here's a little progress shot of what I'm getting up to at the moment.  I'm simultaneously obsessed by paintings of meat at the moment, abstract expressionism and 60's pop art as you may have noticed.

I found a really nice interview with Francis Bacon on the subject of his works which incorporated meat which you may or may not find interesting.. in which he quotes..

Well, of course, we are meat, we are potential carcasses. If I go into a butcher's shop I always think it's surprising that I wasn't there instead of the animal. But using the meat in that particular way is possibly like the way one might use the spine, because we are constantly seeing images of the human body through x-ray photographs and that obviously does alter the ways by which one can use the body. You must know the beautiful Dégas pastel in the National Gallery of a woman sponging her back. And you will find at the very top of the spine that the spine almost comes out of the skin altogether. And this gives it such a grip and a twist that you're more conscious of the vulnerability of the rest of the body than if he had drawn the spine naturally up to the neck. He breaks it so that this thing seems to protrude from the flesh. Now, whether Dégas did this purposely or not, it makes it a much greater picture, because you're suddenly conscious of the spine as well as the flesh, which he usually just painted covering the bones.  

In between working on paintings, which are very time consuming I work on drawings to stop myself going completely insane.  I haven't decided whether to exhibit these drawings as they are a little separate from my current work but they help me work out ideas which I have stuck in my head and are often a basis for the larger paintings.  I may have them for sale separately on my site at a later date however. anyway here's a few to keep you amused (and my hand for scale) while I'm working on paintings.

So what else have we been up to.  My lovely partner in crime Tom French has also been making some wonderful new work.

Here are two new pieces he has exhibiting at Scope Miami at the moment. 

 Synthesis 1, Oil on canvas 120x120cm

Synthesis 2, oil on canvas 120x120

These are available through Lawrence Alkin Gallery at Scope Miami this year.

Also available are two new beautiful prints

Plexus. Single colour screen print on 300gsm handmade paper. Edition of 70.

Fabros.  Heavily hand embellished single colour screen print 100x74cm. edition of 40.

Both these pieces are available here

For more info please visit Tom French's website and blog

So as I mentioned I've started some new work.  Its a little slow going at the moment but I'm resigned to the fact and besides I can't. Not. Paint, its a physical impossibility.  Honestly I've tried it. Between you and me I can tell you it did not go well! So I'm stubbornly plodding on for the moment until I can paint freely again.  I do hope you'll bare with me. I'd be very pleased to have you along for the ride.

Anyway here's another I've started.  I'm rather pleased with these pieces.  They feel like a good start.  I'm hoping to make some very large paintings when time permits and I feel like these are the beginning of this bigger work.  This doesn't make them any less important to me or in the whole grand scale of things I expect.  But I thought I should mention it so we're all on the same page so to speak ;)

I've been reading as much as possible lately and happened upon Faust by Johann Wolfgan Von Goethe, accidentally. I was struggling to find any inspiration at the time. This is a work in progress, which I'm enjoying more than usual as I'm finding the process pretty cathartic. There's still quite a way to go with this piece but here's where I've gotten to so far.

So we popped down to see Dan Baldwin's exhibition 'Fear of Letting go' at Lawrence Alkin Gallery the other month. I was very impressed with his vases to say the least.  Here's a few images from the exhibition.

Phew, Long time since I've posted anything new here! Its been a busy few year with not much time for making work.  But I'm back at the easel now.  Well I rarely ever actually use an easel but that's beyond the point.  Anyway where was I. Ah yes, so I've slowly started to make some new work.  It will probably be a good few months until I'm exhibiting again.  I wont lie to you. But, I'm hoping, if things go well I'll slowly find more and more time to paint.  I'm not planning on ever stopping anyhow! 

Well here's some new work I've started I hope you enjoy joining me in the process.

Work in progress Oil and Acrylic on canvas.

This guy is keeping me busy for the time being.

Work in progress, oil on canvas.