Neslyn Farm

A little diversion from drawing gates,a pen drawing from which I painted the 12"x10" acrylic on canvas, of our neighbours farm from a track on their land looking west toward the wolds,a different technique to the one I use on my paintings of miners,which is more cubistic expressionist,a technique which suits my mining memories and emotional outpourings.

Home town show

I have been asked to provide at short notice(one week) a number of paintings and prints for an exhibition in the entrance foyer of Rotherham art gallery,so I have been busy this morning sorting some stuff out,this is a forerunner to holding an exhibition early next year around April in the new gallery being built near the new Rotherham United stadium .

Gordy

This weeks sad loss of life at the welsh mine was a reminder to me of my brother Gordon's fatal accident in a steel works over 30 years ago on the 18th of September, you leave for work and never come home,one of the perils of working in heavy industry,real men in real jobs.

Gleision Colliery 15th September 2011

Old gate on green lane

This is escapism in the countryside,I am now an old fogey down to drawing rickety old farm gates,though a galeforce wind yesterday made the job difficult ,blowing the sketch pad all over the place,the colours and different plant shapes were interesting and may lead to a painting on a small scale.
I am trying to arrange an exhibition of my mining theme pictures in Rotherham and Barnsley, but exhibition opportunities are thin on the ground,so barring a lottery win and buying my own gallery,I shall have to continue as a "picture stacker", the welsh poet Dylan Thomas's description of painters.
The technical properties are,graphite on cartridge paper 12"x 10" approx.

Bill Tidy

Amusing quote from Bill Tidy the cartoonist(yes he is still alive),"Blatter is not guilty of corruption,I had confirmation in a brown envelope through my letterbox today"

Red Miner

Acrylic on canvas 12 inches x 9 inches final version from a digital study posted in on earlier blog, based on my friend Piero Baral an Italian talc miner in the Italian alps,now retired from mining but active on a number of humanitarian issues.