The Changes Never Made

The term resolution has usually left the vocabulary by this time of year. Despite this I thought I’d
post the list I did at the turn of the year – as a reminder and to see if I have managed to achieve any of them or at least made moves towards doing them. Still not made that banana tree yet, but have completed a couple of pictures.

There is, with hindsight, a few things I’d like to add – like be more tolerant, less judgemental…etc – but surely I should be doing these things anyway? Blog more often might be a good one. And definitely need to add ‘get on to a real computer’ to the list. iPad is fantastic but I can’t customise the WordPress settings on it – like getting a gravatar on the go etc.

Consumer or Creator?

You know when you are wide awake in the deep of night and think you have something to post about then wake up to realise most of it has gone from the memory bank? Well this is one of those times.

I know I wanted to say something about being creative and not just consuming all the time and about it being a good thing. Then I got to thinking that maybe being a creator of any kind you are just adding to the endless pile of crap that’s out there, consolidating the problem and not being a solution.

It’s a half formed thought and I may edit this at some point but there you go. I have posted.

Wordy post

I didn’t really want to post material from Facebook or Twitter on here but I guess it was unavoidable at some stage. I just really like this quote.

I was only going to post finished artworks on here too but that rule may well be broken at some point too. Pages from the sketchbook may well turn up here if I deem them fit enough. Don’t think I’ll be going back to the ‘daily drawing’ posts I was doing on Facebook towards the end of last year though. Really wish I had a scanner though.

Think I’m losing the desire to make everything I write on here be vital and important – sometimes I just need to ramble – yes, I think rambling on is a basic human trait and who am I to deny my genetic reality.

Once upon a time I was prolific at writing endless screeds of nonsense – 20+ years ago in the pre- net age of snail mail I used to scribble letters to friends on a nightly basis – observations, bad poems, streams of conscience and streams of piss – I do hope these letters are not lurking anywhere – just as well the Internet wasn’t around then or there would be a very public trail to chase.

Ok, enough.

Post creative emptiness and the unknown point of sketchbooks

I’ve got that empty, spent feeling after I’ve completed a painting – the ‘what next?’ feeling – even though I’ve got a couple of commissions I could be working on the motivation isn’t quite there yet. So it’s back to the glorified doodling of the sketchbook – whatever I do in there and whatever any further intentions there may be I never, and I mean never do any finished work as a result. The finished stuff i.e. the painted portraits always get created totally separately to the sketchbook. Any other people who create out there do this?

Also I’m realising that I’m going to have to write regularly on this blog as waiting for artwork isn’t going to cut it. A kind of use it or lose it. Thing is, with Twitter, Facebook etc there is so much going on online as it is. Maybe I should just bit the bullet and post random stuff as well.

‘the sun drives locomotives to the ocean’ – there you go – a favourite lyric of mine.

This just might not be all about art….

Valentines gift painting

My valentines painting for my girlfriend…

Acrylic, ink, pencil, sharpie on MDF 290 x 290 mm

Under construction

There is more to come – got to get the balance right – the work must come first then the web. Don’t really want to be posting text only pieces but that will be unavoidable – only issue with this is that the work takes so long to do. There will be more.

More old bits

A couple of things that I posted on Facebook last year. With hindsight a lot of the stuff I posted wasn’t up to much. So what more to do than get cracking with new improved work – if only it were so easy. I’m no so sure about the merits of sketchbooks – I do fairly constantly fill them but it’s on a doodling level a lot of the time. There must be a genuine push towards finished saleable works this year.

Older Work.

This is one I sold not long before Christmas.

Ink, watercolour and acrylic on paper mounted on board.

First post…

Hopefully this will be the first of many blogs featuring artwork I have done, some I am still working on or work I hope to do. The first pic is of a wee Morrissey portrait I did in January. No doubt there will be more stuff and nonsense to follow.

Acrylic on MDF 12 x 12 cm.