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Experimenting with inks and pastels and trying to work more abstractedly which always seems far more fun than painting realistically.

Sail Away $125 SOLD

On Golden Pond $125 9.25 by 12 acrylics and inks on YUPO

Days 230 and 231 of #art365. Two thirds of the way….

Secret Garden $125 9.25 by 12 acrylics and inks on YUPO

Ever Decreasing Circles $125 9.25 by 12 acrylics and inks on YUPO

Reception for my Seascapes and Landscapes exhibition will be 7.00 – 10.00 pm on Saturday, 12th August with art on display through September 5th. Looking forward to meeting up with everyone.

Often people think that abstract art is just throwing paint at your canvas. Well I guess occasionally it literally IS just throwing paint at your canvas. Most of the time though when I’ve been trying to create intuitively, my fluid abstract paintings still require some kind of strategy. I experiment with how different paints react with each other, work with different mediums together (e.g. alcohol inks and acrylics) and the use of colours that work with and contrast against each other. Often the result is a kind of fluid art found in nature in lakes, rock formations or crystals. Sometimes a little science is involved in creating cell like structures and lacing – read up on Siqueros accidental painting technique – and I’m forever writing down formulas for my paint mixtures. Mostly though it’s fun seeing how the paintings evolve over a few hours as they dry. Here are a few of my experiments.

Completed Day 192. Abstract Study of Barn in acrylics. 20 by 20 SOLD

Progress on previous days #art365

I am currently working on a personal challenge to paint a paint each day this entire year. 185 days in I’m finding it hard to find subjects to paint. I posted on my Facebook page and Twitter asking for inspiration. Most were fairly standard requests;sunflowers, birds, bees, barns! Others were for self portraits and even my feet (clearly they have a foot fetish or really have not seen my feet!!). One of my friends, the poet Michael Scott suggested I paint Melania. I told him if he wrote about her I would paint her. I’ve still to create a portrait of her but want to share his amazing poetry.

Melania (Michael Scott)

You won’t get a pill-box hat
a motorcade or a grassy knoll
and your Media Naranja
is a whole orange
squeezed into half a man.

First lady to the worst man,
you’ve got the last gig a girl wants.

You look so sad but lucky,
so defeated but winning,
so uncomfortable
in his cellulite skin.

In Slovenia there is a car dealership
missing a swim-suited model
sprawling across the hood
of a rusty Yugo.

Would you rather be there?

Or there,
two steps behind
a ticking Twitter timebomb?

Grit your veneers Melania
the life of the Tsarina
has always had a sense
of impending doom.

You are waiting
in the House of Special Purpose
with a forced smile on your face
fearing the next 140 characters.

You won’t get a pill-box hat
or a grassy knoll
but you won’t be wiping brains
from your pink suit either.

No matter where the silver bullet hits,
it will pass through a void,
an empty space like the look behind your eyes.

And you are wondering
how you got here Melania,
in the middle of the unbelievable truth,
alongside a living, breathing Russian conspiracy.

You try to wave,
hoping that someone waves back.

A couple of bird paintings. Works in Progress