Good afternoon all,

I have spent the live long morning working on this commission piece....ooooer....it is almost finished so I am at that stage in the proceedings where I think I am the crapiest artist in the entire world, I should give it all up now and become a nun and that I should be drummed out of every art establishment in the world! I always get like this at the end of a painting....why the flop I do is a concurrent countdown conundrum...all I know is that it eventually passes and calm once again riegns in my world. It does, however, hold up the final push because I have to leave the painting... I have a tendancy to overwork them when I am in this frame of mind. Are there any other painters out there that experiences thse emotions at the end of a painting????

Answers on a postcard please...

This one is short and sweet...abit like myself!

Thankyou for reading this tiny blog,

Ivor x

Good afternoon my special chums,

I am in a very good mood today...apart from getting an extra day off work, I have had a very successful days painting. The commission piece is going swimmingly well and is very nearly finished. Still a bit of tweaking to do and the arms need some work but, on the whole, it is almost done. The strange thing about this painting is the way it has made me look at the other work I have done. This piece is more "painty" than the others and, frankly, I now need to go back and rework some of the older stuff. I suppose the trouble with having "works in progress" and other finished paintings lying about your studio...you are always looking at them and re evaluating them. Mmmm..not sure if that's a good or bad thing but hey ho...when you're limited with space...you don't have a choice. All I know is...and here's the rub...it has proved to be a blessing cos I now know how I can improve the paintings I have done.
Now the other question is..if you're at all interested...do I tweak and fiddle before beginnig a new work?....or...do I start a new piece and tweak and fiddle during it...or...do I just bang on with the new piece and fiddle and tweak when I feel the urge overtaking me??? It is indeed a concurrent countdown conundrum.
The new painting is going to be of "Neptune". I have finally sorted the photos of the model I am using. He is a very obliging and patient bloke and I am very grateful to him for allowing me to use his image. Thank you Paul...you're a star! I just hope I can do him justice. This is going to be sort of created as I paint cos I have no clear image of how it's to be....all I can see is blue and fish and a horse. I know what I vaguely want to achieve but am just giong to allow the painting to "happen". I don't expect this to make any sense to any body..it hardly makes any sense to me, but it will be an interesting experience...

Work on the ward continues at a pace....I am fortunate to have many clients who are really keen to create. I must say that I envy their energy sometimes...it takes me all of mine just to get there in the mornings. I have now got a vast array of differing bits of work and will really have to try and organise it a bit better. The trouble with me is that if someone has taken the time to produce a piece of work when they are so "troubled" it would be gittish of me not to try and display it. However, there is only a limited amount of wall space...I feel a decisive moment befalling me.

Thanks for taking the time,

Ivor x

Good afternoon peeps,

I have finally managed to sucessfully block in the commission portrait that I am working on...I even managed to send a pic of the rough stage to the sitter too. I was totally relieved and pleased to get the thumbs up to it. Phew! I must admit that it's been a blast doing this painting....I had no idea of how it was going to turn out and was really streesing at one point. I had even decided to end my painting life as I was so crap at it all...mmmm...perhaps a tad dramatic. It was then that I decided to work at it differently and just "block".....hurah...result!
It is always a learning curve when painting a commission...I always manage to go through some form of creative crisis before I eventually settle down and stop being such a paronoid idiot. Hey ho. Is this normal behaviour I ask myself???
The Roman God series seems to be on a go slow at the moment...I can only manage one crisis at a time it seems. I'm blaming it on the fantastic weather and the need to be outside in the sunshine attempting to get my pasty complexion somewhere to a normal colour. I also have the added excuse of being rather head battered by work on the ward. Not by the clients as it happens....enough said!

I went to view one of the rarest plants in the British Isles over the weekend...the "Lady's-slipper Orchid. It was quite beautiful and is being watched over by a bloke in a tent. Apparently it was stolen in 2004 but, luckily, not all the plant was taken and it has managed to recover. These orchids are now so rare that they are highly prized by unscrupulous morons that think it is their God given right to own anything that is on the verge of dissappearance. It amazes me that these people have such enormous egos and display such stupidity....would they be clamouring for the last buttercup if there was a virtual wipe out of that species....mmmm...sadly, yes.
It was a very humbling experience and almost spiritual to see that beautiful flower sat unobtrusively in its limestone recess....I was very moved.

Thanks for taking the time,

Ivor x

Good evening all,

It's been absolutely eons since I last wrote anything on this site...I would like to say it is because I have been so busy doing fantastic things that I never had the time...sadly this is not the case. I have been steadily working on the portrait commission, it is a strange feeling trying to create a portrait of someone that you have yet to meet, and then the meeting takes place on completion so the anxiety levels are well up. Mmmmm...wonder how the sitter feels??? I wonder if it is just as anxious for him??? I will find out in a few weeks time so until then I am desperately trying not to think about it. I am just plodding along in the vain hope that all will be well.
I've still got some tweaking to do on the "Romulus and Remus" painting...the frame mainly. Yes I know I was banging on about it the last time but it is still a major issue that I have yet to resolve. I wonder if there is a Bach flower remedy out there solely for the pupose of making idiots like myself stop dithering....answers on a post card please.
The next painting is still being mulled over in my head and is in need of getting bunged down onto board soon or it will erode into a pile of mundane nonsense. This does tend to happen to me if I dwell on something for too long...I start to fiddle with the idea and over produce it...not a good thing to do in my case as it always proves to be a balls up! Hey ho...I really must learn how to multi task and manage two or three projects at once. The problem with the way I work...if it is indeed a problem...is I get so focused on that particular bit that my vision become tunneled which makes me very boring to be around as I tend to switch off to everything else. Mmmmm, knew there was a reason why I live alone.....Still, onwards and upwards. I have no idea what that last sentence means but it sounded good at the time.

The ward is still producing some very fine and dandy work at the moment despite the fact that there are some quite disturbed people residing there. It always amazes me that so much creativity can happen even when it is being bombarded with so much erratic energy. The clients I work with have a wonderful abilty to accept and then switch off to what is happening around them...I envy this abilty.

I shall end these latest witterings to say that I attended the opening of The Midland Hotel in Morecambe this weekend. The Midland is a beautiful art deco builing that had been left to decay on the sea front. Urban Splash have undertaken the task of restoring it back to life. I reckon they have done a fabulous job....love all that old and new combination. Check it out if you get the chance...even if it is just to have a cup of sedate tea in the conservatory.

Thank you for taking the time...

Ivor x