Conkers
During the frustrating periods when the weather is too poor to go outside to paint, I sometimes turn to still life. My latest batch of work is a series of larger than life conker paintings.
The humble Horse Chestnut holds many a memory for me in its warm, reflective surface. Redolent of school days, they are lumped in with drizzle, bonfires and the cordite tang of sparklers in my mind's Autumnal reference library.
As children we collected and treated them to a variety of experimental processes to try and produce a champion conker. They would be baked and pickled, polished and hammered to try to gain an advantage over other boys' efforts.
When sufficiently hardened, we would drill and thread them onto an old bootlace ready to be swung with as much force as possible at an opponent's dangling prize.
My knuckles still throb at the memory of the ones that missed.
All Conkers are for sale. Please contact me for details.
"Sixers" - 25x35cm
Smaller ones for the smaller pocket
I also have a set of smaller 'Threeers' at a reduced size and a reduced price. Please contact me for details.
"Threeers" - 20x25cm
Process and Details
The set began with a walk around the block to gather my subject matter. I gave them a clean and arranged them on a well lit windowsill to photograph with a macro setting.
I uploaded them to one of my studio Macs and enlarged each to a full screen size (with the screen rotated 90°). Each conker is unique in shape and colour and the way it reflects the light from its shiny surface.
The paintings, in oils, are on canvas boards salvaged from discarded landscape work, thereby retaining some texture behind the new painting.
Tomatoes
Is there another fruit that is as redolent of summer as the humble tomato?
I remember the smell of them in my father's little greenhouse when I was a child. That warm, heady, dusty smell is so rooted in its time for me.
Sadly, I feel that the tomatoes we now get in supermarkets have lost the tang I remember from all those years ago. They are far sweeter in flavour now and all the poorer for that, having lost the complexity they once had.
Visually, however, they have lost none of their appeal! A wide variety of sizes and colours are available from enormous, deep red beefsteaks to little, orange cherries.
Over the course of the next few weeks I will be painting as many varieties as I can get my hands on. Check back to see my progress.
All Tomatoes are for sale. Please contact me for details.
Toms - 20x25cm
Larger ones for the deeper pocket
I also have a set of larger Toms at an inflated size and a bigger price. Please contact me for details.
