Here are the clay heads I made this summer for my artshealth puppetry project. Fortunately they survived the firing and thanks to Stuart my brother who is a potter for doing this. I now need to think about the next stage. Some will become glove puppets and the best I will try to make into a string puppet with moving limbs. I hope to use Francis Bacon as the inspiration for one as I think it looks like him and relates to the show I went to recently at Tate Liverpool. So watch this space! They could become part of the Self and Other responses for the Neoartists show if they work!

Had a great time last night at the private view of our show, that is Mo and me, at The Plough. Deana and Martin had curated the work so the paintings almost talked to each other as it were! Mo and me are very old friends and were blown away how sensitively the show was presented. It is certainly fun to show with another artist and I really enjoyed talking about my work to the guests. It felt like waiting for a party to see if anyone turned up! Fortunately for us they did! Thanks to everyone who came and to anyone who missed the preview the show is on for two weeks so do try to get over if you can, the postcode is on the show poster which I have shared on this blog.

Here are a couple of shots pre-show when we delivered our pictures for our joint show at The Plough, that is Mo and me with John who drove Mo over. Lovely rooms with plenty of wall space with spot lights. We just delivered the work so it will be interesting on private view night, which is Thursday 27th October, to see how Diana and Martin choose to curate it. Getting excited now!

Just heard that the committee at Neo have approved our proposal for the collaborative show based on the theme ‘Self and Other’. Thrilled with this news. Will keep you posted as to dates but it could be 2018 to give the contributors time to respond and potentially collaborate if they wish. Onward and upward! Here’s a drawing made in our bathroom from a series of studies from around our house which seem symbolic somehow as it is an open door.

Sketches and photos from the other day.

Here is the lovely flier for Mo’s and my upcoming show, do try to come if you can! Thanks to Martin and The Plough at Shepreth Cambridgeshire for this.

I went to the Francis Bacon show at the Tate Liverpool in the week before it ended. I was blown away by it. To have the opportunity to see so much of the master’s work up close and personal was mind blowing. I was able to sketch and use my pastels without being challenged. The quality of the fields of colour contrasting often with the human elements stayed with me. The paint was so carefully applied and the quality of the blues and oranges have to be seen in the flesh as it were. I really appreciated seeing the sketches and photos that served as inspiration. He was brave enough to go towards the darker side of human nature. I talked to my dad about it all in our last conversation together. He had much to say on it and the nature of beauty and the way artists choose their subjects. Here are two sketches I made on the spot in front of the works. The male study wasn’t one of the more dramatic pieces but it drew me to it. The female figure fascinated from the start and the quality of the blue behind her.

Just to let you all know that Mo de Rome and myself are having a joint show at The Plough at Shepreth near Cambridge in Cambridgeshire England for a month. The private view will be on the 27th October in the evening, would love to see you if you can make it. I wil be showing some older and more recent paintings. Mo and I studied Fine Art at Leeds together many years ago and are relishing this opportunity to show our work together as we share ideas and practice closely. Here is one of the paintings that will be on display, ‘Chaos Granitique’ from 2010 in acrylic on canvas.