Good morning all, I am at MIND in Woking, just snatching a few minuets quiet before the business of the day starts.
Yesterday I was painting in Alf's (a cafe) and as usual chatting to passers by. A couple of ladies approached me and mentioned that they had been to Egypt. So here is one for them.
The Hebrew boat is coming along fine. By the way it is now two boats, one under repair and the second decked out and ready for a fishing trip. At the moment the background of sand is being constructed, out of paper!!!! I did photograph it to show the process of paints, paper, glue and hot air (electric  hot air gun), but to be honest at the moment it is simply a mess, so no photo.
Trees are continuing, the work is intense and ongoing. and I hope to show you my latest soon.
So really today's blog is about being busy and trying to show that being an artist is not just about sitting around dreaming, but about hard, if enjoyable work.
I do a bit of dreaming as well.
Duncan

Bow Street, London

Well I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year; The last one was very good, so lets hope this new decade is as good, or even  still better.

New Year resolutions! Most are not kept, so lets take on aims and resolutions which we intend to and are able to keep.

For myself as far as my art is concerned, my tree work; the drawing are taking a more abstract construction, which result in representative images in the end. This will continue.

My metal health art communication work seems to have fresh impetus, so that will certainly continue.

Sculptures of small sea vessels are ongoing as my blog demonstrated the other day. regular updates will be posted; so that will obviously carry on.

Travel art, I plan to travel to Israel with Liz in a couple of months.

Teaching, leading, workshops and giving talks, I seem to be still wanted, so that also in ongoing.

So my resolutions for this coming year are, to continue working and playing hard.

A short prayer goes with it; Lord give me strength!

A lesson re-learnt today.

All my friends know that I walk with two Leki walking sticks. Pride in their use was swallowed a long time ago, so nowadays they are not a problem; as with them I have my mobility back. Anyhow one of them sustained a stress fracture the other week; so being under warranty I contacted Leki to have a repair or an exchange on the offending stick.

Well the first contact was with Leki by e mail. The reply was rather negative asking for photographic evidence of the fracture; this was supplied. A reply some time later was very unhelpful, obviously designed to put of warranty claimants. They now requested the actual stick to be posted to them; not impossible, but in reality a walking stick is a tricky thing to wrap and post. So I thought, blow this  for a lark and went to Cotswold, Guildford, who supplied the stick and explained the situation in a correct and factual  manner. A chap behind the till called Timothy was super. He tried to repair the stick, no luck. Called in extra staff, they took it apart, then cannibalized another stick and gave me a good as new, old stick back. 

The moral is, Talk calmly and politely, forget the e-mail stuff, rather use the old fashioned face to face approach, being rational and polite; this simply works wonders.

By the way Timothy, as we talked a little about travel art and what I do, here is a quick drawing (ink) of Mount Mossa (Moses) in Wadi Rum, Jordan. This was done during a fantastic day on a four wheeled drive land drover, during a short break from leaping from sand dune to sand dune in the car. Some days you just do not forget. This immediate area is where the film Laurence of Arabia was filmed.

So thank you Timothy and Cotswolds.

Well Christmas is almost with us and the big question as ever is, "Are you ready" and the answer as always is, "I am, but I doubt if Liz would agree". I wonder if Mary was ready! The above is an Israeli reconstruction of a house from Jesus time and is probably much likes Jesus's home; this rebuilt village is on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee and we visited it some years ago.

So I wish you all a marvelous Christmas, Have fun, Jesus would like that.

Painting is ongoing, I am working on an old beech tree at the moment, its all about very soft lines. It looks good so far, can I keep it up, or will I be told to put my painting away and help with the Christmas preparations.

See you all soon

Duncan

At last Christmas is almost with us and many things apart from Christmas preparations are slowing down. Apart from MIND all my other commitments have stopped for two weeks; a rest; well that is the theory.

The Hebrew boat is coming on nicely, it is now assembled and is in the paint shop. Half of the decking has been left of deliberately, as the scene is going to be a repair shop and this way the boats inner construction is shown. The painting is a lengthy process  of many uneven and thin coats which are applied in what looks like a slapdash manner. But seeing many layers of paint through each other will give a surprising aged look to the vessel when completed. A few odds and ends (such as chests and tools) are receiving the same process at the same time.

Well its time to relax now, maybe a dvd.

Sometimes in life events happen which are encouraging and to be honest are good for you. One of those events happened on Thursday. It was the opening preview evening for my latest exhibition at Clyde & Co solicitors with Guildford Arts Notwithstanding that selling a piece is always uplifting, what really boosted me were the words of encouragement from the visitors who were viewing. So a good evening; I felt uplifted.

One of the conversation points of the evening was about painting in the open. Personally, I like people contact when painting; I enjoy the process of conversation banter and chit chat. But another aspect is the work produced.

The accuracy and artistic fineness of studio work will never be attained in the open air. But where the fineness is lost, certainly a looseness and freedom to express is gained, which makes the work exceedingly valid. Attached is a a ketch from near Cromer in Norfolk to illustrate this.

In previous postings I have also discussed using a scanner as a dark room camera.  We also discussed this aspect of my work during the evening.  Take look back in the blog to see some of those images.

See you soon.

An unusual picture to blog, maybe but read on. Several of you who have seen my work over the years have seen the finished products of my maritime sculptures which are made from scrap paper/ Well the plan is to make one of these creations over the next few weeks/months and post progress pictures every now and then.

The ship of which the beginnings are above, is a representation of a 1st. cent AD Hebrew fishing boat of the type used on the Sea of Galilee in Jesus time. One of these boats was dug out of the mud on the seas shore some years ago and is now in a museum just south of Magdela at a place called Yigal Allon. I spent some time examining the preserved remains and reading about this amazing find. Hopefully in not to long a time you will see what they probably looked like. The boat will be made from scrap paper, pva glue and acrylic paint, with a few small odds and ends which are lying around thrown in. It dosnt look very impressive at the moment, just wait a day or so!

Don't forget the 5th of December if you are around. An invitation to the exhibition is a few blogs back.

Duncan