Rex Whistler at Brighton Museum 2006

I wasn't in a hurry to see this exhibition and in the end caught it accidently. I didn't feel he was going to be my kind of guy and so it proved. Whistler was undoubtably a talented Illustrator, some of his pencil drawings are of a technical standard I have not seen before. But viewed as a painter (which may be an unfair approach) this show doesn't have much.I couldn't help thinking as I walked around that here was someone working in the past, in 1929 he was producing work that had its roots in Victorian times.Best moment of the show was laughing with a complete stranger at the fantastic abuse of artistic talent the army managed to bring about by obliging him to draw posters outlining the full and correct kit for new recruits, excellant!Talented, but not for me.Rex Whistler

Jim Haldane at Brighton Museum cafe 2006

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A friend invited me for coffee and the chance to take a look at five paintings by Jim Haldane. The coffee.. Was good and the cafe is a good place to meet, its a bit quieter than your average cafe in town! The paintings.. I'm not surprised to read that Jim has an illustration background as these paintings are very much rooted in the Illustration tradition. The work is quite large and to be honest a little too large for this cafe. I found it impossible to get far enough away from the paintings to be able to actually take them in properly. Interesting use of a scratch technique whereby he paints a light colour over the top of a dark colour then scratchs the light away to reveal the dark where he wants it. Personally I liked the Embassy Court painting the best and I note from his website he has now done the "after" to this "before" which also looks good. You can find out more about Jim here - Jim Haldane

What's on the wall 11/08/06

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Here you can see the latest trilogy of medium sized paintings dubbed the superman series because of the colour scheme. Also one of the two new paintings I'm currently working on using the same colour scheme.

What's on the easel 110806

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I'm currently working on a series of six large paintings and here is one of the first two. I've masked off some of the painting in preperation for some splash work.