Daily Sketch 04/01/2013 - Yo~Yo Box

Daily Sketch 03/01/2013 - Gigas Oyster

Daily Sketch 02/01/2013 - G and T?

A Daily Sketch for 2013

To kick things off in 2013 I've decided to proceed with the idea muted in my last post about making a sketch a day for a year. You can call it a new year's resolution if you wish, I'm calling it 'a daily sketch', for two reasons really, 1) because that is what it is, and 2) most new year's resolutions are hastily made in a boozy haze on new year's eve and often falter fairly soon afterwards. I've been pondering this a while and from what I can see from other people's daily painting and drawing projects it can be a really helpful and interesting exercise. We'll see.
From my own point of view, with limited studio time at the moment because of my commitment to our business I'm hoping that the somewhat monastic, regular 'drip, drip' of sketches will at least keep my eye in and at best open up some new ideas for larger works when the time will allow, so, happy new year friends, and here goes...

First Snow of Winter

Just five days after the official meteorological start to Winter. We awoke this morning with a bit of a shiver and were greeted with the first snow of the winter, this was the scene at 7.30am along our street. The tartist and I were at work for 8.00 to do the breakfast shift  after which we got our heads together to finalise our plans for the new Artcafé menu, the winter theme was helped considerably by the view from table 6 of a snowy churchyard. For my part I've been flirting with the idea of some sort of drawing or painting-a-day for year type project for 2013. Now this been nagging away for some time at the back of my mind and is a scary thought but tantalising at the same time. Painting a day type blogs and projects are nothing new and there are ever so many across the virtual world including some extremely good ones like this one by American artist Duane Keiser I discovered the other day. If I choose to do it I have to be sure it's going to bring something to my work and not just massage my ego, well, I've still a couple of weeks to make up my mind and then work out what form it might take... watch this chilly space, as they say.

Almost Mid-Winter on the Island

 'Strood Channel' ~ Pastel on Paper

Having just returned from a bracing walk along the Coast Road and with the feeling beginning to return to my fingertips I thought I'd put pen to paper again (or curser to pixel) on what has become a somewhat sporadic blog. The days are almost at their shortest now and although unlike yesterday the temparature has not been minus, the easterly wind coming up the river Blackwater had an eyewatering bite to it. By 4pm it was almost dark, but minutes earlier the setting sun had peeked through the cloud over Tollesbury and set the sky alight for a few fleeting minutes. With the light fading as I turned into the High Street I saw a cloud of Starlings doing that spectacular swirling around they like to do before going off to roost. The Brent Geese are well and truly encamped around the saltmarshes now and I'm pleased to say we can hear their familiar honking sounds down on the Strood from our bedroom at night. And so it's almost mid winter and the island is as cold as it should be, dark about 4.30 and thoughts inevitably are turning towards Christmas, my thoughts have also turned towards producing some winter paintings after my chilly afternoon walk along the waterfront.

Yobs From The Bank

Yesterday I took the train up to London to visit the Affordable Art Fair, which was a very interesting trip but that's not what I'm going to tell you about today. I've written a little on banking before on theartistandthetartist alluding to the Quaker capitalists and their principled approach to banking. In contrast I'd like to share a very loud and aggressive mobile phone conversation I overheard on the train yesterday from the seat behind me. Here a large, suited gent. was sitting, yelling at a colleague (back at the office I assume) in expletive riddled tones for the whole carriage to hear. The poor chap on the receiving end obviously had not acted fast enough on some 'deal' or other.

"Craig, I don't think you've even read the f#**#ng e-mail, go back and read the f#**#ng e-mail, then call the client and tell him he can draw down on the money, do it, now. Craig, you're not f#**#ng listening to me, if you do it now, it don't actually matter if it's 'arf a percent or one percent, call 'im now, tell 'im he can draw down an' we're lookin' at sixty grand each in our f#**#ng account before Christmas."

Mmm nice. I don't know whether Craig got his finger out or not, and don't much care but the point about this conversation is the overtly greedy tone of the whole transaction. I don't know whether our friend and his colleague Craig were pimping draw down mortgages or loans or whatever, but the point that struck me was, neither did they.