More flowers!

Bid for this painting on Ebay!

More Cyclamen!

Cyclamen (ii)

Bid for this painting on Ebay!

You know, I'm really enjoying painting these flowers! I'm really into pinks and warm colours, and the cropping is enjoyable, composition-wise.

I have a special place in my heart for Cyclamen for a few different reasons, and I think they are going to appear as a kind of 'motif' in future works. I don't know why I haven't painted them before, I suppose I've never been really into flower paintings in a big way.

I'm not much of a gardener, but I'm trying. My success rate with houseplants is about 2%, but not for lack of effort or headscratching. I didn't even know the name of these until recently, and I remember seeing them a lot in Italy and France. I had one many moons ago I nicknamed 'Lazarus', and that's what I call them all now, 'Lazarus plants'. Every one I've had has seemed to die, looking like a stick in a pot. For some reason I kept watering the first one, despite its sorry appearance - and months later, it just came back to life and sprouted beautiful red flowers! So now when the fake death happens I just water and wait.

I have a theory about art which is neither original nor my own, and I can't remember where it cam from, but since it explains a lot to me I'm going to share it.

When you paint or draw something, or somebody, the sense of 'otherness' just disappears. When you spend hours looking, I mean really looking at something, then processing that information through your mind and body, then making marks to express what your experiencing, your subject somehow becomes part of you. Landscapes I've painted are like old friends when I revisit them - oh, that gully, I remember that..that curve there..I remember the flick of my wrist as I mimicked that on canvas...it's not at all the same as taking a photograph, or looking through binoculars, or just staring in awe trying to commit something to memory - they are all great processes, but not the same as painting.

Why is this relevant to flower paintings? well I feel something akin to the painting process as I watch the flowers go through their life cycle. I water them every day, eagerly looking to see if there's anything new today - colours, shape and size - are they growing, dying, the same? Has the cat peed in this pot? Oh yuck, I think she has.

Cyclamen (i)

Bid for this painting on Ebay!

My plans for a huge, involved painting are coming together, and it will involve not only my niece, but lots of birds and flowers too. I'm going to put in British and American birds - it turns out both Ellie and I feed the local tweety birds (on either side of the pond) and she reeled off an impressive list yesterday of birds who have been feasting on her home-made bird cake.

This painting will be part of my 'Home' series, drifting more into magical realism than the previous paintings. Working on the idea that home is not only a place you physically live in, but a place you create in your mind, I decided that if I couldn't actually be with my niece Ellie, I could paint her here with me.

KUNR.FM 88.7

Three Amish Boys
Ink sketch

I've been asked to appear on the 'artist in residence' program tomorrow, on KUNR.FM with Classical Music Host, Terence Joy. The station is at The university of Nevada, Reno, at 88.7 FM. I'll be on at 9am...wish me luck!

Hollywood

Bid for this painting on Ebay!

Being a fan of the 'welder's mask' style of sunglasses, I can't tell you how happy I was to see my niece, Ellie, sporting some massive shades. This is actually a small study for a big painting I have had in mind for some time - should be fun!

Casting (ii)

Bid for this painting on Ebay!

I'm still not 100% so I haven't been painting much, but here's no.2 anyway. Hopefully more motivated and less tired tomorrow!

Casting - Backswing

bid for this painting on Ebay!

So not being much of a fisher-person, I don't know what the correct terminology is for the 'backswing' in casting, but this is what the painting is about anyway. I'm working on another one which will be the companion piece, Foreswing...yes I'm blatently making up words.