Updated: Oct 2018
'Rudbeckia', charcoal, 30x40cm, for sale
Cambridge Drawing Society Autumn Exhibition
This Autumn's Cambridge Drawing Society Exhibition is being held at the Leys School in Cambridge from Sunday 21st to Saturday 27th October 10am to 4pm. Over 250 new original works by around 100 Cambridgeshire artists will be exhibited, with the majority being available for purchase. I will be exhibiting 3 works, including this new one 'Rudbeckia'. As you may or may not know I was a full time gardener for ten years and still have a handful of clients, so gardens have been a big part of my life - hence every so often a flower drawing/painting appears. It tends to be the pattern and colour that appeals to me, and how that makes me feel, not the botanical plant. Though I say I don't want to be a flower painter, I guess I've done a few by now.
The Leys school is close to town, just round the corner from the Fitzwilliam Museum, just off Fen Causeway.
This Autumn's Cambridge Drawing Society Exhibition is being held at the Leys School in Cambridge from Sunday 21st to Saturday 27th October 10am to 4pm. Over 250 new original works by around 100 Cambridgeshire artists will be exhibited, with the majority being available for purchase. I will be exhibiting 3 works, including this new one 'Rudbeckia'. As you may or may not know I was a full time gardener for ten years and still have a handful of clients, so gardens have been a big part of my life - hence every so often a flower drawing/painting appears. It tends to be the pattern and colour that appeals to me, and how that makes me feel, not the botanical plant. Though I say I don't want to be a flower painter, I guess I've done a few by now.
The Leys school is close to town, just round the corner from the Fitzwilliam Museum, just off Fen Causeway.
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'Was That Then?'
After a number of enquiries at this year's Open Studios I have made a limited number of photographic prints of 'Was That Then?' (detail shown here). This was a commissioned oil painting that I borrowed back for the Open Studio season. Sized 53cm square, white or black frame. |
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Workshop fully booked
My Cambridge Drawing Society workshop 'Portraits in charcoal from photographs' in December is now fully booked.
In it I look at number of techniques and considerations involved in creating dynamic large-scale portraits - info can be found at www.cambridgedrawingsociety.org for future reference. I have had a number of people contact me regards private lessons, and if this is something that interests you please contact me via email at andydakin67@hotmail.co.uk
Recent Paintings:
'Window onto Trumpington Street', oil on board, 81cm x 61cm, Sold.
'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