Love Stories/Great Loves/Escapism Or Broken Record which is how I feel a little bit, so thank you if you have stuck with my 'lets go round the houses and get stuck on repeat until we finally stick with one thing...' blog style.

'Love Stories' is a collection of paintings that although dealing with separate love's in various states of being, as a whole the collection deals with the extremes of obsession and love in all its guises. The relationship between Robert Ford and Jesse James is the second one I am taking on (after Norman & Marie, above). The Film itself is beautifully sinister, much of it looks like a painting. Its a 'Love story' that I am extended out into a larger project, which has got me doing lots of this.. \0/ ..at the moment. Some of the love stories in the collection will be extended further, its one of the things I like about working in the way I do. I dont feel restricted to the 'one painting on a wall' issue which I used to deal with, and always felt slightly disappointed in. It was just to much of a squeeze for me.

Any-who, I have included scans from the short story 'Lovers of Their Time' from the collection 'Bodily Secrets' By William Trevor, which is in the Penguins 'Great Loves' Collection. On the back of each book there is a 'Love can be...' Some are a bit cheesy, but here's a few of my favourites..

Love can be controlling
Love can be murderous
Love can be impossible
Love can be forbidden
Love can be rewritten

well, my next update here will be the regularly scheduled 1st December post. I shall try and make it mostly pictures.

Currently Reading
The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford - by Ron Hansen

Other Stuff
Fallen Empires was cheap on Amazon last week, so I didn't have to wait until Christmas, hooray! I like it a lot, but I am biased and have Snow Patrol coloured spectacles, I am wearing them right now. They are very nice.

I am on Good Reads, where everything I have been reading lately is listed, should you fancy joining and sharing what you're reading too.


If you are interested in being the next artist in residence here at Reside then feel free to have a look at the application information and send your submission via the contact form on this site. The deadline for application is 23 January 2012.

Other Stuff

I think I have sort of, almost cracked it with the kitty cats new insulin, which is a relief. Not that she is totally stable, but she is close enough that she wont relax into an everlasting sleep, just yet.

The last couple of weeks or so have been pretty exciting and busy, which I like. A couple of new responsibilities came my way and I am really happy to have them. I am also about to register as self employed, which at first I thought was really scary....but actually its really dull. Some fear would vastly improve its reputation.

I have started a new painting series Moss Haired Girls and I have been thinking a lot about this blog and the general theme that has emerged, so I started another blog (of course) Great Loves, its a tumblr of images that are related to the texts I have been reading and will lead to a large painting series (with a working title of Love Stories) . The back ground to which is all on this blog really. So thats handy Harry.

Snow Patrol's new album is out tomorrow. I may wait til Christmas to get it though, but here are the two singles from it.

Currently Reading
First Love - Ivan Turgenev
Deviant Love - Sigmund Freud

(still reading Ayn Rands Fountainhead which I am slowly enjoying)


If you are interested in being the next artist in residence here at Reside then feel free to have a look at the application information and send your submission via the contact form on this site. The deadline for application is 23 January 2012.

Currently Reading
First Love - Ivan Turgenev
Deviant Love - Sigmund Freud
Bodily secrets - William Trevor

Other Stuff
Not Much, I just fancied updating with this small & quick cut out and a D.H. Lawrence passage, from a short but enjoyable book with a dramatic ending.

If you are interested in being the next artist in residence here at Reside then feel free to have a look at the application information and send your submission via the contact form on this site. The deadline for application is 23 January 2012.

Great loves:  In all its messy sometimes tragic, obsessive and unhealthy guises.

I allow one piece of text or film to lead me to another: this slightly laborious serendipitous method has its frustrations but somewhere between Romeo & Juliet and Robert Fords fascination with Jesse James (as depicted in the film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford ) are all the great love stories and even greater escapism. From tiny Hidden islands to great loves.....

So after going around the houses a little bit via Merry land, Love stories will probably take up the rest of my time on the residency. Hooray!

(I still like MerryLand though)

In the mean time I am making some more cut outs, naming tiny Islands to escape to and starting a new painting project which will work its way into The Collector Zine: Issue 3.

Alice's Island: I asked the kind people of twitter if anyone would like their very own Island. It would be named after them, then scanned and emailed to its new owner.

Currently Reading
Story Of The Eye - Georgres Bataille
Forbidden Fruit, from the letters of Aberlard and Helois - Peter Ablard
Eros Unbound - Anais Nin
The Virgin and The Gypsy - DH Lawrence

If you are interested in being the next artist in residence here at Reside then feel free to have a look at the application information and send your submission via the contact form on this site. The deadline for application is 23 January 2012.

Other Stuff
All is well with me and the kitty-cat, I am having a devil of a time stabilising her on her new insulin but we are keeping each other company rather nicely. The new Florence & The Machine album Ceremonials is out. I am a fan. Its on a loop. The kitty-Cat doesnt mind.

This is the last blog post until the regularly scheduled one on 1st November (time is flying past).

Currently reading
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
Story Of The Eye - Georgres Bataille
Great Loves- Complete set (£20 from Amazon)

It was my birthday this month and I treated myself to many, many books. Among them is the Great Loves set, from penguin. I was so happy to have it I performed star jumps.

Sluice art fair was brilliant and has sparked interesting debates regarding art fairs. Pictures from the fair are here and
there are two interesting blog posts about sluice and the world of the art fair: Art fairs Vs Artist led & Artists are a moaning bunch of bastards

Roll on Sluice 2012.

Re appropriating images is a touchy subject for me but one that feels necessary right now. I have stumbled across these images, which in itself can be frustraiting as (for this area of work) I shy away from actively searching down images and instead allow them to come to me on my Tumblr dash. 

Anyway these collages (though I tend to call them cut outs) are about escape and retreat,  what from and why are stories told through the photographs and although some have a melancholy edge in the main there is a romantic notion within.

I am still making drawings of tiny Islands, lots of them, so I am going to go and make some of those now. (oh, real time blogging, I dont often do that)

In other news:
I will be taking part in Transition Galleries Strip at Sluice art fair this weekend with paintings from The Collector series. I'm really  looking forward to seeing the show and the exhibits from all of the other galleries and artists taking part as well as catching up with people I havnt seen for a while and meeting some twitter friends for the first time. One of my Favourite things to do.

Currently Reading

...and talking of books I am on Goodreads here which I am finding really handy for sharing and finding new books/authors to read. Plus I get to indulge in my love of lists. Making lists: Its the teenage obsession that I never grew out of, well, there are others too but.....

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
Georges Bataille, essential writings- Michael Richardson
Story Of The Eye - Georgres Bataille
(and I said I wasnt going to start something new but I started and finished a whole other novel between posting here. Naughty.)
Gabriel's Inferno - Sylvian Reynard

“Letters are just pieces of paper," I said. "Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish.” Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood

Blimey, I started making small drawings on large pieces of paper and then realised that I had no where to store them, scrap that idea. So I started recycling some old post cards, partly because recycling 'is good' and also because I want to use a uniform size and  cant cut paper to save my life, well not so that they are all the same shape anyway.

I have been thinking about the 'home studio' situation. Its harder to deal with on less motivated days, for sure. The bed is very close to my work place...look, just a hop skip and a jump away from a nap (though I rarely hop).  Having said all of that I'm  still not sure that I would swap it,  its only the space that I miss. Oh and ventilation. I need air.

Two months into the residency and it seems to be jogging along rather comfortably beside my main work, its crossing over from time to time and throwing up surprises at others. When I am on my image searching expeditions (with sandwiches and a flask) I am finding that several will fit into both areas, this is handy.

I think that the work I have been posting on here is far more related to text and my imagination than in other areas of my work. This feels good. I am starting to cultivate a solid idea, theme, title or something for what has starting on this residency. I thought that I may limit the work to drawing (actual & manipulated) but It turns out that I'm not all that keen on limits, so there will be painting too.

Everything has got so small and delicate, tidy and piled up. Much of this is to do with working at home, I know, but I am really noticing it at the moment as I paint on postcard sized paper and cut out tiny images for collage..... new spectacles imminent.

The Collector Zine: Issue II Love Letters

After asking the kind people of twitter and FB to send me snippets of love letters (a request that could be interpreted however they saw fit) I compiled them into a small zine. I contributed some words and images. I thought I would be making drawings and collages but actually it was the photographs that I had recently taken that felt right. Bellow is an example of text and image from the zine. If you are likely to see me and would like one then please let me know.

A huge thank you to the contributors. This was a fun challenge.

Love Letters will be a limited edition of 20 and given away without charge.

Currently Reading

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
Georges Bataille, essential writings- Michael Richardson
Fanny Hill - John Cleland
Circus and Victorian Society - Brenda Asseal

I almost started Jane Eyre (an I should of read but havnt yet) but instead grabbed for The Fountainhead. I'm glad I did.

I am going to try and finish off all of these books before I start anything new. I have been dipping in and out of a couple of these for the best part of this year. I recommend them all.

"Catherine's face was just like the landscape--shadows and sunshine flitting over it in rapid succession; but the shadows rested longer, and the sunshine was more transient..." Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights.

The country side, hills, rivers, wind, rain, mist, fog, strength, flesh, soil, romance, loss, love, fear, claimed, retreat. I like these words.


Places of retreat: Everything I have been reading seems to be in these drawings but in equal measure they are drawings made while I am distracted by other things. Working in the evening when the telly's on. They are leading somewhere, I am almost nearly certain.

But that's what The Reside Residency is all about, right? Yes!

                          No obvious figures. Surprise!

Drawings: pencil on paper, 21x30cm

Other News:
What's been happening? well, the cat is fairly spritely at the moment, rather naughty actually. Scratching at things she shouldn't and using me as a jungle gym in the mornings. And I have been ok, splitting my time between drawing and reading texts about romance and dramatic landscapes while making more paintings for The Collector series. If anything I am finding it difficult to drag myself away from drawing, once I get going I find it jolly addictive which has meant that I haven't been collaging, which I had and still plan to do.

It has been an exciting month already. I took part in Transition Galleries' Pulp Fictions. The private view turned out to be a great evening, I was a bucket of nerves, but I was among friends so there was really no need. I also met some more twitter friends which was excellent. I love it when that happens. Anyway Pulp Fictions is on until 25 September. Its brilliant.

Bad news: My significant other went toTransylvania. I did not.
Good News: I have souvenirs.

Hopefully the next post will have some more experimental drawings and collages and will probably be the regularly scheduled October 1st post. Unless something fantastical happens.

Currently reading
Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
Georges Bataille, essential writings- Michael Richardson
Fanny Hill - John Cleland
Circus and Victorian Society - Brenda Asseal

(there are some 'classics I really should have read already' cropping up. I'm getting through them).

Drawings based on romantic and erotic literature. Some background info on this post can be found here

As well as drawing more than usual this month I have been reading, a lot. I devoured Lady Chatterlys Loverover a weekend. This read reinforced the theme of the romantic in much of the work I have been making lately and it stretches right across the different painting projects. Always aware of it in my reading material (and while the notion of Romantic can mean different things to me at different times) I have been allowing Romance to roll around in my head unaccompanied by a self-conscious sneer...I have been able to relax a bit. And above are some of the results.

Talking of drawing, there is an interesting drawing project currently on line:
Drawing the subconsciouswhich really made me think. I have been drawing with purpose for a long time now, and I rarely sit and absently move a pencil or pen across paper and yet its a really important thing to do, its working on your drawing muscle..... So I owe thanks to Drawing The Subconscious for un-sticking me this past week or so. Have a look and submit your own drawings.....

So anyway, I am still drawing and reading and will post again soonish with, hopefully, more images.

*I know it was a lot of drawings to post. I should have advised a tea break at the half way mark. It just feels like the right thing to do at the moment...umm biscuit?*

oh, I should mention that these drawings are on  white paper, but in my badly lit house are a pain to photograph.

Currently Reading
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Lady Chatterleys Lover - D.H Lawrence
Fanny Hill – John Cleland
Georges Bataille, essential writings- Michael Richardson
My notes from A new description of Merryland. Containing, a topographical, geographical, and natural history of that country. - Thomas Stretzer 1841