Sunset

Going through the back catalogue here. This was a straight copy of a sunset when I had first got back into doing oils. It works quite well as a painting, nice colours, acceptable composition but doesn't pass the sincerity test as it's just a copy of a photograph of a scene at which I was not present. Still, it did make me feel like could achieve something in paint.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien

I initially decided to paint Keith O'Brien as the circumstances around him leaving office were quite current, particularly in the context of the Pope deciding to stand down. What struck me as I painted this was that if these Cardinals have power now, then imagine what it might have been like in the Middle Ages when I suspect the cardinals would still have been dressed in the same way and the populace around the would not have been nearly so educated as they are now and the mystique around the written word would have been very powerful. These Cardinals would have been a powerful bunch supported by the might of the church (alluded to in the background) and, of course God!

I struggled with the face on this one, a slightly jokerish outcome, but still humanoid.

Lost Footballer

This is an oil painting of my son on holiday.  He's wearing his madrid kit and I know everyone says their children are football mad, but he only wears football kit, apart from when he is at school.  He has contrived to argue that he should be able to wear football kit to school on world book day on the basis of the fact that we bought a programme for a football match, that is a sort of booklet and therefore world book day applies.  I think he may be a bit obsessive like me....

Oscar Pistorius watercolour painting

This is my portrait of the now infamous Oscar Pistorious in court during his bail hearing.  Initially this subject was chosen because he has recognisable features that I felt I could reproduce.  However, the massive media coverage of the case meant it took on a new meaning.  The portrait is not dissimilar to the original photo, and I've kept with the half light half dark background as a way of pointing to his inner turmoil.

On a purely artistic front this was done with watercolour pencils, and I'm now learning that you really only have one shot at getting the colours right, which is particularly difficult on skin tones.

Treasure Hunt

This was from last summer holiday when we were going geocaching ( kind of treasure hunting). We were getting very close to the target so my daughter took the GPS from me and started running.

Hands

This is a 10 minute standing sketch of a sculpture of whitewall galleries by April Shepherd.  It was rendered in a black material and caught the light very well.  Maybe I'll do it in pencil next time....

Tastertainment

Here are a few sketches I complete whilst attending the arts4every1 tastertainment session on 9/2/13 at the Arts4every1 centre in Desborough, High Wycombe.  The concert/lunch features poets and musicians showcasing their own material and they were good enough to let me sketch them as they performed.  Well done one and all.



The Red Lion

This is one of the Red Lion in High Wycombe on market day.  It's always been painted with glossy red paint and catches the light in all sorts of unusual ways.  I don't know if anyone else notices it as they go about there business, but it always catches my eye.

Rehearsal

This was taken from a rehearsal for a singer songwriter lunchtime concert taking place the following Feb 9th in the arts4every1 centre in High Wycombe. I didn't manage to capture the whole scene, there was a drum kit and so on in the background and it was a little tricky to execute as the artist had a frog in his throat and had to get up a few times, but I'm sure he'll be fine for the big day.


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