This is a set of five trivets that make up an run for the middle of a table, for a fan of Charles Rennie, a BIG fan actually. And who isn’t? Pretty much the last word in elegance and style in water colour and architecture, he is Scotland’s answer to Antonio Gaudi (I think) and if you haven’t heard of him, treat yourself. Anyway, I hope now I’ve invoked the subtlety and delicacy of CRM you won’t think my efforts too clunky, they are built to put the turkey and veg on the Christmas table after all, something I don’t think Charles had to consider.
This is quite a large canvass, not sure the colour quite comes to life in this image, it’s really bright turquoise.
Here’s the brilliant stand up and comic actor the (be warned) quite rude Michael Legge, a friend from a few years ago now. I wanted to make a series of portraits of comics, but alas this was the only one in the end. So the title of this post ought to be portrait, actually.
This is a mural I did as a teenager – in my old bedroom. Quite a feat looking back. I loved Paris and someone taught me how to blow up an image, well, my favourite picture of the place by M. Fegendrey, Place du Tertre, a rainy evening in spring, (summer?) got the treatment. It’s just a tiny bit kitch, but I like it. I can’t show it looking pristine, it’s the wall of an office now, hence junk (sorry). The point is, as I did with theatrical scene painting years later, I can blow things up.
The original print, used to blow up the image onto the wall.
This battered old box was earmarked for a skip outside a worshipful company in the City of London. (Actually the one devoted to fish-mongering, so an appropriate use of it, now I think about it.) One awkward tube journey home later I decided that its destiny had to be as a fun artwork. So I made a wooden box into a glass fish tank full of the usual things, a mermaid (red headed after its eventual owner of course), an octopus, starfish, sea horses, a diver (about to rescue the imperiled mermaid) card playing crabs and all. The sides of the wooden box being ‘glass’ you can see all that’s going on from each point of view, with hidden surprises on each side. The box is about 2 x 1 1/2 x 1 feet, or about 60 x 45 x 33 cm.
Another way to use those lovely colours, this one is 6 x 6 inches (16 x 16 cm).
Fireplaces, they’re all different and a brilliant focus for the personal taste of their owners. Hang a fireplace over your….fireplace and the next picture of your fireplace will become a sort of infinite vortex of hearthness, sucking the whole room and house into the picture. Not really.
Gathering all the bits of work I want to be on this portfolio site I’m realising that I have a bit of an affinity for gardens.
Above: This is the sketch for this painting, the real thing is behind glass at it’s owners and too reflective to make a good image.
Above: This garden is lovely in all seasons but here in early autumn it’s particularly good.
Above: Hm… maybe washing lines are another developing theme? The owners of this painting were just about to move from this pretty old terraced house to somewhere grander and wanted a record of the children in the garden.
A gift for a parting friend who went to live in Spain, so purposefully full of Britishness. I kept a photocopy for my kitchen, I like Marmite.
On the theme of kitchenalia, here’s another one featuring the knife and apple. I loved the drawings and painting of my tutor at art school, the late Tom Fairs, and the knife and apple is homage to his still lives. I wish I had 10% of his talent, 5% even. He was the most amazingly clever and inspiring man, and a wonderful artist and stained glass craftsman. His paintings are absolutely beautiful, have a look.
This mural predates the current fashion for fish that nibble your feet to remove hard skin. I was given carte blanche to create an interesting loo, so I went for the sensation that while you were sitting there curious orange fish were intrigued by your toes. Apparently it was a bit unsettling for some guests.
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