10/03: CATCHING UP GRADUALLY ..

I've fallen behind with Blog Posts again but have been busy sorting out entries for exhibitions.   Being able to submit initial entries online is helpful but inevitably the photos/scans have to be downsized and that takes a while to sort out.   Then there are sales prices to be calculated (to take account of Gallery commission fees).   Normally I don't mount/frame pictures unless I know they've been accepted for hanging so when asked to declare sizes of finished/framed artwork there's a degree of 'artistic license' included and lots of guesstimating!  But I've now finalised entries for the next two exhibitions so can concentrate on other things.

We had a lovely Dinner with friends on Sunday.   They've just returned from an exotic holiday/tour around S.E Asia and presented me with two beautiful bowls fashioned from polished coconut shells.   The insides are lacquered and beautifully decorated ... sometimes the simplest objects can be so pretty can't they?

Last month in Corralejo I bought a couple of painted roof tiles (tejas) to hang on the patio walls in our holiday home - they're basic terracotta Spanish curved roof tiles - beautifully simple/rustic.     Then I got to thinking that they'd probably be popular here in Whitstable but they'd have to be painted with beach huts and seagulls rather than windmills and goats.   A builder friend gave me some tiles to practice on so I bought them home in hand-luggage (!) and now just need hubby to shorten them a little and drill holes for the hanging rope then I'll have a go ... perhaps .... so many things on my 'to do' list and so little free time it seems.

These are the ones I bought (painted in 2002 according to the signature).   They look a bit strange here as they're laying on the ground rather than hanging on the wall.

Alfonso (AKA Peter Pan) is finished ... or at least I decided I didn't want to work on him any more.   I emailed this photo to Domenica who owns the Bistro/Bar where I first met Alfonso.   She will see Alfonso tomorrow and show him the drawing and let me know what he thinks!!   Domenica loves the picture so I hope he will too.

and today I started work on the portrait of a fisherman  we see regularly in Corralejo - usually around a Spanish tapas bar near the Old Town harbour where there seems to be a never-ending card game going on with lots of shouting and excitement.    I've never seen this guy smiling but I think he just has one of 'those' naturally forbidding expressions and I'm sure he's a real sweetie actually - the most important thing is he has a strong, lived in face with plenty of character (and wrinkles of course).

I've made an early start on the textured hat and jumper ... not the best way to work but I've mislaid my indenting tool which I needed to indent short white whiskers in his moustache/beard so I had to start working in other places.   Eventually I decided to used the end of a large paper-clip to indent but I now think the indentations are too fine.  I've put a light layer of colour over part of the indented areas and they're not showing up as well as hoped.   I think I'll have to lift the colour off his face and do some heavier indenting as lots of his whiskers are very white.   With coloured pencil its difficult to add white over darker colours so its important to sort this out before I start putting more colour on

This is stage one (what I always call the 'ugly stage') ... things can only get better