"Fleurs" expo

Early first announcement:

Last Sunday was supposed to be the date for the "marché de creation"  in Les Matelles.  I had decided that I was going to just exhibit/sell my flower paintings, which various people have said they like, and have said are "commercial". However, last Sunday turned out to be the wettest day of the year - thunderstorms, 50km/h winds etc - and to top it off I put my back out. So that put paid to that. In  the meantime I had nicely prepared my flower paintings - battening them, framing them etc. o it occurred to me that as I am leaving my atelier/gallery in July (can't afford it any more - if anyone has a cheaper space in the surrounding 100 miles please let me know!!) I might as well use the gallery space before I go. So one and one does make two, and here's an announcement with regard to an exp[o of flower paintings for 3 weeks in June. Come one, come all. No vernissage I'm afraid, but if you pop by I might offer you a glass of something. Water probably!

Olympic Gold

Olympic Gold

Personally I'm not a fan of the olympics. They cost far too much money and benefit very few. The billions spent would be far better off in bankers pockets. What? Did I say that? I mean better spent on charities, education, community, health and housing. Anything that benefits people in need, not elite sports people, sponsors, and the people who get a strange kick watching obscure sports every four years. So why this painting? Why this title? Answers on a postcard...

A twopenny halfpenny or two penny farthings?

A couple of years ago at the Ganges 1900 festival i took these photos:

Some time later I painted this picture, called "Penny Farthings":

Anyway, I was never really satisfied with it. It wasn't technically good enough, the composition wasn't satisfying, etc. so I put it aside. A couple of weeks ago I got asked to take part in this years' Ganges 1900: as a street painter. There will be a few of us, and we get to show off our work in the streets and in the shops in Ganges for a month after, and we get a free meal - so it all sounded good to me! Anyway, I took out the penny farthings painting again, and started doing more to it. This is where I am up to:

Better, I think. BUT I am thinking of cutting the painting in half and rest re-stretching it into two paintings like this:

Which is kind of back to where I started. perhaps I should change them into black and white photos?

Reflections

On sunday we spent the day flogging bubble swords and t shirts at the "Fète Médiéval" which happens every year in this village. I've uploaded pictures of it before on this blog that you can see here. I guess we did ok, selling more t shirts in previous years - which is nice (want to see what they are like?: Go to my little market shop) . One of the downsides of the day was that a mirror got smashed (by my wife I should quickly add, pointing the finger appropriately). But since every cloud has a silver lining - or at least every mirror does (see what I did there?) - I decided to use the smashed mirror shards in the paintings I am working on currently. And here's the first one finished. Originally I decided to call it "Reflections".

Reflections 1 (100x100cm)