North Street Blues

 My wife asked me to do a picture kind of like this as a present for somebody who's leaving the town. (Don't tell her until after 26th!) Luckily I'd already got something not entirely different planned. It was just a case of changing the central figure. I can now use that figure in a different location. That's the plan, anyway.

I'd remembered some paintings I'd done when I was about 17, largely based on/inspired by Utrillo. I liked his Montmartre street scenes and felt he was right to include people (though, admittedly he was not very good at them). So I did a couple of Parisian street senes with people in them, though people from the 1970s, including, I remember, my Latin teacher. So people were a key element of my "artistic practice" even then. 

Looking at this print having completed it, I can see something of Diether Kressel's woodcuts in their sheer crudity and jumbliness. It's definitely got the kind of vibe I was going for. 

Naomi Reguardant

Number 5 in the Heraldic Naomi series. Though there are a couple of other ideas here, I think I'l stop for the moment. 

This one was fun. Reguardant refers to the looking over the shoulder, but I like how adding the mirror introduces the idea of regarding oneself. Which is what she was doinng before she was interrupted. 

Naomi Rampant

 This one's better, tho in my heart not as good as yesterday's two. I haven't decided whether this is my 3 to submit or if I might carry on with the heraldic theme some more. There's Passant (walking while waving like English lions), Haurient (rising out of water) and Reguardant (looking over shoulder). There's also Volant (flying) so potentially even more bonkers than this one. All of these have potential and deadline isn't until 22nd of the month, so who knows?

Naomi Dormant

 I'm feeling less good about this one. It's lacking something, I think. Maybe I need to redo it or perhaps try something else. Anyway. For the record, here it is.

Naomi Couchant

 This is the second small print I finished today. The drawing for this one drew partially on a life drawing from last summer, but I also made use of a poseable figure and drew from a painting by Renoir. I won't tell you which one cuz you ought to go and look yourself. You should be able to do that in this age of AI and stuff shouldn't you? Also a rather rough-hewn version of the Vair pattern from heraldry, too.

Naomi Salient

 I've been working on a series of 4 small prints the laat few weeks. I noticed a call from Leicester Print Workshop for prints of less than 100 sq cm. It calls for a max of 3 prints, so I thought that if I did 4 I could pick the best 3. I wanted them to be "me" so I thought I'd start from last summer's life drawings that have given so generously recently. When I was looking at the drawings of Naomi, standing, lying down etc, the heraldic descriptions, "Salient", "Dormant", "Couchant" and "Rampant" came to me. That stupid idea gave me enough excitement to carry through the series. Some of the drawings needed to be tweaked to a greater or lesser extent to achieve that idea, and they all developed in parallel.

I printed the first 2 today and, I hope, will get the other 2 printed tomorrow. This one needed the least tweaking, but allowed me to develop ideas for the wallpaper and other props.

Leamington Open 2026

 This exhibition has been a lucky one for me. I got the maximum two pieces accepted in 2022, 2024 and now in 2026. My entries this year were Lette Matrimoniale and Green Room, Pink Man. I like the Leamington Open because it's a tough one to get in. This year, 350 works were submitted, 111 shortlisted and only 52 making the final cut. There were 47 artists on the final list, indicating that thi year five of us had two works accepted. 2028 looks like being their centenary exhibition, so I shall have to be on top of my game for that one.

The exhibition is at the Pump Rooms and runs from 20 Feb to 3 May. 

PS Here's an "official" photo of the hanging:

 

PPS (7th March) I have heard that red stickers have appeared against both of them