Paintbringer....

Today has been about everything but art. But fear not brave art seekers, I went the extra 5 and a half foot to the other chair and grabbed 'Paintbringer'  that ill fated brush.
After a huge battle scene Peter Jackson would have been proud of I held this piece aloft.  Paintbringer's insatiable hunger for creativity slaked, I wandered as if in a daze, until at last oblivion claimed me. I awoke and found myself here captive in the dread Cave of Paint....

'Paintbringer's yellow truck', 10" x 7", watercolour and acrylic on watercolour paper.

Happiness is lino shaped

Printing is something I have wanted to have a proper go at, since being a teacher in Luton and doing lino prints with my students there. I've been lucky enough to receive contributions to my art career for this Jingly season and today I purchased the items below. 

I'd be working with them right now if I didn't need to sleep ever.
On an aside, having to work in short bursts has been a real challenge for me. I'm use to working on numerous paintings at a time over a period of weeks.  This is no longer possible due to minor things like life getting in the way. So I'm working smaller and quicker. This is todays offering.
'A titanium nod towards dawn' oil on oil painting paper, 10" x 7 ".
It's a painting of a the Peak Districts in Sheffield during the  winter of 2013. It's from a  photograph I took. 

2015 Year of 'do all the things'

I've been off exploring and seeing my family this Jingly season. It's been great to see everyone once again. I even managed to get some work completed whilst I was away. Then when I was returning I left it all behind me. I have some photos of some of the work I completed below.  They were all just little studies done in watercolour and acrylic on cartridge paper. 

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In keeping with tradition I've set myself some 'resolutions' and tasks for the next 90 days. I'm placing them here in public so I  can be checked up on. 
Targets for the next 90 days:

1. Create one new work a day in less than 1 hour. 
   
2. Write statements for all projects and series of work.
3. Check competitions daily and enter at least 3.
   
4. Complete 17 weekly observational drawings.
   
5. Create at least one blog post a week.
   
6. Update all aspects of my Website. 
   

 I don't think that is too ambitious. I have yearly goals too. Sort out an exhibition and complete at least one major work a month.  

Conways Loose Life

I've finally finished (I hope) my self portrait. I started off wanting to have a portrait hidden in a pattern, but I moved on to wanting to involve my love of binary, glitch and generative art.  My original idea was to have the portrait emerge from a pattern. The work and my ideas developed through the painting process. (of which I have given a brief account of beneath the painting)I'm attempting to play with elements and layers of identity.  Below is the finished piece. 

Conway's Loose Life, Oil on canvas, 20" x 24" (51cm x 61cm)

I painted the portrait up to a stage and then photographed it. Uploading the photograph allowed me to play with the photograph digitally. The image was run through a few filters in audacity and had its hexadecimal information altered.  The parts of the hexadecimal I altered were converted into binary and were layered on top of painting. Conways game of life rules were applied to the binary on the top third in washes of oil paint. I've placed a really brief video of some of the stages below.

A brief video of the progress of my portrait painting.