The first week of the rest of my life....

Over the last few years my once regular blogging has diminished to a trickle, for a number of reasons which have basically been discussed in previous posts. However, my knee replacement has been a huge success and as of this week, I have finished my 3 year term as Chairperson at the artEC/Epsac Community Art Centre (check out the website or facebook page to see what the gallery and art centre are all about.) This means the biggest stumbling blocks to my regular art production are out of the way, and the studio is beckoning.
The other stumbling block is probably still there, and that is the relative slowness of loading pics on blogger rather than facebook, although it seems to have improved a lot since my last attempt.) I have decided I must just grit my teeth and put up with this, as facebook is usually limited to one's friends, whereas blogger is more of a public forum. And it has formed a useful journal and catalogue of my work and arty musings in the years since I started it, so it is worth continuing, if only as a record for posterity.

A backlog is always a pain to catch up, so please bear with me, and I'll slowly trawl through my pictures from the past year or so and fill in the gaps.

For today, I want to share a few of the recent works produced since the last post, and also a piece of good news. Well actually, great news I think, I recently sold a painting to the World Bank, along with the publishing rights, to be used on the cover of their next financial report. So 5000 copies of the painting will be circulated around the world soon, sheesh you can't BUY publicity like that, never mind being paid for it!  The sale was through SouthAfricanArtists.com who sell my work online, and are a delight to deal with. If only all art agents and galleries were as ethical, efficient and pleasant to deal with! (my page there is here.)

It was this one called Conflict Resolution. It is an expression of the idea that we might be opposites, one flamboyant and unpredictable, the other controlled and thinking "in straight lines" but we always have a little of each other in us, and if we make the effort to reach across the things that seem to divide us, we will find we have more in common that we realise, and actually enhance each other.

Conflict Resolution, oil on canvas, 900x1100mm

(World Bank is the copyright holder of this Work)

Ok and some recent ones in no particular order:

children of the shadows, oil and metallic foil on canvas 1000x1000 mm

.....And then, thanks to the Greg Kerr workshop I attended last year, a new departure for me. I have always skirted the issue of drawing, and jumped straight into the whole delectable world of paint and colour. But Greg revealed the subtle delights of charcoal drawing and since then, I have been enjoying the occasional foray into charcoal on paper. In fact I like it so much, it is now finding its way onto my recent canvases, and I am loving explorations of paint and charcoal drawing together...  but that is a story for another day :)