I ‘m terribly disorganised at the moment having lost or destroyed at least three paintings which I thought I had kept. I don’t have enough space to store and keep track of everything I have produced and really long for a big studio with much more storage room – somewhere where I can work on large deep edge canvases so that I can be free and loose! I’ve also become rather disheartened and frustrated again at the direction the art world is taking. “Art is what you can get away with” has been attributed to Andy Warhol yet never proved but, whoever did say it, seems to be right judging by what I see on line and in many public art galleries these days.
Enough of this negativity, there are still many good works to enjoy, as demonstrated by our recent trip to the Royal Society of Portrait Painters show at the Mall Galleries in London. As, usual the standard is very high, and a good balance of traditional and occasionally slightly boring, predictable material by some of the society’s distinguished members is featured, alongside surprising, unconventional and highly original paintings. Photo realism abounds too and, although I admire the patience and technique required, it’s good to be re-assured by other portraits where the brushstrokes are evident!
One of my paintings which is missing, and is liked by someone who wants to buy it, has resulted in an attempt to repaint it from a photograph which is shown below:-
This hasn’t been the easiest of tasks as I haven’t used watercolour and pen for a long time, but I have achieved a fairly similar version,which I am told, is acceptable.
Here’s the most recent effort in a continuing series of musician paintings, a portrait sketch of Jessie Buckley, actor and singer, who I have followed for a few years now. She has featured in a new film “Wild Rose” about a young mother from Glasgow pursuing her dream of becoming a country music star. Jessie is from Ireland with a strong accent and apart from her superb singing has an amazingly convincing Glaswegian accent too in this role. This is a real life case of “A Star is Born”, as at 19 she was regarded by Andrew Lloyd Webber as extraordinarily promising, yet decided to go on to drama school before pursuing her chosen career as an actor and singer. In my book a real star!
Having reverted to watercolour to recreate Lesnes Abbey for my friend, I started looking back at some other watercolours and works on paper completed at the same time in 1998 which have never been exhibited. Below are two of them which I’ve decided to try and sell fairly cheaply as they are so old:
A rather rambling post, I know but hopefully I can sort out the problems I’ve encountered when the next one emerges!