Rotten Christmas and worse New Year

Well it has to be said that Christmas and New Year have been pretty much the worst ever. With a global recession in full swing, art, and thus art sales are low on people's priorities. I am simply not going to recover from it so it's all change for me. Of course it will probably take months and months for my house to sell so in the meantime I am still painting.. hugging my studio close to me while I still have it.. sob. Strangely the darker my days are, the brighter my art seems to become. I don't know why that is. You would think that I would be painting more bleak and monotone art or something equally suicidal. Maybe it is just my sub-conscious desperately trying to cheer me up. Whatever it is, I am getting real pleasure from my work at the moment. Relishing the creative process while I can.

So here is a six piece that I completed a few days ago. It's called Swamp Fever.

And this one is a triptych called Bed Monster... one of my favourite titles of recent. Lol

Got to love texture

I've been rather quiet on the blogging front recently. Mainly, it has to be said, because of that wretched game World of Warcraft. I knew I shouldn't have signed up... there are clear indications that it is hoplessly addictive... sigh. But it's not like I haven't been painting too. I paint, I play, I paint some more...

Anyway, I've been experimenting with texture recently. Interesting effects but very hard to take a decent photo of the finished work to show in all it's glory. My listings on Ebay and Etsy just don't do this work justice. Ah well. Here is a side view of a small section of a massive 3' x 4' canvas called Run of the Mill and a full photo of the last one I did called Middle of Nowhere at the same size.

A massive compliment!

Well this new style that I have been exploring has pretty much taken over all my thinking. Totally loving it and I am planning a major list-fest on Ebay starting on the 1st of September. Meanwhile, Diane, my luverly friend in New York, paid me the massive compliment of buying three of my larger paintings for her apartment. I was unbelievably nervous sending them to her. Hoping against hope that they would be as she expected and not a real let-down... but all is well. They arrived safely and Diane tells me she is thrilled... she sent me a photo of them on her wall which was real fun to see... quite apart from anything else, I am extremely fond of that sofa, having slept on it a number of times.. chuckle.

Flurry of inspiration

Goodness me yes... I have been wielding the brush with great fervour over the last week or so and I'm really quite definitely in the zone at the moment. Strange how it goes that way sometimes and then in due course it drops off again and I am back to having to dig deep to find my muse. So, I've been working hard to take advantage while the emotion is there. Here is a sample of nine recent works.

Good intentions..ahem!

So... the summer slump in sales means I am supposed to spend June, July and August, building up a stock of work to hit the markets with come September. It is NOT supposed to be a time to abandon all good work ethics and play games. Not only have I re-succumbed to playing Magic: The Gathering online again... tempted back by my wicked son... nope.. not only that... I have now been tempted into playing Fallen Sword online by my equally wicked daughter. Sigh. Have to say though, it is a fabulous game and perfectly possible to have a thoroughly absorbing game without paying a penny. Free really does mean free here. Of course you can spend money on it but I haven't so far and I really don't feel I need to. If you are at all into role playing games then I can highly recommend it. Click on the button and go join the fun.

Boats and beaches

I was asked to do a couple of paintings on a nautical theme for a new gallery a few weeks ago. Lots of ideas popped into my head but were firmly squashed when one of the other artists displaying her own work there, requested that I not use black outlines in my work as this would clash with her own style. Hmmm... It's not that I can't paint in different styles but somehow this request bothered me somewhat and stifled my creativity for a while. Anyway, I have come up with two collages which I am pleased with, only to find that my work is no longer required. Bit of a sour taste in the mouth all round.

Anyway, these two will shortly be up on Etsy... where my native style is neither stifled nor banned... thank goodness.

The summer slump is firmly under way. Historically this is always the worst month of the year for sales and thus I tend to live on a diet of beans on toast... probably do me the world of good. So if anyone is in the mood for adding some original art to their walls, you can buy in the knowledge that you are literally putting food on the table.. Ho Ho.

Head down... back to work

Well despite my best intentions of a busy week painting, I was thwarted on several levels. Firstly by a serious bout of gastro-something-or-other which knocked me for six last Sunday and had me writhing around the bathroom floor fading in and out of consciousness and making me believe that my time had come. 'Don't fret' said Steve, my beloved one, 'Think how much your paintings will be worth when you are gone!' Yes, thanks for that. Very comforting.

And then having spent most of Monday asleep, the next three days were spent with a good friend of mine who came up this way to visit. It's strange but when you live in a place, you never seem to visit any of the attractions that the locality offers. Having a friend to show around galvanized me into actually visiting two of those attractions that I have been meaning to see for years. The first was a trip on the Ffestiniog Light Railway which is a beautiful stretch of narrow guage track between Porthmadog and Blaenau Ffestiong. Ah the joys and nostalgia of steam.


The second trip was to the Centre for Alternative Technology just outside Machynlleth. Fascinating place and it renewed my interest in straw bale buildings... just need to find a suitable patch of land. Lots of chickens and geese running around and so many working exhibits.. it was thrilling.
So today was a case of head down and paint, paint, paint. Not a hardship though... I always love it.