May was a busy one and so is June........

May was a busy one.

As Spring continued with some rather beautiful weather I’ve had to spend a lot of time in the studio, but not on painting.

It’s mostly been dealing with packaging up prints to send off to new homes and organising frames, tubes, boxes, post offices and the rest……

One of the latest series of prints, illustrating my old ‘stomping ground’ in Wantage, Oxfordshire took me completely by surprise.

I have been lucky enough to receive lots of support from many old friends in the place that I spent many of my formative years. As a little thank you to them, I designed a print in the style of the old GWR posters of the ’30’s.

It shows the town square with the famous statue of King Alfred front and centre. A highly stylised image, but one I hoped those supporters might enjoy.

Many refer affectionately to Wantage as ‘The ‘Tage’ so I included that on the print as well.

I popped the image up on Facebook and immediately had lots of folks asking for prints.

As many of the friends I’ve known over the years have moved and resettled elsewhere I found myself sending prints off all over the UK, off to Australia and even one for an old friend now in New Zealand.

What a surprise that was!

The print can be seen on my Prints website here:

something-different

King Alfred and THE 'TAGE

Created to be reminiscent of the 1930's GWR posters with blocky colours, limited detail and a deliberate attempt to be as far from photorealistic as possible.

The image does one thing: reminds the viewer of Alf in the 'Tage.

The ‘Something Different’ section on the Prints website will be populated with prints of my original paintings that don’t quite fit into my ‘Collections’ themes.

I have only just added this section, but if you are a follower of the Blog, you will know when new work has been added.

In addition I was really thrilled to announce a winner for my Free A3 Framed Print Draw. Rebecca from Essex won the framed print and it was duly packaged up and dispatched to Essex.

She chose ‘Charlecote Park on the Avon’ from my ‘Rivers in the Landscape’ Collection and it was a great experience to send that off to such a lovely lady.

I have just done the draw for June, and this month’s winner is Mark in Liverpool. He’s chosen ‘The Last Wave’ from the ‘Surfing Destinations’ collection.

Orders for prints have continued to come in throughout the month and now I’m looking at scheduling time for some new work.

I’m creating a series of en plein air, alla prima oils on board; smaller than usual, that will be very accessible for those wanting something simple to frame themselves.

In addition I have the larger paintings to do and so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for some good weather to get out and about.

Things are looking very busy!

And away..... to a new home.

Ah, framing and packing......

On top of that I have decided to create a YouTube Channel to host new videos that I will be creating out and about while I work. Should be fun.

As I’ve been rattling on about sending my work out to people I thought it might be an idea to mention that process.

I’ve taken a few shots of the packing as I’ve put together some of the prints and framed prints. I think people often forget how much goes into getting these things from ‘me to you’.

With the signed, unframed prints, these go out in tubes along with print care and a certificate of authenticity. The regular prints are a bit simpler and go alone in their tubes.

The framed prints are wrapped, paperwork added and then sealed in heavy duty, telescopic cardboard boxes and then everything goes off to the post office and, as standard, is sent via Post Office 48hour Tracked.

For ‘Original Oils’ paintings, I have a different system and usually work this out with the purchaser directly.

I have even had the opportunity of handing over framed oil paintings directly to their new owners as they have been close by enjoying a holiday or weekend trip.

Back to the painting side of things, I’ve been happily experimenting and using my wonderful new Rosemary and Co brushes as well as some really interesting new paints from Michael Harding.

I love the Michael Harding oils as they are just so creamy to use and the colours are stunning.

I have been experimenting with some lead white replacement oils as well just to get those slightly warmer whites you just can’t get with titanium.

After the fun of creating the still life pieces in the dark chiaroscuro style HERE

I am looking forward to the freedom and immediacy of painting outside again.

So June into July is looking like a month of producing new work, getting that all filmed for Youtube and getting new work photographed and up on the websites. Exciting times.

Again, if you see me out and about please come and say hello, it’s always lovely to chat with people that love art and the outdoors as much as I do.

Speak soon,