The Midas Light

charcoal and chalk
40 x 65 cm

And so I found it, in the lines of a poem.  The titles of pictures are all part of the process, they usually run around inside my head as I am making the picture, this one arrived a bit late.

Nameless



charcoal and chalk
approx 40 cm x 65cm

Another charcoal drawing, nameless as yet, I shall ponder and come up with something, I am just enjoying the execution of them at the moment. 
They start life quite insipid but as the charcoal builds up, gets rubbed in and rubbed out and many fixative layers later the shadows deepen and things begin to reveal themselves.  Sometimes its like reading a book, you are never sure what the ending will be! So this story needs a title.

A Quiet Afternoon

Charcoal and chalk on brown paper
SOLD

Another charcoal drawing, these are reasonably large and in real life they have quite subtle tonal differences within the dark areas.

Winter Sunflowers

Effortless Brushstrokes

A Cotswold Forge
Oil on board 90.5 cm x 68 cm
£995.00
(or £99.50 per month with own art)

Last night was the Private View at Beside The Wave gallery and then on to the Private View at Falmouth Art Gallery.  This is my painting that is now hanging in the Falmouth Art Gallery along side some wonderful paintings by great names.  It was a lovely duo of opening nights and I felt very honoured to be exhibiting with old masters and some of my contemporary younger masters as well including:  Andrew Tozer, Miles Heseltine, Ben Warner, Phil Hogben, Paul Wadsworth and Chris Rigby.
The painting above is another from the forge, this time in oils and larger and here is the little plein air study that I made while the blacksmith was working.  The study forms part of the exhibition at Beside the Wave.

Blacksmith
Oil on board 14.5 x 18 cm
£245.00
(or £24.50 per month with own art)

They are both framed with a simple but substantial gold frame and available from Beside The Wave, who also do Own Art, which lets you pay in 10 interest free monthly instalments, a fantastic scheme!
The exhibition runs until April 14th and is well worth a visit.

New Exhibitions, or Wafting About With Giants

Charcoal and chalk on brown paper
SOLD

I am back from London, it was a fantastic fair, we met some really interesting people and sold some brilliant paintings and drawings.  Now I am home, back in my paint covered clothes and working hard on a whole bunch of new paintings, destined for two exhibitions.   I shall not show any new works here for a while.  I will, however, post this up, it is a large charcoal drawing, part of a series of drawings, probably of interiors but I have an inkling that a few portraits might be hatching.
There is a new exhibition at the gallery which I am helping to hang tomorrow.  It is a mixed show called "Effortless Brushstrokes"  The catalogue is on line already, you can see it here, and there will be more available on Friday.  It is in collaboration with Falmouth Art Gallery.  Fourteen of our artists, including myself, are being hung alongside the likes of J.S.Sargent.  Lamorna Birch, Dame Laura Knight, Sir Alfred Munnings and Kurt Jackson.  What company to keep, I am very honoured.  After Friday I shall post up my "exhibits".

William's Window

 Watercolour. 43 x 61 cm

This is the window of a small blacksmiths forge in Gloucestershire.  It is a glorious place, filled with old tools and pieces of metal, rust colours glow in the light from the blacksmith fire and light from the garden outside is filtered through a curtain of cobwebs.  I spent a good afternoon painting while William, the blacksmith, worked.  I love days like that and have made several paintings of this place which will be exhibited soon.

 

Fountain at Gordes

 Watercolour.

76 x 58cm

A beautiful place, a little hill town, perched on a rock in the Vaucluse department of Provence. A warren of stone houses, little alleyways and hidden cafes to discover.  I found a bar where you could sit on a tiny balcony high up above the lower houses, looking out over the Provençal landscape, while swifts flew through the hot dry air. I spent a happy few hours there, a cold beer on the table and a sketchbook to hand... I would love to be there, right now, until then I shall have to make do with looking at my sketchbooks and making things like this painting.