forging it ahead

Awoken from slumbers after the weekend I see the portrait is as yet unfinished.
Hoarknockle has been taking it easy. He has been out tending to lady Sandra as she burns the oils all day and night in her efforts to assimilate a number of heavy and large textbooks. She is writing a large examination soon and it requires a huge quantity of information uploaded into her brain.
The servants are living the good life and I shall have to bring back the lash. Next thing they'll be wanting to be remunerated. Rats!
I shall have to drag myself away from the trout pond and life of leisure to complete this painting. I cant see it doing so by itself.
Never let it be said that I dont give my everything in my efforts to achieve perfection. For the greater good and all that!
Hmmmmm brushes..let's see...
"Hoarknockle! I require tea!"

love of excuses

It was Hoarknockle!
It was a horrible wind storm!
It wasn't me!
Okay..having got that off my chest and out of the way....
I am working on a portrait of two beautiful children. They are on the canvas together so that they wont be able to take it away from their adoring mother once they grow up and leave home. The mother reasons that if they were two separate portraits, it would be simple for them to take their child images and go. Now it seems they will have to fight one another for ownership or decide not to have a picture with their sibling on it too. I'll tell you the outcome of this in about 18 to 20 years.
I have tried to adopt a playful approach to this piece and keeping the brush marks free and loose and quick. They are children and fill of spontaneous actions and energies. The one is a small male person and the other is a female and I want to try and show some sibling connection as well as the difference in their styles.
So far so good. Alternating between glazes and big brushstrokes in strong colour.
I have forsaken the joys of fortified (reinforced?) beverages during the week in a vague hope that it might increase my ability to consume body fat. Thus Hoarknockle is plying me with tea rather than my usual libations.
Due to my use of acrylic paints, I have no recourse to sniffing solvents. 'Tis a hard life I tell you.

got it

My blog did continue, but Hoarknockle was the one diverting it to some other site and I think it may have spoiled some persons fun by having my blog where they didnt expect to find it....yes...those of you who visit the dark side will know!
I was wondering about the notion of spoiling a porn site with good art works....My question is...can porn be spoiled? Isnt it sort of spoiled already? Dont think about this too long...it really is only a passing thought and a provocative one at that.

On the menu today is the board I did for my son. Its a board used on water, rather like a wake board...only for kiting. You get pulled along by a kite rather than a boat. I dont really like generic things, so I painted the board in this flourishey swirley design for his birthday. It was a wonderful variation to my normal stuff.

fits and starts

Most distressing the lack of blogging.
I'm looking for someone to blame it on. There is a shortlist.
For want of a better reason, I can only say that I was working on two pieces which I had to keep secret. One was for Lady Sandra and the other for my younger son. For special events.
The first one here is of the piece I made for Lady Sandra... its a picture of her parents from long ago.
I painted it on cedar fence boards which had weathered beautifully. They hinge inwards and close with a slide bolt. It looks like a piece of fence or a gate. When you open it, it reveals the painting.
I'll post the work I did for my son in a following blog.
Right now I'm working on a piece for a competition, the logo design continues in the background and I am painting a large portrait of two beautiful children.

digital rarotecha

Not often do I plunge recklessly into work without a good idea of what I want, but this time I have. I havent had the time or the opportunity to try something experimental and for some reason I have found barriers in my head. Artificial lines in the gray matter , barbed wire with "Perigo minas" stenciled crudely onto metal signs hanging forlornly from the rusty strands. And for some odd reason I obeyed my own decree.
What do I know? I know better than to listen to myself. I should have learned it from my sons, they never seem to.
It was a journey of exploration into a well known territory, hoping to find something new.
It was different and familiar at the same time. Rather like cobbling together a being from friends' body parts. (I have just been reading about Mary Shelley and her famous book)
I hope to enter this in a competition.
I have given Hoarknockle orders to keep his fingers crossed.
Right now most of my brain is elsewhere in Belgium with a cyclist racing Omloop van het Waasland...a 194km race at frightening speed. The cyclist is racing for Fuji Test Team from the Cycling Center. He is my son.

quo vadis?

what a pregnant statement...cliched.
Who knows where this might go?...I am making something and will be entering it for a competition... fun being able to recycle one's own work like a collage. Um yes...I guess I'll have to start producing some real new work soon before I wear these older ones out completely!
Ive recently sent off an application for a grant from the arts board...fingers crossed. It would be fun if I got it.
Meanwhile forging ahead and havent really done anything fantastically creatively new. Sad. But such is life...one has to take care of the mundane and the tedious too.
I have been working away at the logo too. Some fine tuning and revisions. Client had some concerns and I have been smithing the designs a bit more and feel they are getting more refined and improved. Polish.
Good to feel like an artist today again.

logo pogo agogo

Couldn't restrain myself from making bad rhyme above.
I am still carving the logo and design thing.
Its a departure from my normal kind of work...but due to the intelligence of my client, she has given me carte blanche to develop, create and grow something unique. A true bespoke design that does not come ready packed from a font machine. It's difficult but vastly more rewarding to do. I can just feel all the little gray cells applauding the exercise they are getting.
Its a wonderful opportunity to wander into less familiar territory and get to play with things I dont often have the chance to do so.
Hoarknockle is managing to keep the generator going (by pedaling the generator, galley slaves are fun to watch!) ... so my electric equipment all works. I do believe the uncouth oaf is getting rid of his expanding girth. Jolly Good!