Gallery News

Christmas parties

Two in a row was always going to be tough.

I get through Thursday night okay by leaving early, but Friday it all goes Pete Tong:

• I loose my bow tie
• I spill red wine all down my shirt (dancing while drinking never works)
• I do okay on the bucking reindeer
• I hog the karaoke microphone and murder Queen, Elton John, Abba ... and the list goes on
• I round it all off by asking the taxi driver if I can paint his portrait.

Oh dear.

On the plus side ....

here's some sketches purporting to be of Jeffrey Archer.

I just can't seem to get the likeness right, so here's a sketch of Casares in Spain that I do like:

Day Three

Who's idea was this? Oh, yes, ... mine.

Was it such a bad one? Where did it all go wrong? Maybe I should have taken more care in drawing the booth:

- it did sort of go wonkey. Maybe people thought they'd get a wonkey head picture or something - as if...

Live & learn. No paying trade, but here's a couple of willing assistants that helped while away the time:

Day Two

You want day two?

You Want Day Two?!!

YOU CAN'T HANDLE DAY TWO!!!

It was that bad, but at least I had a chair to draw ..

And another one for the animal lovers:

Day One

It could have gone worse, I mean it's not as if I stood like a lemon in a stupid outfit for three hours without selling anything. Oh no, wait ...

It's bound to get better over the weekend - I mean you can understand that Friday night was always going to be a bit slow, but the weekend, yeah, they'll be queuing round the block ...

And at least England are stuffing the Aussies in the cricket.

Here's some more warm up stuff:

And one for the animal lovers:

Warming up

That's me, I mean, getting ready for next week - not the weather.

I'm still sketching anyone who'll sit still at work:

Oh and another painting:

And the work in progress is looking interesting:

Sketch Madness

Why do I do these things?

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Check it out ...

Nothing wrong with that, but I've only gone and volunteered to dress up as a butcher/deli man/supermarket person and do on the spot portrait sketches for the duration of the show - "Ben's Portrait Sketch Booth".

Now it's coming to the crunch, I find myself in dire need of some practice and hence roping in any/every one at work to model ...

How bad can it be?

Yeah, thought so ...

A Blog Behind

Of rooks, deer and shenanigans

28/05/09

I'm up at Prior Park painting the college. It's half term and there's no one else around. Landscaped gardens sweep down the valley and open out to a fantastic view of the city*. It's not quite the middle of town, but it's definitely not the country and a deer wanders out of the trees to my left. It bounds (as deers do) across the lawn and steps in front of the mansion house before disappearing into the trees on the far side. I guess it was twenty yards away from me at its closest. It's quite unexpected and quite wonderful.

Later and one of the masters comes out of his rooms to water some pot plants. He doesn't say anything to me and I don't say anything back. He and his wife have dinner outside and the chimes of the cutlery and the clinking of the china become my background music. It's a beautiful day.

* I can't post an image of the painting yet as it's a commission and I need to show it to the commissioner first. Sort of a surprise, but not quite. Semi mysterious I know, but you're stuck with the line drawing of old fat head.

29/05/09

I can't do any drawings on the way to the studios cos I'm picking up the wine for more OPEN STUDIO SHENANIGANS which also means that I don't get much painting done. To make up for it I do some sketching later, on the way to Sainsbury's to pick up some nibbles.

The entrance to the Studios and a lone flip flop reminds me how easy it is to leave a sandal behind in Homebase carpark (a long time ago now, but some things you never forget - probably due to wife and family ridicule on a periodic basis).

More flowers by the river; more tragedy; mirrored by the man drinking alone on the other side. 

I walk on to find myself walking almost in synch with two muscle and tattoo clad topless youths. Their trousers miraculously stay up despite starting underneath their buttocks. I feel slightly intimidated, but keep pace with them for a while before stopping to draw a big old rook I saw this morning. I know it's a rook because it had a big grey beak and feathery trousers and Claire told me. The drawing doesn't work because although I remember the trousers and the beak it turns out I can't remember anything else. That is apart from the fact that the beak could peck your eyes out.

I get to Sainsbury's and there's a car alarm blaring away with a small child peering out from the rear window. I meet someone I know and I don't do any more drawings.

Before and After

Thursday 21/05/09

A freebie invite to the south west region chartered accountants annual dinner (exciting stuff - I must contain myself) finds me digging deep into the wardrobe to find my old tuxedo (good word - better than dinner jacket). There's a little bit of debris in the pocket that tells me I haven't worn it since 1994, but praise be, it still fits (breath in ...). I manage to scrape off the bit of dirt on the jacket that I obviously never got around to dry cleaning and I'm good to go. To cummerbund or not to cummerbund, that is the question.

There's a fairly low key feel to the do (or so I'm told by those that regularly attend these things - "you should have seen it last year, now that was a ball; the glitz, the glamour, the showgirls ...") due to the economic climate, but regardless and surprisingly, considering I'm in a room full of accountants, (or maybe unsurprisingly, given the free wine) a great time was had by me. I manage to foist a couple of my arty business cards on to a couple of people that might make a difference and leave before getting too drunk.

Tux off (... and breath out) and back into the wardrobe - no need to dry clean, I'm sure it will be fine.

Friday 22/05/09

Feeling slightly hungover (see above). I did mean to go out and paint, I really did, but after a portrait sitting in the morning and getting the studio sorted for the OPEN STUDIOS WEEKEND I can't summon up the energy. By the afternoon I'm running on empty. Still, the portrait seems to be coming on okay, so here it is instead. Obviously not finished, but it's got the makings of something.

Rambling Again

14/05/09 Thursday

15/05/09 Friday

You take your inspiration where you can find it (said he sagely) and this morning I stumbled across www.everycupofteaieverhad.co.uk (when I say 'stumbled across', it's the website of the new administrator at the studios and I keyed the web address in because she gave it to me, so 'stumble' is a rubbishy description). Check it out - it's treading a fine line between genius and insanity, but, synchronicitously, finding it coincides with my own attempts to diarise and document with scrawly line and I realise the enormity of what has gone before. I don't want to draw the same thing everyday for ever, but an element of prescription and habit helps to drive me forward. So ...

I document the walk to the studios again.

It's wet. The hole in my squelchy boots is at the expense of any grip and I slip on the steps at the bottom of the footpath. So I draw them. (..?!)

I passed this van at the top of the hill, probably a plumber's because there were two long copper pipes on the pavement. I don't draw them, but the image sticks in my memory and I try to recall it half way into town.

I stop on the steep bit of Holloway to draw the pavement. A bicyclist skids dangerously as he tries his brakes while racing down the road.

The new bus station. Nothing to say.

I buy some stationery and now I've got too many bags and they're heavy and I don't want to draw any more, I just want to get to the studio.

It's a dismal day and I lose myself to the madness that is the background of my current studio painting. [It fits the theme of repetition and lunacy so I include the work in progress here even though it's not the usual out and about on the streets of Bath thing.]

Lunch time and I get given a piece of coffee and walnut cake. It was a general offer for the last piece, but something in the look on my face must have given away the strength of my desire and no one else lays claim to it. Mmm coffee and walnut cake - it makes the day. 

Later, and driven by the need to put something on the blog, I head out to paint. It's still grey, but that's okay as it gives me an excuse to paint the Upper Bristol Road again. Look there's the Bath Tour bus stopping and letting some passengers off - proof indeed (as if proof were needed) that the UBR is an appealing thoroughfare - a tourist attraction in its own right. I wonder what the on board commentary says about it.

There's rain in the air as I set off, but of course I haven't got any wet weather gear (because I walked to work and I'm an idiot). A boarded up cornershop grabs my attention and I set up by the still decaying site of the old JCR. The greens along the street on the left are quite bright and vivid, but I play it down because it's very distracting and green is a dangerous colour. That Bucks Fizz song is going through my head because the radio was going on about the Eurovision Song Contest tomorrow night - how annoying. Don't sing out loud, don't sing out loud, don't sing out loud.

The rain that has been threatening since I started, materialises in the form of drizzle, the kind of drizzle that drenches. I keep going until the paint stops sticking to the board. It's a start and I like it, so I'm not disappointed with the shortness of the session and I head back to the studio.

It's raining on the way home and I'm late so I don't do any drawing.