Synchronicity

There is a story behind this painting:

SOLD: 9 x 12 inches, oil on Belgian linen

Four weeks ago I took my father for a minor operation to the suburb of a city 40 miles away and while I was waiting for him to come out of surgery I took a drive into the historical town centre to walk around and take some photos.
I saw this 18th century door and brass knocker and thought it would make a nice composition:
The square, the circle and the almost triangle of the shadow - I left the knocker at an angle on purpose so that it wasn't too symmetrical.

Then, last week I had to take dad for an eye examination to the same city (but this time in the centre), we didn't know where the clinic was so we printed a map from Google maps, when we found the road we were looking for, we counted the doors down to number 9 and guess which door we were standing outside .... yes, this one, this was were the appointment was for.
What drew me to that door weeks ago in a city with thousands of ancient and small streets - I have no idea!
The chances must be millions to one of this happening ... weird huh!

Au Pear

9 x 12 inches, oil on Belgian linen panel - SOLD

A break from the 3D stuff (but more to come) and back to black with more of a classical theme.
I do love this oil primed linen and would recommend that you give it a try, if you haven't already. It is Claessens #13 (fine weave) and I get my panels here: SourceTek
I thought painting pears would be easy, but it took a lot of fine tuning to get them to this stage (I'm a bit of a plodder) but it hasn't put me off and I will be trying some more very soon. Methinks a levitating pear is called for to counter the gravity of the above ;-)

Snug as two jugs .....

8 x 8 inches oil on panel - SOLD

Right ..... I also had problems with this one with a certain blogger (yes, you know who you are Rahina ... OOPS!) who wasn't sure what exactly was painted so I guess I need to explain that everything here is painted except the black background which is just the board I hung it on for the photo.
I posted the side view so that you can see the depth of the panel. It also surprised me that the illusion of 3D worked from the side too .... shiver me timbers (am I too late to get the Pirate talk in?).
Still life next time while I work on the other 'trompe' paintings.

The illusive Pimple ... sorry! ... Pimpernel

Yes, I'm back and a tad later than I thought I would be.
I decided to try and do some more trompe l'oeil (fool the eye - 3D will do just as well) paintings and they take a lot longer to do because of the care you have to take to create the illusion. It no longer is just a painting, it has to look as real as you can make it with a flat surface and some paints.


The painting is hanging on a black board so I can show the shadow the panel casts on the wall to help the illusion (the black background is not part of the painting). The photo below shows it from different angles.

Art Deco Espresso Cup 8 x 8 inches, oil on panel - FOR SALE

Now, some people who had sneak previews actually wondered what is going on here (they thought that the outside 'frame' was real and not painted) .... so I did these four photos of the painting from different angles hanging on a black board.
It is painted on a flat panel that has a frame glued to the back as shown below (courtesy of Dick Blick art supplies).
More 3D and still life to come over the next few days (then probably silence for the next 2 months ;-)

Back from the dead?

I thought that I had better put something on the blog before it became extinct.
The lack of posting is due to receiving a commission from Winsor & Newton in July. They wanted one of my paintings to put on the labels of a new fine detail canvas that they are going to market, so I did two paintings (so they could choose one of them) and they took both of them ......
They wanted a similar one to the lemons on the home page of my site. I don't know how the design will look yet and they have promised to send some photos when they are done so I will post them when I get them.

This lily painting was done for Regina (a great customer in Bermuda) and I also did two other commissions since the W&N one but can't post them becasue I forgot to take photos before I sent them off!!!!!.
I am working on some new ones though (one trompe l'oeil as promised - which is taking more time than I thought!) and I will try to be a good, if somewhat erratic, blogger by getting them on here soon ..... duck, there goes a flying pig ;-)

Flying saucer ....

Well, couldn't find any more gravity defying fruit but I did come across this cup and saucer to continue the theme. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!

8 x 8 inches ready to hang panel: SOLD