The Jewel of the Forest

16 Hours of non-stop painting through the night. This is the finished result 9.30 am this morning. It was safely delivered to the Said Business School Gallery. Now all I can do is wait to see what happens. The opening of the show is Saturday October 20th so I guess I'll know by then. I am now in dire need of some new filberts as I seem to have managed to ruin every one I owned. Oh to have an art supplies sponsor!! :-)

Long time no blog

Chez Cook has been a household of lurgy of late so I haven't had much time to post.
Little M is off school today and whilst she's been busy painting in the living room, I've sneaked a canvas into the kitchen to work on.

This is it so far.
Its a continuation of the Murtoa Dreaming series and I am hoping to enter it for the Oxford Art Society Open Exhibition this week....(some late nights ahead me thinks).

I've been lucky enough to have work accepted by the Venus Gallery in Henley, and my canvases are alsoin the restaurant at the Jam Factory and will be in their November exhibition and auction.

My BIGGEST news however, is that I am off to New York at the end of this month to take part in an Exhibition in a gallery there. The opening night is November 1st and I am incredibly excited and a little bit scared at the same time. I guess its common to be filled with self-doubt when you know NY Times critics are going to be present, but I am consoling myself with the prospect of buying a new dress for the occasion. (How shallow am I?)

More dreamtime

Early days yet. This one is going to tell the story of the sea turtle.

Jam Factory

Following the Oxford Arts Festival last weekend, my work has moved to the restaurant of the Jam Factory.

This is a buzzing gallery/bar/restaurant where all sorts of people feel welcome to hang out. The owners are behind Aargt! I strongly recommend you take a look at their website,

Aarght! exists to help established and new artists, to help art lovers find and buy new artwork, discover new artists and introduce new faces to arts culture. Anyone is welcome to join and its free!

Opening night photos

Oxford Visual Arts Festival 2007. The Jam Factory

Here are the paintings I am showing this year. Its opening night tonight so I should have some with people in tomorrow!

Murtoa Dreaming

The gecko (Aboriginal Murtoa) represents adaptability, regeneration, strength and survival. Its lesson to us, is to make the best of a situation. In order to survive, one needs to be able to adapt, regenerate strength and go on, like the Gecko.

Acrylic on canvas. 40 x 40 inches. £520

Back to Black

Portait of a marriage. Fragility and strength.

Acrylic on canvas 30 x 48 inches £375

Joy I

The first of a series of large canvases using exotic colour and movement to represent two lovers beguiled.

Acylic on canvas 24 x 36 inches £450

Temptation

Dramatic colour and flowing lines to entice the viewer into the very core of the picture

Acrylic on canvas 24 x 24 inches £275

Hide

Beauty and pain

Acrylic on canvas triptych each panel 12 x 24 inches £225

Old Tulip

Falling red tulip capturing in a moment, beauty once cherished now diminished.

Acrylic on canvas 30 x 30 inches £400

Magenta Poppies

Celebrating the vibrancy and beauty of poppies.

Acrylic on canvas 24 x 36 inches £345

Hanging time

Been up since 6 am finishing 'Temptation' and all afternoon at the Jam Factory hanging the canvases....good job I packed my hammer!



Slide show of the paintings and details to follow :-)

Look what happens when you give a 3 year old your camera...

Maddy has been building up a little portfolio of her own. Thought I would share. She takes a better picture than me!!

Site planning

Absolute nightmare. Choosing which paintings to go where....
So far I have juggled 7 paintings and hoping to fit one more in. I am surrounded by scraps of paper with measurements on and a plethora of post-its.

I thought I would upload a slideshow of the paintings when the plan is complete. :-)

3 days to go

...before the opening of the exhibition.

I have 2 studio hours this morning and a lovely blank canvas to work with.

I'll post what I've achieved with my time at lunchtime. After a late night painting its hard sometimes not to waste the morning fannying around tidying up the studio, cleaning brushes and generally procrastinating. :-)

....and here is the result.

After days and days of intricate 00 brush work, its been a real release to just go mad with my 2 inch ole' faithful. :-) Lots of sweeping brush strokes and loud music.

This canvas is 24 x 24 inches. The gecko painting is nearly 4 feet square!

Its late.....but heres my dream time

Its finished.

I can't get a full photo of it - the canvas is too big. But hopefully this gives you some idea.

Nearly there

This is always part joy part agony for me. When a painting is nearing completion....at what point do you decide that its truly finished?


To quote Piet Mondrian, " Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

Gecko

Here is the gecko. More pictures soon I promise. :-)

Time to reveal what the big red is about.

The original design was inspired by a calendar featuring aboriginal art. I am endlessly fascinated by dreamtime stories and thought I might paint a dreamtime of my own.

So I am going to add geckos to this peice.

The Gecko (Murtoa) is a small adaptable lizard, with the ability to camouflage itself to suit its varying surroundings. Should a Gecko lose its tail in a fight or an attack, it can regrow its tail. Although it is only a small lizerd, the Gecko can survive in very harsh conditions. All these attributes contribute to the Geckos survival.

Murtoa (Gecko) Dreaming represents adaptability, regeneration, strength and survival. Its lesson to us, is to make the best of a situation. In order to survive, one needs to be able to adapt, regenerate strength and go on, like the Gecko.

Idon't have my camera at the moment, but I'll update with a picture as soon as I can.

Pressure

Its just over a week to go to the exhibition now. Haven't been able to get in the studio much and confined to kitchen painting.

Big enough to hug

Still working on the poppy portrait. I have knocked back the dark and brought forward the red (apparently referred to as 'knocking back') so that the petals have a greater vibrancy on the canvas. Its very hard to conveythe impact this one has in photos, since it is so large and big enough to hug.

I hope to complete this either today or tomorrow morning whilst Maddy is at pre-school. I secretly hope it doesn't sell....I feel an affinity with this one.

Light relief

Miss T threw this gauntlet down the other day...

Last night as we were meandering home from the curry house, there was a huge barking and jingling of Morris bells outside the QH.“Hunting Morris men with dogs, isn’t that banned under the hunting with dogs act?” I wondered aloud. This made us ponder what a ‘Morris hound’ would look like. So my artistic chums – please submit a sketch of a Morris hound (with rationale as to features) by Friday pm. I shall give prizes, not sure what yet, but they’ll be good J.

This is my entry. I'll be seeing Miss T at the QH shortly where I would imagine she will be announcing the prize winners. ;-)

Something old something new

Taking a break from my jungle painting. Ok. I can't decide what to do next with it and since time is most definitely not on my side to get ready for my exhibition, I've started somthing new.

Its a massive Back to Black. Almost as tall as me.

The exhibition is part of the 2007 Oxfordshire Visual Arts Festival and I was very chuffed to be selected. The dates are 28th, 29th and 30th September and you'll find me at the Jam Factory.
If I ever get finished that is ...:-)

Do I don't I?

This is the result of last night's efforts.
I've filled in all the foliage with their colours - although they could all do with another layer.
My dilemma is how much to block out with the black.??

I am going to ponder this for a while most likely. I'm normally one for slapping black into paintings no problem. But for some reason I'm hesitant today.

I also think it might look better this way around.....Someone help me out with this dithering !!!

Another All-Nighter

I have two exhibitions coming up (details to follow) and I basically have to have completed around 10 pieces of work ready to exhibit by the end of this month.

I've had worse deadlines. (Gulp)

So, I have decided that one of the pieces I want to display is this red project (for which I am still pondering a title so all suggestions gratefully received).

So its about 6 pm. This is how far I've got.


The studio isn't big enough to get the whole canvas in the view finder but you get the general idea. I've finished outlining the foliage and petals.

I really do love this blue. As for elusive name ideas.....I am after something that conveys sumptuousness, exoticism, jungle, passion, earth, life..........for a poor wordsmith this is proving something of a challenge. Its just there...in the back of my head but I can't yet reach it.

Back to work then. I feel very inspired today.