A change of seanery

This once was a seascape I gave a present to my daughter Laura and her husband Neil. I asked for it back and reworked it into the present form. The old painting simply wasn't good enough. This one is. It is better because I have moved on from being a painter to being an artist. An artist is someone who has the technical ability to go with the his or her ideas. An artist is someone who doesn't dabble but works at art 24 hours a day. An artist is someone who doesn't accept good enough as good enough. An artist is someone who doesn't hesitate to call themselves an artist when asked for a job description. This painting is the work of an artist. It is made of thought and paint and canvas and heart and soul and love for my Laura and her Neil.

Upon Waking

Somewhere between sleep and first waking thoughts and ideas come calling. Amorphous and tinged with latent narrative, they hint of other worlds, other lives, other times. By the first spoonful of cereal, the first gurgle of toothpaste, the first overture of birdsong, the first clang of the letter box, they are long gone. Tomorrow, keep your eyes closed, pay attention to the live feed from your subconscious and let the show begin and build and take you to places that only ever exist for the briefest of moments and are gone forever. I did, this morning and this is what I experienced.

I used to run for fun. There was something about being able to keep going when everyone else around you was out off puff. This painting captures that feeling of the seemingly endless energy that was part and parcel of being young and computer games not having been invented.

Don't argue with the Universe

While most paintings begin with a voice inside your head saying, "Do this," this one began with the hand and the brush doing all the talking. Who am I to question their motives, inspiration and actions. They might be less overloaded by the 11 billion bytes of information entering the mind every second. They might just be tuning into something more fundamental than the rights and wrongs constructed by personal experience of shifting cultural values in a world gone bonkers. Maybe they know where the fun is hidden in not knowing where it will all end. Whatever, the post-rationalisation about enigmatic energy flow and the unlimited potentiality that exists in the Universe, it's lovely just to let go now and then.

It's Battersea but not as we know it Jim

Can't seem to stop painting new version of the Power Station that has loomed so large over parts of my life. Dad's demolition company took out the generators (he advised against it, due to the weight acting as a counter-balance to the stacks) but they ripped the guts out of the co-joined stations and, well, it's been buggered every since. It's one of those love it or hate it landmarks, but I am always drwan to it. Dad worked their covered in asbestos (it was used around the generators. The effect was to leave permanent scar damage in the plural lining of his lungs. I look at it and I think of him and all the moments of his life spent in and around the bricks that are still standing tall against the development all around. It is still a power station, but now it powers my imagination.

Don't let them in the next life have all the fun

Meet my latest painting. A couple embracing. They may be lying still but the air is riven with the aftermath of spent energy and bodies tingling with the release of sufficient energy to create a new life or simply put this one into a positive perspective. One day, all days, not just fleeting moments, will be like this.

Up and and away

This is Laura, my wonderful eldest daughter and so much more. Painting her portrait has been a labour of love. The madness of the hair is due to the number of times she has changed the colour. The background is inspired by her frenetic life full of dancing (at the Royal School of Ballet) and acting in plays that always seemed to require a wild a crazy girl and a dress sense that is amazingly creative and all her own. My love for her is there in every brush stroke.