Category: ART SALE

Two Black Cats – a Painting

This is a photo of my painting Two Black Cats in the Garden

it’s painted in acrylics on a canvas board and it’s no longer in my possession

The painting was part of an exhibition I held shortly after the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. There was some interest in the painting during the exhibition, one woman in particular was very interested in it but couldn’t decide whether to buy it or not.

The painting was inspired by a pair of mad black cats we got from the RSPCA a year or two earlier. We went through a comprehensive vetting process before we were allowed to bring the cats home, involving questionnaires and home visits.

Unfortunately, the cats never settled in. They were basically feral and I’ve still got scars after my altercations with them. We persevered however, and worked hard to make them feel at home until eventually they started behaving like well-adjusted domestic cats.

Unfortunately again, my wife developed a life-threatening allergy to the cats and after a visit to the emergency department of the local hospital, where steroid injections were necessary to restore her breathing, we reluctantly took them back to the RSPCA.

As the exhibition was coming to  close, the gallery asked me if I would donate a painting for an auction they were planning to help the victims of the tsunami. Not wanting the embarrassment of handing over a painting that would fail to sell, I gave them the Two Cats painting, knowing that there had been some interest in it.

A few days later I got a phone call from the woman who had nearly bought the painting during the exhibition saying she would like to buy it after all.

Of course I told her about the auction and she seemed delighted saying she would be going along to bid for it.

She phoned me again a few days after the auction asking advice about framing. I referred her to a framing shop in town who I knew would do a good job with my masterpiece.

I didn’t ask her how much she paid for it in case it was a silly amount like a fiver or something.

I’m glad she got it, but I still miss it.

Click here for another post about this painting

Lost Artwork

The new header image of this website (above – although if you’re reading this (as is likely) more than a few weeks after the beginning of May 2015, it may not be above, because it will have been replaced by something else – therefore it’s also below:)

Yn Y Goedwig
Yn Y Goedwig

Anyway – the new header image (new as of May 3rd 2015) above is a photo of one of a series of acrylic abstracts painted about 4 years ago at the end of a pretty rubbish couple of years when the shop I was involved in got crushed by the after-effects of the global financial meltdown that first sneaked up on us in mid 2008.

I displayed the paintings on the blank walls of the almost empty shop in the absence of proper stock to flog. A few paintings did sell but to my shame I can’t remember which ones. Part of the reason for this is that a couple of tumultuous years and house moves later we took up residency in a small terrace where there was no room for all the paintings I’d accumulated 🙁 – (even more sadly there was also no room to paint), so I left them out in the back yard under sheets of tarpaulin – there were over a hundred, some quite large, like the one above which was 800 mm x 1000 mm or 32in x 40in.

A year later we had to move house again and when I examined the stored paintings I found (not surprisingly) that most of them had been damaged by damp and mould. We were moving to an even smaller place, so what to do?

Reluctantly I decided there was no choice other than to grit my teeth and dispose of them, in an environmentally-friendly way if possible. I took the paintings to the new place, which luckily had enough space behind the railings at the front of the house to store them while we completed the move.

When the time came a couple of days later, I cut out all the canvases from their wooden stretchers and rolled them up. I broke up the wood and piled it up along with the rolled-up canvases in the back of our small hatchback. I can’t remember how many trips it took but I drove the loads to the nearest council waste and recycling centre and tossed the constituent bits of the irreplaceable art into their respective skips.

Afterwards I felt relieved but sad. Each one of those one hundred or so paintings was unique and impossible to recreate. Maybe that’s what art is?

Anyway, they were just paintings.

Click here for a link to a previous piece about some of the artwork written at the time of the exhibition in the shop.

PS: We’ve just moved again to a nicer place, maybe the lost art will return . . .

 

 

Bright Environment

This is one of my favourite paintings.

I have had offers for it in the past and have turned them down but I’m now willing to consider sensible offers. I’m very attached to it so make it worth my while please 🙂

bright environment-1024Bright Environment – Acrylic on Canvas 2003/4 – 39″ x 32″ – 100cm x 80cm

Apologies for the low-quality phone photo. It looks even more amazing in real life

The Three Bears is a Work of Art

3bears cover small“What it is is a work of art, in the fullest sense.” This is a quote from the late great American poet JT Ahearn after he read The Three Bears, a novel I wrote. It was published in 2006, and again in a slightly revised edition in 2008. It is without doubt, the best thing I have ever written and probably the best thing I will ever write. When I say ‘best’ I don’t mean it’s the best plot. the best story, the best characterisation or even the best writing, I mean it is a true work of art, it’s completely unique and wonderful in entirely its own way. By any measure it’s a long way from perfect and if I’d thought about it rationally I probably wouldn’t have published it, but I’m glad I did. Continue reading “The Three Bears is a Work of Art”

Four abstract paintings at Rainbow Pontcanna

I have a mini-exhibition on at the moment.

Over the Rainbow gift shop in Pontcanna, Cardiff, have got four of my abstract paintings on display:

Click on the thumbnails to see more. All paintings are for sale at Over the Rainbow, Pontcanna Street, Cardiff, prices are very reasonable – from £60 – £120

Art Sale Expanded

The Art Sale in aid of Pulse Wholefoods Coop has been expanded and extended, as well as the 6 paintings HERE, an additional 2 paintings have been added to the sale.

These are:

Sisters

Oil Pastels on Canvas – 8″ x 8″ – 200mm x 200mm

Cefncaeau View

Oil on Canvas – 24″ x 30″ – 600mm x 750mm (approx)

These photos of the paintings don’t do them justice – they need to be seen to be appreciated.

6 new paintings

Well – 2 from last summer, the rest painted this winter

All are Acrylic on Canvas – 800 mm x 1000 mm, 32″ x 40″

ORIGINAL ART SALE

EDIT – Now expanded and extended ***

For a limited period – until Saturday February 19th, these six (plus 2) vibrant paintings are on sale by auction. Starting price for all but one painting just £50. The other painting “Sisters” has a starting price of just £20

To make a bid use the contact form available from the menu above.

This sale is in aid of Pulse Wholefoods Coop and the paintings can be seen in the shop from Thursday February 10th until Saturday February 19th. Winning bidders can pick up their painting from the shop after that or it can be posted at cost.

Current Bids:

Ar Y Bryn – 0, Yn Y Goedwig – 0, Llwynhendy – 0, Lan Yr Afon – 0, Glan y Mor – 0, Pen y Mynydd – 0, Cefncaeau View -£50, Sisters –

Go on – be the first 🙂

UPDATE: an additional 2 paintings have been added to the sale.

These are:

Sisters

Oil Pastels on Canvas – 8″ x 8″ – 200mm x 200mm

Cefncaeau View

Oil on Canvas – 24″ x 30″ – 600mm x 750mm (approx)

These photos of the paintings don’t do them justice – they need to be seen to be appreciated.