Good afternoon my special chums,

T'is I...I have returned from the wilderness...well the frozen North to be precise. I really do not like this weather, I am totally opposed to it infact. I have no motivation to do anything except hibernate...and...if it gets much colder and things shrink anymore, I will officially be a "girl". Roll on Spring...roll on longer days and warmer climes. Mmmm...rant over and I am calm once more.

I have spent the past few weeks tweaking and finishing stuff off. I reckon it's so near Christmas and the time for festive apathy, I thought I'd get my desk cleared for the New Year...so to speak. I've the urge to commence the "Ascension" painting but really need to get the others completed. I'm off to Bonny Scotland next weekend to photograph two very obliging geezers who have agreed to be my "Desciples"...Please don't fret my chums, I have not started a religious sect, I am not getting young blokes to worship at my feet...actually that would be rubbish, I'm only 5' 3" tall...if they tried worshipping at my feet they'd put their backs out..oooer.

It's for the "Ascension".....

I've had a bit of a creative crisis this week end...I thought I had finished "Mercury" but every time I looked at it I disliked it more and more...well not exactly disliked it... it just wasn't "right". It's the old story..you keep looking at something and the more you look the more you can't think what's wrong with it until you have a total meltdown in confidence and decide that you are unworthy to paint and should just blow yourself and all your paintings up...praise the Lordy Lord that the matches were damp!
I've spent the entire day reworking it and am now very happy with it...hey ho...the hysterics of an over emotional old git...a big fat thank you to Brian...he's the model...for being so very patient with me and for waiting this long to cop a gander at the finished article. Speaking of which...I really do need to get myself to Liverpool to get the latest work photoshopped and put onto the web site. Mmm...why oh why do we need to have Christmas this time every year??? Please bare (sp?) with me peeps...I will have some new work on the site soon...I promise.

Thanks for taking the time...

Ivor x

Hello everybodies,

It has been so very long since last we spoke. I do apologise but I was laid up with tonsilitis...a rather nasty bout I might add. I never knew a bloke could sweat so much with such little movement. I was rather pathetic through out the entire ordeal...I was begging for an assisted suicide at one point, it's just as well I live alone as I'm sure some one would of obliged otherwise.

I have been plodding along very slowly on the painting front...mind, I am getting quite alot finished. To be perfectly honest I had a bit of a scare. I had negotiated some painting sales with a very nice bloke in Dublin called Tom. He is a bit of a jet setter so all negotiations were carried out via shed loads of different countries. I was on my death bed when I got an email telling me the cheque was on it's way...mmm..the paintings weren't ready....hey bloody ho! Upshot of it all it was a tad manic for a few days and I vowed I would always be like a boy scout...prepared.
Thanks Tom...you're a star.

I've got a commission to do an "Ascension" painting...it's a big bugger too so I'm dead excited.
I was at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool on Saturday so was able to soak up the atmosphere, absorb the "art" and leave inspired. I had a vague idea of how I was going to tackle it but it always helps when you view some of the greats and how they portrayed the theme. The muse is now upon me and when I can prise him off I shall start the preliminary drawings. I'm still looking for the two Marys but have managed to identify who I want as Jesus and I've also found two of the Desciples...should be plain sailing from here...yeah right. I've not worked on a painting of this scale before so am a tad anxious alongside the excitement...it's a roller coaster of emotions to be sure.

I'm still continuing with the "Romanesque" series...hopefully if all goes well these should be seen in Newcastle before too long. Fingers crossed. I really feel it's time to get out there and get them displayed....I'll even exhibit the paintings...

Thank you for taking the time,

Ivor x

Good morning to you all my special chums,

I have returned from my travels and what a trip it was. It was full of family reunions and howdy doodys and all other interactions. I was at a family wedding so it was choc-a-block to the brim with light hearted drunkeness and "dancing like me dad". I had a very good time.

Whilst I was in Portsmouth I went to see The Mary Rose, HMS. Victory and another old boat whose name escapes me. I admit that bits of old boat don't usually inspire me to be creative but I found all of this very interesting. I had forgotten just how important it all is/was to Portsmouth as a place...I had left it along while back. The surrounding area was really stunning, especially from the top of the Spinaker Tower....not mant sea shanties were being sung and the whole area had a distinct lack of sailors. I did return home rested and ready to carry on with these paintings.

"Mercury" is progressing nicely and I have decided to work it like a "mummy" board and not a mediaeval wall painting. Mind you, I have noticed how the light has changed and how difficult it now is to get a decent days painting in. Hey ho...all those endless dark days...what the hell happened to the summer? I feel like I will end up like that "forger" geezer from "The Great Escape"...I know I'll never be able to locate a pin at the far end of the room, after a day with my brush I have difficulty locating the door. It is the "agedness" creeping up on me....

I have the opportunity to exhibit in Newcastle...only a small venue I may add...but still a chance to get my work seen by the people in the North East. I'm dead excited about it all...I was skipping on a train platform when I received the news...I only realised when someone went to get security. I shall clarify that last sentence...I began skipping during the phone conversation, I would hate for you to think that I just merrily skipped on train platforms for the sheer hell of it. Can I help it if I'm over excitable?
Anyways, I am now painting like the clappers to get enough work together...I've just flogged two paintings so have to make up the short fall. The trouble is, I don't do speed in my work...I do methodical...it's a conundrum.

Thank you for taking the time,

Ivor x

Good morrow to you all,

I am going to be fairly brief this morning as I am officially on holidays...mmm...I am about to embark on an epic journey to Portsmouth to visit my family, this may not seem such a big deal to most...but...you haven't met my family. Please look out for me on Jeremy Kyle, I'll be the one swinging a chair and speaking only in vowel sounds. I'm hoping to seek inspiration from the sea side and older parts of Old Portsmouth...I have distant memories from my college days that there are some very historical bits of olde Pompey. I left Portmouth in 1979 so we will see if it's how I remember it...mnid, as dementia is kicking in fast, how the hell will I know???

I managed to start blocking out the face of "Mercury" before I left...mmm...it's a very odd thing but I have managed to create an image that has no resemblance to old Roman wall painting and more early mediaeval church painting. It is staring out at me...just a floating head. The thing is, I am in a dilemma now...do I continue and develop this image?...or...do I reel it back to "fit" the series of paintings that I started? I have decided to ignore it all until I return from my travels...I shall look at it with fresh eyes and then, hopefully, will know which way to go. However, as I may well be traumatised from my time away, it could end up wearing a shell suit and hair extentions.

I have to add here that I do love my family and they are really cool people...it's just our way of communicating...we share insults.

Until we meet again...thank you for taking the time,

Ivor x

Good morrow to you my faithful chums,

I have returned from my travels...I have been away to Olde London Town and a very pleasant stay it was. I have returned a tad knackered and a lot broke...hey ho.
Whilst I was there I went on a visit to St. Pauls cathedral...I was not impressed and at a tenner a throw I so wanted to be. It wasn't the fact that the entrance fee was so pricey...it was such a dry and souless place, it could well of been a wine bar or some such venue. The ceilings were beautiful though so all was not lost...plus...it was a major work out walking up all those steps to the top of the dome.
I managed to get to the "Hadrian" exhibition at the British museum...now that was worth the fee. It was really very interesting and some of the sculptures were stunning. I fell in love with the "mummy" portraits and left the proceedings completely inspired and wanting to mummify someone just so I could paint their portrait. Not too sure if that's quite the done thing in this day and age but a bloke can only try...not sure if it's legal either but if anyone out there fancies being mummified and then immortalised then I'm your man.

I am now back to my sort of reality...mmmm...not sure if that's a comfort or not??? I have been so engrossed in these "Romanesque" paintings since my return I wonder if I should don a gladiators outfit and fight some lions...mind, with my legs and our weather it could prove dangerous. I have still got to add something or omit something and they will be spot on...I keep painting bits, gazing at bits, tweaking bits and distressing bits...one day a bell will go off in my head and I will know that this is it...finished. I sincerely hope that day arrives soon because I am going crossed eyed and virtually blind working on them. If I charged an hourly rate for all the man hours spent on this series they would retail for about £4 squillion..........

I am also in a bit of a conundrum and am wondering if I should be very brave and quit the work on the ward for a less stressful and less time consuming job. I so want to be concentrating on my painting and illustration stuff but am a big fat scardy cat about leaving my "comfort zone". When did I become such a coward??? What hapened to the boy who left art college with a song in his heart and a spring in his step?...mmm...bordering on bursting into song here so will shut up...and with a voice that could shatter plastic it would not be good...hey ho.

Thank you for taking the time,

Ivor x

Hello all,

Tis I again ready to impart my very special brand of "paint along a Nancy"...incidentally unless you're over 40 you will probably have no floppin' idea what that last sentence means.

It has been a bad bad bad time for me....I have the "block" again...well it's more like the "apathy" to be honest. I have been sat here this morning attempting to paint in "Neptunes" arms only to be distracted by any damn thing that heads my way. I was even trying to count the legs on a caterpillar that had crawled into the studio...mmmm...not good. I am blaming the weather, I have to blame something. The painting is developing slowly and I am hoping will be finished before I reach 50. I do apologise to Will if he reads this, it is going to be finished soon... honest. The stupid thing is that I am already planning the next painting. I've got the model to email a photograph and in my head it is virtually completed. Thank you Brian for allowing me to use your image. Hey ho, it is a big fat countdown conundrum with no detox option from Carol Vordeman.

I am heading off to London Town for a week so maybe that will inspire me again. I'm attending a course which should be fun and frolics and jolly japes...mind, it all sounds like a lorry load of "hippy" nonsense but it gets me away and somewhere to, hopefully, recharge my batteries. I shall soak up the culture and sniff the aroma that is "the smoke"...I just hope my now "country boy" lungs can take it.

Work on the ward continues to be creative...it's like a cottage industry at the moment. I am still amazed at how some people don't realise just how talented they can be...still, if I can unleash the creative beast in some then I may just stand a chance of rekindling my own creative monster.
We shall see...

Thank you for taking the time...

Ivor x

Good evening peeps,

Mmmmm...I have returned from the darkest of places and am endeavouring to bung down a new blog. The darkest places I refer to are the ones that I create so easily in my mind, blimey, is all creativity so bleedin' difficult? I sort of lied in my last blog by saying that the "Neptune" painting would be a piece of cake...not so my chums...it's been a complete nightmare. It began with such promise and verve but descending into complete shambolic chaos. I blame my lack of foresight and capabilities with the reference I was using. Paul, the bloke modelling, had been very kind and sent me the photograph that I requested, I, however, didn't realise that it was not lit in the way that I wanted to paint it. Hey ho...upshot of it all was a less than adequate painting...mmmm that'll teach me to be so cocky.
All is not lost though because Paul has obligingly agreed to meet up with me when I next visit London to have some more photies done...he's a gentleman and a scholar. In the mean time I have started another painting and am pleased to say this one is progressing nicely...famous last words and all that. This one is still going to be "Neptune" but painted with a different slant. The model is called Will...cheers Will, I hope that you'll be happy with what I do with your image.

I continue to plod along happily on the ward...there is a very talented artist with us at the moment. He seems unaware of how good he is and I am in the process of trying to nurture him with out scaring him off...he is not in a good place emotionally and the balance of "pushing" and "holding back" is very delicate. I hope that he will eventually have the insight to realise his talent he really is rather good.

Thank you for taking the time,

Ivor x