31 March 2009

AAArgh! Mucho administrationisimo.
So much office work at the end of a financial year.
Plus printing and packing orders [no complaints here].
Plus work on websites.
Plus frames and preparation for exhibitions and hanging pictures etc.
Still....mustn't grumble.
The picture is of my spot in a group exhibition down the road in my local pub.
The group are Fiveways Artists, as part of the upcoming Brighton Festival in May 'Artists Open Houses', and the theme of the show is Venice.

28 March 2009 Eden's logo

Our eldest grandaughter is Eden Charlotte Kennett Ruffell. And here is her first contribution to this blog. The painting is a digital work completed on a Wacom tablet.

25 March 2009

I actually spent all day in London presiding over the Guild Court and AGM. So no painting.
But here is a glimpse into 'work in progress'.
This unfinished painting is the fifth one in my Croydon series. The view is along North End which is now a pedestrianised bustling shoppers paradise. When I was a teenager this was so different ........ etc [yawn- as old codger remembers his past].

24 March2009

Another half finished painting of the middle of Croydon. The old Alms Houses on the left contrast rather well with the 'Threepenny Bit' skyscraper down the road at East Croydon station. Watch out! That tram is coming this way.

23 March 2009

Been working on the distant view of Croydon after a bit of research on the radio masts on the far horizon. The left hand mast is the Croydon mast and the wider, further and taller mast is Crystal Palace mast.
This view from Purley Way really shows how Croydon has bloomed and grown during the years since I lived here. In the centre is the Town Hall tower which used to be SO big when I was a lad. Now it is dwarfed by the office blocks around it. The 'threepenny bit' tower is on the far right.

22 March 2009

Surrey Street market has not changed much since I was a kid. I remember a long gone Sarsparilla stall selling drinks, and a man selling plaster wall hangings of dogs faces or swiss chalets. I used to go to Surrey St to gather food scraps to feed our chickens every Saturday.
The painting as shown here is unfinished.

21 March 2009

Another unfinished painting in the Croydon series. The Town Hall dominated the Croydon skyline for a long time, but it is now surrounded by very undistinguished office blocks. This bus goes to Bromley, where I was born.