Celtic cat, an old painting

When I finished college I still loved Celtic art so I tried very hard to create a Celtic cat including Celtic knotwork. This was really difficult to do.

I was pleased with the work and glad I did it. I don’t do such complicated things these days. Very difficult to follow the rules of knotwork so that the overlapping patterns need to follow. Oil on canvas think.

Small flying horse

Another old painting from 2015, I’m not quite sure what I was thinking and it’s probably best forgotten!

Things I would change? The colours possibly. I would try and work from a horse photo because this isn’t very anatomically correct, I know it doesn’t actually have wings either! I guess I’ve made it delicate to be light enough to be held up by wings… Strange what you create as an artist.

Memories of a painting

Old painting I did a long time ago. It was painted in the living room of our old house. The floor was collapsing into the cellar and was held up by a large steel bar with two scaffolding poles holding each end. The cellar was also wet, it used to drip condensation onto the floor. I remember the wiring was bad. The flex to the lights was twisted and cloth covered. If you touched it bits would drop off. If I wanted to change a light bulb I used to put insulation tape around the wire. The bathroom was an old coal shed that had been knocked through. Our neighbour complained about a bulge on our wall so the dangerous buildings inspector came out. The bulge was OK it had been built like that. But we had to move because he warned our landlord that the property was not safe. We bought the painting with us to the new house.

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From thirty years ago?

From an old slide

Finding things that I haven’t seen for years. There is a set of old slides that I might try and get turned into photos. I’ve also seen an app where you can convert negatives to photos on your phone, which is great, but I already have them in albums and do I need more on my devices? I wish I still had the painting but it was sold to the local MP at the time. I think it ended up at the house of commons!

This was a friend years ago. I painted it with the idea that the perspective of the window gave it an interesting effect. The figure looks large in comparison to the shelves across the window. I also liked the slightly twisted pose. It’s an oil on canvas.

Pinned down by my cat..

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As you can see I love cats! This is my Tom cat who fell asleep on my chest. Its good that he can be relaxed enough to sleep on me but I couldn’t move until he decided to get off! I snuck a photo of him. He is such a sweet and friendly cat. The painting is one I did several years ago (more than 30). It has been up on the wall for years.

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Painting from the 1980’s

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I have a few images of my old paintings on slides. I would like to get them transferred onto a digital platform before they deteriorate too much. This painting was actually bought by our old MP, Mark Fisher, and I was really proud to have known him. Unfortunately he passed away a few years ago.

It’s funny how you find things and they bring back old memories. This painting was done of a friend. I deliberately tried to alter the angles of the window to make it more atmospheric. I would like to do more portraits if anyone is interested.

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