Another postcard from York.

I've reached day four of my break...I'm having a lovely time. This city has lots to offer, history, beauty...shopping...great architecture...lovely walks...all you need for a lovely holiday. I'm sure if I was not alone and just about penniless, I'd have lots of gorgeous restaurants...wine bars...real ale pubs and wonderful tea rooms to frequent. One day eh?!...until then, I have two eyes, a big heart ...a fit body and an ok-ish camera....so here's some pics of my last few days.Enjoy.

Having a break in York.

Hello...I'm off on my holiday this week. First time I've holidayed alone. I'm privileged

enough to be housesitting for my close friend Alison and family whilst they are away in Italy. I'm in a lovely spot close to the city centre...I have a bike and the city is famed for it's extensive network of cycle paths and lanes. A 10 min ride see's me in the centre of York.

Today I visited the Minster which was a wonderful experience. I've never been inside before, it's huge...I'm famous for not being a great tourist...I don't like the endless trails of camera wielding wide eyed foreigners.... don't get me wrong...I come from a town where you can walk the length of the main street and not hear English spoken...I love the cosmopolitan atmosphere, and I love meeting people from around the world. But when ti comes to touristy places, I just want to be there alone...to sit...to feel the place...to be. ...and I often walk away froma place not having taken any photos. I like to hold the place in my memory and heart.

but there are exceptions...and being here is so very special on a personal and spiritual level. Spo here are a few snaps showing you some of the things I saw today. Tomorrow I'm heading for the National Railway museum! I think I'm likely to take quite a few photos there! ;)

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 I'm slowly reaching the effect I want with this scene. I have no reference to work from so I'm making it up...I realised that the steam from the locomotive was a little lost in the light blue sky, so I decided to add darker clouds to bring about a better contrast ( see below)...I will eventually add lots of yellow ochre woich will bring a glow to the whole scene, especially the brick work of the viaduct as it's bathed in that characteristic low amber sunshine that accompanies the rain and dark background.

I've also added in a small fishing boat surrounded by a flock of sea gulls.I'm quite enjoying this at the moment.

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Hello, it's me again! I wish I was at liberty to tell you about all the things happening in my life at the moment.Suffice it to say that I'm happier than I've been in years and embarking on a new journey. More about that another time.....(I hate having happy secrets...I want to tell everyone)

Today I've begun work on the viaduct and steam train...a long running theme in my work...journeys...destinies....I will never tire of the wonder of  railway station, the meeting place and transit base for myriads of lives...lovers out for a day at a gallery...someone on the way to the hospital to visit a dying relative...someone leaving home for the first time....a family on the way to the zoo....who can tell, but they're all there!

This viaduct is embedded in the sea...the sea represents life to me...pair it with the destiny and direction of the train...the solidity of the conduit....the addition of the gull, pens, ring and rainbow....you might glimpse a little of the meaning....and hopefully you'll come up with something special....perhaps you could share you finds with me and my readers. i love it when that happens!

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Gradually managing to block in the sky...not sure I intended it to look like this, but hey!...it's looking satisfactory. It's a shame that I'm losing touch with the blogging world at the moment....and if as a regular reader of this page, you're one of the dear friends of years past, I can only apologise... Face book seems to be all consuming... The truth is my life is changing...evolving...I find myself standing in unchartered waters...not always a pleasurable experience, but certainly one's eyes have been opened..and currently I'm at a happier and more peaceful harbour than I've enjoyed for many a year..unfortunately this means certain factors contained in this piece have changed their significance...( always a danger when a piece takes up to 6 months to complete!) .But as always...every picture tells a story...and this story is mine...and it's being written with each dot and day.

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Today's progress involved the clouds...I've deepened the shade of the sky behind my head to highlight the star. I have also finished the hair!

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I have hair!! 

Hello...it seems ages since I last posted here. So much has happened since last time...not least of which was ( for me ) probably one of the best Wimbledon finals weekends ever. I had two of my favourite Ladies in the final which was won by French number one, Marion Bartoli, and of course Andy Murray became the first British winner of the men's title for 77 years! what a great time I had!! 

I've also been in hospital for a planned operation from which i'm recovering well. spending time working has beeen the one thing I've been able to do, so I've put time in to give the back ground a little more substance. the photo below shows the ares immediately behind me over my shoulders is mad up of a graded layer of  purple then red and then light blue. The overall density of this area will be adjusted at a later date as will the addition of yellow ochre.

I've also been looking for work...a few good leads have surfaced then been swept away. It seems that my boss is guiding me continually towards making my living with my talent. To that end I received an unlooked for contact which has come good...more about it another time, but it means I have an opportunity to join with other artists in my home town to take part in art/craft/ makers fayres on a monthly basis. The journey continues!

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Readers will be pleased to note that I'm on the verge of giving myself some hair at long last....!

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working on the sky now...I'm using a series of resource photos of various cloudscapes and rainbows. I had originally decided to have the clouds white and fluffy, but the colour scheme I've settled on will be more subtle hopefully creating a  highlights to the outline of my arms and allows the rainbow itself to glow....at least that's the plan.

My current search for other employment is as you'd expect not great...if i'm absolutely honest, i'd rather not, but there is an imperative....

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Added the final layers of detail to the jumper before carefully placing green dots over virtually all the white spaces on the jumper between the blue and red dots.I'm quite happy with things as they stand, but I'll need to return to some of the shadows at a later date. The next stage is to begin work on the back ground and that rainbow!

Today we celebrated my son Sam's 21st Birthday. It's funny, because I can look back over all of his short life and recall just about every year. He still seems so young. but I became engaged to Janet on my 21st back in 1982! Oh how the perspective of the young is different to the more mature eh?!

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Seems a long time since I last posted here. It's odd really, because I've been writing this blog since way back in 2007. ..and have a few readers subscribing ...but nothing in comparison to the readership/ reach I have over on Face Book. I actually prefer the 'space' that writing here gives me, but have tended to scale back the depth of description as time has gone by. I guess it has a lot to do with my changing personal circumstance and the effect that it's having on me. 

Work has continued on my self portrait...I'm enjoying it still, but there is a lot of subtle stuff yet to do before i'm entirely happy with the sleeve. I decided earlier in the week not to bother trying to depict the stitch detail, but as I worked today for a long period, it became something that needed to be done...and so far it seems to have worked.

I managed a weekend away this week with my daughter Annie...we were guests of our good friends Alison and Mark, Josh and Freya in York. The picture below shows Annie and I at Sandsend enjoying a warm sunny day...ice cream was had and a visit to an art gallery made it a very enjoyable day. We then went on to Whitby where we enjoyed fish and chips overlooking the harbour. 

This weekend away actually constituted my summer holiday this year....what it lacked in length, it made up for in being able to see good friends old and new and relax. Good stuff!

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I've added the basic layer of Blue-Black (yes, that is the name of the ink I'm using!)  Detail of the stitches in the garment are beginning to be filled in. It's a tricky process which I hope will give a good effect. I'm also exaggerating the detail slightly from the way it appears in my reference photos, this is purely for effect and to hopefully increase the three dimensional appearance...I want the arms to appear as if they are reaching out to the viewer.

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I though you might like to see a picture which gives you some idea of the size of Rainbow Warrior. Work has sped up somewhat mainly due to the areas of light on the folds of the material. the next sleeve has many folds which are highlighted...so more of a challenge but should be quicker to complete.

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It's been a matter of hard work today...nothing spectacular, just hard slog! But it's this work which pays dividends later on...large areas of colour have a good impact on the appearance of the work. Close up of course the density of the dots creates a pleasing texture which I really like and adds another dimension to the piece.

Below are a couple of photos I took this week from my bedroom window...I'll be incorporating a rainbow in the picture ....give me another month and i'll be on it!

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After my teaching day yesterday ( did I mention I did a day in a local school teaching year one and two about Pointillism?) I was able to return to work on this piece. This is where my artist heart beats...this is the thing that makes my heart beat faster today ( despite the 5 miles of running I also did!) During recent exhibitions, I try to explain to people that I love the process of working on a long term project. I love the fact that it's NOT instant ...I love the fact that it grows slowly...I love the fact that it becomes part of my life, and comes from my life, a result of all I have gone through. Whatever I am working on is the point.....the point that my life has been leading up to. This is me.

Willington Arts Festival - Day One.

I still get shocked when I see photos of myself. In my mind I'm still 28, dark haired and irrepressibly virile. but i'm not...I'm 51, grey haired and resistibly sterile! (I'm not sterile really, but I thought it would sound funny in that sentence.)...but you get the idea. 

Here I am at the Willington Arts Festival. A friendly festival which though not on a large scale like the Wirksworth has been running now for 7 years i think. I'm sitting in a room i'm sharing with fellow artist Martin Sloman...behind me in the picture through the door is a large school room with another 12 artists approx.

I managed to sell three prints, which is better than nothing! But I can't help but feel a little twinge of frustration considering all the work producing/ mounting and framing things that i though would be popular. Never mind, it's the nature of the business! Once again also it's frustrating not to be able to show my best work which still remains unframed and under the table! I'm sort of loathed to frame them in cheap Ikea frames...they need something more substantial!.

It was also good to be able to talk to quite a few people who were genuinely impressed with my work and knowledgeably so with regard to the historical relevance of Divisionalism/ Pointillism.I sometimes feel connected (at least in passion and intention) to the Post impressionists. I often feel alone in my work and have regularly become down hearted. But days like today have the ability to refire the heart and sharpen the resolve.My desire to develop and push the boundaries of the technique are strengthened  My only concern is that i remain alive long enough to do what I dream of doing!

The final five. No more minipix!

It does happen...and it happens on a regular basis...what am i talking about? Dissatisfaction is what! you'd think with someone like me who is gifted/cursed with almost endless patience would never get dissatisfied. but you'd be wrong, I'm actually fed up with these minipics. Which is a bit of a problem because I've discovered over the last month that they're quite popular and sell well! I see I'm going to have to do more at some point, but to be honest, they don't reflect or ignite the passion I feel for my bigger more complex symbolic pieces. but i have to face facts....no one is going to pay thousands of pounds for those, and I need to to earn money. So minipics it is! I think you'll have to wait quiet some time before I return to these little beggers!