Trees in sunshine, Santo Antonio

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Trees in sunshine, Santo Antonio, oil on card, 26 x 28 cm unavailable

This was painted thickly and confidently. At first I liked it, then I didn't, and now I like it again.

The things I like are:

1. variety of greens
2. thick paint texture
3. sense of movement
4. lively

The thing I don't like is:

1. feels a bit rough

But I think the liveliness would be lost if I started trying to tidy it up.

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This one is a bit like Vuillard. It has that containment.



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A week in Salvador, part 3: the sea

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A boat seen through a window, oil on card, 12.5 x 13 cm  SOLD

A coming storm, oil on card, 15 x 12 cm  SOLD

A picture of the sea, oil on card, 13 x 12 cm  unavailable

The final set from my Salvador trip.

This is the last painting trip that I forsee making in Brazil outside driving distance of Florianopolis. This is because of the high cost of internal flights.

 I shall instead focus on visiting and knowing better the three southern states and their small towns through car trips to give me a breaks from Florianopolis.

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This is the most overtly French set of pictures that I`ve made, with obvious links to artists such as Vuillard, Marquet and Matisse. That wasn`t conscious: it happened because Pierre Pophillat`s apartments carried a particularly French feel to me, and because a certain simplicity and calmness of atmosphere in Salvador lent me a destinctly French mood: Luxe, Calme et Volupté...

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Many thanks to  Pierre Pophillat for his kindess on this trip.



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Flowers, Vuillard, 12 x 12 x 12

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Flowers, oil on card, 8.5 x 12 cm

There was a big Vuillard show in in London some years back at the Royal Academy, and I kick myself for not having gone- though in truth these large shows have become increasingly unpleasant because of crowds. 

The last of these blockbusters that I went to weas Turner, Monet, Whistler and it was more or less impossible to enjoy the work because of the bus station atmosphere.. I don`t know where all these people have come from, exhibitions didn`t seem to be so tremedously popular in my day. I am dubious that they illustrate a surge of interest in the arts- most museums and galleries remain blissfully quiet most of the time.

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I have decided to work on a series of pictures about the apartment, and the things in it for Jim Mendola`s monthly `12 x 12 x 12 event- which is mainly a music thing, but which is open to other media.

 As I envisage them, these pictures will stylistically and thematically extend from yesterdays carafe and today`s flowers to describe the atmosphere of the apartment and who I am: a sort of autobiography in objects- van Gogh meets Guston and Vuillard at a party and they start talking in low voices.

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My workroom

My workroom, oil on card , 9.7 x 12.5 cm

I work here: art things and teaching, and the things I need for the computer plus eating and watching films. Also dressing and listening to music. I don't have a tv.

I do not enormously like the room: it often feels messy because there are too many different functions in the same space.

I prefer to have my tasks and pleasures compartamentalised, so they do not corrupt each other, the money related things rnnng into the creative things and so forth, where everyhing becomes spoiled.

A chair and my white coat

A chair and my white coat, oil on card, 8.7 x 10.3 cm  SOLD