I’ve just finished a sort-out of a part of my collection of sketches. Over lunch my wife and I were musing on the possible implications of our deciding to move house one day, and I was struck by the immensity of the task which would face me then, of sorting out the huge collection of … Read more
Many years ago I was lucky to be awarded a mentorship, working under Graeme Willson for a year. It was an experience I have valued greatly ever since. Not all of it was easy to cope with. He tried hard, and with little success, to persuade me to experiment with more abstract compositions. His acute, … Read more
I have begun to appreciate my daily sessions in front of the TV coverage of the World Snooker Championship. Each day for the past week I have paused the coverage at what looks like an interesting moment, and I have drawn a portrait of one of the participants (players or journalist/commentators). Actually, I have become … Read more
Yesterday I rigged up my new toy …. the “trail-cam” I’ve just acquired with the principal objective of observing the hedgehog in the garden. This morning I had the exciting task of seeing if the system worked. Sure enough, there were pictures …. but why so many? It seems to have been quite busy out … Read more
This afternoon I managed to fit in the drawing session I promised myself, using the TV coverage of the World Snooker Championships as my source for a model. I decided that Ronnie O’Sullivan would make a good subject, as he does have a very mobile face, and selected charcoal as my medium. The experience didn’t … Read more
We are all familiar with the anthropomorphic treatment of animals in art …. treating them in some respect as if they are human beings. It starts very early in our acquaintance with the arts. Winnie the Pooh and the characters in the Beatrix Potter stories are classic cases, but the range of possibilities is enormous, … Read more
My first direct encounter with the Patchings Festival of Art (which I visited yesterday) was very interesting, for a variety of reasons. Certainly the event was bigger and better-attended than I had imagined. I drove down there with my friend Richard Mort, arriving there only 15 minutes after the official opening, to find the parking … Read more
Portraits have never really been my cup of tea. I have done several, but often as incidental inclusions in a picture the principal purpose of which was not the figure. (An example is the portrait of my father that features in one of the images in my T.S. Eliot series.) I have never made a … Read more
I was thinking earlier today about the question of portraiture, on which I touched in yesterday’s posting. What brought it to mind again was a portrait of my father, painted many years ago by one of his neighbours. My responses to it keep changing, and it is interesting to reflect on why this might be … Read more
Today I finally grasped the nettle and began an overdue process of sorting, shredding and chucking-out accumulated clutter. After tackling some of the surplus paper in my financial records I turned my attention to the material I have built up over the years from the various life-drawing classes I have attended. There were several surprises, … Read more