New paintings on eBay

Thank you everyone .. all the paintings are now sold.
I can't say that I am happy with the new eBay pricing structure and have signed an online petition against their 100% commission increase (they even charge commission on the postage you charge now!!!!!). There must be a better way ;-)

The Musician

16 x 12 inches oil on Gatorfoam panel
SOLD

OK! Last one for today. This was a commission for the owner of the Martin Committee trumpet shown in the painting (as played by the greats). I was asked to do this by his parents as a birthday gift and they suggested adding the hat and suitcase because they had really liked the ones I had done previously).

My first trumpet painting and probably my last (way too much fiddly work ;-) but I did enjoy it.

Three Grannies

12 x 9 inches oil on Gatorfoam panel

Granny Smiths, my favourite apple (and Neil Hollingsworths too I believe), always good to paint and they don't take as long as lemons, so another plus in their favour ;-)

Lemon in the Balance

8 x 8 inches oil on Gatorfoam panel

Another trompe lemon. These are heaven and hell to paint and every time I ask myself why I do it!!! It can be difficult to make these work but I guess you will be the judge if it does ;-)

Lemon and Green

12 x 9 inches oil on Artfix oil primed linen panel
SOLD

Wow! I didn't realise how long it's been since the last post so I'll post a few today. I have been busy doing a few commissions but I didn't post them because they were similar to others I have done (as requested by the clients) so I didn't want to send everyone to sleep ;-)

I have been making my own panels with Artfix L84C quadruple primed linen (expensive!!) and Ampersand hardboard. The linen is amazing to paint on, very smooth and the paint goes on wonderfully for each layer (way better than acrylic primer), I would really recommend it.

And now for something completely different ....

SOLD

OK! I lied ;-)
This is another 'trompe l'oeil' (fool the eye) done on a 8 x 8 inch three quarter inch thick 'Blick Studio' panel (these panels have a textured surface but I sanded it smooth). Yes, it is just a flat surface ;-)
It works a lot better in real life as I just can't get the photo to convey the real impression of depth. Does anyone have a really expensive Nikon digital SLR they don't need anymore? ;-)

New Stuff ...

Yes, a long time between postings but you get three for the price of one this time - and only two of them are lemons :-)

I have had some commissions recently that I've been working on so I have been keeping busy but I have been rather neglectful of the blog. I also feel that there have been too many lemons posted so I haven't posted all of them, but they have proved so popular and everyone keeps asking me for them so I can't get away from them - anyway, I like painting them so much ;-)
I have some new non-lemon related themes on the go at the moment so if all goes well this may be a lemon free zone for a while :-)

These three new paintings are all oil on panel and I have decided to try them on eBay just to see if it will work for me.
Just click the links if you'd like to take a look.
Lemon and knife - 8 x 6 inches
Jug/milk - 12 x 9 inches
Square lemon/glass - 12 x 12 inches

ALL SOLD 

Did I mention that I also paint lemons ;-)

12 x 9 inches, oil on Gatorfoam panel

I was asked to do a commission based one one of my older paintings with lemons refracted in a glass of water and thought I would do a small series of them as I love the distortion and discontinuation of the lemons behind the glass. This is the second (haven't got a photo of the commission yet) and there will be at least one more :-)
I used walnut oil and Venetian turpentine as the medium on this one.

Greeting Cards

I have decided to try a few of my paintings as greeting cards and these are the only ones that I have decent high resolution images of at the moment. Unfortunately I wont be able to re-photograph my older works that have sold :-( I guess this will have to be a future enterprise and maybe I should design some specially.
If anyone is interested you can see them here: RedBubble

Tangerine dream

12 x 9 inches, oil on Gatorfoam panel
SOLD to Ryan Gallery Las Vegas

I did a smaller version of this about a year back without the knife (which is on the cover of the Blick catalogue this year) and just wanted to enjoy painting a tangerine again but using walnut oil this time.
I have started buying unrefined walnut oil from my local supermarket and 'washing' it myself to clean it.
You do that by putting distilled water and walnut oil (50/50) in a clean glass jar, give it a shake and leave it to stand in the sun for about three days. The water pulls the impurities out of the oil and so you are left with oil at the top, mucilage (the impurities) in the middle and the water at the bottom.
Then I carefully extract the oil into another clean glass jar with a pipette leaving behind the mucilage and water to throw away. I then leave the oil in the sun for a further 3/4 days (with the top not on too tight to let a little air in) which lightens the colour quite a lot.
if it was good enough for Da Vinci, it's good enough for me ;-)

Apparently, walnut does not yellow as much as linseed and my next step is to press my own oil from the millions of walnuts cluttering the garden each year.
I still add cobalt drier to speed up the drying time as walnut takes longer to dry than linseed.

Leaving on a jet plane

16 x 12 inches - Oil on Gatorfoam
SOLD to Ryan Gallery Las Vegas

This is my Winter hat and an old suitcase that I store old video tapes in (so, two lots of antiques ... if you don't include me that is ;-)
I like doing these retro scenes so I may hunt out some more objects that I can use in the junk shops around here.
More lemons and tangerines coming soon - so no surprises there (I'm self indulgent, what can I say!).

Moving pictures (sort of)

If anyone is interested in taking a look, I have added a movie of some of my paintings to YouTube.
For anyone with a Mac and iMovie it is really easy to do so let me know if you want to have a go at one.

Let there be light

12 x 9 inches, oil on Gatorfoam panel
SOLD

I thought I'd try another candle but fill the background in this time to give it a darker feel. I think that I need a lot of time working with this kind of subject to get it the way I really want it to look. If any of you know Joseph Wright of Derby's candle/fire paintings you'll know what I mean ;-)
I had loads of fun painting the very bottom of the candlestick but the background was a nervy time for me and I kept putting it off (so I left it until the very last ;-).

I did something I don't usually do with this one too: I cropped the books. I wanted to do this one in portrait aspect and not landscape so that the candle would be bigger and if I had included all the books the candle would have been too small and insignificant.

Peeled

12 x 9 inches - oil on Gatorfoam panel
SOLD

When you click the image you will see that I left the photo bigger than life size for a change so those of you who revel in getting up close and personal can see it warts and all ;-)
This one has gone to the Elliot Foutts Gallery in Sacramento. They are a big supporter of my work and they are great people too :-)

I like painting on these panels as they are very smooth and unbelievably light, they are also very cheap. I give them three coats of white gesso (sanded with very fine sandpaper between each coat) and then a final coat of Winsor & Newton Galleria gloss acrylic medium to make them less absorbent.
I get the 3/16 inch thick panels.
You can get them here (mentioning my name wouldn't hurt me ;-): windriverarts.com

Wine on the vine

16 x 12 inches - oil on hardboard panel
SOLD

This is quite a big one for me and I started it many months ago but gave up on it, and then I started experimenting with different mediums so I thought it would be good to use this failure as a test (so as not to ruin a new one if the experiment went disastrously wrong).
I think I managed to save it so I'm glad I didn't paint over it or use it as a cutting board (as has happened with other dubious offerings).

I'll be mentioning more about mediums from James Cosgrove in the next post when I hope to have a new candle painting completed exclusively with a new mix I am using incorporating some of his fine products.

I finished all the paintings for the Tallantyre Gallery in the UK so I hope to be posting some new work soon that will be available for sale - when I get around to doing some more photos.
This one may or may not be going to the Mason Murer Gallery in Atlanta as I have a lemon painting going to them for a show in April and may send this along for company ;-)

Candle light

12 x 9 inches -Gatorfoam panel - SOLD

I did the under painting to this one in burnt sienna with the aim of darkening the background with a more opaque black later, but I like the effect of the rough brushwork and the ground showing through so I have left it like this (no, being a lazy devil had nothing to do with it …. honest ;-)
I'm not sure that I will do others like this and am still undecided.

I have ordered some new traditional mediums from James Cosgrove and can't wait to try them so I hope to have a review of them soon. Yes, I probably do have a medium fetish ;-) This painting was just a 50/50 mix of stand oil and gum turpentine with a few drops of cobalt dryer added to the days mix.

Just a quickie ....

5 1/2 x 7 inches - hardboard panel - SOLD

I enjoyed doing the reflections in the little silver bowl and the 'white' of the lily is always challenging (I use white, raw umber, ultramarine blue and a hint of lemon yellow).

Surprise! Another post ...

9 x 12 lead primed linen panel
SOLD - Tallantyre Gallery UK

I just thought I'd post another painting of the broken plant pot for your perusal seeing as it has been so long since the last post ;-)

Where does the time go?

16 x 12 inches linen panel
SOLD to Tallantyre Gallery UK

I never meant to let so much time go by until this latest post but I seem to be living in a time warp.
I have been experimenting with various panels and mediums and had quite a few failures but i felt it was worth the time and effort as I now seem to have found the ideal panel ... I used to use Belgian linen mounted on Gatorfoam panels but now I just use the Gatorfoam panels themselves (bare of linen). I give them two coats of acrylic gesso and then a coat of re-touch varnish to lower the absorbency.
The above painting was done on a lead primed very smooth linen but I didn't enjoy the process at all. It was very smooth but sucked the life out of the paints and took too long to achieve the finished effect so I wont be using it again.
If you are interested in trying the Gatorfoam go here: windriver arts
you can say you heard of them from me as they don't have the panels advertised on the site and I had to ask specially. They are very helpful :-)
I'll be posting some of the newer paintings on the Gatorfoam very shortly.

The Tallantyre Gallery in the UK has asked for 8-10 paintings for a show in London in April so I have about six paintings on the go at the moment (they have accept five others) so I have been very lucky in my start to the new year :-)

I will try and remember to post more work over the next few weeks (providing I don't mess them up that is ;-) but should I enter the twilight zone you will know that ..... I'll be back!!!!