After nearly a week out here in Cyprus, I have made a series of small watercolour and gouaches mostly from direct observation from my drives around the island. I am only here until next wednesday, so I do not expect to develop them until I get back. If I can get at least two new works for my show in Chichester then i will be very happy.

Weather remains a mixed bag. We had a spectacular thunderstorm the other night and today is extremely windy. I think my images at least convey that it is not the summer and I must admit, that when you take the heat away from Cyprus, it does all look a bit tacky.

I am going to make a prediction that Wales will lose against France tomorrow (6 nations rugby) and not win the grand slam - I would like them too, and I am going to visit a welshman tomorrow to watch the match in a cyprus cafe.. but I am not optimistic.

It is weird being here when the weather is moderate (but still tropical compared with Edinburgh) - the place seems more pedestrian because of it. There are very few students here and two left this week. However it is very nice to get away from work at eca before the onslaught of Summer School.

I will post some of the new pictures soon.

So, now I find myself in year in to my new life in Edinburgh. Catie has moved up and is also painting and teaching. My job role at eca has been fluid flexible and quite demanding. But, I am still managing to paint as I have finally realised that I have to use most of my available free time to make art if I am ever going to develop. This has meant far fewer opportunities to see family and friends and far less gallivanting across the country or abroad.

From the period I moved to Leith with Catie, I have solely used the interior of our rented Georgian townhouse flat as a backdrop for subject matter. I have done more direct observational drawing and painting than I have since I was a student, and I have learned so much by doing so. I think it has recharged my pictorial armoury and freed me from the often-tiresome need for inventing compositional devices. Using a combination of biographical with observed topographical elements has allowed me to reflect on a more explicit portrait of my new life with Catie. While I have maintained my gut need for flippancy and irony in the use of a collection of soft toy animals, I am trying to evoke a greater depth of time and place.

Most recently, I have completed a large two panel portrait of Catie with our soft toys (the bears!) revealing the exuberant and delightful space we live in. The carrot for this was to enter the BP portrait award. While I am pleased with the ambition of the picture and its sense of place, I am not sure whether it works on the level of a portrait and I am not optimistic that it will be successful in being accepted for the show.

Here are eight stages of the portrait which I did almost entirely from working in situe over about 5 weekends.

I have three other things I am developing;
In December, I am showing at the Otter Gallery in Chichester, a compendium of works I did from the times I visited and worked Cyprus from 2002 to the present. There is also a possibility to show it in Cyprus College of Art later and I am trying to pull together a catalogue and possibly find a venue in Edinburgh also. I have never shown most of this work before and I am delighted to finally have the opportunity. I hope to make one more visit to Cyprus to complete the cycle of work for the show.

While I have been living in Leith and particularly Leith Links, I have started to research its history and how it remains such a distinctive and vibrant part of Edinburgh. The history of the Links themselves is fascinating, having been the place of the first golf course and the base for Oliver Cromwell’s men. Therefore, my next series of artworks are going to use my research as the background for what I hope will be a new pictorial development in my work. For further information see here.

I am also trying to find ways to make an extended visit to India to develop new lines of research. I have discovered that in the new India with one of the fasting growing economies in the world, there is a newfound confidence in contemporary painting that uses narrative and sense of place. Directly at odds with esoteric contemporary western art, this new art celebrates both hand skills and crafts, yet places itself in a world of mass media and conceptual ideas. I feel there is much for me to learn and experience and I am waiting with baited breadth, the result of a research funding application.

say no more really!

I had to get at least three very small painting finished this weekend in order have them dry in time for framing for the Scottish Gallery Xmas show. So I have been enjoying just simply painting little snippets of our flat with our collection of bears. It is so long since I have so much ‘look and put’ painting (well ‘look and put and add a bit of my own’ really) and it is about time. This is how to refuel your image bank and be able to paint things out of your head with authority. These are not exceptional pictures but they feel right and the right direction. The bigger one in the picture is just a limbering up for the portrait I want to do for the BP portrait award.

So, I went back to work at eca after my short painting break in August, but have managed to continue to paint. I am planning a portrait of Catie for the BP portrait award and want to set it in our wonderful flat in Leith, along with our collection of ‘bears’. So I have embarked upon, what may in the future be referred to as my ‘bear period’, been painting tiny pictures of the bears as a limbering up exercise. I have quite enjoyed doing them actually. I am also showing some small pictures at the Scottish Gallery this Christmas, so I am hoping that one of these bear pictures will cut the mustard.

Meanwhile, as Catie’s Job does not start until after xmas, she has been drawing and painting out and about in Edinburgh (urban gardens) - more wonderful work, which will be on her site soon.

So, it is very nice to have a partner who paints and we are finding each other a great motivator to work.

May 2007

I moved into the studio in Morningside with Kruti. It took me a while to equip it as it had proviously been a ceramics workshop. I had it all planned out when I would go down after work and my days off. i had this show to paint for November so i had to get a move on. Things started well and I made a few studies, but really i was not believing in myself and was just going through the motions. The work was fairly poor and I kept making excuses not to go to the studio. Work at eca was pretty hectic as I was preparing the brochure for next years classes and getting ready for the Summer School onslaught.

Catharine visited one more time as she had a job interview for an art teacher at a local school in Edinburgh. The interview went well, but she did not get and actually her heart was not into it as she just wants to get on a paint.

I spent the end of May looking a new bigger place to live for when Catharine moves up so we have enough room for both of us and our stuff. I looked at quite a few before I found this wonderful huge flat off Leith Links.I had an ordeal trying to get the secured with the leasing agency but eventually did.

June 2007

With the new flat secured for an end of June move, and work hotting up for the summer school, my ability to make any art at all was virtually nil. I decided that I needed to just get through the next month and get moved and settled. I also decided that having the studio in Morningside was not working for me and it would be even more difficult to get there when i moved to Leith (other end of the city).

I had one brief sojourn down to Reading for Catharine’s School end of year ball which was also her last day in her job. It was good to get out of Edinburgh, but I must say that I do not miss Reading very much (apart from Catharine that is). The ball was good although the whole weekend was very tiring. Catharine was about to go out to Cyprus for the whole summer to work and paint so it was going to be a long time before we saw each other again.

This is the first time in my life that I was going into the summer without a break of any kind - and it took a bit of mental adjustment. However, once I had stopped worrying about how I was going to get the paintings done I was fine.

July 2007

The summer school started to rain and sun in equal measures and it was a full on 6 weeks of introductions, teaching, planning, hanging exhibitions, dealing with the odd complaint, and so on. My teaching weeks went well and it was nice to finally get back into it. It certainly got me in the mood for getting my own work done. On top of this, I moved into our new flat single handedly - yet another van with all my studio stuff and home stuff. The Edinburgh Festival had just begun so it was tricky parking and all my friends were either working or away (Apart from Donald who helped me one day thanks for that D). The flat is amazing and has lots of space and is very inspiring visually. It put in mind work I used to do back in the late 80s when I was student.

August 2007.

Finished off at the summer school, got the new brochure for term time classes published and finally got some time off in the middle of the month. I had done no festival events or any socializing as such. It was just a relief to get through it and have some time off. I have three weeks off and decided to make a load of drawings using the interior of my new flat as subject matter. This last week has been great as I have found my rhythm and hunger to make art and so far it is going well. See Facebook pages for pictures of the new work in progress.

However, I have just heard the sad news that the Queen Street Gallery in Emsworth, where I was due to show my work in November has closed down due to the owner, Michael Northey being seriously ill. While I am disappointed not to able to show my new work, I am devastated about the owner who had set up a very brave and ambitious venture. My thoughts go out to Michael and his family at this time.

So now I still have some time off to continue the painting without the pressure of a show. I just have to readjust my motivation. Catharine will be joining me here in a few weeks, so I should just get on with it and enjoy being a bachelor until then.

The good news is that at last I am going to show a selection of all my Cyprus work in 2008/09 in the Otter Gallery at University of Chichester. It will be good to finally have a show there after my time in the area.

NEW STUDIO

I am moving into a new studio in Edinburgh next week - a space in Morningside - so at last I can get on with some oil painting for the show at the Queen Street Gallery (Emsworth) for November.

However, almost as soon as she had gone, I was struck down by a nast flu/bug thing. Last week I was hanging the CCS lifelong learners exhibition with my collegue Derek Maguire and by the end of the week I could hardly walk. So this last weekend was spent being a bit miserable in bed. I did go into work briefly yesterday for the opening of the ccs, but it was a bit premature. So, I have been off work again today and am now feeling better (almost).

So, to keep me amused, I started a little project I have been meaning to start whenever I am stuck at home not able to do much; I started to digitise some of my old home movie tapes, so that I could put them on DVD. This evening, I found the video footage that was taken in my final year as a student at Edinburgh College of Art. This was actually shot by Liz Ogilivie, one of the lecturers, and I am not quite sure how I have a copy on tape (maybe I nicked it and it is the only one). Anyway, I decided to put some of it together into a little short. it shows painting students in my year working and some of their degree shows. And of course it shows me as a young student. I have put it onto You Tube, as I thought it might be of interest to student contemporaries of my time. For the record the clip shows the following people; John Brown, Cath Binns, Angelina Berry, Jane Hyslop, Nerys Ellery, John Houston (Lecturer), Greg Magee, Susan Pettinger, Bill Breckinbridge, Cathy Carpenter, Andrew Parkinson, Linda Henniker and Heather Mackenzie. it also features the work of Claire Banks, David Howard, Paul Rooney, but who are not in the video. I think that is it. I am now colleagues again with Jane Hyslop and John Brown and still see David Howard who is in Edinburgh. As for the rest I am not sure what they are up to. Perhaps they will discover they are on this video and get in touch.. (and tell me to take it down). Anyway here it is…

Music on video: Fools Gold by The Stone Roses and Last of the International Playboys by Morrissey, both from 1989.

Looks like he is having a good time. Well back to my gouaches for me…

Foals - ‘Hummer’ Video on YouTube

I particularly liked this one called ‘The Big Eat’…