Its been a while since i perused the internet due to a relocation and new job and blah blah blah, all the things which need to stay excluded from my art life. SO here's the low down on the scant happenings in the creative side of life.

I've been experimenting with computers, so far i have just reworked some old images to see how and if they may be beneficial. I am admittedly a change-a-phobe and i do like my lovely hand drawn little images but in the cause of maybe making some more dynamic images i thought i should really give it a go. Although i think i must state that i will never abandon the hand drawn.

OK, so a reworking of a poster I drew ages ago for a friend, I changed up some layers and to be honest photo shop is good for experimenting and mixing things up without a whole new drawing. This side is OK. I am a fan of the scanner and i think this version of the poster is all together an improvement. HOWEVER, below is my attempt at using my graphics pad, poor, at best i think. I like the colour, i always like colour, but it looks awful. Next stop vector images to see if this will benefit my little in-expandable brain.

So to conclude my adventure into computers i think that I will use them in the final stages of editing a hand drawn piece in terms of illustration but they will stay away from the "fine" side (and i do hate to separate the two in such a filthy way) and until i find a better way they will not replace the lines I can make with a plain old pencil.

new small drawings

Top : new

Bottom : old

I have been away from my blog for a while.
There is new work, interested?
I will show you, but i think i must explain that i am having issues with presentation.
I feel bogged down in the uptight attitude of a painter, everything in a line, perfect and crisp etc. This is the opposite of my practice as a painter and seemed a little bit like denying myself and the true nature of my work. Like dressing Britney in an evening dress, sure she will look beautiful but we all know we prefer her in all her trashy glory.
Following?
So this is something i will work on as a day to day process, for the first time ever a wall of my studio has been cleaned and painted white so i can do a daily display, which is time consuming and tiring but i think worth it.
So what else in this long time?
My smaller drawings! These are certainly worth mentioning. They began quite graphic, stylized and certainly attractive but black and white and i think that i would compare them to an oil puddle. I was not happy with this and decided the productive thing to do would be to put them to one side and begin again, as what is the point on pouring effort into an oil puddle right?
The newer drawings are colourful, less severe and more delicate. They have been applied to wood to make them tiles and i hope that this as well will be a daily practice although so far i must admit this has not happened. I will post pictures demonstrating this, i think its a big jump and i'm pleased with myself in a cat by a fire kind of way.
Also Ive started large scale paintings on paper, back to colour.
I think this is all i can say about where my work has gone to in all this busy working time. Thank you for reading.

Boys and Girls

This is part of my current run of works, i began by randomly painting people i know, images selected from an obsessive collection of snapshots from over five years.
A recurrant theme emerged however, the boy and the girl, when viewed together the works seemed linked and the characters seemed to have relationships with eachother.
This series almost instantly became something else. A portrait of the boy and the girl, the archetypal characters so (seemingly) important in this era of life.
The boys and girls are evasive from your view, they are engaged in no apparent activity, but are still doing something and they are alone.
This boy is actually my boyfriend.