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?

Early Thoughts

Spillers and the Cement Factory (Oil on board, 12 x 1 2 ins.)




A Bend in the Tyne (Oil on board, 12 x 12 ins.)

I could have sold these two pictures several times over, and since the nature of art fairs is that the buyer can take them away, I had to search through the studio for something to replace them. One that I found was this, which didn't sell but still attracted a lot of interest.



River Tyne Factory (Oil on board, 12 x 12ins.) (£250)

These were all paintings I did after a visit to an Andrew Gifford exhibition at The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh in 2000. I've long been an admirer of his, in fact since I first saw his work in the studios at Newcastle University when he was doing his BA (Hons) degree (1990-94). It was his work that showed me how I might deal with the subject matter closest to my heart - townscapes. Although I'd moved on in my own way, going to see his exhibition revived an interest and, as with many good exhibitions, I came out of the show seeing "Andrew Gifford " subject matter everywhere. The following week I did these three paintings. There was one other, but it didn't survive to maturity.

Andrew has a new exhibition opening next month at John Martin of London, showing some huge new paintings of Istanbul, a city I love. The work looks great on the gallery website, but I'd really like to get to see the paintings themselves.

Anyway, I think I may be entering another neo-Gifford phase, but who can say. At the moment I'm in a state of calm with no need to get any painting done and plenty of time to clear up the mass of paperwork that always collects when I'm fully in right brain mode.