Autumn Fire

I know, it’s Winter, and I came up with this design a few months ago. I’m pleased to say it has kept me very busy since.

I made the first Autumn Fire for the We Are All Artists free art project, an abstraction of fire using acrylic paint and gold leaf. Here it is along with a picture of it in situ at the Carshalton War Memorial, before it was found.

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People responded very positively to this design. I like it, a lot, Yet I was surprised by how many folk contacted me about it, to say how much they like it, and to ask if I would make one for them. I happily obliged, and once word got out that I was making a series of Autumn Fire, the requests kept coming. I was asked to scale up, I painted one for someone locally, one went to Cambridge, and another to New Zealand.

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This represents a turning point for me and my art, the first time I designed an art work which resonated so strongly with others. My next post will be about where this art work took me next, a literal twist or two. Until then – here’s a picture of the 2016 New Year’s Eve free art, which I placed at a wedding of some dear friends in St Louis.

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Adventures in Spain

These paintings are a few months old now, they were all made over a couple of days on holiday in Spain. I’ve been lazy when it comes to updating the blog – the free art project is currently taking up a lot of my painting time.

I painted four postcards based on the Spanish flag which I mailed to friends.

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I made a sketch called Too Much Pressure, based on a tracing of a blind drawing of a radiator, weird!

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I painted two canvas boards, one of the mountains, one of the sea. The mountainscape has been sold, the seascape was found as part of the free art project.

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I made four simple pattern sketches – some of which have since been given away through the free art project.

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The last piece, titled Lost In Spain – was made for the free art project. It has a new home in Wallington.

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Passing Strangers : Revisited

A few months ago I painted a small sketch titled Passing Strangers. The picture was intended to represent the fleeting, impermanent nature of the many relationships we experience as we pass by each other. Maybe there is eye contact, maybe a smile and a greeting, maybe just the tiny, shared disturbance of atmosphere.

Since first painting Passing Strangers, I’ve thought more and more about transition and impermanence and as I’ve continued to think, I have made more versions of this work.

Passing Strangers II : I made this and left it in my local town. It has since disappeared. Maybe it has a new home, maybe it ended up in the bin? I don’t know, and it has transitioned.

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Passing Strangers III, IV, V, and VI : I made these using pages from an old book, a marker pen and some chalk paints. The book pages have some fragility about them and the chalk paints are easily smudged. There is impermanence in these works. Number 3 is sold and now resides somewhere in the UK, numbers 4, 5, and 6 have also been sold and are together in the USA.

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Passing Strangers VII, VIII, IX, and X : These four pieces are made using acrylic paint, pencil, ink, and gold leaf. Numbers 7 and 8 were left in my local town, numbers 9 and 10 are currently available to buy in my Etsy shop.

More to follow?