The Times: Dreams & Nightmares Image 1

A really stimulating set of commissions from the people at The Times Newspapers for the T2 section. This series will run for seven weeks. Each week a different take on the subject of Dream & Nightmares. If ever there was a gift of a commission, then this is it. Only trouble being that the deadlines are rather tight from receiving copy to press. Always the case with newspaper commissions. My work is pretty labour intensive, but I do like a challenge so its been a good adrenaline buzz so far. I'm very grateful for the powers that be for thinking of me for this job :-)

A work ready studio - finally :-)

Before work began...

Years of water ingress left rotten woodwork...

So it begins...

Desk cut to shape and primed...

Shelves go up - and stay up...!...

And relax, its done...

Its been quite some time since a last entry! I'd love to be able to say that I've been utterly bone idle and have been lazing around, but unfortunately not the case. Decorating my new studio from the floor up has been the main task at hand. Little did I know how much of a DIY iceberg it would turn out to be. I thought it would just be a quick lick of paint after stripping off the old anaglypta wallpaper and that would be it, but alas the best laid plans evaporated into a red mist of frustration. Just a few of the issues that required attention: All lighting replaced. The wall sized window / door needed re-fitting to make water tight as it was completely bodged when it was installed. A new radiator fitted as the old one leaked. The floor needed leveling. And then for fun we found that the drains under the studio and garage were blocked and had been backing up from the main drain for about a year :-( On the day it was cleared you can only imagine at that whole new level of nasty that was encountered underground. So once all that lot was put right, I set to with a circular saw, some 25mm thick MDF and gallons of white paint. A couple of weeks later new desk tops and shelves were installed. One paint area (drawing board) and two computer desk areas. One for illustration work and one for when Su occasionally works from home. The studio finally went live about two weeks ago, leaving a make shift studio in the corner of the dinning room, juggling commissions around while setting up shop. The light is great as its north facing and even though its smaller by about 40cm each way than my old work room, being a simple cube it works more efficiently as a space. A lot easier for laying kit out - no chimney breast or nooks and crannies to work around. After shots show the just moved in look. Unfortunately its not that tidy now! Nice to finally unpack the James Jarvis King Ken sentinels so that they can take pride of place on the top shelf!

Nostalgia trip.

Well, these images are certainly a blast from the past. While going through old folios during the house move I came across some of the postcards I made for my degree show. Home made by shooting a roll of 36 exposure 35mm (film) photo's, then getting the prints duplicated a few times, then cutting each one out and sticking it on some white backing mount card. If that wasn't laborious enough, each one then had sticky label with contact details placed on the front or back. Printing costs were way out of my financial budget at the time of being a student.

The original artwork for both 'Street Entertainer' and the 'Computer Art' piece are A1 in size and the circus scene is some 3X A1 panels in size. I worked a lot larger then! All rendered with acrylic paint and tissue paper collage for the background. The Street Entertainer went on to win the Best Newcomer Award from The Association of Illustrators and the Computer Art piece was an image exploring the then fledgling potential of computers in art and design. How things have changed!

DPI Magazine Interview.

Those kind people at DPI Magazine recently invited me to take part in an interview and show a few examples of my work. All featured in the May issue. Other artists featured are Nigel Buchanan, Segio Mora, Ester Garcia Cortes, Mariusz Stawarski, Steve Adams, Lou Beach,Kaspian Shore, Monsieur Qui, Ana Maria Lopez Correa, Igor Knezevic (Alienology) and Yu Jordy Fu. Details can be seen by following the link: DPI Magazine.

House move!

House move time! Blimey O Riley - why or why did we choose to go ahead and move house? The studio has become the location for all of the loft contents and general packing boxes, as a result its now a bit full. Just a couple of pix to show the before and after status of my nice shiny studio. From the start of June, it will no longer be mine :-( I have very mixed feelings about moving as I really feel at home in my workspace and also its the longest I've ever lived in a property. This fact came as quite a shock when I sat down and worked out how many houses I've lived in over the years, which totals to some seventeen properties from being a toddler. Most of the houses were when renting as a student in Brighton and then later in London. This house is where Su and I started a family as well, so from that point of view it will also be a huge wrench to leave. My children have never lived anywhere else, so it will be a great adventure for them to move into a new place and experience different surroundings, but I do think its going to be a period of great adjustment for them - and us. There are a lot of good memories in these walls and the only reason we are moving is to be closer to my wife's place of work as she has to commute an hour plus each day. Not good, especially over the last winter months - definitely time to move after the volume of snow we had here. We are leaving Bolton and heading over to the Fylde, so it will be wonderful to be near the sea again. After nine years living inland do I realise that my heart belongs near the coast. Another interesting aspect of the move is that we are leaving a 1930's period property where it has an unusual mix of Deco and Victorian architectural styling cues. The new house could not be more different as its a late 1960's property that remains largely unchanged in many ways. The decor is a mixture of 60's, 70's (mostly) and 80's. So a definite mish mash and clash of styles - there's work to be done! This sixties house will provide the ideal opportunity to hunt down some appropriate vintage furniture of the time to populate the rooms. Over time I've developed an appreciation for the product and interior design of that era so its pretty cool with me :-)

Radio Times - Tosca.

Out on the news stands today. Those good people at the Radio Times commissioned an image for their radio pages to accompany a new version of Puccini's Tosca, broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Just for interest I thought I'd post the image at four different stages.

Experimental image - Sneaky peek 2.

Well, more or less finished and that will have to do for now.

Experimental image - Sneaky peek.

This is an experimental image that's been lurking in the sketch book for a while. Not something I usually do but I thought it may be interesting to show an image at about about 70% completion, still quite a bit of tinkering to do so watch this space for the finished image :-)

Deep Sea Critter.

We found this little critter washed up on beach. Called a Lumpsuker and about 14" / 35cm long, so named due to having modified pectoral fins used to grip on to rocks. A photo of a healthy one in action too, courtesy of the 'What's on in the South West' web site: Link . Anyone who knows me well, understands my interest in and enthusiasm for anything marine related. In an earlier life I was very nearly on track to becoming a Marine Biologist, but failing my physics A level (was always hopeless at knuckling down to revise!) led me to take a 'year out' to do an Art Foundation Course for a bit of fun. A whole new world of possibilities opened up and thoughts of re-sitting physics exams were very quickly forgotten - sometimes failure is the best thing that can happen? I still retain a passion for sea dwelling beasties and over enthusiastically bore my wife (and kids!) with useless info on all things marine we find when out and about. How the time flies by for them LOL.

Holiday!

Really nice to get away for a few days over the Easter hols to the wilds of Northumberland. A stunning part of the UK where big deserted (almost) beaches expand into endless skies. Great to explore and enjoy with the kids. A few coastal landscape shots - but due to my inferior camera skills the sheer scale and breadth of the gorgeous beaches are rather lacking in these images.