Three Figs

Three Figs - 7" x 12" - oil on panel

Poppy (power,sleep,death)

Poppy (power,sleep,death) - 7" x 11" - oil on panel

Green Bottle (Obscurum Cado)

Green Bottle (Obscurum Cado) - 8" x 18" - oil on panel

Satsuma II

Satsuma II - 6" x 8" - oil on panel

All Star

Converse All Star - 10" x 12" - oil on panel

I liked the look of the old Converse from the compartments II painting so made a study of just the shoe itself.

Apple

Apple - 6" x 8" - oil on panel

As usual it’s been ages since my last post. A lot has been happening though, and I’ve been pretty busy with one thing and another. When I first started this blog I was mainly focused on portraits and figures and expected to continue down that road. I started painting small still lives mainly as practice and to work out ideas for backgrounds and interiors for portraits. Then I got kind of hooked on the still life work and now it has almost completely taken over everything I do. I ended up with quite a big and unexpected body of work and as a result (and after alot of thought about which is the best way to go with it at the moment) I have just signed a publishing and distribution deal with DeMontfort Fine Art. Although they want ALOT of work, and I was worried whether I’d be able to keep up with the demand, it has been a positive experience and has actually forced me to really improve my working methods – to focus and to work more quickly and much more efficiently. As a result I have probably produced more work in the last three months than I would normally have done in a whole year. I’m really hoping to find the time to do more portrait work over the next few months, but this is what has been taking up most of my time recently and I’ll start posting more work here soon.

Marmite, Ketchup, Mustard

Marmite - 20cm x 14cm - oil on panel

Ketchup - 20cm x 14cm - oil on panel

Mustard - 20cm x 14cm - oil on panel

This is a set of three paintings which were done recently as a commission. A while back I posted a small (but crude) painting of a Marmite jar, which was one of my first still life posts, so it was good to get the chance to have another go at it and I'm quite happy with result. I think the ketchup turned out pretty interesting too with the translucent effect of the ketchup on the sides of the bottle.

Compartments III - Egg and Bottle

Another compartment painting. When I looked at the last compartment painting, I decided that the most effective section of the painting was the right hand side area with the shoe, the bottle and the lemon. In a way I thought that the painting could do without all the other elements, so I made a simplified, stripped down version of the composition. Slightly different but basically the same idea. Here is the result.

Flower

Flower - 5"x6" - oil on panel

Pear

Pear - 5"x6" - oil on panel

I'm posting more small still life studies here. This and the work which follows won't have a BUY NOW button because I'm keeping most of it back for exhibitions, and some of them are already completed commissions. I am planning to put more work up on the blog for sale in the future though.

Mystery Portrait Postcards

Lucas Alexander

Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror

I was very happy to be asked by the National Portrait Gallery to contribute a couple of paintings to their Mystery Portrait Postcard exhibition for this years Portrait Gala. 139 portrait postcards were exhibited anonymously and sold to guests on the night of the Portrait Gala, which raises money for various educational programs at the gallery and also to help them purchase important new works for the collection.
Because my invite was sent to my old address, I didn't even know that I'd been asked to do it until about a week before the exhibition! So without too much time to think about it, on the two postcards which they sent me I made a small drawing of my son Lucas on one, and a pretty loose self portrait on the other. The self portrait sold on the night, but as far as I know the drawing of Lucas is one of a handful of paintings still available to buy on the NPG website. You can see all the paintings from the exhibition here or even buy my drawing if you fancy, here.

Compartments II

I was never too happy with the last compartment painting, which was the last post I made. I thought there was something about the label on the bottle which didn't work and the whole thing looked a bit too much like an underpainting, so I decided to do some more work on it. I took out the label, half filled the bottle with grapeseed oil - which I think draws together the greens and yellows more, and repainted most of the background. I think it has a lot more depth to it now.

Back again.

I know I haven't posted anything for months and months. With moving house last year, computer problems, internet problems, camera problems and every other type of problem, the blog got a bit neglected, but I'm back onto it now. Thanks for all your comments since the last post and thanks for still looking.