Studio

Work has now started to convert our integral garage into a studio so hopefully it won't be too much longer until I can start doing my trompe l'oeil workshops again. It will be fantastic to get my own working area back again
It will also have a lot more space compared to my old home studio and will be at ground level rather than up two flights of stairs.





Work is also still going on around the rest of the house - every room has been affected and the dust looks as if it will continue settling for the next few months. I am still putting my daughter's room back together which is taking longer than I intended. I may also be plastering this weekend if I can fit it around my daughter's cinema party.

Masterpiece (sort of)

OK - the photo doesn't look like much, in fact it looks exactly like some newly plastered walls which is precisely what it is.



As you know our home is in the middle of a renovation at the moment. In anticipation of this I put myself on a plastering course a few weeks ago as I knew it would be a useful skill to have on board. The two walls in the photo are of our utility room and they needed plastering urgently so that our plumber could install a new boiler and hot water system.

I spent all of my Sunday morning on those two small walls - a long time I know but this was the first time I had plastered since the course and I didn't have my tutor to point out where I may be going wrong. Luckily the plaster has stayed on the wall - well it's lasted over 24 hours so far - as you can appreciate this is a big deal for someone who, up to a few weeks ago, had never picked up a hawk & trowel.

I did the course with a company called Capital Goldtrowel Ltd - they also do courses in tiling, bricklaying, rendering and Venetian plastering. They are based in Stapleford Abbotts, Essex and I thoroughly recommend them.

Building Work

Work has been going on at our home now for over a week to remodel the downstairs and put the numerous steels in place for when we eventually add a first floor extension (once we can afford it).



As part of this first stage of works we will be getting our integral garage converted into a studio with pitched roof & velux windows to capture that Northern Light that we artists so insist upon : )
That part of the build is a few weeks away yet - in the meantime there is just lots of drilling, demolition, rubble & dust to contend with.

Also the roof of our kitchen & dining room will soon be taken off so a scaffold with a tin roof is being put together to protect it from the elements. The weather has been fantastic of late but it's destined to unleash a tropical downpour as soon as that roof's removed : )

I am also trying to work on some designs for a swimming pool wall amongst the debris -I have designed a nice peaceful classical English landscape which is the perfect antidote for the present upheaval.

Community Mural

I recently got myself involved with some community artwork when our local library was adorned with a mural depicting aspects of Wickford Towns life & history.
The library itself is of the New Town Modernist architectural style which was all the rage in the 50's & 60's so a dash of art to the outside wall panels went down very favorable with all the passers by.





Lisa Temple-Cox from Colchester designed and organised the painting of the artwork and got quite a few schoolchildren involved including my own son & daughter. My son even got his picture in the local newspaper of which he is immensely proud and is now insisting that he wants it framed for prosperity.

I helped out in a small capacity for a few days - it was actually nice to be able to work on a mural with somebody else calling the shots : )



Please have a look at Lisa's website at www.lisatemple-cox.co.uk to see more details of her work including pictures of her numerous community murals.

The National Gallery & Tate Modern

My wife & I took our two children up to London this week to soak up a bit of culture at the National Gallery & the Tate Modern.

They had been studying various works of art at school so to actually see them in the flesh was quite an experience for them.
Their favourite painting was 'The Ambassadors' by Hans Holbein the Younger. My son immediately laid on the floor to the bottom left of the painting so that he could look up to admire the anamorphic skull. It is reckoned that the painting was originally displayed over a staircase so that those climbing the stairs would be able to view the skull from the correct angle.



After climbing the lions on Trafalgar Square we took the tube to St. Pauls and from there made our way to the Tate Modern via the Millennium Bridge that my son fondly recognised from the recent Harry Potter film.

The Tate was a completely different experience for them - we got hold of some of the family activity worksheets and tried our hands sketching some sculptures and making our own with bits of cardboard and string. We also spent what time we had left in the day browsing round the galleries although my son's reaction to some of the pieces probably ruffled a few feathers : )

As for myself I feel that the greatest piece of art at the Tate Modern is the building itself - it is a fantastic example of Art Deco industrial architecture, almost cathedral like as if built to worship the power it would create in its original use.
I also have a soft spot for Battersea Power Station (also one of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's creations) and whilst I was at art college I photographed the building and produced a series of screen prints.

Optical Illusion

I have been experimenting recently with anamorphic perspective. This is when a picture, when viewed face on, looks very distorted - but when viewed from the correct angle looks perfectly normal.

It can also create some very bizarre optical illusions like this.



Here I have painted a very crude Rubic style cube on a piece of board. By placing the two cup & saucers on the painting it creates the illusion that one cup is greatly larger than the other even though they are both the same size.

The only drawback is that these type of effects can only be viewed properly from the one, very precise, angle. They are great fun though and I will be trying out some more soon.

Florida

It's been a while since my last post but I have been away for a couple of weeks dodging the storms over in Florida.

It was purely a pleasure trip as opposed to business which unfortunately means I am unable to offset it against my tax : ) It's probably the last place on earth to visit if you intend on a relaxing holiday - we did have a wonderful (& exhausting) time though in the Disney & Universal parks and had a drive to the Kennedy Space Centre on the east coast.

My son & I tried out as many roller coasters as possible and found the best one was the 'Manta' in Sea World. The wettest ride has to be the Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges at Universal's Islands of Adventure - make sure you ride it on a hot day as it took hours for all of us to dry out.
The Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios is also worth a go.



Also, the Islands of Adventure had one of our favourite restaurants - the Mythos, which looks as if it has been carved out of the side of a mountain. If you ever eat there try the salmon which I adore and thoroughly recommend. The prices are also quite reasonable (compared to other theme park restaurants).

Driving was great fun and it was the first time I have driven in the US - it took me nearly two weeks to get used to turning right on a red light only to quickly get out of the habit once back in the UK.



We had a Dodge Caravan which probably did about 17 miles to a gallon. This meant that, although the fuel was a lot cheaper, it was still more expensive to drive around. Having a toll booth every few yards (or so it seemed) also totted up the costs especially when I got lost driving from the airport to the hotel and went though the same toll twice.

Now we just need another holiday to recover : )