For several months now (as regular readers will know) I have been feeling the lack of any progress in all sorts of aspects of life. There are several obvious reasons for this, such as the legacy of my injury and the disruption consequent upon our decision to move house. There have been some signs on … Read more
My father died in 1999, and we travelled down to Norfolk in order to sort out his estate. While we were there a neighbour called round to the house. I knew that Harry was an artist, but I had not realised that he had painted a portrait of Dad. This was news to me. The … Read more
Well, I have done informal portrait sketches before, but never anything serious. In fact, I have in my archive a little self-portrait sketch I did as a student. My most sustained acquaintance with this discipline was a couple of years ago when I decided that I needed an incentive to get me drawing again. I … Read more
I wonder if my next project should focus upon portraiture. This has been in the back of my mind for some time, but with no specific focus. Today I have had to write a piece to give context to a portrait of my grandmother, which I am about to exhibit, and this has set me … Read more
It is a very long time since I gave any thought to the work of Raffaello Sanzio. It may well have been when I was in grammar school, studying art with a rather strange Scottish end-army boxing champion. Back then, of course, our man was better known as Raphael. For some reason I have never … Read more
The new term begins tonight at the life-drawing class in Ilkley. I’m looking forward to it. Several interruptions have kept me away from art over the past couple of weeks (at least, away from the creative as opposed to the administrative bit) and it will be good to get to the sharp end again. I’m … Read more
I have very nearly finished the gigantic task of reviewing my records of past art work. (The rubbish bin is now full of old paper!) What an interesting experience art has been. The greater part of this morning was passed in going through, in a preliminary way, a large portfolio of my earliest work. This … Read more
I’ve taken part in two life-drawing sessions recently, with similar results. I have been quite pleased with what I have managed to do, but end up asking myself whether I might have missed the point. On each occasion the best part of what I have ended up with has been portraits of the sitters. As … Read more
Ken Dodd used to claim, during his stage act, that he could “speak Yorkshire”. His demonstration consisted of the phrase, “‘Ow much?”* He was often laughed at for that one, but I found myself using it today. A friend of mine, of whom a good part of his work is portraiture, invited me to join … Read more
The second exhibition I visited during my recent trip to London was the Lucien Freud show at the National Gallery. It was a curious experience not the least because I ended up having to revise quite considerably my estimation of his work. I have always been an admirer of Freud, and I think that the … Read more