New Direction

Busy..busy...busy but loving it, can be the only sentence that could describe the last couple of months since my last blog......so what's been happening.

I'm hoping by now you may have noticed that I work in series of work, sometimes the series are long sometimes they're short, some are obviously different & some more subtle. So why do I do this.....simply put, I don't want to be forced into a certain type of work that I feel obliged to do over and over and over again until inevitably boredom kicks in and I end up going insane due to the number of overlooked ideas simply because I sold a few of a certain type of painting. So what I do is different types of work in series, when I'm toying with an idea I decide if I can make at least 5 paintings from this idea and if I can then a "Series" of work is created until I want to move onto the next but I never close any series completely, they are always there in case I feel an idea would suit that particular series and I can simply add to it.

So why am I telling you this??

Because I have recently started a new series of work.  It came to me when I was watching a classic James Bond Film and I thought it would be cool to create a still life that was typically traditional whilst using items that only hinted at what the film might be and so I go started and this is what I created.

"Shaken not Stirred"

30" x 20"

Oil on Canvas

SOLD

Varnishing Shaken not Stirred

The painting was completed and sold on the same day which was amazing and I'm always so humbled when people support me and enjoy what I do.

This of course boosted my confidence with this new direction and so I threw myself into the next. I wanted another nostalgic classic film that I could put my own twist on and wanted something that would appeal more to the ladies and so I decided my next would be an Alice in wonderland inspired piece and this is what I created

Mad Hatters Tea Party

30" x 20"

Oil on Canvas

SOLD

Varnishing "Mad Hatters Tea Party"

This again sold super fast at only 30 minutes after I painted it....And so I'm onto the yellow brick road to do the next of this series.

Between these pieces I have to wait for props etc to be delivered and so I have created some fun oil sketches that are available through Room with a view fine art gallery or Jamie Leigh fine arts

Lego Marvel Super hero oil sketches

Thunderbirds Oil sketches
Collection SOLD

I also had the privilege to be invited and teach at my son Lewis' school. It was a brilliant fun day that wasn't all about the technical aspects (mainly due to the majority of the children being very young) but instead about having a go and being creative and I even got to do my own assembly, the fact Lewis walked around the entire day with a smile that beamed at how proud he was that his Daddy was at school made me incredibly proud to have done it also. and best of all I got to have a school dinner with him....plastic trays and all.

And Finally I would like to give a big thank you to Jane and Gary at Room with a view fine art gallery, after becoming one of my main stockists through my dealer Clive Ashmore they have gone above and beyond to represent myself and my work and sold several of my pieces in the last month alone included originals and study sketches. Be sure to pop in and visit if you're in the area.

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO

With each new Blog post I always tell myself that I should do them more frequently than I do, but I have kind of given myself a break about it recently.  Of course I could create a blog post each time a new piece is created or when anything remotely interesting happens to me, but I kind of like waiting a couple of months between Blogs so that they have more meat to them, yeah sure they take me longer to write but I think I'd much rather be sat down in the right frame of mind with the right kind of  focus and create better content for you guys to read than bang out a blog every week or so.

Anyway, I'm rambling....

Since the last Blog I have created four new pieces and I'm currently working on another.
The first piece since the portrait I created of my father, is another toy inspired piece and one of my largest pieces to date, My father quite a few years ago gave me an old wind up toy aeroplane, I think with the intention to paint, but at the time I didn't really think of anything I could use It for so put it away for safe keeping. It was only when I was sorting through a few things that I stumbled across this wonderful little toy, obviously now I was creating a few pieces with toys and so this sparked a few ideas.

I knew I didn't want to paint the plane just on it's own and had a few Ideas, but one that kept coming around again and again was a composition that included a pilot, I started to search the web to find the right kind of toy but had no real idea what I would find, until I stumbled across the most perfect toy pilot I could have ever wished for, the colours were a perfect match for the plane, the little details on his uniform etc were exactly what I was looking for, and so a purchase was made.

A Couple of days later he arrived and I set about creating some compositions until I settled on one, this composition was simple yet striking and as I knew what the title would be It would be a nod to the British dry sense of humour.....the title...."Is this a wind up"

I felt this worked as I created the pilot with a very unimpressed expression as if to say "You don't expect me to fly this...do you" whilst at the same time having the more obvious fact that it was indeed a wind up plane.

 

"Is this a Wind Up"

48" x 36"

Oil on Panel

 

SOLD

 

 

The next piece that came out of the Studio was again based on an old Vintage wind up tin toy I had purchased for my self, It was a small boxing ring with two fighters in the centre and when you wind the toy up the fighters moved backwards and forwards allowing there one riveted arm to move freely and look like they were indeed throwing punches. Again I didn't want to just paint it exactly how it was and so I thought it would be a nice to give the piece a little change so I could show a mark of respect for one of my favourite films growing up, What film??.......Rocky

 

The way I was going to do this was to change the shorts of the two tin fighters to the short designs that both  Rocky and Apollo wore in the first film, only a true fan would notice this small change but for those of you that are not familiar here is a screen shot from the film Rocky

 

 

Film Still of the film Rocky.

 

Now I started painting this piece and to be honest I really struggled for some reason, I found the characters looked too cartoony and kept working on them to make them look more realistic, but then they wouldn't look like the tin material they were made of and this went on back and fourth until finally I decided to stop messing around and paint exactly what I saw  

 

 

The actual Tin toy I was attempting to paint with my painting in the background

 

I worked at it more and more and I feel it actually came out really well and looked like the material I was trying to render with paint

 

 

"Slugger Champions"

30" x 30"

Oil on Panel

 

AVAILABLE

 

The next piece came as a commission, the client was a chief fire officer and had liked some of my toy pieces and asked if I would paint him a little Lego fire fighter character putting out a tea light, his only request was that I painted the character with a white chief's hat.

 

I set about creating this piece for him and loved every minute of it, the particular challenge for me whilst creating this piece was painting the smoke drifting away from the candle wick, but I was really pleased with how I rendered this and felt it came out better than I was anticipating

 

 

"FIRE" - Commission

30" x 18"

Oil on panel

 

SOLD

 

 

Hanging in the clients home

 

 

At this point I was craving something with reflections and glass, for those that have followed my work this is as you all know something I love to paint.

 

And so this piece was created

 

"The Gambling Game"

21" x 21"

Oil on panel

 

SOLD

 

 

I also had a print made of one of my paintings from my show last year and had it framed to hang in my kitchen and finally got around to hanging it on the wall....and I love it!!

 

 

Marmite print hanging in my kitchen.

 

So, that's you all up to date with my goings on, I'm currently working on a few commissions but as always I'll be blogging about them soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FIRST BLOG OF 2015

It's the first blog of the new year, and in all fairness it's been a pretty manic few months in the Morgan household, but lets start at the beginning.

January saw my Mum and Dad celebrate there 30th wedding anniversary and I wanted to do something extra special for them and so I decided to take some time out of my schedule to create them there own original painting, but what to paint??

This was actually easy to decide because during my show in November a client had called me over who was speaking with my parents, when I went to speak with them she asked me why my Mum and Dad didn't have one of my originals, we joked a little and then I remembered...wedding anniversary!

I asked my parents "what would you even have" and my mum went on to say that she loved Walnut whips but hated the actual walnut and always broke it off to give it to my Dad, I quite liked this small gesture of togetherness and decided that this would be the subject for there  Wedding anniversary present.

 

"You're the Walnut to my Whip"

18" x 18"

Oil on wooden panel

 

I also decided this year was going to be the start of a new body of work, as artists I think its good to evolve and allow that to happen naturally without forcing it.

My new work will be more narrative, sometimes this narrative will be serious, sometimes comical.

 I think that the majority of the time I may use toys to explain this narrative and I'm excited to produce them as I have so many ideas.

 

The first piece of this new series was created during January, this idea had been playing around in my head for quite some time and was so pleased when I had finally settled on a composition.

 

 

"Make Peace Not War"

40" x 20"

Oil on wooden panel

 

SOLD

 

PRINTS AVAILABLE

 

I decided to use toy soldiers propped onto wooden toy bricks, the bricks spelling out the narrative clearly "make peace not war" like many people, I hate war and although I'm under no illusion that world peace is around the corner I'd like to think maybe one day we will all just ....get along....but I doubt it.

 

I decided to keep all the soldiers green so to not give them "Sides" and I changed almost all the colours of the blocks because the original colours were quite dull, thankfully this piece was really well received and sold the day after I had created it which was totally amazing and cemented my belief that this new avenue was the right way to go with my work  and Im currently working on the next

 

Also Excitedly I have created a limited edition print run on this piece

The image below shows one of the prints next to the original painting and as you can see the colour matching is very good. Each print is 700mm x 351mm It's printed on smooth rag 300gsm paper using lucia pigment colours, each print is hand signed and a certificate of authenticity provided with matching serial numbered hologram on both the certificate and the print

 

Prints are sold unframed although I can provide a framing and fine art delivery  service but obviously this would be at an additional cost

 

If you are interested then please email me on  - chris_morgan13@Hotmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

I also decided to create a new portrait of my father, I created a portrait of him back in 2012 and so I just wanted to create another to see my improvements over the last 3 years, I have been studying skin tones and form quite intensely over the years as I really want to get good.

 

I was so pleased with how this piece turned out and I feel showed a true evolution in my painting, I have decided to create a few more portraits throughout the year to keep on learning. How many I will actually do I have no idea as this will be along side my still life pieces.

 

 

Portrait of my father

18" x 18"

Oil on panel

NFS

 

And last but certainly not least, on February 15th 2015 at 00:48 my new son Charlie Sydney Morgan arrived in the world, It's wonderful to be a father again to this little bundle and have enjoyed taking a couple of weeks off to enjoy him fully and help my wife out, My other son Lewis is totally in love with him and we now feel complete as a family unit. My drive to work even harder to provide for them has increased and I'm so thankful that my work continues to make people smile

 

 

Charlie Sydney Morgan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

De-Warenne Academy school day

Hello everybody, It's been quite some time since I posted, but as I explained in my last post in February I have been working away on exhibition pieces since January and was only allowed to post a couple of pieces to demonstrate the kind of works you will get to see during my Solo show at Warwick studios this coming November.

I have been working frantically to get 12 brand new originals and study sketches done for the show and so far have completed 8 originals in 6 months....I'm currently working in my 9th but hoping by the end of July i'll have both the 9th and 10th finished.

July was also the month I got to spend the day with the wonderful kids at De-Warenne Academy School.
I was approached by the magazine, Pisces, that provide schools with art supplies, to see if I would be interested to be a prize for a competition they were going to run. The top prize was to win little old me for the day teaching them all things art.

I had such a wonderful day teaching the same class for the entire school day lots of different techniques in both drawing and painting and I was blown away by the standard of the students.

Now as i have mentioned I'm working towards the show in November and we have already started on the promotional aspect of the show firstly by getting my promo poster sorted,  I worked  with Digital artist Luke Bailey to produce a slick professional looking poster, so a big thank you to Luke. 

I also spent the day yesterday filming with film maker Sam Hudson, who is currently editing my first promo video which will reveal another one of the pieces for show as well as an insight into my art process and more importantly, my family. I realise that most of you may have seen small glimpses into my personal family life but this video will reveal more about me as a husband and father but don't worry there will be lots of art video footage in there too. 

Anyway i'd just like to say thank you for your patience with me especially the clients waiting for there commissions and all pieces will be revealed soon.....Promise. 

New Year

We are now well into January and I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and New year.

My family and i had a magical Christmas as we stayed in an old country house that was filled with that warm loving Christmas feeling that all Hollywood Christmas films try to portray. And we celebrated the New year at a family party to bring in 2014

Now 2014 is in full swing I wanted to share the first piece of the new year, I have finished all commissions placed last year and was quite relieved when in mid December the last brush stroke was made and I could officially say that all commissions for 2013 had been completed, I have since worked on the first piece of the new year for Warwick Studios, and have vowed that this year i'll try my best to complete more works for the galleries.

Step by Step pencil study of the painting Billiard Balls 

"Billiard Balls"

30"x 30"

Oil on panel

Available at Warwick Studios

Call - 07807 540498

Jack Daniels, Mini portraits and Liverpool

Here is the latest commission that I finished a couple of weeks ago and let me tell you it really did test me. I was always unsure about doing this subject matter as it was such an iconic brand and the lettering was so complicated.

But I was encouraged to give it a go, and three weeks later was still painting the label, moving back and forward nudging the letters a little this way and a little that, making them slightly bigger or slightly smaller. 

My Patience was seriously tested but I persevered and I'm really happy with the end result. 

J.D - Comission

30" x 30"

Oil on panel

SOLD

After the tough slog with the JD bottle and the fact that my last few pieces were so large and complicated I needed to take a few days out, so I painted a mini portrait of my step son Spencer. 

Spencer

8" x 8"

Oil on panel. 

N.F.S

Now as you will have known from the previous posts I have been commissioned to paint a commemorative portrait of Steven Gerrard to celebrate his 100 caps for England and 600 appearances for Liverpool. I was originally supposed to be meeting with them in August but with changing schedules for both myself and Steven we had to keep pushing it further and further back until eventually we settled on a date we were both free in November.

The night before the delivery of the painting the usual doubts started to creep into any artist's mind...does it look like him...will he like it..so after I finished up painting that night at around 10:30pm I went online to flick through some images of Steven to just put these doubts to rest, only to find that his eyes were blue and not the brown that I had painted them! my reference picture for the main portrait was so poor that I was unable to see the true colour of his eyes and as they were so dark in colour assumed they were a dark brown. 

Panic kicked in at at 11:00 pm I got the easel out and paints and started to correct the eye colour and re shape his nose slightly.....thankfully It came out well and looked even more like him so the gamble paid off.   

I drove up to Liverpool with my wife, who had already stated that she was not in the slightest bit bothered by SG and that the whole football player thing, didn't really impress her (This statement will be important a little later on) 

We arrived at Melwood training ground were we were greeted by the LFC Security, after explaining who I was and what I was doing there he invited me to park in the car park, what he didn't tell me was the restrictions of parking at the very top end....I couldn't see any spaces in the areas he had said, so I continued to drive to the top end of the car park where the caliber of cars jumped from the ordinary to the extraordinary, cars so flashy and expensive that I reddened in my face at the fact I was driving a "Normal" car and that I was currently backing my huge 7 seater family car into the only available space between a Porsche and an Aston Martin, I unloaded the car to then here the Security shouting "No...No..you cant park here this is for the players"

We ended up parking on the road side and walking into the main reception we were ushered into a room ready to meet SG. 

When he arrived he had just finished training,he was really lovely and was really pleased with his portrait which was a huge relief. We chatted for quite some time about the painting and how to market it to gain the best kind of exposure to gain the best amount we can to donate to the Christie Cancer hospital. 

And what we discovered is that we both knew the owner of the huge high end clothing store Flannels in Manchester where he had seen my latest sports painting "Untitled" hanging in the office of the owner. I don't think he realized that the art work he had admired hanging in Flannels was done by the same artist who had just painted his own portrait. 

Now the biggest surprise for me was not the amazing all round experience of once again being a part of the LFC team for the day, or the amazing cars that I got to admire, or the meeting of SG and seeing other huge players just walking the corridors....No...the biggest surprise for me was the reaction of my wife when Steven walked into the room, (its at this point i'd like to point out her statement a few paragraphs up)

She was really star struck and all of a quiver....to the point where I could see her visibly shaking taking the picture of myself and Steven with the painting.

I Never expected her to react in this way....but I'll let her off....I mean it was Steven Gerrard. 

Myself and Steven Gerrard 

With his signed commemorative painting 

We were then invited to have some dinner where the players dine,we were really looked after by this lovely catering lady called Carol who I had taken  shine to when I had visited last year. 

As you can expect all the dishes were extremely healthy but that's just fine by me and so I sat down to a dish of rice, chicken and broccoli, the wife ate nothing....as she was still churned up from meeting SG. 

I said my goodbyes to SG and then left my painting with the main organizer of this whole event Chris, who is one of the most amazing and genuine guys I've ever had the pleasure to meet, he has personally raised sooo much money for the Christie and I personally cant thank him enough. 

I'll keep you updated when the Auction is up and running.

Whiskey & Wine

So, late 2012 I was commissioned by a friend to paint his favourite whiskey and his wife's favourite wine, I asked if he would allow me to take my time to paint it between other paintings as it was quite complicated with alot of reflections. He agreed and so i started....slowly.

I started slowly refining areas and concentrated on making it the best painting i could. With me only ever touching it when i had a spare 2/3 hours usually at the weekend, progression was going at a snails pace but i didn't realise quite how slow it was taking me until my friend dropped into a conversation that it was rapidly approaching  year since he first commissioned me, to say I was shocked would be an understatement so I promised i would work until it was finished.

Over 4 weeks later I had finished, it was a combination of personal triumph with certain painting challenges achieved, and frustration at how slow it was going. But the client was happy and it is arguably one of my best still life's to date.

"Whiskey and Wine"

30" x 30"

Oil on panel 

SOLD

 

Latest Boxing/Sports painting

Over the past month or so I have been working away in the studio working on my latest sport painting, and thought I would blog about the process from start to finish.

It all started whilst I was working out at my local gym and noticed this guy working out and immediately I thought to myself that he would be perfect for a painting I'd had in my head for a while. He was big at 6ft 3 and was covered in tattoos, so, not one to let an opportunity slip by I approached him and explained that I was an artist and told him all about my new body of work based on sports. He told me that he actually was a semi professional boxer and that he was in training for a fight, right there and then I knew he was the perfect guy to model for my latest piece. 

I booked him in for a photo shoot about three weeks after we had initially met, I had a rough idea on the composition I wanted and  so went about taking a number of photographic references.

When I then got back to the studio I uploaded all the photos into photoshop and found that the image was making his skin tone far to orange for the final look I wanted in my painting.

I wanted a loose background mixed of blues, whites, and browns but this orange tint to his skin tone would have made the figure sit awkwardly against my background and so I decided to use my own skin tone to mix the flesh colour as  I felt my skin tone would work better in the final painting.

Once I had mixed a light, medium and dark skin colour based on my arm tones,  I painted these three colours onto a piece of paper so I could continually refer back to them with each paint sitting so I had  continuity throughout the painting. 

I used at least three layers on each part of the portrait with each layer adding more drawing corrections, tonal correction, and details

Below are three images taken with my mobile as I painted the portrait section of my painting

Sketching and Blocking in

Here I used a thin mix of Burnt Umber to roughly sketch out the head,and then using my mixed skin tone started to block in tone to start adding form to the painting. 

Refining tone, and fixing drawing

Here I blended the tones out using a nice soft Sable blending brush and started refining the eye socket and nose It was here that I noticed that the head was the incorrect shape and as you see from the back of his neck to the top of his head the curve goes to high and gives him a distorted head shape. 

Finished portrait

As you can see I have fixed the head shape, and added several details like the stubble on his head, veins on his temple and facial hair etc as well as continually changing tones. 

With this piece I wanted it to be strong yet gentle at the same time, the boxer portraying the strength not only because of the nature of the sport of boxing but also because of the sheer physicality of the model. 

But to balance this I believe the pose and expression on his face add a gentleness to the image. 

I was thinking of a suitable title for the image but have decided even with all the fantastic suggestions by my facebook, twitter and Instagram followers I would like the viewer to decide why the boxer is in the position he is and what is running through his mind. And so I decided not to title so It doesn't influence the viewers thought process. 

"Untitled"

40" x 40"

Oil on wooden panel. 

Available at the Darren Baker Gallery London 

0207 580 5332

Gobstoppers and Candy Canes & Steven Gerrard Portrait

A few weeks ago I completed this latest original, and as you can see I decided to use sweets for the composition. After recently purchasing some ice cream sundae glasses I really wanted to include one of them in a painting, I played around with a few compositions until I eventually settled on this one as I thought it had great balance.

"Gobstoppers and Candy Canes"

36" x 20"

Oil on panel. 

SOLD

This piece was destined for Warwick Studios Gallery and once again they did an incredible job by selling it within a couple of days, I have also just completed a commission of Hotshots 2 for Warwick gallery. 

I have also planned to do another of the sport series and after finding a really great model I'm really excited to get started I have booked a photo shoot for reference shots this Thursday so I'm hoping for some great images then I can decide on what size panel with suit the composition best but all that will be guaranteed is that it will be BIG!

I have also just finished the Liverpool FC commemorative painting to celebrate England and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrards 100 caps with England and 600 appearances with Liverpool. 

I'll be meeting with Steven sometime in August If we can work around a date for both our schedules as he will be signing the piece, I've also been told that there are plans to do some limited edition prints that will be sold for the Christie Charity, I'm still unsure If the original will be up for auction but I will keep you all posted. 

Commissioned by Liverpool FC

Commemorative Steven Gerrard Portrait.

Oil on Panel. 

Must do better

Once again I must apologies for the lateness of this Blog. I do try and keep my Facebook followers up to date with all new works and information and post frequently on my page and If you haven't already then please follow the link on the right of the page and give it a "Like".

But with  my blog  I like to have a more in-depth feel to them, so can only really post when I have a spare hour In my day,which at the moment is becoming more and more rare the busier I get. But I know I must do better!!

Firstly I'd like to announce that I will be working with and represented by Cloud galleries, Cloud have three galleries that they manage based in Chester, Brighton and Worthing and I will be showing in all three in the near future. Damian the Gallery director approached me recently wanting to work with and show my work and of course I was more than happy to do so. I have created two brand new originals for my launch with them as well as providing them with three older pieces from 2012

"Crayon Stack"

24" x 24"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

"The perfect accompaniment" 

24" x 24"

Oil on wooden panel 

SOLD

Both of these pieces are available through Cloud Galleries - Telephone 01224 324 638

I have also just completed my 3rd of the sports series,  again using the sport of Boxing as the main inspiration. This piece was so much fun to paint and was one of my biggest ever paintings, and once again Sold within days of me finishing it so a BIG thank you to David at Warwick Studios Gallery 

 I have agreed that Warwick Studios will be showing the majority of  these new sports series of paintings as well as my more known still life works, so watch out for more to come and not just in the sport of boxing as I will be creating a number of sport related paintings over the coming months. 

"Champions are made not born"

48" x 32"

oil on wooden panel

SOLD

I am also currently in the process of creating a brand new sweets original for Warwick Studios that should be completed next week, so keep a look out for it.