It Was 20 Years Ago Today ...

 

I've always been interested in writing down thoughts and happenings as a way of reinforcing unreliable memory and interrogating some of my own assumptions. Over the years, I've kept a Diary, a Studio Journal, and this Blog.

My Diary began in May 1983 and I've been good at keeping it going over the years. There are gaps, inevitably, but looking back at entries now and again can be quite surprising. For instance, I recently found an entry from the 80s that detailed a meeting with a friend in a restaurant in Newcastle. I still have no idea why we were meeting (not enough detail, Diary!) but more surprisingly was the description of the restaurant because it no longer exists and without the Diary entry, it wouldn't exist for me now at all.

The Studio Journal has an even earlier start: June 1972. It's progress, however, has been patchy and uneven. Part of the problem is that some things get written up in the Diary which deserve equal space in the Journal and there are indeed times when I make the effort to copy entries from one to the other. The actual function of the Studio Journal has varied over the years, but i still think it's a worthwhile investment of time.

Before the appearance of Facebook, I wrote far more in this Blog. My first approach to blogging was from the perspective of fanzine publishing. In fact, I firmly intended to make this Blog a replacement for the fanzines I used to distribute to science fiction fans round the world, but it quickly became obvious that the intended audience hadn't taken to the idea and I gradually found myself drawn into the Blogosphere, a quite different concept from fanzine fandom. 

Facebook and other social media have, of course, dealt a body blow to blogging. A great number of Blogs are now moribund and, indeed, I let my activities here slide quite a bit. In 2017, I posted 425 blog posts here, a high point because in subsequent years the number declined to posts in the mid 40s. 

I'm now making the effort to revive Boogie Street; perhaps not to its former glory, but at least to something that presents something new fairly regularly. Here's to the next 20 years! And enjoy the celebratory cake (if 2018 doesn't mean it's a bit stale).

Club Man

Club Man

(oil on hardboard, 4x3 in)

SOLD

I found this very small painting while tidying the studio. It dates from … too many years ago to contemplate. Blokes like this were everywhere in my younger drinking days. I posted it on Facebook and to my delight someone asked to buy it. So off it went today to its new home across the river.

The Last Cake

The Last Cake before the New Year Diet

(black marker with digital colour)

In the last few days I've posted on my Facebook Pages albums of all the paintings I completed in 2017 and all the sketchbook drawings I did in 2017 directly from the subject (on sketch crawls and on holiday). 

There were 14 paintings (excluding one or two that need to be re-photographed) and 16 sketches. That's not too many. Last year was a somewhat confused year and it took me quite some time to get into the creative swing of things. Drawing with the Tyne & Wear Urban Sketchers kept me (relatively) sane and there was the displacement activity of the Sketchbook Circle, but it wasn't until June that I began painting again.

I expected to resume oil painting and had bought a new radial easel to ease the transition from my old, larger basement studio to the new, attic conversion studio. But in the end, I found myself renewing my acquaintance with acrylics and working at a desk. Partly this was due to my use of water-based media in the Sketchbook Circle books, partly because I wasn't sure about the white spirit fumes in the smaller studio and partly out of a genuine desire to shake things up and try something new.

I last used acrylics in the late 80s and I was delighted to find how different they are today. I'm so please with the paintings I've done with them that I fully expect to continue exploring what they can do for the foreseeable future. 

As for drawing, my sketching with the Urban Sketchers will continue (next sketch crawl is on 27th January - venue yet to be decided) and having dropped out of the Sketchbook Circle for this year, I plan on getting more self-initiated sketchbook work done.

To that end, here's the first little sketchbook drawing of 2018. In the sketchbook it's only a black line drawing, but I still get great enjoyment out of colouring these things in Photoshop. Still, I may try some watercolour on the original in an effort to get more to grips with the slippery stuff so I can use it outdoors.

I hope my Regular Reader stays with me for what I hope will be an interestingly creative twelvemonth. Best Wishes to you all!

No Regrets.

I mentioned a short while ago that there'd been a small flurry of new subscribers to this blog. I didn't know the reason why that should have happened, but I do know why some of them are now unsubscribing - "Content no longer relevant."

I make no apologies for continuing to post My Dad's Diary, which is presumably the content that has given people the hump. This blog, while concentrating on my painting and drawing, has always featured a small amount of  biographical material and will continue to do so. My Dad's Diary provides a look into the first year of my life and I want to keep it somewhere safe. I post the blog entries on Facebook but am aware that they'll quickly disappear into the past; at least on my blog they're potentially there forever.

It's somewhat ironic that, were it not for the Diary pieces, there'd be little or no posts from me here and no one would have been alerted to the possibility that the content had changed in any way.

Getting artwork done has not been easy in the last year or two, for all sorts of reasons. but I haven't given up and there will be more posts about painting and drawing in the very near future. Just haad yer horses, as my Mum would say. 

And remember, Boogie Street is a two-way street. Just as I hope at least some of you want to read what I have to say, I'm always interested in reading what you have to say in return. That's what the Comments box is there for, folks. You can even leave an anonymous comment, although sticking a name of some sort at the end of your comment would be polite.

It's good to talk. Smiley face.

Xmas Orange

The Orange House (Oil on canvas, 16 x 16 in)

I've recently been mulling over the possibility that the days of blogging are over; so many of the bloggers I used to follow have stopped posting on their blogs and have moved across to Facebook. For a while it seemed to be so much easier to capture the attention of an audience. There were giveaways for liking and sharing and a community appeared to have sprung up around artists' Pages. 

Then Facebook made one of its mysterious changes and it became really difficult to visit and exchange comments between Pages; to such an extent that the flourishing community spirit appears to have withered on the vine.

And now I find a small flurry of new subscribers to Boogie Street! Someone is clearly interested in what I have to say and show here, so perhaps I should shrug off my pessimistic thoughts and get on with posting again.

So here we go: in addition to having work shown in a couple of exhibitions at the moment (Gateshead Art Society's Xmas Exhibition at the Shipley and the Newcastle Painters' Group show at Jesmond Dene House - see previous posts), I had the pleasure of sending this painting off to a client in America this week.

Coming up: Another sale and another Sketch Crawl. Stay tuned.

Newcastle Skyline

Newcastle Skyline 1995 (Oil on board, 10.5 x 36 in)

I was contacted yesterday through my page on Facebook by someone asking if this painting, which he now owns, was one of mine. Signed "HRBELL95", it is indeed one of mine. It's one of the first paintings I ever sold and I'm delighted to be reminded of it. 

This painting was to be part of my first solo show but after I'd delivered it to Northumbria Gallery, and before it could be sent off to the framer, a man charged with putting together a corporate art collection bought it from the gallery along with one or two others. I was really pleased, of course, even though it meant I had to suddenly produce more work to fill the gaps in the show.

The kind person who contacted me on Facebook is a Geordie living in Berwick who says he loves having this memory of Tyneside in his home. For my part, I'm heartened to learn that my work is still providing pleasure.

It's always instructive to look again at old work and this one reminds me of ways of working which I've abandoned in recent years. In these times of self-doubt and uncertainty, it helps to get my mind into new, or even old ways of thinking and I can already see where I might be going.

Exploring Mallorca: Bollards

Concrete Bollards (Mechanical pencil, A5 sketchbook)

You know what, I think I've got it figured. The reason I've been struggling to reassert the creative spirit is because after a year of working towards several shows, I reached a point where there were other things to be done. Things like accounts, hoovering, boring stuff. And to do that, I needed to engage my left brain.

Unfortunately, losing my golden stud meant my right brain was shaken loose and my left brain was able to take complete control. This would explain why I've been spending inordinate amounts of time playing word games like PathWords and Scramble on Facebook. My head is stuffed full of word patterns.

Nothing for it but to buckle down and get back to basics. Drawing is what's called for, so today I did this drawing in the sketchbook I started earlier this year. It's based on a photograph I took in Porto Pollensa on the first day there, and is one of those subjects that make friends and relatives say, Yes, but why did you take it?