Spoonful - 23

Had a couple of difficult days which amongst other annoying stuff  included a poorly lap top...thankfully the cure for the lap top was no more serious than a new power supply lead. Could have been so much more expensive!  I've worked on the sky mainly today which has included work on the planets...the first one I worked on was directly above the medicine Cello Girl's head...the current one undergoing work is to the right of the ,matron's face.

An exhibition - By Tim Young

 I thought you might like to see a couple of photographs of my Brother Tim's first ever exhibition of art which ran this weekend. Tim likes to produce varied subjects, but majors on wildlife, birds especially...so it was particularly fitting that his first exhibition should be at the Attenbourgh Nature Reserve near Nottingham..

Tim works predominantly in pencils, but also uses watercolours and ink...and is seen here with his wife Wendy demonstrating his work to my wife Jan!

 The exhibition attracted a lot of interest over the weekend with over 100 people calling to see the works. Below you can see an examples of his work...the Kingfisher in the foreground is particularly striking!

I was especially proud to see his work since my Father who died in 2000 was a very keen breeder and watcher of birds...he used to tell Tim and I all about  birds when we were young..and it would have made him incredibly proud to see that the wonder and delight with which he taught us to appreciate wildlife had continued long after he had passed away.

Spoonful - 22

Cello girl number four is a miserable so and so...I think I can honestly say that my art...my creativity and all that it concerns has seen me experience the happiest and the saddest of emotions..the absolute joy of imagining something, then creating it and having another person or persons relate to it and gain meaning and pleasure from it is fantastic. The absolute frustration of encountering the limitations of one's ability and the inability to make my 'business' a 'success' is heart rending.

Spoonful - 21

Here's a close up of my Cello girls..I never seem to get the knickers right...for the purposes of these recent woks, I'm not aiming (mainly due to my lack of ability )  to achieve the lightness and delicacy I'd idealy want. As an important symbolic and fetishistic part of my visual referencing, it's important to me that i get things right...so far I haven't...but i'm having fun trying!...

Spoonful - 20

Well...what can I say...I'm still working and as you see, here is the start of the penultimate Cello girl..here she's representing visual art...that's why she's carrying a picture frame...I'm toying with the idea that it will be one of my pictures...which one ?..there are also more bubbles around her head as the final Cello girl will be the one blowing the bubbles...!

Spoonful - 19

Spoonful - 18

Not a great deal of progress today..but did manage a good run this morning and met a good friend for coffee and a walk in the gorgeous sunshine this afternoon..rather chilly though!..

Spoonful - 17

It's a funny time of year for me...kids are back to school/ college..and Jan has gone to India for a while to work..she's a guest of the Cochin university in  Kerala...all very exciting..the visit is to plan a series of training sessions for Doctors in medical schools across India..potentially a big contract and a gateway to many more visits to India.
So I'm going to hopefully take advantage  of the 'quiet' by doing lots more running and lots more work on this piece. My work ethic has decreased considerably in recent months...if I'd been working on this picture a year or two ago, this amount of work would represent two weeks progress...instead it's taken me two months.

Spoonful - 16

The first Cello girl represents music...the second is faith..the third is literature...the fourth will be art...the fifth will be....

Spoonful - 15

girl mnumber three has emerged from the mist...more to do on number two though.....where are the bubbles coming from?

Spoonful - 14

 OK...don't faint..it's me again! third day in a row...i know! but like i said..once I get back into a routine, i find it much easier to work. Inspiration wise I had  hit a bit of a dry patch..my original concept for this piece was about the artist being convince/coerced into conforming to set patterns of  expression and presentation as prescribed by the 'world' to an extent that even though the artist might want to forge a path of discovery, a certain inbred and actually false notion of what the 'art world' expects prevails thus rendering the artist ineffectual.
I needed to find again my sense of wonder and love of symbolism..and a disregard for what other people think. This of course is difficult since I have removed myself from the world of exhibiting my work...I no longer have the public feedback regarding what I'm trying to do. I have only the memory that my Cello girls, Mad vicars...Cancan dancers and trains are what the public said they loved about my work...and thankfully, they are what I love about it too.! So if you don't like what I do..you don't have to look at it, you know where the door is! If you do like what I do....then hold on...there's lots more to come!

Spoonful - 13

It's good to be able to get back to some sort of routine after the School holidays...I like my work day routine. I work best when I can spend lengthy amounts of time working without interruption. Despite the many years now working virtually every day with this technique, it still takes a while to settle into it each day. This has to do not only with getting my equipment and my desk organised, but requires my breathing and heart rate to calm. Since I've been running, my heart rate and breathing have reduced in frequency... in fact my resting pulse is around 63 beats per minute! But a few minutes sitting quietly and thinking about what I want to achieve during the day will see me ready....usually!

Spoonful - 12

The girls will have black gloves since I made a mess of Cello girl number 2's hands...!Some of the best ideas come from mistakes!

Spoonful - 11

Not much to show ....but I have at least returned to this piece. Girl number 2 is taking shape ( only three more to go!) I also taking this opportunity to wish you all a very happy new year...my how the time flies!