Red

The progression of the hearts in my Impossimal paintings have changed quite a bit over the years, more than I really realised. Going back to 2006 my hearts were more 'pointy' and heavy on the shadows with little or no hint at the curved surface. I didn't mean I didn't like them, to me they looked right, just that I didn't understand what made a heart, hearty. They were also painted using just red, black and white leaving little to experiment with.

Gradually over the year I changed a little and lost the pointedness and added in a bit of orange to liven things up. The heavy shadows were disappearing too and being replaced with a glaze of crimson for depth.

A few years later and the orange was fully integrated into the hearts, white was used for a nice shine and the edges were brightened back up to start to give a 3D feel.

 The next step was to go all 3D and it started with this one, taking everything I had learned I put it all into the heart and glazed it heavily to make it glow. Around the edges a highlight lifted it away from the background. It was nearly there...

 2010 and a piece called Baby Love, originally modelled from clay for the first time I could light and see a true heart shape before I painted it. To get everything right I used charcoal to pop in all the shadows before I started paying attention to the light bouncing back then rapidly placed in the colours starting with the lightest first.

 Once finished it was probably the most accurate to date in terms of shape and form and made a great centrepiece for the painting.

 But this one was completely different. Using a little glass heart that was kindly donated to me by fellow artist  Jurgen Dabeedin of Blue Shift Gallery (http://www.blueshiftgallery.com) I managed to capture the heart shape, tone, reflection and colour all in one giving a true 3D heart.

I had tried 3D hearts before in different positions and although they looked right in the pieces they appeared in now I'm using the little glass heart things are different.

As you can see in this photograph from a piece called celebration, three years between each painting shows a marked difference on something as simple as a heart.

Don't forget this weekend we are back out with the Impossimals in the galleries again, this time at Chelmer Fine Art, Chelmsford, Essex on Saturday 17th March 12-3pm and way down in Bournemouth for an appearance at Westover Gallery on Sunday 18th March 12-3pm.

Chewy

Bunnyopolis has come under attack. Three bunnies with oodles to do, toys to destroy, telephone directories to rip have decided that collectively they want to chew everything they can lay their hands on. A natural instinct and it's good for their teeth I know but boy can they chew. This is the side of Bunnyopolis where every corner has been chamfered to a height of two feet, follow this around the garden an there are no corners left to be seen. Take this morning for example.

Jura walked straight passed the wooden toys, footballs, pretend carrots, plastic bottles filled with stuff and other assorted boredom breakers and went straight for the wood.

 Here she is in full swing, we added these to the mix to try and help, which they do as you can see here, but with three strong willed bunnies whilst one does this...

 Aaran is doing this, whittling away a fence post, meanwhile...

...Iona is going for the most obscure piece of wood, the leg of a small plinth in Bunnyopolis and grinding it down from the inside. To do this she has to turn upside down. Silly bunny.

Bunnies will be bunnies, so we decided to bring in a massive assortment of stuff to act as diversions. But even then they can still be picky. Take this carrot tree for instance, initial reaction was 'great, what do we do with it?' then overnight they plucked off all the carrots and left the parsnip coloured ones alone. Not been touched since. Even funnier was the Thompson and Local directory that we put down for them to shred. Again it was ignored until a few nights ago when we went in and two corners of pages had been ripped out and left, one was the index for, weirdly, abattoirs and the other was vets, seriously. What were the chances of that happening? There must be like 300 pages and they choose these two to tear out.

But then you turn around and see sights like this, Aaran, Jura and Iona, three happy bunnies doing bunny things, wood can be replaced and I'd have it no other way.

Salty Sea Dog

I'm sat in bed limply trying to bash this out on my laptop after my cold decided to turn into a full blown fever yesterday afternoon. Not sure if it was blogging about cosmic cats or Colin the dog that triggered it but by 3pm I was well and truly joining them with my overheated brain and entered la-la land for a few hours.

So today, the first day in many, many years indeed, is an enforced duvet day.

I'm bored.

I can't stomach daytime TV, my head throbs too much to read and trying to rest just makes me think about working. So, instead of writing today's blog to the sound of pounding hammers in my head here's one I prepared earlier...

A long time ago in the late 80's both myself and Jayne were walking at dusk along the seafront in Blackpool, skilfully avoiding the staggering drunks and looking in dismay at the promenades festival of litter when an old salty looking seadog stepped out from the shadows of one of the piers and thrust a small booklet in my hand.

'10p gov'nr' he growled.

What can I say, I was naive, inexperienced in tackling with salty seadogs and possibly fearing some nautical based violence involving hooks and a demented parrot so I fumbled around my pockets and pulled out a piece of silver. Well, 10p anyway. It was snatched out of my hand with a practised swipe and he hobbled away on what I'm sure was a wooden leg. Come to think of it he smelt of rum too. Pirates of Blackpool Pier doesn't really sound exotic enough though does it.

I had completely forgot about the booklet and now looked at it through a fading light. Old Moore's Almanack for the year of 1987 that looked like this. Apart from the date obviously.

Published since 1697 and put together by Francis Moore who was a self-taught physician to the court of Charles II It was really quite amazing that it was still being published. Essentially it was a collection of tide tables, moon phases, a list of fairs and events, forecasts for farmers, fishermen and the like all topped off with its centre piece, a month by month prediction of world events. Not bad for 10p, I never knew things like this existed and the strange way it entered my hands almost made it more intriguing.

So imagine my surprise to find it still going strong in the digital age. Gone are the shady seadogs plying it's trade on promenades this time you can buy it everywhere, although the price of predictions like everything else has suffered and now costs £2.50 to be enlightened. OK, so it's like a drunken stab in the dark at times but it's a little quirky and now includes Lucky Dates To Play Bingo, The Thunderball Astro-Guide, Greyhound Racing Numbers, Gardening By The Moon (I kid you not) and one that we have been waiting for Lighting Up Times For Vehicle Lamps. Oh, and oodles of adverts that include a book on Sugar Spells, Candle Burning Rituals that will leave you amazed, one to buy 'The Book of Forbidden Knowledge' , the strangely out of place 'Plot, Pots or Growbags' the A-Z of growing Veg and of course Derek Acorah one of  three 'Britains' favourites advertising in the same edition.

I love this kind of thing and have nothing against anybodies beliefs but I was so inspired by Old Moore's I have decided to publish Old Smiths Tongue in Cheek Almanacky Stroligistic 2012, a predictive guide to your world right here on todays blog.

Several full moons this year falling on the cusp of Scorpios elbow and falls in Libras twelfth house will call forth a large pink hovering pig that will float aimlessly above Milton Keynes before spontaneously combusting during the Jubilee celebrations showering five counties with free bacon. A half moon in July in conjunction with Plutos Uranus square to Mars gives a distinct possibility of rain at some point in the month and I will even go as far to pinpoint it's location as somewhere in Scotland.

In April an ascending  New Moon hints at the possibility of a celebration accompanied by eggs, I cannot predict this exactly as I'm out on a limb with this but it will involve chocolate and a partial lunar eclipse shows two large ears and a fluffy tail. Only time will tell if I am correct on this one. July is interesting, I see five 'hoops' after studying Aquarius in a trine to Mars, the planetary picture is positive but I see little in the way of gold coming to the UK.

In August Virgo hits an all time high and it is revealed that Big Ben is actually Thunderbird 6, controlled by puppets in the adjoining Westminster. There will be a popular uprising and the puppets will be packed into Big Ben and launched high into the sky where, like a firework, they will explode. It will also be the month of Early Chrimbodosso where mysteriously large tins of Quality Street will appear in supermarkets throughout the land.

September will be a moonless month and revelations will appear to support claims that Roly, the dog from Eastenders first episode was actually Michael Flatley, a claim supported by the story line when Roly trampled (tapped danced more like) over Arthur Fowlers prized leeks in a bid to show off. It will also be revealed that cheese can now be made without animals using old socks and bits of melted recycled plastic, something they have been doing for years and the real reason for recycling bins.

December, I see nothing special about December at all.

Octomembersaur is a new month that will be introduced in 2013 to cope with the revelation that mathematicians have still not agreed to adding in the leap second. Calculated back through time we are now in the age of the dinosaurs and require a new month of 40,000 years to bring us back in line. New fashions will include stone clubs, square wheels and of course the iCave, a dwelling hewn out of solid rock.

Your Lucky Lottery Numbers Are - 12,25,23,35,38,39
All are guaranteed to come up!!!!*

*At some point, in some lottery and not in this order, use of these numbers forms a contract between me and you. All winnings above £1 must be shared with me.

So all in all 2012 looks to be an exciting year!**

**Predictions may vary from ones given and I predict they may even be completely different, which as a prediction is a pretty accurate prediction so my predictions are of course valid.

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High Sniff

I think I knew yesterday morning that something was amiss. A strange tickling feeling at the back of my throat coupled with a mild ache hinted that all was not right. After a shocking nights sleep I have awoken with a full blown cold and hacking cough to match. My nose is bright red and full of snot, I have watery eyes and feel achy and sleepy.

Great.

Not the best of starts to Tuesday especially as I have such a lot to do today. Doing anything with a cold is like running through glue, mental processes become more muddled and anything a little physical feels draining. Hankies pile up, tablets are popped and the feel sorry for yourself feeling kicks in. See, even this blog entry feels miserable so lets brighten it up a little and take a look at a few new entries to the pet present hall of fame.

 Catnip bubbles! Wow, really send kitty bonkers, can you imagine the mayhem?

I'm not saying kitty in this video has tried them but imagine this ten fold, entire rooms will become shredded paper, cats will be hanging off the ceiling whilst others will be laid on their back chilling and wondering if there really is a dog. Cosmic man.

 Still, bunny teeth for dogs this Easter looks cool, not quite sure the dog thinks so. Shortly after this was taken Colin the Labrador ripped off his ears, spat out the teeth and proceeded to eat all the treat filled eggs. He was found two hours later with a treat induced high partying with the cosmic cats on the roof, he had turned his bunny ears upside down to make himself look like a four petal flower with his real ears. One of the kitties was wearing his teeth and pretending to be Tom Cruise.

Then things got really weird with Mr Whippy, a battery operated tormentor that attaches to any door handle and proceeds to 'whip' a flexible tail randomly. Pretty soon a posse of cosmic cats had attached themselves to the string for the ride of their lives as they were whipped around the furniture, bouncing off windows and ornaments whilst purring in chorus Meeeeeeoooowww Maaaaannn. The trip was halted suddenly as doped up dog Colin attached himself to the end, one particularly strong 'whip' threw Colin out of the window dragging Mr Whippy and the possy of kitties with him. They were all last seen orbiting Pluto leaving behind a rainbow trail that we originally thought was an increase in solar activity last week but turned out to be the newly named Colin Comet with Kitty Tail.

Colds are cool, either that or I have overdosed on Night Nurse.

Sherlock At The Seaside

Not all paintings start out the same way, certain ideas change as I hit obstacles whilst others change direction completely, none more so that Edisons Sherlock Sidewinder. Originally, after looking through my notes, I wanted to capture childhood seaside memories and tie the sidewinder back to a gentler time when visiting the seaside was in it's infancy. Bathing booths, stripy swimwear that covered everything and walks along the prom featured heavily during the Victorian era so my 'Twistory' idea was a slippery sidewinder found on a beach and admired greatly for it's elegance and poise but also cause controversy with it's incessant wriggling, a wriggling caused it to be eventually accused of being immoral and ultimately featured in the trial of the rector of Stiffkey in 1932 as part of his defence.

 So, it was sketched out complete with accompanying shells, starfish and lighthouse, all essential to a seaside scene.

 I even went as far as producing a quick oil sketch in muted tones to get a feel for it before I committed to painting.

 It felt right so off I went, roughly painting in the beach and sky, even the glass bowl started to look right as I painted in the curvature. Obviously it still needed an immense amount of work when I suddenly blanked. I mean really blanked. I knew what I wanted but that little image in my head had disappeared, no longer could I see the seaside, no longer could I see the sidewinder. Painting stopped for two weeks whilst I thought about it a little longer but it never returned.

 After those two weeks I went back to my list of memories I had written down a year earlier, seaside was still there but underneath it was the 'Sherlock Holmes', my favourite books from my childhood. The 'Twistory' started to build in my mind and the image of the sidewinder popped back into my head, this time though there was no beach, no starfish and no lighthouses, instead was a thinking sidewinder, a thinking sidewinder with a deerstalker hat and a pipe, deep in thought on a library shelf. The vision was back so I set too and produced this rough sepia field sketch.

 With the setting being indoors it made it easier to imagine so out came the props, in this case several old painting books, a glass flower bowl, some stiff wire, marbles, water and a plasticine magnifying glass complete with cling film lens.

 The next bit was a little easier, modelling the Sherlock Sidewinder, balancing it on an old brush held between two books and using the stiff wire as a counterweight to keep it upright. The whole scene was lit from the left to get maximum effect from the light through the water filled bowl and onto the books.

 That done it was sketched onto a prepared black coated board ready for it's first coat.

 Because I knew the light was going to be tricky I painted in the sidewinder first, the smoke needed to be done wet on wet so that was added too ready for the pipe to be painted in a little later.

 Using the black background I painted out from the deep dark tones and built up the glow gradually, you can see from this shot the tones through the glass are quite intense in areas and muted in others depending on the amount of colour I added on to of the black. If you look closely you can see especially in the glass bowl that the whole board was also heavily textured, this extra bit of detail allowed me to pool shellac in the areas to help with the ageing process at the end.

Many, many layers of glazing later the whole piece rose out of the black into full colour, all the lights had been captured to the best of my ability and the plasticine, sellotape roll and cling film magnifying glass didn't look too bad either. One final trick was to grind away some of the paint on the table to simulate wood grain and fill it back up using french polish, shellac coats the surface and then wiped off quickly leaving little feint pools in the texture. From seaside to shelf, from sidewinder to Sherlock, Edison's Sherlock Sidewinder was finished.

Mowing Down

 It's about this time of the year that the bigger powertools come out to play, with grass to cut, strimming to strim and hedges to trim. Some of the more beefier tools are prone to peculiarities though. The petrol strimmer for instance requires me to memorise a six sequence startup comprising of two switches, a bulb pump, a two stage throttle and a twin grip, all this so I can whip a few bits of grass into shape occasionally. Once started this beast becomes uncontrollable, the sheer power of the head makes it sway at speed and you find heads of flowers scattered everywhere you walk as it dips and takes bites out of everything around. Apparently I can get an attachment that would allow me to cut hedges which sounds fun but from past experience I can imagine I could inflict some wondrous injuries upon myself.

It was only in 2007 when I stepped in a small hole and nearly broke my ankle, in 2008 I managed to narrowly miss cutting the power cable with the powersaw and only last year building Bunnyopolis I managed to accumulate  so many scuffs and cuts on my arms and hands I looked liked I'd tumbled out of a tree and hit every branch on the way down. I even fell head first off the deck and into Bunnyopolis one night giving me such a deep cut in my leg that I still have the scar is still visable today.

 Anyway, injuries aside now the days are getting lighter and slightly dare I say it, warmer, the rest of the summerhouse contents get an airing. It's probably typical of most peoples garages and sheds, shelves full of paint and paintbrushes for the Easter DIY mania that engulfs the UK and sport and games equipment for the sunnier days. Looks like it needs a bit of a tidy up though, I'm sure that tin of Crown paint at the bottom has been there since 2000, come to think about it when did I buy those matchpots?

No tidying up this weekend though because on Saturday (10th) between 12-3pm we are at the wondrous Acorn Gallery in Pocklington.

 And on Sunday (11th) between 12-3pm we are here at the also wondrous Original Art Shop in Preston

So it looks like the shelves will have to stay that way for another few days at least when I'm sure I would have forgotten about them again and will act all surprised in another few weeks when I discover them still there.

Ooops, nearly forgot, the appearance at Trident Galleries in Leicester has moved, it's now a month earlier on Sunday 29th April between 12-3pm, and before I forget again, two new dates have been added, one in Glasgow and the other at Treeby & Bolton in Keswick, Cumbria. Full details on my website.

Demis Roussos

Cocktail sausages and the aroma of them filled the studio today as I constructed part of Abigail's Disco Tailed Peruvian Party Python environment. It's all well and good watching what you eat but leaning over half a dozen bite sized portions is still difficult and resisting the urge to sample one or two was very tempting indeed, even more so when they sat leaning against the cheese and pineapple sticks. I know the sausage above looks a little odd but it's just the base coat, further coats will apply a glaze to make it look fatty and tasty.

Once the scene was constructed the whole environment was taken outside and placed in the grass to add to the realism, the sun, or lack of it added to the look and once everything was positioned I snapped away with the camera for the right look. The python itself was constructed as usual out of plasticine and needed several matchstick supports to hold it together, especially as it's linked rather dubiously using pipe cleaners. It did loose a few links along the way as I realised I was going to need a fifty inch long canvas only nine inches high, scaling it back to a more manageable thirty eight inches looked better anyway.

Whilst rummaging in the grass I came across this little chap inspecting my python. I haven't the foggiest where he has come from or where indeed he was heading, anything remotely watery is a fair hop away, maybe he was just a little lost or fancied a sausage, we will never know because as quick as he came he disappeared when I turned my back, very mysterious. Gathering up all my things I returned indoors to the heady smell of cheese and pineapple. Maybe just one sausage after all. Nom, nom, nom.

Did I say one? Oh well, I must have misheard myself, I could have sworn I said finish them off.