Updated: June 2018
Cambridge Open Studios Summer 2018
This summer's Open Studio season is here, and this time I will be open on weekends 2 and 3, which is July 14 & 15, and 21 & 22, doors are open from 11am - 6pm on those days.
Open Studios is an opportunity for the public to see the work and studios of Cambridge artists, and have a chat too if you feel like it. Being part of this was one of my ambitions when I returned to art in 2103 and this will be my fourth year. Footfall has always been good, and every so often someone surprising pops in who I haven't seen for years, which I really enjoy. I will show some of my new works alongside a few older ones, while some prints, mounted and framed will also be available to buy.
Look out for the Coleridge flyer which shows several artists in the area where I live so you can take in a few at a time without travelling too far - particularly close to me is Naomi Davies who is a very successful Cambridge artist, just up the road.
This year I will be working on something, probably a charcoal portrait, over the days.
www.camopenstudios.co.uk
Recent Paintings:
'Window onto Trumpington Street', oil on board, 81cm x 61cm, available.
'King's Gatehouse, through Railings', oil on board, 122cm x 61cm, available.
Blue Chairs, King's Parade, oil on board, 58 x 41 cm, available
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'Through the Arched Window', oil on board, 61 x 41cm available
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The Cambridge Art Book
Available now is 'The Cambridge Art Book', a collection of paintings, drawings and prints by Cambridge artists of the city they live in. Created by Emma Bennett, her hard work and dedication has proved a great success, and in turn the exposure it has given my work has led to an invite from Byard Art on King's Parade to create 4 large Cambridge pieces for an exhibition in May-June 2018. Check the website www.thecambridgeartbook.co.uk for stockists.
Included are three of my Cambridge images including the painting 'Passageway onto King's' (above right), which is available as a print (£30 unframed) via contact here, or also at Cambridge's award-winning vegetarian restaurant the Rainbow Cafe on King's Parade who are selling framed prints and also using the image on their menu (the view is of King's College from Rainbow's alleyway).
Old Mr Farrer - and Young Mr Farrer!
In 2013 I finished my first drawing for nearly 25 years, 'Old Mr Farrer up the Road'. It was from a photo I took in my late 20s of Ted Farrer, a neighbour of my parents in St. Neots. The drawing proved a great success, winning the 'visitor's favourite' at the Cambridge Drawing Society's Spring Exhibition that year. Sadly Mr Farrer passed not long after I took the photo, never having seen the photo or drawing, and until recently I never knew whether his family had seen it either.
Fast forward to the summer of 2017, and I receive a phone call from Bob Farrer, Ted's son, who has been shown a postcard of the drawing by an old St Neots' friend of mine, Terry Lee. Bob is delighted with the discovery, and a few days later I meet up with him (now Young Mr Farrer to me!) and a very life-affirming chat takes place round my house. I hear about what a character Ted was, and we look at lots of old photos and reminisce about the neighbourhood, and the old faces who lived there, including my own dad who would have been very happy with the whole thing. Meanwhile Bob commissioned me another drawing of his dad (below), this time performing on stage in something or other (though he was actually a builder). See the progress of the drawing, which shows the top left to bottom right approach that 'smudgy' charcoal necessitates.
In 2013 I finished my first drawing for nearly 25 years, 'Old Mr Farrer up the Road'. It was from a photo I took in my late 20s of Ted Farrer, a neighbour of my parents in St. Neots. The drawing proved a great success, winning the 'visitor's favourite' at the Cambridge Drawing Society's Spring Exhibition that year. Sadly Mr Farrer passed not long after I took the photo, never having seen the photo or drawing, and until recently I never knew whether his family had seen it either.
Fast forward to the summer of 2017, and I receive a phone call from Bob Farrer, Ted's son, who has been shown a postcard of the drawing by an old St Neots' friend of mine, Terry Lee. Bob is delighted with the discovery, and a few days later I meet up with him (now Young Mr Farrer to me!) and a very life-affirming chat takes place round my house. I hear about what a character Ted was, and we look at lots of old photos and reminisce about the neighbourhood, and the old faces who lived there, including my own dad who would have been very happy with the whole thing. Meanwhile Bob commissioned me another drawing of his dad (below), this time performing on stage in something or other (though he was actually a builder). See the progress of the drawing, which shows the top left to bottom right approach that 'smudgy' charcoal necessitates.
'B', oil on canvas.
April 2014