22nd December 2008

Bleak mid winter, no sales in view.
I've been Christmas shopping in the local book store and all I can see are the same old suspects, namely Steven Fry, Clive James and Andrew Motion.
What shall I do differently next year?
My elder brother, in Somerset, knocks out photographs of local scenes, framed on canvas: they sell like hot cakes.

25 nov 2008

got new pictures on aarti.co.uk.go see. i think that they are brilliant.report back

2/11/08

Took daughter to Billy Smart's circus on Chingford plain. Saw a trapeze artiste perform a triple somersault. I had only just stopped telling my daughter, with great enthusiasm on my part, about seeing the classic black and white film trapeze, starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, in which, at the beginning, Lancaster falls from the trapeze, attemping the triple somersault, and cripples himself. He then has to train Tony Curtis to perform this stunt. I thought the triple somersault was Hollywood fantasy; I never thought I would see it for real. My daughter counted the somersaults, but it was too quick for me. No painting today.

1/11/08

A better painting day: a painting I thought was lost has been found.Half an hour of ill~considered thrashing about against the clock last week turned out to be a pleasant surprise this week. I never know what will turn up next , which is what keeps me going. The organiser of the studio building keeps making tentative overtures , saying she can help me sell/market myself/apply to the Royal Academy.Only time will tell , but she thinks I need a push if I am ever to get anywhere , and to quote my old friend George Kelpie from Kingston Architecture School of the 1970s, she is not wrong. At the moment I am exhibiting at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, along with several other artists.(See the Inky-Cuttlefish website for details.)

30/10/08 and 31/10/08

30/10/09

About David Hockney






















31/10/09

Nothing much to say about today. Halloween. My daughters stood guard at the front door to repel unwanted guests, no one unpleasant showed up. Younger daughter shows drawing ability copying Disney characters. Her art teacher at school appears to be oblivious of her talent. I don't understand this. Creative art seems to have disappeared from the school timetable, apart from a nod to art history. Potted biographies of famous artists. The Disney pictures will be posted in tomorrow's blog, along with more new forest pictures.
Spent the day producing drawings for a futile planning application. I went to the town hall to see a planner that i have known for years, but he pretended that we'd never met and was very unhelpful.

29/10/08

Said daughter and myself finally bought a camera, after half and hour of haggling,comparing specifications,arguing about the price, driving the sales assistant to distraction- but the right choice was made because daughter is happy and would have resented my cheapskate choice.
More Brand-Ross madness. It takes a tabloid editor to point out the obvious. Namely that Jonathan Ross is a clown. Certainly not worth £6million of the taxpayers money per year. Apparently Ross is the BBC's top star.
Pictures shows daughter's view in the forest of the lake at Epping Forest, which I am recasting as a painting. Tomorrow we are going back there to take some more pictures, courtesy of the aforesaid. Will post paintings and new photographs as they are produced. Daughter wants a vintage Polaroid land camera from the 1960s or thereabouts. Does anyone know where to get one, other than Ebay, for a reasonable price?

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Thank You

28/10/09

Got paid today. Spent most of the day trying to spend the money on a camera for my daughter. Without much success. Should have gone to the studio today but abortive shopping instead. Missed a genuine bargain priced camera because we dithered. The shop assistant bought the last one. I call that insider dealing. Said daughter wished for snow on a shooting star, but got slush instead. Even that is a treat in London. Slush seems to sum up the day. Economy still going south but Jonathan and Russell will be alright. Above painting shows Icarus skimming the tops of the waves, just before splashdown. Icarus is a favourite subject because flying figures are always interesting. I hate paintings of people slumped in chairs, or sprawled on a bed. Rare interview tonight with Lucien Freud on the news, talking about saving two Titians for the nation. The interviewer tried to get him to talk about his painting methods but for a genius with a paintbrush he can be infuriatingly inarticulate.

27/10/08

Another angry day.
Painting going very badly- very inconsistent.
Good or bad- I still can't sell anything- but not for want of trying.
Drawing shown is one of my better efforts.
Took me all of 10 minutes and Whistler's knowledge of a lifetime.
Painted a brilliant landscape a few days ago, but can't even mix the same colours again. Catastrophic memory failure.
Christmas is coming and the geese are on a diet. But my daughter wants another penguin from America. But of course she'll get it, even though it will cost a fortune in current exchange rates-pounds against the dollar.
My other daughter has left home,although she still lives upstairs. Although i don't think staring at a laptop is living.
"University challenge" has been cancelled, for that phoney programme -Autumn Watch with Bill All-Too-Oddie. I like "University Challenge" and all quiz programmes because I can shout at the television constructively. Also watched "Only Connect" on BBC4. Three adults, between them, failed to spot the simplest connection between Gordon, Harry, Photography and Flood. Amazing.
News is very depressing. A new drug for arthritis is promised for some at £10,000 a year. Some hope. It has only just occurred to George Osborne that knocking around with a Russian billionaire is likely to anger the poor devils who can't afford to shop at Sainsburys.
Signing off now to check emails from the most eccentric of my eccentric clients. Architecture is a profession for the bravest of the brave.