TBP Days 2 & 3

Progress is slow - dogged by delivery vans and slow moving cloud I soldier on. But how far? Should I paint the other buildings in?

I do the yellow lines and cock up a couple of figures, but is it enough?

Arty angst aside I become acquainted with Rodney Willis, Big Issue salesman extraordinaire (preferred pitch being the bench opposite the Pasty shop). He's got a big bushy beard and a grizzled face and he's amenable to sitting for a portrait - all promising for the pre{faces} project.

Also bump into the dad of the 13 year old genius painter I met down Great Pulteney Street. His sons career is going from strength to strength - just like mine! .... heh heh ...

3rd person - photographer guy who sells promo shots of Bath takes some snaps. Who knows, might be good - maybe lead to something, but hold on, shouldn't I have given him my card so I can get a mention. As it is I'm just some anonymous painter guy. Just the back of my head at that. Idiot.

Here we go again ...

I told you: big, bold and splashy and boo yah (again, that exclamation that I never really say) something or other ... [I've totally lost the track of where I was going with this line]. Big, oh yes, big - it's the biggest painting I've ever done plein air - 4 feet wide and it acts like a sail as I walk into town. This would probably be fine if the wind was with me, but it isn't, so it just annoys me.

It's early in the morning - ostensibly this is because the sun will cover the face of the theatre in a lovely warm glow, but it also suits the need to minimise my exposure to ridicule. I'm standing in front of the outside seating area of a pub and anytime after 11.00 I'm likely to have a crowd of drinkers behind me who may, or may not, appreciate what I'm trying to do.

That said, it's good to be back outside painting again and after the initial nerves when the painting is just a load of sploshes, as soon as I can see that it's going to look alright I start to enjoy myself. Just until my back starts aching from my funny angle - canvas must be at an angle as well as the drips have gone sideways ...

It's a start.

Back in the studio:

Return of The Bath Prize

For some reason the grey paint wasn't going on flat on this one, so I've resorted to putting a pattern on the background. Not sure it quite works, but it's done now.


On the plein air front, the Bath Prize has once again raised it's ugly head. After last years abysmal performance (although I still like the paintings I put in) I don't hold out much hope, but, hey ho, here we go ...

I get given (is that good English?!) the Theatre Royal/ Saw Close as a mandatory location to paint. It's somewhere I've never managed to capture satisfactorily before so I spend today trying out views/angles. Check out the following:


It's gonna be long and skinny and exciting with lots of brush strokes and stuff and boo ya! in ya face Bath Prize painter people!

I'll start painting next week (weather permitting!).

Ben Hughes: Party Painter!

Again, I've let it slip with the street painting, but it's the royal wedding and we're having a street party - after the success of last year's street party painting how could I resist? (posted last June)

I've got the wrong size and shape board and there's no sun to speak of, but I've started now and there's a gaggle (what is the correct collective noun? - naggle?) of neighbours expecting results.

I can do it, I can do it, I can do it and then the crowd of country dancers in the middle gets all too messy and I have to admit defeat. Hopefully I can rescue it later in the studio and, anyway, I think it's time for a beer ...

I get a five second slot on the local news (which I didn't see, but have on reliable information) in their royal wedding street party round up. Which is nice.

Two weeks later and I've finally got round to sorting it out:

Maybe this is it - Ben Hughes: Party Painter! Birthdays, weddings, bar mitzvahs. Street parties a speciality ...

hmmm

Not WIP

I originally posted these pictures a couple of months ago without the lines, but I just couldn't live with them. I kept on wondering what they would look like if ... So here they are with lines, although still without any pattern on the background, and that, I think, is how they will stay.

Going Green

23/03/2011

I'm out on the street painting again. It's been a while - must be almost 6 months, but the weather's fantastic and I've got a Wednesday free, so why not?

I go off piste so as not to attract too much attention with my bright green background. Despite this I spend the entire time trying to come up with a good response to the inevitable 'why are you painting on bright green' question. I need to be witty & cutting, yes, yes, & sound incredibly arty & clever. hmmm ... Yes, that's it! I've got it.

Apparently it's not so inevitable as no one asks me and I have to save my 'wouldn't you like to know' for another time.

I don't last long - I think painting is like gardening: take the winter off, then go out in spring & try digging the veg patch - your back is going to go ...

25/03/2011

I go outside again to finish the green painting. I start chatting with this guy who tells me about his 13 year old son who is having a one man show in Cardiff - they're saying he's like a young picasso (http://www.galleryoffthewall.com/hot-off-the-wall/circus-woman-p-972.html) and he shows me images on his phone. Wow 13! When I was 13 I was only doing pencil sketches of women in nudey mags, but maybe the less said about that, the better.

Interlude

I'm still busy posting pics with my portrait painting pals over on pre-faces, but in the mean time I am trying to push the landscapes slowly forward:

I don't know what's going wrong, but I can't seem to get rid of these streaks that keep appearing on the background. Another coat maybe? This one has already had five ...

And as a bit of light relief, check out the new yetispaghetti theme song: