The first day of the New Year started with the online purchase from Art2arts of a small portrait (11″ x 14″) of the actress and singer, Jessie Buckley which was completed just a few months ago. I must confess I was slightly surprised as she has not received much publicity in the media recently despite appearing in an excellent feature film “Wild Rose” about a young mother from Glasgow looking for fame as a country music singer/songwriter. She has also appeared an in several television dramas such as “War and Peace”, and” Chernobyl.”
I was anxious to deliver this work as soon as possible, but discovered that the painting hadn’t been either signed or varnished so I had to complete these tasks rapidly. Having had this experience I then decided to spend an entire day signing and varnishing around a dozen other portraits and landscapes completed during 2019. There is still more tidying up work to be done on other works for sale too.
My next work will also be music- related as I recently discovered that our daughter Trudi has been taking photos for several years of a wonderful female singer/songwriter Yola (Carter) from Bristol who has been nominated this year for 4 Grammy Awards. She is as yet virtually unknown in this country but, having watched her on youtube and been given her “Walking Through Fire”album for Christmas, I firmly believe she is the best new female singer/songwriter I have seen and heard anywhere in over a decade.
Yola is a real challenge as it is virtually impossible to photograph her live at the moment so I will have to study her face for a portrait from various existing photos and then produce an original artistic work that will not infringe a photographers copyright in their photo. I’m experimenting currently and this is the start:-
It is nearing completion and this is Yola shortly before the finishing touches are added. Sadly she did not win a Grammy in any section for which she was nominated. However, her time will come – watch this blog. Since I first posted these pictures I’ve decided to abandon them as I’m unhappy with the outcome and I will attempt an entirely new version of her, singing live, which should appear in my next blog.