The History of My Art Part 3- Back Again.

 
The swans on the river Severn somehow reflected my feeling of wistful melancholia in my last days in Worcester.
Nat and I had seen the ballet 'Swan Lake' in London, and the tragic story had an appeal to me. I also enjoyed the novel 'The Black Swan' by Mercedes Lackey, which she leant me, not to be confused with the later work of that title, and the story inspired a painting of Odette... It wasn't any good, but was subsequently reworked as below...



I also wrote a poem on the theme...



I did this creepy house, at this time, too, which appealed to Raven, with whom I was back in contact...




Things didn't work out in Worcester, as noted, with my relationship with Nat drawing to a close. I was without regular employment and not earning enough to keep my nice flat, independently. Our border collie Odin died at about this time, leaving mum on her own, since dad had moved out, and since my sister was now away at college. So it made sense to return, like the archetypal member of the boomerang generation.

Before I left Worcester I stated this copy of Poussin's 'Et in Arcadia Ego'. I may never get around to finishing it...




The above is a depiction, probably post-Worcester, of the expulsion of demons from Mary Magdalene, an episode mentioned in the Bible but seldom depicted. It did not depict it very well, it must be said. The figure of jesus is all out of proportion. The demons are quite characterful.

One unusual painting from this time was inspired by a shocking newspaper cover concerning acid attacks in S. Asia:


Sometimes real life horrors bleed into my artwork, although generally I can't handle too much reality, and tend to escape into either fantasy or history. I don't agree with those who think art should reflect contemporary life or lived reality. All that stuff can be seen on the news. I tend to be fantastical and idealistic when it comes to art, realistic, objective, and (increasingly) cynical in other matters.






Lord Byron once wrote something like: 'at twenty three the best days of life are over and its sorrows doubled.'

I don't know if that entirely applied. I had a few things looking up, for example being back in contact with Raven, whom I met again in London on several occasions, for movies etc. (Including 'Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' and 'Jeepers Creepers II', making this the year 2003). We also sent each other stories and such, and worked on joint literary projects. She was a very talented writer, and also a good artist. Unfortunately complications arose, we lost contact again and eventually she married someone else. C'est la vie. I still have the Nick Cave compilations she made for me, and she presumably still has Grimling...




Raven can also be thanked for persuading me to get a proper PC and for getting me online (I had been previously been making do with an antiquated and dying Apple Mac). She also introduced me to DeviantART, which has been my main online home, art-wise, for a good decade now. (I have now uploaded 1,688 images on that site, had 17,754 comments (invariably positive) and 376.066 pageviews.) The first PC I got had a knock-off version of photoshop on it, but I didn't have a tablet, only a mouse, so my early digitally coloured drawings weren't very presentable...
   
I laugh at my naivete. Trying to do hair etc with a mouse was a fool's errand. I also didn't understand resolution and the importance, the purpose of layers, the need for a pressure sensitive stylus pen and the need to use a hard brush for edges. I did everything with a soft brush at low opacity, relying on reducing its size to do any detail. All quite appalling! I also had a bad habit of making heads too big, and eyes too large.

I was still by no means imagining that I would become a professional artist. I was now a published author as an historian, and I imagined that this would be the way my career would go. I had also done drawings which were included in the book...



I also took part in history joining the protest against the invasion of Iraq, at about this time.
Went up to Scotland with my father at one point, and was so impressed by Glenfinnan that it inspired a rare forey into landscape painting from me:


I also took in more history in foreign travels, including to Normandy, Malta and Venice.



 
I'm not sure if I painted 'Masked Figure and Nude' before or after my visit to Venice, but anyway the sinister cloaked figure in the venetian bota mask and three-cornered hat caught my imagination. Such a figure appears in the film 'Eyes Wide Shut', which also has some compelling visuals. I didn't deem this painting a success, however as the female figure always seemed awkward and disproportionate. I ended up obliterating the masked figure, cutting it down and repainting the female with an almost completely different woman (not nude, either) so I would have been as well to leave it alone and to start something new from scratch. Let that be a lesson, which bears repeating! 'Nude and Macaw' also features an enigmatic mask. It was done in 2003 or 2004. It was painted over a portrait of Nat, the only surviving original feature being the artist bear in the corner.


This Egyptian scene suffers from bad paint, and even more form an ill-conceived composition. It's one of 2004's more disastrous offerings. It was inspired by the cover of the book 'Acts of God' by Graham Phillips, which is about the plagues of Egypt, and rather good, I thought at the time of reading. But I added the sphinx, and the way it is facing outward and vanishing off the edge isn't good. The painting is quite weak.





This painting 'Alien and Girl' was a forey into slightly erotic sci-fi. It ended up in an exhibition in Italy, called 'Baroque Blue', and I don't think it found its way back.


I had the good fortune to get a part time job as a picture framer at the local art gallery, in Princes Risborough. This suited me very nicely, and it was interesting seeing all the different stuff that came in. Perks of the job also included being allowed to keep offcuts of backing board for painting on, and offcuts of frame for framing them. The bits cut out of the inside of mount boards, meanwhile, were ideal for drawing on, which is how I filled my lunch break. I still have a box under my bed full of drawings on these boards.

    
Drawings from 2003 including Templar and Hospitaller knights, my first attempt at Joan of Arc, and a troll.

At this time, meanwhile, I got involved with a group of people online writing a fantasy RPG (or multiple-authored story) called Haven. It was very entertaining, and I always thought the story was worth developing.
It was here that I invented my characters Arrizard the Druid, Asterith his fair apprentice, and Odo Paganus of the Knights of Esa.

  

I worked framing (and sometimes serving customers) at the art gallery thee days a week, sometimes four. The manager's father was (and remains, at the time of writing) the artist David Aldus, whose influence helped my own art to improve over time. Contact with Steven and Dave Aldus gradually persuaded me that an art career might be viable, though I still had eggs in the history basket. (I was a moderator on the Templar History Forum).

I was getting some good feedback for my drawings on deviantart, but was not yet getting anything accepted on the moderated site Epilogue. Rightly the drawing below was rejected, although I apparently deemed it worthy at the time.



This 'Damnation of Venus' done in early 2005 represented an improvement, though the figure is all over the place anatomically. That was partially deliberate, since I was going for an El-Greko-esque style, but I don't think I got it. I struggled with believable forms and credible, deep shadows.



Quite a disturbing image, but this one actually sold relatively quickly, which was nice. Another one from this time that sold subsequently was this 'Collar Girl'.



One Carole Humphreys, herself a great artist, commissioned this 'Masked Ball' piece. She would later become a close cum of mine. The masked figures here aren't quite so threatening. I was pleased with how the marble pillars turned out. There are some unfortunate anatomy issues with the main figure, however, especially relating to how her head relates to her body.




I think my style became a little more sophisticated this year, and my faces a little more realistic...

     

   
 

  
My subject matter ranged from classical nudes to gothic and horror imagery, also sci-fi and medievalism, which continued to feature in my output. Some of these pictures were related to stories that I worked on, including a medieval horror story somewhat inspired by Hellraiser, and a Star-Wars fan fiction. Others just came out of my head, where unfortunate damsels in slave collars seem to reside in alarming numbers...



This Venetian scene was somewhat inspired by a similar one by David Aldus, who was great at doing the steely skies and the puddles. I added period costumed figures for the sake of antiquating, and also because when I was actually in St Marks Square there were many extras milling about dressed like this, as they were filming 'Casanova' (a film that was released this year, 2005).

These two nudes 'Seraglio' and 'Amber' were my most successful to date, and I think they stand up pretty well. An article on the Topkapi palace in Istanbul inspired the former, also Orientalist painting, of which I was becoming a fan.

 



This painting, 'Templar Mass' was one of my most ambitious projects at the time of doing. It was a commission for another esteemed associate.

  

Now into 2006. Experimenting with atmospherics, in colour and tone. 'A Reclining Affair' turned out quite nicely in terms of setting and overall design, although the female figure still looked a bit strange.

'Centaurion' was an early forey into fantasy, inspired by a rather obvious pun. The composition is dreadful but the atrmour, male face and expression turned out quite well. 'Asterith' was a more convincing effort at fantasy painting. It was declined by Epilogue- I was not yet getting any luck there, but it sold anyway, for £265, which I was pleased with at the time.



Sith Witch was done while I was still feeling starwarsy, after watching 'Escape of the Sith'.



These two, and the similarly coloured profile face further up, were exhibited in Risborough Gallery, and the angel was subsequently in the 'Baroque Blue' exhibition in Italy. Unfortunately it's now lost to me. I like the face the angel ended up with, but the proportions of the body are still a bit off. The arms are a disaster.


'Cryptgoth', a sexy tattooed nude in a crypt. Probably a vampire. I had the fortitude to rework much of her body just after the first go, to a correct perspective error. It just has to be done. It would probably be better with more shadows, so that the figure looms out of them. Her form looks very evenly toned. I like her languid, wasted, but hungry expression, though.


Here's Harry Hill...

And back to regular broadcasting...

  

The below was a commission from a floor fitter, who saw my other work while he was here, and asked for a drawing of his three boys. A challenge in accurate portraiture, and different subject matter from my usual.







Kneeling girl, inspired by a photo in an advert that took my fancy, especially for the graceful, submissive pose.



'Count Raymond', inspired by the defender of Toulouse during the Albigensian Crusade. Note the somewhat improved, but still less than entirely convincing legs on the horse.

Water-colours based on Treasure Island, somewhat derivative of some pieces by David Aldus...

 

This strange piece 'Firesprite' has an adverse effect on my dad, for some reason...



 
A painting of Boudicca, and another of a Venetian scene, done in 2006, and soon sold. Overall I liked the Boudicca painting, although her figure looked a little stiff and her eyes could have done with having more of a gleam....

 Bride of sorrows...

 HMS Vanguard, Neslon's flagship, returning to a theme from my early work.

Below, a Nosferatu-esque vampire in action. This piece was later reworked with more nocturnal colours.


 

 
The copy of the Haywain is actually tiny...

I started to put a bit more effort into some of my drawings around this time, in order to achieve more contrast and detail... We are now going into 2007.

  

   




This one, of Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi, led to a series, years later, of illustrations for a book on the lady.

Fulk and Melisende, prefiguring a return of my interest to matters Crusaderly...

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At the gallery, came to think that I was stagnating doing the framing job, which was convenient but not challenging. Just then Steve made me redundant, since times were worstening, economically, and he had to cut costs to feed his family. Again serendipitously, I had noticed that there was a Crusader Studies MA being run jointly between Royal Holloway and Queen Mary's University of London. I also received a small inheritance at this time that would cover the tuition fees. It seemed like a natural progression, since I had something of a speciality in that period already. I gained a place on the course, which proved a fascinating interlude. I got to meet such experts in the field as Thomas Asbridge, Jonathan Phillips, Susan Edgington and Jonathan Riley-Smith, and attended many interesting seminars. I wrote another book, 'A to Z of the Knights Templar' while also doing the course, and later expanded my dissertation, on the cult of Mary Magdalene, into an ebook.

This Templar was done at this time:


Some gothic beuties were also done:




And some spitfires:

among other things.

I continued to do a bit of framing work at the gallery, but due to the cost of learning to drive, had to take a full time job on a hospital reception desk, the least said about which the better. That occupied the year of dread 2008, allowing only a few paintings to be done, including this one of San Georgio Maggiore in Venice.



This 'Beached Mermaid' was another picture done in this period.



I was thinking that it might be nice to start my own art gallery, and discussed the idea with my good friend and fellow artist Carole Humphreys, from Swindon, whom I had met via DeviantART. My sister was living in Leomington Spa, and had set up a card shop, and there was a nearby property opposite a beautiful church, that would have made a nice gallery. Carole and I got so far as to attend trade fairs researching the venture. I also carted paintings up to sell on a stand in the Electric Ballroom indoor market in Camden, London, on one of these occasions jointly with Carole. Made a couple of sales, each time, enough to cover travel costs and to get a pint of guinness at the World's End pub after!

 
A couple that sold in Camden.

Little came of the gallery plan, especially as my sister decided to close her shop in Leamington and to take a design job elsewhere. Still getting on the mailing list for these trade fairs, especially the Spring and Autumn Fairs in Birmingham, proved useful for my career as it developed, namely freelance illustration.

I continued drawing, too, including work on my visual stories 'Expectant' and 'The Blackguard'.

In early 2009 I secured a trial placement at Spiral Direct, potentially to be working laying out the calendars for their ranges of gothic teeshirts. The environment was much to my taste, and I was on the point of moving out to Croydon, before the placement fell through. During my time at Spiral I was introduced to the possibilities of an up-to-date version of photoshop, with a stylus for drawing rather than a mouse. Was given a bit of a tutorial by artist Andrew Dobell, many of whose fine works feature on Sprial products. This was a huge eye-opener. The manager of Spiral opined that I should pursue freelance illustration, and indeed after this taste of the milieu I would not have been able to return to a non art-related job. It was also nice not to have to leave mum stranded, (although by now we had been joined by the new dog, Buster). And there would have been the problem of what to do with the car.

This skull was something I did while at Spiral. Dobell's influence can be discerned!


So I got hold of a new computer, and did a home-learning course in dreamweaver and flash animation. The course also meant I was able to get Photoshop CS4 at the student rate. I redid my website, and also gradually shifted my output from traditional oil painting to digital art. Getting to grips with such mysteries as layers and textures. I began listening to the Ninja Mountain podcast, which gives many essential tips for functioning as a freelance illustrator. I also subscribed, to Imagine FX, and was featured in one issue.



 As time went on I found myself doing more commissioned work than personal pieces. I didn't go into web design although I redid my own site, and also made one for Carole.

The History of My Art, Part 2: Student Days

One disaster I averted was that I nearly studied History of Art (which would have been in Canterbury). Fortunately I ended up studying History and Art instead, as separate subjects. I'm not sure if this was the best way to spend three years and several thousand pounds but I don't think it was entirely worthless. I went to University College Worcester, initially majoring in art, but later switching to joint honours so that I could do my dissertation in a historical subject without having to relate it to art. (I researched the suppression of the Knights Templar, a historical episode that intrigued me, having come to it through reading of speculative books like Holy Blood Holy Grail, which a friend, John, from my art course, with similar esoteric tastes leant me. The same friend also introduced me to the artwork of HR Giger which would be influential on some of my later work, such as the drwaing below which is probably from this time...



I had impressed John by throwing my trainers away when a nightclub bouncer tried to stop me going in with them. He later drove me home, one time, to pick up a bow tie ahead of a James Bond themed party (where he enjoyed decidedly more Bondian luck with the females).

The first year of the art course (1999) included a module on drawing, but the only painting I did that year was not part of the course, but an experimental thing done on a thick slab of board, in the shed of the house I was sharing. The title was 'We Know Major Thom's a Monkey'.


 I had a pen-friend at the time, known as Raven, who, as well as sharing my interest in vampires, literature, art and poetry, was a big Bowie fan, and this probably inspired the title. (I later would meet Raven at the Tower of London, which seemed apt).

I can't say the art modules at college involved much technical instruction, so in that sense I would say I am basically self-taught as an artist. The emphasis tended to be on concepts rather than nuts and bolts, which is sadly typical, or was in those days. There was also a lot of instruction about the various modernist movements, and their ideologies. As I have opined before, potential students interested in developing technical skills would be better advised to find a traditional atelier style school, or to avoid college altogether and use the resources that are now abundantly available online. That is if this is the primary importance of study- to build skills and create a livelihood.

There was also a module in graphics and multimedia, wherein we were introduced to photoshop. I would have done well to pay more attention given that this would eventually become my primary productive medium, but as it was I was either hung over from student nights at local nightclubs the night before these classes, or too busy smooching with my girlfriend, Nat, at the back of the room. So this was not one of the modules I excelled in...

The house I shared eventually came to be decorated with more of my paintings. 'Library Girl' was at the top of the stairs, while in the living room were paintings of a gothic castle in the moonlight, and a surreal piece called 'back of the wardrobe'.

The castle piece was inspired by 'Dracula' and featured Van Helsing and Mina in the foreground. Alas it was too thinly painted, but a later digital reworking improved it somewhat.



'Back of the Wardrobe' was a surrealist image, incorporating some personal symbolism and some motifs developed in earlier works. The title came from the fact that it was painted on a piece of board that formerly was the back of a wardrobe. (Extravagant spending on art supplies was not my custom).

As noted I received little or no formal or technical painting tuition, and if anything the encouragement was to loosen up one's drawing style, and experiment with conceptualist, not necessarily representational stuff. Having subsequently come to learn about Cultural Marxism I view all this with even more suspicion and disdain than I did at the time. After covering the Dada movement, I made my first (and for a long time only) digital collage/photo manipulation, which was called 'Mona Hitler'.



Another early mixed media experiment was a Phantom of the Opera poster with a singed music sheet taking the form of the mask... This was part of a graphic design module.


One image from the time that I was proud of was this portrait of Lestat, although only a copy of a photo, a frame from the film 'Interview With the Vampire', it was the most realistic portrait I had achieved to that time. Another figurative drawing I was pleased with at the time was the biro drawing of a girl, also below...

 

I enjoyed living in Worcester, during my student years, anyway. The city has a picturesque cathedral by the riverside, the burial place of King John, and of Prince Arthur, the elder brother of Henry VIII, who died before he could become king. I had pleasant times going around with the aforementioned Nat, who was a local.

This painting imagines Prince John riding back into modern Worcester...


This one shows the late lamented Odin, our dog who was particularly attached to my mum, set in a landscape back home in Buckinghamshire:



At this time I also painted this ship for my gran...



and this Gypsy for my father, who moved away from my mother at this time...




After painting the gypsy girl, I made the (generally regretable) decision to switch to acrylic paint, chiefly for the quicker drying time. I never really liked acrylics, though, since they don't blend as nicely as oils, and they dry out too fast- even in the tube.

Still, these were some of the results, not all of which were deemed fit for public consumption...


'The Jealous Father', a satirical tribute to the Creation of Adam, using the same basic composition in a rather different context. Done on canvas. Quite large. I don't really like painting on canvas, I discovered, preferring hard surfaces.


Lilith. A dark female archetype, seeming to crop up in my work periodically. Also alluded to in a horror story called 'Veil', that I wrote while still a teenager and that I must revisit someday.


A modern frigate. My father somewhat foolishly encouraged me to investigate a career in the Royal Navy, at one point. Nothing came of it, since I am not cut out for that sort of thing, but I still had the literature, which inspired this image. Never was inspired to finish it properly as it fails as a painting due to not having enough space around the ship.

I also did some ceramics modules at college, the results including these medieval tiles...






The above painting image 'Enigma' was not one that I ever found particlarly pleasing, and I later scraped it back and extensively reworked it in oils, though it was originally done in acrylics. Certain qualities were lost, and it might have been better to start from scratch, but then it is no great loss on the whole.



The above is called 'Hairspray' (since the dolphin swims through spray that forms the lady's hair). One of my wilder and sillier experiments. Don't know what I was thinkng regarding the rest of it. (Dog and bone- phone, possibly). I didn't (and don't) do drugs, with the exception of trying a splif once or twice when a dodgy friend of a housemate in the first year came over. I didn't see what all the fuss was about.


 

A version of the above painting of a Templar Knight would later be used on my book 'Rise and Fall of the Knights Templar', written soon after my graduation, while I lingered in Worcester. Overall the image works quite well but the horse is messed up, being too small, and the less said about its 'legs', the better. The drawing of a Templar trial, meanwhile, was done as a cover for my dissertation.

Some time before finishing at Worcester and before chucking those nasty acrylics away I perpetrated this artistic atrocity for my sister (who professed to like it nonetheless).





I graduated in 2001, and left the house I had lived in as a student, coming home to Bucks temproarily, where I did this painting of Nat...

I also did this painting of the Phantom of the Opera and Christine Daee. Nat and I were fans of the story, and as well as having seen the musical in London, we had once been to a fancy dress party as the Phantom and Christine. She made me a cloak for the occasion, being a person of many talents.




I then moved  to a flat in Worcester, in a dodgier part of town. The best part about this flat was a good view across the city, with many spires and church towers in view, albeit behind a bus depot. In the post-graduation period, I produced this painting of the goddess Diana, also in acrylics, and also this vaguely cubist piece called 'Boudoir'.

 

I didn't have a TV there, so didn't get to watch the planes crashing into some other towers. 9/11 was also the day I was offered a job as an ornamental assembler at Royal Worcester Porcelain. It involved sticking on heads and arms from the mould onto the bodies of figurines, and also applying flowers etc and removing visible seams.  I found this work ok, but a little stressful, since they seemed to expect painstaking quality at mass production rates. I was living in a different flat by the time I finished there, in a nicer area but with less impressive views. Royal Worcester went out of business soon after my departure. Paintings from this time included a view of the cathedral done from across the river, one of my few foreys into plein air painting, since I don't like winds, and I don't like people looking over my shoulder. Painting sold in a cafe, in which it was exhibited, within a few days, and before I could get a photo of it. I also exhibited paintings of a fantasy city, and another one of the cathedral, in that cafe, which was around the corner from the Commandery, a museum set in the building that was the rouyalist HQ before the battle of Worcester, during the civil war.

One event I attended at this time was a re-enactment of the funeral of Prince Arthur, that took place in the town, involving a procession to the cathedral and a ceremony there. The moody weather, the chanting of monks, the sound of the hoofs as a knight and horse came into the cathedral, it was all very well done and appealed to my medievalism tremendously.

Below are two paintings of Petra in Jordan, and of Christine from Phantom of the Opera, done on different sides of the same board... The latter was done at my second post-uni flat in Worcester, the former probably earlier.

 

Another late Worcester work of mine was this Lamentation of Christ. A copy, basically, of a Bernini, but with a black background, making it even more sombre. I can't remember properly, but I think I may have darkened the background after returning to Bucks.



Things didn't work out in Worcester, and things fizzled out between Nat and I (since we were both holding candles for other people, as it transpired) and so I moved back to Bucks. I, never to return except once to collect the paintings that had not sold in the cafe. I remained somewhat nostalgic for Worcester, however, and subsequently painted this view of the cathedral to remind me of it, albeit having returned to oils, my more natural medium...



I also did this one of the Commandery:

The History of My Art, Part 1: Triumph and Disaster, Mostly Disaster...

Recently I brought a number of old paintings down from the attic to save them from the risk of damp. It posed the dilemma of what to do with them. It also got me thinking about my progression over the years.

I have been painting for nearly 20 years now, which is a shocking thought. My mother used to be a painter, and I purloined some of her old oil paints when I was 14 or 15 years old. My first effort was a little view of Brixham, a town in Devon where we had a couple of family holidays, and for which I developed an attachment. There was a good gallery, the Strand Art Gallery, there where a group of artists specialised in works mainly with a nautical theme. I always had an interest in siling ships, anyway, and before I started painting I used to make model ships, either in kit form or from scratch out of carbdoard. (In fact I once made a replica of Brixham including all the boats in the harbour). Unfortunately most of my cardboard creations were stuck together with sellotape, which lost its stick, and few of them survive.

My father (who has just retired) had a background in engineering, and but was working in agriculture during my early childhood. He was good at making things, including a wooden ATAT, for my starwars men to ride in, a papermache and wire landscape for my little dinosaurs and a landing craft for my soldiers. Sadly I didn't inherit engineering or mathematical abilities to any extent, nor any aptitude for farming, soldiering, or the Merchant Marine. We can't design ourselves and I would have designed my physicality (and mentality) differently, since I was short, big-headed, weedy-limbed and prone to colds. I didn't have a great time in schools, hating maths and PE particularly, but I did well in art and history, and relatively well in English. My dad was also a history buff and both my parents could be poetic. My younger sister also inherited gifts for visual creativity, and also went into the design world, but she was always better at maths.

My second oil effort, and my first that survives, was a sailing ship. It turned out very well and was a false dawn. I didn't yet know about thinning paints with turpse, so the thickly daubed paint produced a nice rich effect. I started off painting on the smooth side of hardboard, not yet knowing about such things as primer or the need for porous surfaces. Hence my early efforts took ages to dry. The painting as seen above, is basically as done, although the masts and sails were tidied up a bit during a later reworking.

I didn't have any great belief in my artistic worth, as an early teenager, and thought I might have to settle for some office job, doing admin or something, hence I did a Business Studies GNVQ at sixth form, alongside a History A Level. (Fancying a certain girl was the main reason for staying on at at Sixth Form, although nothing came of that. At this point I was still far too nice, not to mention shy.)

 Serendipitously, though, there was an adult education class going on doing an art A-level, in a building attached to the school, and a teacher who recognised my real leanings before I did got me a place therein, although it meant joining the course half way through and only doing the last of two years. Still I got a 'B' somehow.

One of my early works, at this time, was the above monstrosity, supposed to be Admiral Nelson. I had an interest in Nelson and his era, going back to an early holiday in Portsmouth and HMS Victory. I can't see much going for this painting now, although I've seen worse on pub signs.



I benefited, during my this time from studying historical artists, at that time, namely Hopper, Gainsborough and Munch.


Copy of Munch's 'Madonna'.



The sci-fi film Star Trek: First Contact also made an impression on me at that time, and I contrived a justification for including a painting of some gruesome Borg characters in the course of one project.

The Borg intrigued me, perhaps because they seem like updated vampires,  and I also had a taste for ghoulish and gothic things. As a child I also made models of Egyptian tombs, complete with sarcophagi and mummies. My historical interests alternated between Ancient Egypt, the European Middle Ages, the Napoleonic era and the 19th century.

The art course, which would have been around the year 1996, also introduced me to fantasy art, featured in some of the art books that were around. In particular I liked the mermaids of David Delamare, having previously suffered a jeuvenile crush on Ariel. I did a mermaid painting during the course of the A-Level, which had a nice moonlit colour scheme, with the moon in the background casting a long relection, inspired by moons in Edvard Munch paintings. However the proportions of the body and face were so distorted (including enormous eyes) that I subsequently destroyed it. The above Borg painting represents strides forward in terms of realism, even though it is still naive in many ways.

The above painting 'Library Girl' was probably done after the A-level finished but before I moved on to college. It incorporates fabrics and elements of collage. The overall effect is not entirely disastrous. Unfortunately the painting was done on the rough side of a sheet of hardboard, and the effect is not pleasing close-to. I have thought about plastering in these areas and painting over them, so they seem smoother, but it is so old now it is not worth tinkering with.

I might revisit the mixed-media approach in the future, I always meant to, but never got around to it. Another pre-college mixed media offering was this painting of the Titanic, again foolishly painted on the rough side of hardboard. The rigging is bits of string, stuck on.





This was done in about 1997, when Titanic was still a ship, and not a movie. The dive to the wreck of the Titanic was something that had caught my imagination.

This piece, 'Tess', is another painting from around this this time, also showing a subsequent digital reworking.



Think I prefer the original, after all. This shows the perils of reworking older paintings (not that the original of this one was touched) since changes reflecting technical improvement can still rob a piece of certain character and charm. The change is not always for the better, in every way. Hence an artist should be reticent about reworking old pieces except to correct obvious mistakes. Changing the character or mood of a piece is not advisable. It is better to start over and to make a completely new picture.

This painting, I believe pre-Worcester, was a similar to an earlier one of a vampire lady on a stairway, but a great improvement on it. It was also one of the first paintings that I sold.

2013 retrospective

Here is a little slideshow showing some of this last year's output...

I wrote up most of the year's doings here: 

http://dashinvaine.deviantart.com/journal/2013-News-and-Reviews-406620177

Not much to add except for a trip to Kensington on 7th December where I popped into Dragonmeet 2013 and met a few fellow artists. Also went to nearby Leighton House, late home of the late Lord Leighton. (I had a date who I thought was late, but the clock on my mobile was actually fast, so I rushed off from Dragonmeet sooner than I needed to, as it transpired...)

Had a good Christmas, presents included Brom's art book, imaginatively entitled 'The Art of Brom'. Very worth getting if you like that sort of thing.

Beasties

Awful of me to so neglect this blog. Have been busy with one job and another... I recently thought I was coming to the end of my to-do list when it came to commissioned projects, and could see the light of the end of the tunnel, but then I had a load more requests, so they built some more tunnel, so to speak... All good, of course, but I will have to shunt my personal projects to the bottom of the list again. 

One thing I have managed to squeeze in is a calendar of pin-up girls and exotic animals, mostly wild animals that you wouldn't normally hang around with. It can be found on my cafepress store.This was somewhat inspired by the Philip Pullman concept of daemons in animal form.