Tuesday, 11 August 2009

Newish piece - Those Soapy Depths


Long time, no post... apologies for that! Pleased to say I'm very busy at the moment so just a quick post. Here's a watercolour I've had rolling around in my brain recently so I just had to sponge it up and wring it out onto some paper. There's also bits of gouache in there which, along with a few other experiments, will be my next step.

'Bingley Secrets' is or are at the picture framers as I type this so can't wait to see them.

Saturday, 25 July 2009

ArtOrder



Just finished my first ArtOrder challenge. It's actually quite a large watercolour so took me ages to scan.

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Mr Hoyle

This is the final Bingley Secret based on Sir Fred Hoyle who was born in Bingley. I suppose the poem really explains what is going on so READ IT!

15"x11"

Mr Hoyle

Mister Hoyle loves his astronomy
Especially his cosmology
He sits all night in the fire tower
Star staring hour after hour

To get the clearest possible view
He needs clear skies and a vantage too
The telescope is the main trouble
Think of a big scope then think double!

In fact it’s so big the firemen went
And on a new fire tower they spent.
So now there’s no chance of division
if the men stay out of his vision.

Wish You Were There?


Here's a recent commission for Management Today magazine. The brief was asking for three seaside-type postcards based on the humourous translations at the bottom of each profile. I used watercolour and pencil crayon on these and they were very quick to do in the end probably because they were so small.

Tuesday, 14 July 2009

Bingley Secrets Finished!

That's right folks, the exhibition you've all been waiting for, you thought it would never happen... blah, blah, blah.

Can't believe I actually made the last few brush marks on my mini series today! Boy, did I have a celebratory cup of tea! I decided to post nearly all the remaining paintings so those of you who can't make it (ahem...) will still be able to see most of my work. Oh and I'll put the poems up too, in fact here's one for 'The Bride In The River.'


The Bride In The River

‘Did you hear about Steve?’
‘No, why, what’s he doing?’
‘He’s stayed off work, on leave.’
‘Oh right, where’s he going?’
‘He’s on his honeymoon.’
‘What, he got married!?’
‘Yes, it’s a bit too soon’
‘hmmm, does sound hurried.’
‘He met her on the Aire’
‘Ha! Was he canoeing?’
‘No, twiddling his hair,
sat on the bank fishing.’
He felt a tug on the line
And started to reel in,
then in absolutely no time
he was planning a wedding!’

Apologies for lengthy silence after my last blog - I moved house, in fact I moved counties so I've been a bit preoccupied. Anyway you should note an improvement in the regularity of my updates because I now have access to the internet in the evenings.

Friday, 19 June 2009

A Blue Whale Birthday Revisited




Just a quick one! Apparently the images for 'A Blue Whale Birthday,' don't load properly so here they are again . . . hopefully.

'It was my beautiful girlfriend's birthday on Friday so I painting a card on photoshop based on a couple of Adam Rex characters. One of them is a chicken (not sure which book that it out of) and another is a whale from the cover painting of 'Billy Twitter & His Blue Whale Problem.' That book , I've only just spotted this, comes out on my birthday!!! (Suzanne I hope you're reading this) Anyway she really really liked the whale so I thought I'd adapt him into a card.'

Monday, 27 April 2009


Dimensions: 15in x 11in

The latest Bingley Secret, some kind of spectral woman preying on solitary people fishing perhaps? All I know is the next one will feature pirates and canal barges - stay tuned!

Wednesday, 22 April 2009

Bingley Secrets


Dimensions: 29.5cm x 21cm

It's been pretty busy the last few days, the highlight being the London Book Fair. I met some very nice people that were interested in my work so fingers crossed something will coming of those meetings.

In the meantime here's the second installment of my Bingley Secrets series. The fella sat on top is a boxer from the 1920s called Percy Vear (he wasn't the best) who was born in Bingley. Hope you like it!

Tuesday, 7 April 2009

A Blue Whale Birthday!!

It was my beautiful girlfriend's birthday on Friday so I painting a card on photoshop based on a couple of Adam Rex characters. One of them is a chicken (not sure which book that it out of) and another is a whale from the cover painting of 'Billy Twitter & His Blue Whale Problem.' That book , I've only just spotted this, comes out on my birthday!!! (Suzanne I hope you're reading this) Anyway she really really liked the whale so I thought I'd adapt him into a card.

Thursday, 2 April 2009

What's Work Really For?

Management Today Magazine arrived in the post this morning so I guess it's safe to post the work I did for it. The characters were all pencil sketches scanned in and then colour in Photoshop. The plates and cracks are all digitally painted, the cracks were especially good fun. It looks like I've made some good contacts at Haymarket with this piece.

Here's what it looks like in the magazine: