Happy New Year!

Welcome everyone and a very happy (if belated) New Year! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas :)
As I've just managed to complete the assembly stage of possibly my most challenging commission to date, my own New Year has definitely been one to celebrate. 

Commission assembly-stage sketch, Jan 2013

Can't tell you what it is that makes one commission straightforward and another problematic, only that sometimes I can't for the life of me figure out how to tackle something that should be no more complex than any other painting.
This most recent commission has been through more development than almost anything I've ever done; I simply couldn't make up my mind how best to approach it and sketched literally dozens of alternatives before I was satisfied. Thankfully the clients were angels and trusted me to sort it out!
Perhaps if I cared less, if I didn't put heart and soul into every commission I undertake, then maybe they'd take less time and cause less heartache. Thankfully, like this one, they generally come right in the end!
So here's a sample of the commission to date (those of you who know the area may recognise featured Leicester landmarks) and as soon as the entire painting is completed and I have the client's approval, I'll be pleased to tell you lots more about it and about the clients who commissioned it. 
Onwards and upwards into 2013.
Happy New Year one and all!

Chaos averted once again!

My new commission is coming along nicely. As usual I overworked the early stages and had to be persuaded to cut back on the number of ideas originally included: there's a subtle difference between an artwork looking busy and being busy. Max says I always want to over-complicate my paintings and he's not wrong :)

Posters & Limited Edition prints remain available online!

The original of 'A Right Royal Street Party' for the moment remains at Leicester's West End Gallery. Despite many exhibition visitors the original unfortunately hasn't sold. Yet. But the good news is that more Limited Edition prints & posters were sold than expected AND I have a new commission to be getting on with, so I still have a smile on my face :)

All the borrowed, commissioned, business & family portraits have now been returned to their kind and generous owners. I'd like to thank each and every one of them for lending their pictures to my Leicester exhibition! Whilst I've thanked them all personally, this way I'm able to express my thanks publicly; as ever I'm deeply grateful to you all for all your support. Thank you.

Thanks too to all the friends, both old and new, who came along to the gallery to Meet the Artist. It was a real pleasure. Thank you for supporting my work and 'A Right Royal Street Party'. 

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Limited Edition prints & posters of the artwork remain available online from the West End Gallery. (Click here.) If you're able to visit the gallery you can also purchase framed prints, expertly assembled by framer, Liam. See under.

As for the future, I'd very much like to show 'A Right Royal Street Party' at a gallery in London. How feasible this may be I don't yet know, but I'm making enquiries and will keep you posted. Meantime, fingers crossed!

Liam assembles...

...expertly...

...and the framed picture should look like this!

The end of the beginning & the start of something new

A  lot of lovely people have visited my first exhibition at Leicester's West End Gallery over the past 4 weeks. THANKS to everyone who's dropped in, especially to those who bought posters and prints of 'A Right Royal Street Party'!

Just coming along to my Meet the Artist sessions, to enthuse, encourage, look and laugh was truly inspiring!

THANK YOU ALL!! It was great meeting you!

On Saturday 19.8. the exhibition officially ends, so if you haven't already done so you've just a few days left to visit! What the end of the expo means for me, aside from new commissions, I don't yet know. With the extra confidence you've given me these past weeks, I do know it's going to be exciting!

Sadly, though not without warning, my agent's ill-health is causing her to withdraw from helping me. We were planning much more together and we're both disappointed. She reminds me always that those of us with good health shouldn't take it for granted.

But she would be first to insist that I continue my artwork and I'll be doing just that, knowing she's urging me on, still at the end of the phone. It's the end of the beginning and maybe also the start of something new, unknown and hopefully challenging!

In the meantime here are a few pictures of yet more wonderful exhibition visitors from the past week. Onwards and upwards.

Alison Smith & her daughters in front of their commissioned family portrait (L)

From Leicester, Jo Griffiths & her family

A Right Royal Street Party attracts yet more attention :)

There! There! There!

Exhibition starts 19 July, West End Gallery, Leicester

Appreciative audience, L-R, Les Rue, Bob & Pat Tichener and Mike King, from Hinckley

My agent and I visited Leicester's West End Gallery yesterday, to settle outstanding details in advance of my first ever exhibition which begins there on 19 July.
'A Right Royal Street Party' will be the centre of the exhibition, which also features a half dozen or so commissioned family & business portraits from the past couple of years.
It's the first time I've had more than a few of my artworks together in one place and it's a strange, having released them to the world, to have them together again. 
Odd, too, to see how my style has changed over a comparatively short time.
The Gallery was getting busy by the time we left, and to my surprise and pleasure a good deal of attention is already being paid to 'A Right Royal Street Party'.
Les Rue, Bob & Pat Tichener and Mike King from Hinckley were most enthusiastic & complementary about the painting.
I'll be mailing them exhibition invitations to my forthcoming Meet the Artist sessions, and they can bring their American visitors to share the fun! You can come too!
Details available tomorrow :)