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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IN OTHER NEWS

So I wanted to just finish the year with this last blog, As you know from my last blog the major thing that happened last year regarding my art was the solo sell out show that I had in November with Warwick studios Art lounge but I have had some other things happen too

Firstly I have teamed up with the Darren Baker Gallery in London and am now being represented by them and was involved in there Christmas group show, I didn't have much work to offer them with me working towards the show but they had my large Untitled boxing painting to show in there gallery and believe they had an amazing turn out on there opening night

For more information please contact them on 020 7580 5332

Or visit them at 81 Charlotte Street London

Secondly I have been fortunate enough to have been commissioned a few times this year, I was firstly commissioned by a client in January to complete two paintings for her Son and Daughter these were to be given as gifts and I am grateful that they had the patients to wait for me as I tried to squeeze them in between doing the show pieces, I managed to get them finished,framed and delivered ready for Christmas and I'm delighted to tell you when they were over the moon with there gifts. 

"Blue Label and Belvedere"

24" x 24"

Oil on panel

SOLD

"How do you eat Yours"

24" x 24"

Oil on panel

SOLD

I was also commissioned by a client from London and he wanted me to paint him something so different to what i usually do that it knocked me back for a second, but after having some thought on it I felt it would be an interesting challenge and that it would be nice to try my hand at something different. 

To just give you an insight to the client he is a young very successful business man based in London a bachelor with a house that James bond would be happy with and the Lamborghini to boot. He wanted something "Sexy" and we settled on an image he was happy with. 

Also Cloud Gallery came to me with a Commission for one of there clients and again managed to get it sent over to them before Christmas. 

"Ice Cold Cola"

30" x 18"

Oil on panel

SOLD

And I'd like to end this blog by saying, 2015 is just around the corner and its been an incredible year with the Solo show success and commissions and to top that off my wife and I expecting a baby late January it's certainly had some amazing highlight's

But the year has not been full of joy tho because in April my Granddad passed away, the news was heart breaking but what death always teaches me is that life is precious and you must live it to the full and be appreciative for what you have whilst always trying to strive to better yourself, and so I wanted to take the time to thank you all for taking the time to read my Blog,  and following me on all my social media pages your ever growing support, your encouragement and kind words inspire me daily to strive to be better and better and I hope my work inspires you. 

I hope you all have a fantastic New Year and an even more incredible 2015

Much love to you all 

Chris 

x  

Cola Crush 2 and 2014 Show.

So here is the latest original "Cola Crush 2" it was quite a challenging painting to take on with the reflections and the fact that the entire painting was filled with no less than four crushed cola cans.

A few weeks past with a lot of patience and it was finally finished, I had originally thought about not including the reflections and instead filling in the ground work with shadows, but I decided against it and i'm so happy that I did as I feel it came out great.

"Cola Crush"

Oil on panel 

30" x 30"

Available for pre-sale at Warwick Studios

Call - 07807 540498

Now I do have a little announcement to make, In January whilst delivering my painting "Billiard Balls" to Warwick studios I got talking with the gallery owner David and he kindly offered me a show for late this year. Now at my speed of painting I know I'm going to be limited to the amount of pieces i'll be able to create but have suggested around the 12 piece mark but the smallest size of the show will be 30" x 30" so there all going to be big ones and fill up the space nicely, but obviously this also puts the pressure on even more to be as organized as possible, so when i'm not painting i'll be priming/sketching/photographing etc.

Cola Crush 2 is the first painting for the show and is available for pre-sale at Warwick Studios. Another thing to mention is that as I produce work for the show I'll not be posting every single image but just a select few this is to  purely to create that desire to want to visit the show. But I promise that once its happened i'll be posting each of the unseen pieces.

So I have a lot f work to do......Wish me luck :-)

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

 

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. 

Painting Updates.

So here is the last replacement commission for Warwick studios gallery. As you must know by now a year ago there was a terrible fire at the gallery that destroyed the gallery and its contents, including 9 of my paintings, 4 of those painting were commissions and we were just discussing the 5th when the fire destroyed all the others.

Once everything had settled down the client, through Warwick studios, re-placed the order of all 5 commissions and this is the last replacement so only one more to do.

Grolsch replacement

36" x 25"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

With all the replacements I was adamant that I would change the composition of them slightly but with this piece I was really happy with the original composition and so decided to stick with it, by doing this I created myself a different kind of pressure as I had to make it better than the original because everyone could compare the two.

 I personally feel that this piece alone shows how I have grown as an artist. I feel my colour matching has improved the most and now there seems to be more of a realism to my pieces focusing on the subtle paint strokes and colours.  I think before I would over emphasize a highlight or light source and thought by adding a total black background made the central image look more striking but I have learnt to match my colours more accurately and realised that a highlight may be darker than you would think now i have this more tighter approach to mixing i'm constantly surprised at how different colours are to what you think especially with highlights quite often now i'll mix a highlight and think that cant be right its to dark its to brown/blue/purple etc but once I start laying the colour into the painting I realise just how much more realistic It is this combined 

with my change in background colour I feel I'm attaining a far more polished realistic painting's

As you can see in my newest painting below, this is a piece I've wanted to do for quite some time but with all the commissions I haven't had the time but with me delivering the commissions to Warwick studios gallery last  week I wanted to squeeze in a piece for them to hang and be the first gallery piece of the year. 

Pool Balls

30" x 30"

Oil on panel 

SOLD

Available at Warwick Studios 

And in other news, I have started a new and very different body of work based on my love of figurative works and boxing. I decided that I would produce the first two of the year and see what reaction I got from my followers on Facebook and I was really pleased with how well received they were. 

The first Is of a fighter in a blue hooded top shadow boxing, the idea of this piece is to have a feeling that the boxer is in a prison type environment with the desire to change his life, I used lots of grey's in the background of this piece and also used a authority type text to mirror his feelings, needing the "Focus" to stay on track, having "Faith" in either a god or family members, and the "Fear" of change. 

"Focus, Faith, Fear"

48" x 25"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

The second piece I wanted to represent the religious element of a fighter. Some fighters are very religious using faith and prayer to keep themselves and there opponent safe and as a form of guidance to stay on the right path

Originally I wanted to put in a cross but I thought It would go against some other religions, but then a strange thing happened, whilst the painting was still in the burnt umber brown sketch stage, I was cleaning up the studio and moved one of my easels, and as I did so, the light shone onto the top of the easel casting a cross shadow onto the panel, I quickly grabbed a pencil and drew around the shadow and decided to keep it in the composition but made sure it was knocked back and subtly blended into the background. 

"Belief in the man and himself"

40" x 28"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

Cola Crush

I can only apologise for the lateness of this blog but as the saying goes better late than ever. I've just been very busy using every spare hour I have to paint and sketch to meet a deadline for the replacement commissions and I'm happy to say I'm way ahead of my self.

Now I finished the piece "Cola Crush" a few weeks ago and boy did i have some problems with it,  usually I put a few coats of primer on the side to be painted and one coat on the back and sides, once dry I sign the back of the board, but for some reason with this board I signed the front not the back, I then sketched the cola cans without to much issue but when it came to painting I noticed that something wasn't right the paint wasn't taking to the board and it was sinking into the wood, I realised what I had done and had to go about fixing it, after sanding the paint away re-priming the whole board and re-sketching I was good to go.

I painted in the silver cola can that took alot longer than I had thought but I don't know why I was surprised with all the change in colour and tone in the reflective can and the sheer size of it I knew it was going to be challenging, I then hit problem number two.....the red paint.

My Cadmium red had ran out and I needed some more, not a problem I just ordered some more from my online art suppliers, but when it arrived I started to use it and realised it was VERY opaque some thing that's usually an option with paint,  but when I checked the website there was no option and basically you just got what you got. I called the company to ask why this was and was told that the type of paint id had previously had was no longer available!! I didn't have time to mess about sourcing a new supplier and setting up a new account and so I worked with a mix of the Cadmium medium, Cadmium deep and Alizarin crimson to make the paint work, and thankfully it worked.

"Cola Crush"

30" x 30"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

I'm really pleased with how it turned out despite all the problems, and I've now moved on to the next commission, the grolsch bottle & after thinking about what composition I wanted I decided that I really liked the original and so I'll be changing very little to it & the only thing I'm toying with is a change in the background as I've always been a little unsure of the green in the first piece.

I've also completed the first two boxing figurative pieces, & I'm now contemplating what to do with them, a gallery, competitions, a private buyer........I'm still undecided.

Guinness replacement

Here is the latest original painting that is one of five commissions that I am to replace for Warwick Studios, for those of you that don't know Warwick studios have represented my work for the last two years and myself and David have worked closely with each other from day one but unfortunately in early 2012 a horrendous electrical fire ripped through the gallery destroying the gallery and everything in it including 9 of my original paintings. But David is made of strong stuff and was back trading in a new location by the end of 2012 and the commission paintings that were destroyed were re-ordered and so you will be seeing some familiar subject matter but in a very slight composition. 

Below is the replacement for the Guinness and Smoky bacon crisps commission

"Guinness and Smoky"

30" x 30"

Oil on Wooden panel

SOLD

I tried my very best to make this even better than the original image and I feel that it is a definite improvement to the first painting, the glass shape is more accurate and the colours add more depth, the first painting contained far to much black paint  but this was foolish of me as this then lacks depth, and so with this piece i constantly checked colours using techniques from the great artist Mark Carder were he uses his designed colour checker to match colour more accurately and I found far more umber browns and darker reds within the glass and I feel this has allowed my new painting to have more depth and a far more realism than in the original. 

New commission and Last dance ball

Well what a mad few weeks Its been. Firstly I finished the latest commission and secondly I was involved in the "Last dance" charity ball.

The commission was  discussed with the client for a Christmas present and the idea was to paint his parent's favourite drinks, these were Campari and orange and Tanquerey gin and soda and after three photo shoots for the painting composition we finally agreed on one we were both happy with and so i began. Now although it was one of my smaller sizes there was quite alot going on so I knew it was going to take a while

I have to admit I really did enjoy doing this piece even if it did take longer than hoped but the reflections and deep colours really kept me engaged I also worked on the background colour again instead of the black background I mixed ultramarine blue, burnt umber and paynes grey to get the dark background but with more depth to it. and thankfully they loved It.

Campari & Ten

18" x 18"

Oil on wooden panel

SOLD

I was also approached by a very lovely lady called Sue Kilshaw who asked If I would be willing to be a prize at the "last dance" charity event, where the auction would include a personal commission from me.

The event was being held at the very nice Midland hotel in Manchester where celebrity actors from British TV's Emmerdale and Coronation street would be, including the hosts Ryan Thomas and Adam Thomas

After a great meal Ryan introduced the auction,  I had to go and introduce myself and my work and so the auction began where many bids were made leaving three top bidders, eventually Ryan won the bid, but after a discussion I decided to sell two commissions to the two main bidders and so both won a commission painted by me

The Midland Hotel :- Above

And the Seated layout :-Left and Right

                                          

Me with Ryan Thomas AKA Jason Grimshaw from Coronation street after he won the winning bid for the personal commission painting by me. I'm also with Ryans brother Adam Thomas AKA Adam Barton from Emmerdale and actor Ian Puleston-Davies AKA Owen Armstrong from Coronation street.

There was also some AMAZING entertainment from the likes of actors Natalie Anderson, Scott Wright and Kym Marsh who blew everyone away with some amazing singing by all three.

                                     

Me with the Lovely Kym Marsh/Lomas