YARD 5

Acrylic on Canvas

BELLEVUE PLACE

Acrylic on Canvas

Light and life

venturing forth into the town I just managed to catch the most perfect light, standing on one of the park benches along the high-street allowed me the perfect view right to the end of the street above the heads of the hustle and bustle of life as people went about their business.

This is my first large piece for the Doodle Bar Exhibition next september and is in distinct contrast to the ginnel pics created earlier in the year, measuring 120 x 60 cm.

There was no initial sketching as is usually the case for me and my concentration was on the colours of the sky and the absence of distinct shadowed areas, it is not the best picture but I guess that is why I am a painter and not a photographer! Canvas is my support of choice, there is something a bit special about painting on canvas, I dont know what words can best describe it as it is more of an affinity with the material more than anything else.

As I stood there looking over the heads the streets were busier than normal, it had nothing to do with the christmas rush as there is little in evidence to suggest the time of year however I could not but help to feel a little, anger, frustration, sadness even that, with promises of an International food market and music, it takes little to drag people from their homes, sadness that so many remained tucked away during the recent Remembrance Day Parade and anger that the simple thought of food was the driving force behind the people attendance in the town when a third of the world is experiencing starvation, a point brought home all the more as I watched one of the local homeless people rushing to wherever he was going.

autumn arrival

No Kendal Images for you this week so heres a couple of recent acrylic works.

Autumn is here, the trees are bare and the lost souls, viz a viz abandoned gloves are starting to appear perched on fences and walls, alas the other catologue of fotos if these lost souls have been destroyed courtesy of a virus piggy backing a legitimate programme, what can you do other than to resign yourself to accepting things that are totally beyond your control and, of course, start to photograph them all over again.

In an optimistic aire that would do justice to Buddah himself, the conservative estimate of around 4 thousand images covering the past three years has been completely disregarded, the alternative is depression incarnate; in addition to these image files I also lost a lot of admin and written work so I am pretty well setting off from scratch now.

The Town, well into the autumnal changes borne of light, filtered almost, forcing everything to be just that little bit more defined than during the summer, colours are flatter and graphical design of general shapes and objects crisper and more pronounced, but back to the block.

It has been a week of functions for me, Rememberance Sunday, The United Nations Association Peace Group, The 'end the War' campaign group, a session with the Kendal Branch of MIND where I look after the Art therapy group until someone qualified comes along, a few hours in the of the John Bateson * the Towns Mayor and fellow councellors while they discussed and perused the planned changes for Kendal, I am for sure not the only resident of Kendal who knows of these town enhancements but I am the only one who has shared in the passion of those responsible for that change, the end of the week was rounded of by attendance at a preview nite for one of the local and gifted artists(More details on this in the BLOG, Art, philosophy and a Spiritual Journey) one meeting was missed, Tim Farron, the local Lib Dem Leader speaking in a local hall.

Back to kendal, what changes are happening around here, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds for redevelopment, my personal opinion is that it is not enough and could, if goaded become quite political in my discourse however will endeavour to remain on track; all this redevelopment, houses, homes, reopening of the canal, whole areas within the town seeing a future of open land for recreation and, I was happy to hear, a unification of all that does not balance up.

There is a fund available now for shop fronts to do up the facade that is the tourist bait, money for developement schemes and many other projects such as public art, in that regard I have a networking meeting in December and look forward to reporting back.

work has been steady though from the imagery for this BLOGS purpose, that being the town, there has been little progress still with only a hand full of images completed with all others sitting in the wings. the one part of the Doodle Room exhibition will be the photographic works and they are growing nicely.

* Johns Role as Mayor ends in May of this year,, with his recent and successful interest in local research I am hoping that he would be able to come aboard in the last few weeks leading up to the exhibition to help me tie in a few loose ends that will most definitely be there.