Happy Birthday, Blog.....

 Just realized this blog was ten years old, back in June.

It's never been highly interactive - I know precious few follow it, though some do when I say something controversial, e.g. in criticism of poor old Bob Ross - who is as sacred to some as Jeremy Corbyn is to some in the Labour Party: beyond criticism, or one's being very unfair, and in league with the 'haters' and detractors if one does.

To them, I do have to say (no I don't: but I will) grow up...... we all have feet of clay, including your idols. 

Both are very nice men - but Bob Ross wasn't a great, or even very good, artist; and Jeremy Corbyn wasn't a great, or even very good, party leader.  Wasn't their fault: they tried, they contributed, they made an honest stab at what they wanted to do.  But let us  not elevate ordinary people to sainthood, because no one can meet that test. 

And so here we are, ten years on - years in which I've lost people dear to me; managed to hang on to some despite the ravages of illness and time; gone back to a job I gave up long ago, because a) there was a vacancy, b) I trust no one else to do it.  I've concentrated on watercolour, acrylic, and oil painting. I have dabbled in gouache (please, don't call it 'gauche': it isn't 'gauche' - that means either left, in yer actual French, or clumsy: and you do try not be gauche with gouache), I've written an e-book (which needs updating), I've found a source of lead white paint, which is so important for anyone serious about painting in oil, I've discovered the real Bible of oil painting in Virgil Elliott's "Traditional Oil Painting", and I've become a member of the National Association of Painters in Acrylic.  

And I shall shortly turn - if spared! - 70.   Just a pity that there's a 16 year old in my head, who keeps wondering what happened to his body.  I have not made my fortune.  I don't really care about that.  I have become an old age pensioner, and I don't really care about that, either.  In fact, I've stopped bothering about trivial things.   I paint because I enjoy painting,and discovering new things: and there's always something new to be discovered, not because I wish for fame or fortune (and just as well: neither seem within reach), but because I just see things I want to represent, while there's still time.  

We now have Brexit, and Covid-19 - these are not trivial; both are self-inflicted.   We didn't have them ten years ago.  But ten years hence, we shan't have them, either.  We'll have other crises.  The one that bothers me most is the threat to the global environment; not the threat to human existence - I'd like to think that my great niece and great nephew have a future, but think the human species has inflicted so much cruel damage on the world in its relentless search for advantage that our disappearance as a species would be no tragedy; perhaps my descendants will survive when others won't, and re-shape the world.  Someone has to, though it's a harsh responsibility with which to burden them.  

I wonder if this blog will still be here in another ten years' time, or - on which that's rather contingent - whether I shall still be here either.  Well, who knows?  If nothing really dies on the internet, I shan't die either.  Now - isn't that a comfort?  Isn't it?  Well of course it is!  You know it is!

New oil, on panel

 This is an oil on birchwood panel of Thorness Bay on the Isle of Wight, loosely translated from a friend's photograph and kept simple - or as simple as I could.

I've rarely painted on wood - by comparison with paintings on canvas board, canvas, MDF, hardboard - and it was an interesting experience at this scale; because when I have painted on wood, it was usually on cigar-box lids, at around a quarter the size of this one. 

I have a few more, and will see if I get on with them.  On the whole, my favourite oil painting surface at the moment is the Ampersand panel - of which I do not have a supply just now....  On my Next Purchase list, though.

Thorness Bay, IW, ca. 17" x 12"

The Dead Sycamore in the garden

This one in memory of my mother, Nellie Elizabeth Jones, always known as "Dean", who died a few days ago in Southampton Hospital, at the age of 94.

It's small oil on wooden panel, 6" by 6".

Colours, for those interested: Lead white; Quinacridone Violet; Burnt Umber; Yellow Ochre; Cadmium Yellow Light; Ultramarine Blue.

New painting, and a drawing In Memoriam

Unusual format for me, but here's a 20" by 8" acrylic painting of a dead tree in the garden, which has all sorts of further possibilities to explore - I'm anticipating a series.   And, on a less happy note, a drawing in conté crayon of the marker - an old tree stump - of my landlady's grave.

Pat Mann was born in 1930, as Patricia Morris.  Educated by nuns in Doncaster, and later at art college, when she remembered demonstrating against Sir Alfred Munnings, RA, when he made disparaging remarks about modern painters, including Picasso, some while after the end of the Second World War - a policeman told her to "Move on, and stop being a silly girl".  She didn't mention her reply, so I assume she decided to let reason be the better part of valour. 

She was an artist, mother, grandmother; a restorer of antique furniture; she ran with a group of Hash Harriers into her late 70s, earning the name Tanglefoot, since if there were a tree root, or a tangle of briar, she would reliably trip over it every time.

Pat died on June 8th this year, from a final stroke - her funeral was held privately, in the grounds of the house - and she was buried here. 

Elephant Hole Cave, the Undercliff, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

This 20" by 16" oil on board is a revamp - as the painting dried out, it also became duller, and mere varnish wouldn't have fixed the problem.

So I've .... well, zhooshed it up a bit would be the technical term.

It was always going to be a dark painting - it's a dark place usually - but I'm happier with it now.  The Elephant Hole Cave is partly a natural formation in the rock, and partly excavated by man - quite when, and for what purpose, I've yet to be able to ascertain. 

First one for a long time - more to follow.

And see my Facebook arty page - https://www.facebook.com/Robert-Jones-Isle-of-Wight-Landscapes

Getting back into painting required a limbering-up exercise: it's been over a year since I painted anything other than the occasional birthday card; took up a Labour Party job .... too much for a kid of my age to manage on top of sustaining a painting output: something had to give - and painting did.

Lockdown, therefore, has had its benefits.  Retirement from bureaucratic entanglements would have more....

This is a painting in oil, 16" by 12" (we don't do metric..) which I did to refresh my painting skills - I say nothing at all for it as a painting in its own right: it's too fussy, and has other faults.  But the figure within is myself - and what COULD be lovelier?

Kindly don't answer that.