylic for convenience but for the actual experience and enjoyment of painting oils are great. Must do more.

I could be mistaken but I think last night I dreamt (dreamed?) about sausages, cumberland if I remember correctly.

anyway I didn't come to last nights demo because I wanted to paint a cushion, its here, in acrylic I'm not sure if it worked I was trying to use a big brush and to resist the desire to smooth it out, I want to do it again in oils.

Battle of Evermore is playing for those who care.

The other painting, tree with pebbles has featured before but I wasn't too happy with it so I slapped a bit more paint on it, a bit of a glaze over the top and scumble over the bottom, I think its an improvement. It is also acrylic. The latter painting is larger not as appearing here.
























just paused there to fry some bacon and an egg mmmmmm.....

Anyway back to the word 'nice' it is unavaoidable isn't it, I can't stop using it; perhaps some form aversion therapy like when you make your son smoke 20 ciggies in a row to put him off smoking; here goes
Once there was a nice man and he went for a walk in the country,'this is nice' he said to himself. 'But' he mused 'wouldn't it be nice if that nice man from church was with me; we could have a nice chat as we walk' After a while he thought 'you know what would be nice? a nice cup of tea, perhaps with a nice big slice of cake mmmm...

the solo from Stairway to Heaven has just come on.. I know you don't care but you should; really you should

I really should stop, I shaved off my beard (you hadn't noticed I grew one-it was too young to die but Heather (that's my wife) hated it and since I am a man of few friends (too much misanthropy) I couldn't afford to risk losing kissing priveledges ( I told you I should have stopped back there

now
I
have.

do YOU KNOW WHAT WE DID LAST SUMMER, Well me and folk from 9 classes did this Big Picture its a bit flakey but still cmn be seen in the hall in Linskill Centre, we will be doing another one this summer July the twenty something to be exact. it was fun mostly once we gotr used to the sheer terror! who said art was/wasn't fun?

the one with short hair is me in my favotite shirt which sadly became painting rag just this last week.

And what about the yoorovishin? eh, are we rubbish or what?; I could do better m,yself with my throat cut in two places with a rusty nail.

still iT was good to see Tiimmy Mallet agian.

SPOT THE Fake?

the hansome one is the real me, trust me I'm an artist!

went to the art fair 2007 this afternoon, some great paintings a few names I knew, Harry Holland, two phenomenal paintings of a ginger haired lady, fantastic. lots of variety lots of inspiration, numerous paintings of cows; what more could one ask? Talked to a very nice couple who have a gallery (Stronach gallery) in Ireland, and another very nice artist from the Fie Fi fo Fum gallery in Northumberland (havent but must visit soon).

HAD A BIG PIECE OF CAKE! (there was a couple of nice paintings of cakes, or should that be a couple of scrumtpouis.. no, I'll stick to nice.

Still knackered after our 1000 St Mary's I don't know where these ideas come from, perhaps it's the devil?

well. I'm knackered! 1000 St Mary's Islands; whose idea was this? I was panicking a little when on my first countup on this, the concluding day, I only got 760 but then I found a big pile on a table and other folk were sticking further pistures onto card and I stopped counting at 1050, so we did it! Obviously the constraints of time: 1000 pictures in 4 weeks, mean that some are quite sketchy but there are a surprising number of very well painted paintings as well as humour, quirky views, novel views and good use of a variety of media. Some of the participants are displaying their art for the very first time.

Some of the results (there are too many to display all except at the Linskill centre) will be on display at Whitley Bay library from Monday and some at the lighthouse visitors centre from thursday. If you think you've seen it all regarding depictions of this landmark have a look and see if we haven't found something new.

I went down again to the island on my bike this morning and did a quick sketch bnut further on I descovered I'd lost my sketchbook, sad.

Still it may turn up.

NICE; there's a word some folk don't like, especially when used in relation to their paintings. Trouble is it can mean different things:

'that's nice' (I'm stuck here in front of someone's work and I can't escape without saying something:'that's, er nice.')

'that's nice' ( can't think of what to say..'nice''ll do..well nicely)

'that's nice' ( is it supposed to be the other way up?)

anywhey. I thought I'd supply, courtesy of the oxford compact dictionary and thesaurus some alternatives to NICE

AGREEABLE; That's a very agreeable composition. (bit boring if you ask me but you didn't so I won't say)

ATTRATIVE; what an attractive painting! (what is it?)

DELICIOUS? simply delicious use of harmony (do I sound a right plonker?)

PLEASANT that's a very pleasant representation (nearly but not quite as bland as 'nice')

SATISFACTORY youv'e made a very satisfactory effort there! (a bit school reportish-who is this kid again?)

DELICATE, what delicate brushwork! (get a big brush and have a splash about why don't you?)

METICULOUS, mmm.. very.. meticulous use of a difficult medium there mate! (what am I on about?)

anyhoo if you got this far you've got far too much time on yer hands here's a painting of something, why is it at the top when I'm down here now? Wellone' is a demo I did of tulips in acrylic on a red ground the other is another from my ivy periodwith a pebble that might have come from South Shields beach. The Ivy may have been donated by Ray from my St Aidan's class. bye bye

is it only me or does everyone find other people's babies funny looking?

anyhow; on the the main feature which i shall entitle THE PAINTING THAT WASN'T THERE!!!!

was it painters petulance? who knows but I have a thing about not having paintings hung 2 inches from the floor, it's just undignified. My first ever painting that was in an exhibition; it was at the Buddle long ago, my pleasure at being hung for the first time was greatly diminished whan I descovered they had placed it down by the floor and behind a table, it wasn't a great painting but..

Anyhoo this morningI took both umbridge (whatever that is) and my painting home from the library to sooth its bruised feelings and hang it high where it belongs.

This is a less successful painting done after one of the painting days I organise once a month, I took along a load of stuff for still life and a young girl painted thiss arrangement and thought it looked interesting so the next week painted it myself on a saturday morning, it could have done with more texture on the wood but not bad for a few hours painting. I don't know why I added the apple.

I also had an Ivy Leaf phase, I love variagated ivy, interesting to draw and challenging to paint, the inset is paintied rather than a mount.


The painting with lemons I considered a failure and sandpapered it to paint over but liked the 'distressed' effect so kept it. Colth could be better and the lemons are a bit too green in the shaded areas.


A new gallery has opened in North Shields, 'The Bakery' on ALbion road. Looks interesting.

these paintings were done last year one each saturday morning, it was my pebble period and I had fun going out collecting pebbles some from South Shields beach to paint.

GUITAR SOLOS

I forgot:

Martin Barre's solo in Aqualung

Paul Kossoff in the first track on Highway

Unknown soloist on the Carpenter's Goodbye to Love, ( soppy song saved by guitar.)

Pete Townsend My Generation from Live at Leeds.

anyhoo THAT'S IT fer today or at least for this lunch time.

another day another posting, yesterday I realised that I was thinking that my blog had to always be about art but unless I have missed something it can be about anything so today I am going to list a few of my favorite guitar solos along with the question which has occasionally exercised my waking mind: do women 'get' guitar solos?


Anyway here are some of the best:





Hotel California, 2 guitarists I think one being Joe Walsh not sure who does the first part


I'm Mandy Fly Me (10cc) another two person solo first part possibly Creme the 2nd Graham someone (I'm not good at names)


Since I've been Loving You Jimmy Page


All Along the Watchtower Hendrix


Baker Street who did this brilliant solo?


The battling guitars at the end of Abbey Road, Lennon, Mcartney and Harrison I believe


Since We've ended as Lovers Jeff Beck


Let's Work Together- canned heat that bloke who died in his sleeping bag I think


David Bainbridge in Ionna- that long track on journey into the morn,, one of the few albums my wife, Heather also likes but when the solos start I think its the best bit and she doesn't!


Clapton probably in Badge, though he has a few good moments.


who else, can't think just now so I will attach a painitng instead.


so long folks!