Matilda

My lovely Matilda. She died suddenly last year and I've been mulling over this picture ever since. Nice to have her slightly evil glare looking at me every day again.

easter splat picture

First day of the holidays splat pictures by my eight year old and his friend ...
They make me think of flowers and grasses at the beach... compensating for the chilly grey weather.

IF - Yesterday

Posting up New Hopper for Illustration Friday. The topic is Yesterday.

New Hopper

After a very long christmas holiday, I've finally got back to some painting... My dad, a very keen photographer, has been scanning in lots of old slides from the 70s and 80s which are really fun and nostalgic. I'm kind of trying to blend the photographic images with my memory to capture that feeling of childhood. That's as descriptive or explanatory as I'm going to get. I generally hate artists' statements about their work...

This one is called New Hopper. It's 24 x 30 cm, oil on board. Next I'm going to have some fun with a huge stick of candy floss....

busy bee

Really busy with moshis and rainbow fairies et al but here is something a little bit different from the usual tweenie stuff I'm doing. My friend Jules took some photos recently that I nabbed for a book, and then he needed an illustration for an ebook he is writing. A bit of Totnes-style bartering. Makes a change from those moshis...

On being a philistine...

This weekend I ended up going to see the Turner prize exhibition at Tate Britain. I'd actually been trying to go to the Pre-Raphaelites but didn't realise you couldn't just turn up and go in. So we thought, well, we are here now....

....and I just didn't get it.

Now, I know I haven't been to art school and I'm not very trendy. But I do try and have an open mind about things and not one of the four artists got me excited, questioning or emotional in any way. I was just flummoxed by why and what is considered great art. (To be fair, I skipped the 93 minute film about RD Laing because it was halfway through and we didn't have time to wait for the next showing - but it was also slightly irritated by the fact that there was an expectation that you would site around for 3 hours to 'see' one of the exhibits)

So if anyone can explain... please do. What am I missing?

However, I did get Sam some very exciting air pens as a present and this is what he made for me from them... much cooler than anything I saw (IMHO)

Evie

for my lovely friend Helen (who I have known for over 30 years), I ventured into scary waters and painted a portrait of her daughter, Evie, who has just turned three. It was hard, sometimes frustrating, (had to redo the mouth about 8 times) but ultimately satisfying... who knows, I may even try another!