Video

Here is My Animoto Video not perhaps as exciting as it could be, but there you go!

Make your own slideshow at Animoto.

Life is the same and it always will be (hey hey hey)

More paintings- all small two of them titled after a well known T Rex song, the other an old Elvis Costello number. Having finished this series of small paintings I have spent the last hour or two stretching two 1 metre square canvases. So now have two big blank white canvases sitting on easels behind me. Intimidating bastards, I'll 'ave em.

Less than zero (41x27cm)

Solid Gold Easy Action 2 (40x40cm)

Solid Gold Easy Action 1 (40x40cm)

Hey hey hey, hey hey hey
Life is the same and it always will be, hey hey hey
Easy as picking foxes from a tree, hey hey hey
But I can't get no satisfaction, all I want is easy action

Hey hey hey, hey hey hey
A stud is a lamb with the thoughts of a tiger, hey hey hey
Moves like a cat and knows how to ride her, hey hey hey
But I can't get no satisfaction, all I want is easy action baby

Hey hey hey, strule on!
But I can't get no satisfaction, all I want is easy action

Hey hey hey, hey hey hey
A woman from the East with her headlights shining, hey hey hey
Eased my pain and stopped my crying, hey hey hey
But I can't get no satisfaction, all I want is easy action baby

Hey hey hey, hey hey hey
You know my head will keep her smiling
My wondrous walk and my telephone dialing
I can't get no satisfaction, all I want is easy action baby

Hey hey hey, hey hey hey
I know you're shrewd and she's a dude but all I want is easy action
I know you're shrewd and she's a dude but all I want is easy action
I know you're shrewd and she's a dude but all I want is easy action, baby

Hey hey hey, strule on!
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey ...

Manifesto for a post-post-modern world

The Vorticists produced a "Manfiseto for a Modern World".  Are we now in a "post-modern" world? No, we're past that (or ought to be), so what we need is a manifesto for a post-post-modern world. Except the best thing about manifestos is the word "Manifesto". Lovely word. A quick Wikipedia search reveals: "Manifesto is derived from the Italian word manifesto, itself derived from the Latin manifestum, meaning clear or conspicuous". Given nothing could be less clear than a manifesto for a post-post modern world (even the sodding title is confusing - But what the hell IS post-post modern?) I think the best thing would be to produce some paintings (which is what Wyndham Lewis should have done rather than printing his objectionable racist tracts).  

Manifesto for a post post modern world (Big Eyed Bean from Venus)

There you go. This painting is 180x120cm and was previously "Big Eyed Bean from Venus" and before that many other things. It may stay like this for a while now it's a manifesto - but I decided not to completely lost the Big Eyed Bean thing - it would dishonour Captain beef heart, and we can't have that.

 (I don't wanna be) The Prisoner 30x30cm

Baby's On Fire 40x50cm

Rock the casbah 40x40

The other three (now completed) paintings from "April Experiments" all have song-related titles (now there's a surprise)  Brian Eno and the Clash. Still working on three more small pictures from the "Experiments"

April Experiments

So here are six paintings I am working on - haven't decided they are finished yet - Will leave them a day and have another look. The last you may recognise as the remains of "Big Eyed Bean from Venus" which I have re painted. Anyway, here you go:

Big Eyed Bean From Venus

At last. Here is the big painting I have been struggling with for a few weeks. I thought out deserved a big name - courtesy of Captain Beefheart of course.

Big Eyed Bean From Venus
12x180cm, mixed media on canvas

Painting abstracts - this is where it leads

So the transformation continues. iPad sketches inspiring new paintings. New styles. I feel very comfortable with this at the moment. Painting abstracts is a strange thing. Expressing yourself becomes very important, rather than the technical exercise of making a painting. And this can sometimes lead you down a difficult road for a number of reasons. What is it you want to express? Is it pure emotion? Is it an idea? It is easy to get lost in either of these and what appears on the canvas is not necessary satisfying in any way at all. You have to be aware of composition, colour and light. And the danger of being over aware of that is to end up with over-constructed paintings - that can be little more than designs or decorations. So the key thing is get a balance - get it right - somewhere between the two - this is when it works. When you see an abstract painting that works for YOU it is because the painter has got this right - not always consciously (actually often better when it isn't). Somehow the artist's expression has combined expression, composition, colour so that the paintings just work.

These are my new paintings. I hope they work for you.

Barbie's Dead
mixed media on canvas 60x60cm

Justice Tonight

mixed media on canvas 80x80cm

Time of the Season

mixed media on canvas 33x46cm

These are three smallish new paintings. The titles all come from songs one way or another, for various reasons. You will be able to tell by my signature on the last one that I decided to turn the bottom of the three 90° anti-clockwise from how it was painted. Just decided I preferred it like this. To be honest it wasn't painted in ANY particular way, I turned it several times.

A few more iPad abstracts

Today I've been working on canvases based on my iPad scratchings - here's some more iPad paintings I did. I'm quite enjoying this process -0 both the iPad painting and the canvas interpretations. When the paintings finished I'll put them up here and I guess a comparison can be made. I printed one of these too, and I like the result. Meanwhile you will have noticed I have changed the design of both the blog and the website. I decided I preferred seeing my pictures on a white background.